Drag Racing was still cool in 1969. Innovation was up, the fuel was good, the engines pretty much sat where they belonged, floppers flopped, rails pulled wheels, etc... all was pretty much glorious in the world. For some, the late 60's and early 70... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Ah, good ol Steve Evans. He was the voice of motorsports, especially drag racing, plain and simple. The douchebags they have on ESPN now, friggin Paul "I know jack shit about drag racing so I'll make up stuff" Page, and Mike "Well if I was racin I'd a done it this way" Dunn, both need to just shut the hell up and go do somethin else. Don't get me started on the screamin idjits they have for IHRA stuff. Ugh....
Hit this one right outta the park, man. Thanks for posting this. PS, an excellent companion to these films is Chris Martin's Top Fuel Handbook. His writing captures the era perfectly. Here's a good place to score one for yourselves: http://www.hotrodnostalgia.com/Store/Books/books01.html
Watching the guys carry the wheels and loose it brings back lottsa memories In 1969 I was surrounded by drag racers. I had the choice of road racing or drag racing. Both we're easy to do..... many tracks close at hand. Eventually I settled into a small shop in Signal Hill. At night you could hear engines on Autolight's dyno. Sometimes if the wind was right you could hear Champion's dyno in the harbor. It took a lot of years for me to discover that I was driven by my addition to noise! Once I told a buddy at Lion's " Imagine what is like to go 200+ like you guys and then turn several times and come back over and over.' Simply, Road racing was louder longer! I helped out my drag racing friends often. Sometimes I was the only guy with enough cash to buy a barrel of fuel. They didn't take checks. But the noise to prep ratio as just too short. The adrenalin was there, no question, but tons of work for seconds on racing? I couldn't do it. So slowly I slipped away to my little cars that went left and right ....... round and round. Over the years I've known many hotrod road racers. Living on the noise. 50 years later I'm still an addict. It's good to hear guys launch over and over even thru this box my eyes still burn and I feel the shaking in my soul Thanks Ryan for putting this up.
I grew up at Lions, toured with a Funny Car in 1969 went to the U.S. Nationals at Indy that year. Imagine, a man on the Moon, Woodstock, and Indy Nats. all in one year, great time to be 19 year old long haired gear head.. Ther is a bunch of great old drag racing stuff on youtube, I just started going there, it's amazing... "wheels are meant to roll"
Dig it? Oh yea...I was glued to the screen. I missed the 69 Nats and have kicked myself ever since. That was a time when there were four American car manufacturers and all were after top honors. Loved the shot of the Hurst SC/Rambler. Wished I had one of mine back.
What a great stack of vids Ryan. Seems we are a bit different on the timeline gig regarding TJJ. My opinion is that those vids were right at the end of what most of us love. The death of the FED while certainly was a great and safe idea was also the end of what I think tradition is founded on, and not completely at that, just a major element. Early drag racing just sparks some really hardcore feelings, and some of those feelings landed on the floppers when all the diggers were gone. Then the floppers were all the same. Sad, but needed I guess. Those vids changed my outlook for the day. A good thing. Thanks man, thanks a bunch.
That was a great set of videos! My co-worker and I had a ball at lunch watching them. I had no idea how squirrely the FED's were! What a hand full.
Great videos, doesn't get much better than that with Dick Dale & the Del-tones for a soundtrack and the late Steve Evans narrating; we lost a good one when Steve Evans passed away.
LOVED IT!!! Can't get enough of this stuff! A time when guys were racing in white t-shirts and jeans, and smoking cigarretes on their run! And Linda Vaughn?! **sigh...** Doesn't get much better...
No doubt about it. '65-69 Top Fuel did it for me. No semi's, just guys pulling trailers behind their trucks and cars. A thousand dollar purse for a sixteen car field was a big deal. I was able to attend races at Lions, Fontana, OCIR, Riverside and Indy during that period. My video player player is on the fritz and was able to see only bits and pieces, but what I could see looks like an excellent representation of the era. Thanks for the link, I hope to see it sooner or later.
5 little slices of heaven right there. Those guys, in that era, were the baddest of the bad. And their cars were works of art. Sounded like Steve Evans doing the narrating, and looked like Buster Couch was the starter. May they both rest in peace. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This really made my day!!!
I grew up watching Steve Evans on television but I never fully appreciated him at the time. I mean, that guy was really there and he knew drag racing. He worked Lions and many other of the famous California drag strips. He was the real deal and he truly is the voice of drag racing.
yep, ol Buster looked so young and slim, now that I think about it, everybody looked slim back in those days! Striking that even the funny cars looked like real cars back then, unlike the pinewood derby lookin floppers of today... thanks for the post Ryan P
AWESOME stuff, thank you!!! I had the privilege of meeting Ronnie Sox at a car show in St. Louis about ten years ago when someone restored one of his cars and he was there to authenticate it and give it his stamp of approval. The owner of the race car & parts shop that I worked at knew Ronnie from way back and introduced us. He was absolutely THE nicest guy there and the most humble person that you'd ever want to meet. We had a blast just walking around the track looking at cars and talking. I also got to meet Ted Spehar (Motown Missile 71 Challenger) when he and his wife visited our shop and they both were fabulously nice too. She even wanted to see the rows of parts cars that we had out back and ruined a really nice pair of heels, but laughed it off and said I LOVE looking at cars so it doesn't matter. I had to practically beg Ted for his autograph and you could tell that he felt awkward doing it for me. Most of these guys were regular folks who got the bug and HAD TO go racing to satisfy their souls. They were just in the right places at the right times and gave the sport their all to be the true champions that they are. (http://www.precision-illustration.com/PS-21_Missile_Challenger.html has a cool write up about the Missile.)
Great footage and great to hear Steve Evans one more time. I used to work tech for Steve when he ran Lions Drag Strip -- he was the best. 1969 would have been the 15th anniversary of the "Nationals," which was first held in 1955 at Great Bend, KS. NHRA moved the event to Kansas City in 1956, Oklahoma City in 1957 and '58, then to Detroit for 1959 and '60 before finding a permanent home at Indy in 1961. The event was originally called the NHRA National Championship Drag Races, but by the time it moved to Indy it was known simply as "The Nationals." The "U.S. Nationals" name wasn't used until the late seventies; I'm not sure of the exact year but I'm thinking it was at the 35th Anniversary event in 1979. But is was still just "The Nationals" or the "Indy Nationals" in 1969, that's for certain. Also, the NHRA never held or conducted a "Tournament of Champions," and certainly not at Indy. Whoever chose the titles for this series of videos didn't know their drag racing history.
That's so cool! I was about seven at that time. I remember watching drag racing on TV on the weekends. It was dominated by MOPAR just like NASCAR.
Thanks for reminding me how much I wish I would have been alive to see racing like that. It was just what I needed to see to get the motivation back up.