Man that's some great footage! Obviously the guy was a Pontiac man who built some sweet memories with his kid. I wonder if the kid or even his son is the one who posted these?
The first minute and from 3:17 to 3:48 of this film is of racing at the Akron International Airport, Akron, Ohio. It became an International Airport during WWII because of local manufacturing supporting the war effort. Today just Akron Municipal Airport. Drag racing began on a narrow service road around the edge of the airport between The Rubber Bowl Stadium (Akron was the rubber capital of the world) and Derby Downs, home of Soap Box Derby Racing. After some years it moved to racing on a runway that you can see in the movie. You can see the control tower and hangers for corporate aircraft in the background. I lived a few miles from there as a kid and would go to the drags as often as I could. The Green Monster shown was one of the many the Arfons brothers built and raced there. There family owned a feed mill store not too far from the track and sometimes push the car there and back with their truck and fire it up going home and blast down the road to the mill. The races were run by the Akron Cam Jammers car club with Otie Smith being the President who won the Indy Nationals at least once in his Hemi Powered T-Roadster. The races there were the first organized Drag Races east of the Mississippi River. I remember there were some other aircraft engined dragsters that competed but don't know who they were. Another racer of note that started out racing here was Arlen Vanke, who became nick named "Akron Arlen" by the racing engineers at Chrysler that provided technical advice and support to him.
Man that’s some premium footage! Just gotta turn the volume off I’m going to go scour the classifieds for a ‘59 Pontiac now! Haha
I've never owned a Pontiac, , but I'd like to. Built this model last summer. Fireball Roberts 1962 Daytona Winner.
Great stuff. As you can tell by my avatar, that's my favorite Pontiac era too. I'd like to know more about that guy; he apparently bought a new car every year, and he apparently did pretty well at the drags. Is the engine in that dragster possibly a Ranger six cylinder aircraft engine, laid on its side? I know they were a popular choice for a period of time, I guess they could be had cheaply from military surplus. (In aircraft they were actually mounted with the cylinders pointing down.)
The gentleman near the end with the white '62 Catalina Super Duty is the late Jim Kurzen, Pontiac racer, enthusiast, and Pontiac zone rep.
The Jalopy Journal
