Brooklyn, NY Infamous Street Racers Back in the Day

Damn right That Camaro couldn't take the M&K AMC Hornet!!

 

Whoa,Anyone have pics of this dudes Gremlin?

 

"Al Cap" (Al Masotto) is still in the NYC area. There's a few street racing photos from magazine articles with him in them on these street racing threads (racing, betting, etc).

These are from a little later on... '68 A/SM Camaro, Raceway Park, 1983:

 

My dad has a bunch of cars on the connecting highway site. He is still kicking and living in Long Island. He passed the genes on to me and my brother for cars, motorcycles and trucks. Here's one of the pics with my mom back in the day. The second is one of the 55 before the solid axle gasser conversion

 

I worked for S&M and helped build both the Duster and Cuda. I don't remember any Titanium K members. All of the cars I built had lightened stock K members which we moved several inches . We also moved the rear end to match the location on the K member. Torsion bars were turned down on the lathe to lighten them. . Can't remember if eather of the cars were dipped.
Heavy was a great guy. Tipped me a hundred bucks for mounting up a set of slicks late one friday afternoon after I was suposed to be off. I also worked for Smallwoods on the weekends street racing and mechanic on Ronnie's Cuda that they bought and raced at Etown and all of the tracks in the NY area..Smallwoods would fly me in and out to work on their car.
Made more money working on cars on the weekend than I did working for S&M during the week..

I also was one of the builders of the Ronnie Lyles Cuda..

 

Hey Engreps;
Welcome to the HAMB.Great to hear stuff like this.Feel free to let the stories flow.Saw Ronnie Lyles and Heavy at E-town a few times.

 

The first time I meat Heavy he had on a pair of clear plastic shoes.

I spent a lot of time a Etown and a hell of a lot of time working on cars at the Holiday Inn. They would always take the towels. I had one guy ask me if we were sponsored by Holiday Inn. I had the carbs covered with a Holoday Inn Towel...

Thoes guys always were betting on the races....

 

Clear plastic shoes..terrific.

I've been guilty of relieving the Holiday Inns of some towels myself.

Been to a lot of tracks but nowheres is the betting like E-town.

Love the behind the scenes stuff.You will like the HAMB.Gonna fit right in.

How was S&M to work for?

 

I was hired on a two week trial basis. I was in the shop for a couple days and then we was off to Union Grove, from there to Buds Creek Maryland and then to E town was and then a Dealon ship on Long Island . We were doing the Race Siminars and also at Match races and was on the road for three to four weeks before I had a chance to ask Buddy Martin if I had a job. He told me that if I didn't have a gob I wouldn't be there. I asked him if I was beig payed for the first two weeks. He said yes. I said well I need some money. He said I didn't need any money they were paying all expensis.
Working in the shop was long hours. Miny times we pulled all nighters for several days at a time to finish a car. That was difently the good old days.... wish I had a camera then..

 

"You wouldn't be here if you didn't have a job"
"You don't need money,we are paying all expenses"

What a blast that must have been.Working for S&M and traveling all over in the heydays of drag racing.I had fun growing up at my local strip but you and a lot of guys on the HAMB lived my dream back then.Glad you survived it,and yes it would have been nice to have had a camera.

 

Engreps: welcome to the HAMB!

This thread is all killer, no filler.

 

Those were the days. we would hit Crossbay Blvd/connecting Highways/Hempstead Tpke/SunriseHighway(Day and Night) Sunday mornings in Freeport.....The Best of Times!

 

Engreps, excellent Smallwood Bros. photo! Please feel free to post any others you may have

 

From the February 2011 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines, Page 41:

Note: To keep the image at a reasonable file size I had to reduce the quality and size of the photo. If the text is too hard to read shoot me off a private message with your e-mail and I'll send you a higher quality copy.



"J&L Racing Enterprises" was the name of the racing business Heavy co-owned with his brother, Lonie. Their racing headquarters was located at 171 Lexington Avenue, Bedford-Suyvesant in Brooklyn, New York. They (or at least Heavy) also had a larger building (possibly to store their race cars) located at 794 Dekalb Avenue at the same time as the Lexington Avenue location. The Lexington Avenue location eventually became a plumbing business, though now appears vacant, and was also located right around the corner from the Mutt Brothers' gas station where they also worked on their own cars:



You can see Dekalb Avenue about half-way between Willoughby and Lexington Avenues. Heavy's Dekalb Avenue building would be further East than this map shows (near Throop Avenue).

 

Willie "Camrod" Campbell, a well-known Brooklyn street racer went professional when he purchased Hubert Platt's Ford Maverick. It appears they went into some kind of partnership. Here's Platt "driving" the "Platt & Campbell" Maverick.

 

Just recently we (Drag Racing Underground) put together a YouTube video featuring a bunch of different drag racing personalities doing "I.D's" for us... There's everyone from "Jungle Pam" to Shirley to Connie Kalitta... However, we saved one of the best for last... At the conclusion of the video is a special appearance by Rufus "Brooklyn Heavy" Boyd... He was filmed a few years back sitting outside a Brooklyn bodega, during the "HEAD HUNTERS" car club block party... "Heavy's" health was already ailing, but his kind and gentlemanly manner still comes through-- Like I said, he's last of the bunch, but hope you'll have the patience to see him... I'm really glad that we were able to preserve his memory a little bit... And you fans and followers of "NY Street Racing" legends might also appreciate the appearance of Levi Holmes on the video as well... "The Doc" (Celebrity Drag Racing Authority & Visionary)...


Street Racing legends Rufus Boyd aka "BROOKLYN HEAVY" and Levi Holmes appear on this one...
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3mJ1IP9_nkc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Hi Everyone, It's been a while since I visited the message board here and came across this thread ... Just wanted to post a pic of my 66 MUSTANG I used to run back in the day at Fountian Ave and a few of the other popular haunts back in the day ... If anyone remembers her or has any pic of her from back then please post what you remember or the pics Thanks

 

I knew John pretty well back then. About a year ago I was back in NYC, he still lives in the same house over in Whitestone........

 

Street racing in NYC..... No way! No How! Never Happens! Great thread! Thanks Fellas!

Ignore the first 30sec...... Sorry the cars arent older http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptttMKTnLfQ&feature=related

 

Anyone remember a lime lime green "pro street" (in todays terms) Pinto that hung around the marina?

 

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Brought to you by the:
[/QUOTE]The Plymouth running the Dart was owned by Frankie the Frog and George Elliott It was a 64 Belvidere with a 65 nose taken off my 65 Satellite!

 

The Brooklyn Heavy Duster was raced in Sweden in the 80s, looking like this.
Present owner is restoring it to look as it did "in the days" and I have it in the
shop to do the gold leaf lettering.

 

does anybody have photos of the white 68 Camaro raced by Brooklyn Heavy?

it said "You Lose" on the tail panel.

thank you

 

this is the car bob is looking for -needs more pictures and or information

 

spent a great many nights on conduit in the late eighties early nineties ,would be great to here some stories from those folks ,had a few races there my self! great times

 

I grew up on Long Island, cruising, looking for hide and street racing was what it was all about in the early sixties. The Westhampton 1/4 mile drag strip, Islip Speedway 1/8 mile and an occasional trip to the Montgomery N.Y. 1/4 mile drag strip was where we raced on the weekends. It was "Run What Ya Brung". I still have Westhampton Class Winner decals.

If anyone things American Graffiti didn't exist, you didn't grow up on Long Island, N.Y.

 

You got that right, my brother said it best. Thank God I grew up on Long Island when I did, because it's not the same anymore. We had tracks all over the Island back in the 50's, 60', and 70's, Riverhead is all that's left. it was a great time.Cruise spots all over Deer Park, Hempstead turnpike Bethpage,110 McDonalds Huntington,Jack in the Box Centereach,Texas Ranger, and Nathan's Oceanside, plenty of places to pull off a Race.Now you can't even find a decent place to hang out without cops breathing down your neck.

 

Another of our cruise destinations was the Schorrs drive in on Sunrise Highway in what may have been Rockville Center. Street races were then held on Sunrise Hwy. and the Jones Beach Causeway. Many times we would cruise to the Big Bow Wow and street race on Crossbay Blvd. That was the ultimate hot rod hang out. Lots of fast cars from all over the Island and Brooklyn were there. It was just like Mels in AG. This type of stuff just doesn't happen anymore. I grew up in New Hyde Park. We used to cruise Hillside Avenue from the City Line to Glen Cove Road. Street races were held on the L.I.E. service road where we marked off a 1/4 mile and painted a start and finish line. I feel that my time on L.I. in my teens and early twenties was truly the hay day of hot rodding. It was also the time when you could buy 409 Chevys and 389 Pontiacs. We would work on our cars all Saturday night and drive out to West Hampton drag strip early Sunday morning. I'll never forget my Grampa saying " you kids are crazy, spending hundreds of dollars on those damn hot rods to win a 59 cent trophy". We weren't crazy we were just having the time of our lives.Too bad those days are gone forever.

 

I went to the Bow Wow with my father who use to go there all the time. I moved from Valley Stream in 60, but he and his partner and the group they hung with would cruise there all the time.I don't think I was ever at Schorrs during that time, I was young so I don't remember all the places , but a good friend of mines' mother worked there.I grew up in the late 60' so my hangouts were the ones I listed, or if we went to Queens and Brooklyn it would be Connecting Highway, 150th st, or Fountain ave.

 

I remember street racing on Cross Bay Boulevard, south of the Belt, on Friday and Saturday nights. Usually we would just hang around watching the action, and then occasionally go out for a spin ourselves.