i raced local tracks in the 1970's and 1980s. brackets. i still watch the pros run on sunday tv. so long as cars are still going down the quarter side by side to see who gets there first then any era is good. cars are faster now and faster all the time. records fall. its always exciting to me.
I didn't know how old I'd gotten until reading this post. I'm stuck in the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, when it was a PARTICIPANT sport, not a spectator sport. Yeah, I know, the cars got wilder and more fun as the sport got commercialized, but the fun of racing cars you could creatively come up with modifications that others couldn't figure out slowly drifted away and we're left with megabuck cars and races won by putting on brakes before the traps. I watch some of the drags on TV nowadays, but I can't connect with the fun we used to have at the local airport. Okay, it's official, I'm a codger.
I didn't realize this was an old thread, and I was gonna say 64-74... and then I finally got to my old post, and that's exactly what I already said...Hmmm. That's my story and I'm stickin' with it. Cragars forever.
I,m with JohnnyFast and Roothawg...1964-1968... I spent every saturday and sometimes sundays at Lions, Fontana,and Irwindale. That was THE period for the A/FX cars, altereds, gassers and those beautiful dragsters with the full bodies and chute packs. The rosin burnouts with the A/FX cars, the East vs. West battles at Lions, the large amount of exhibition cars/wheelstanders and the occasional jet. I saw four jet dragsters race at one time at Fontana. Dick Landy's legendary '65 Coronet, LA Dart doing wheelstands in the parking lot(!) at Lions (no shit), E.J. Potter's bike with the Chevy in it, Don Nicholsons completely revolutionary Logghe chassied Comet. I was there at Irwindale on its maiden event where the body blew off in the traps. That car, along with Gas Ronda's were supurb. Kohler Bros., Skippers Critter, Johnny Lopers Anglias. Those mighty Willys...all of them. The Surfers with the tumbleweeds tied to the top of their station wagons push car. Big Al, the fliptop '34 sedan with the Allison in it, and on and on...oh, and those great flame suits before they started looking like coveralls.
Man I have to agree with all of that, but I'd push it back to '62 'cause thats when I made my first runs down the quarter at San Gabriel. Had some wonderful times at Irwindale, AA/FA shows and will never forget some of the passes seen there. The early funnys when they evolved from the A/FX cars put on some great shows too and OCIR and Fontana had some wonderful times too. Lion's was a great place to race and I still have some time slips tucked away from there that bring great memories to life. It all just sort of turned into a circus when the fuelers went rear engined and the funnys went total plastic and lost their identities, and when the AA/G cars started running late model bodies the end was near. A Mustang bodied gasser may have been faster and quickes, but it could never match the fun of watching a couple of short wheelbase Anglias running fast and sideways with the wheels in the air off the line.
fatassbuick, I think all the era's were great, I'd pick the '60 maybe as best. I grow up in San Pedro, Ca and next door in Wilmington was the Lions drag strip were it all happen for me. Lions and Pomona most likely the two greatest drag strips in the USA. Lions is gone now as a drag strip, you can still see the vacant land were it was and some old stands. Cruiser
67 Nascar drags in Deland Fla during nascar speed weeks in feb was my greatest race. Every factory race car and altered weelbase car on the face of the earth was there. I set the P/S record with a 283/185 hp 59 chevy biscayne ain a heavy fog. The car would hook on snot. got down to 35 degrees and a drunk died past out in the stands from hypothermia, not that that was a high spot
To simplify: If you are under 40 years old, you missed out. All the photos, films and stories in the world will never make up for actually being there.
Bruce Lancster said it best those were the good old days. I raced from 55-63, flat towed to the track and home again, no trailers then either.
I have to say the era for me was 1962-1969.back when you had super-stock,gasser wars with the old coupes and sedans.heads-up racing,not bracket crap and delay boxes and throttle stops.
If we think in terms of an "era" being a specific time frame,say a decade,I'd go with 1960 to 1970(has this been said before?-my apologies if it has), Incredible leaps in imagination and technology;all the required classes(FED's, A/FX,S/S,F/C,Altereds,Gassers;et al)and some incredible personalities. It wasn't as structured or "corporate";you had to work at it,but could make a living at it. I'd be inclined to include a time frame up to about 1975,because of the Pro Stock movement and the fact that the F/C's still resembled actual cars. IMO,NHRA's games with Pro Stock screwed that(we now have Funny Cars with carbs on gas),and the Altered and Gasser crowds(hell,virtually all Sportsman racers) got the slippery end of the stick. I rarely watch No Hot Rods Allowed on the tube,and can't remember any legit doorslammer coverage. Sad.
The 60s and early 70s. Super Stocks, Gassers, altered wheel bases, Funny cars, fuel altereds, Nitro FED. ET-cetera! Gary
I started in '57 ,,,raced off n on thru the '60's ,,and quit when NHRA did away with the Gasser classes in the early '70's ,,so,,,to me those were the best years ,,those were the best years for "Run Whatchu Brung" Street Racin' too ,,
The best era ever was 61 to 66 the birth of modern top fuel, before everything got so commercial. Next was 69 to about 74 when the top fuel cars got long and lean and the birth of the Funny Car. The best racing is the racing you are doing, were you are and how your'e living it, you cant be more excited than to just do it.
This thread kinda has a mothball smell, but what the heck.....I would say '64 to about '73. At that point, drag racing was so big that it sort of outgrew itself. Big money infiltrated all the way down through Jr. Stock and drag racing for the sportsman was quickly dying.
I kinda agree with the '64 thing ,,i was a little lucky the Des Moines ,Iowa drag strip opened in the late '50's ,,but,,,'64 was the year of drag strip construction, MOKAN comes to mind ,,,I was in the Air Force then and stationed in Anchorage Alaska and POLAR Dragway and Anchorage Dragway opened in '64 ,,the summer after the big Earth Quake ,,,ya ,,we had two strips up there then ,,with over 300,000 Military stationed up there ,,we had a lota hot rods & drag cars ,,lots of drag strips all over the country were opened or started consruction then ,, Sad tho ,,,most of em are all gone now ,,
Nice pics and dialog Sam...........I have to combine 2 eras 60's and 70's.........................The Equalizer..........
I must agree,when big business steped in it ruined drag racing! give Me the Swamp Rat over the Bud King any day
If I had to pick I would say 62-64 ... there were dragstrips everywhere ... Dover, Roosevelt Field, Islip, Westhampton ... you could run a couple different nights a week plus Sundays ... there were street races that were almost as organized as the dragstrips ... first Crossbay Blvd then later Sunrise Highway ... A decent SBC in a 55 Chevy was the coolest ride around ... Wetson's Burgers in Valley Stream was the jumping off place ...
i would say from the early 50's until 72-74 .when they stopped running classes and went to lame braket racing , using the brakes so you dont "break out" is just wrong.
Thats a tough one, each decade has its redeeming qualities. Before my time but I'd go with 1961 through 1969. Junior Stocks, Match Racing, Factory Experimental, Gassers, Altereds. Sox & Martin, Grumpy Jenkins, Big Daddy, Willie Borsch, Mickey Thompson. Lions, Half Moon Bay, York etc, etc, etc. A mind numbing variety we'll never see again. Damn I was born to late.
I would have to agree with Mazooma, and I'd like to add the time before rear engined dragsters. As my good friend Kenny Youngblood told me at the Bakersfield HRR " you know we were lucky to have lived during the best time in drag racing " amen.
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