What got you hooked on DRAG RACING??!!!

About 3-4 years ago I was at saac 33 in millville new jersey at the not even finished millville roadcourse. Saac is a mostly shelby only club with the exception of tigers, bosses, and gt-40's. I loved watching the cobras and gt-350s rippin' up the road course but what really caught my eye was a 1969 rice-holman (al Joneic) boss 429 drag car (I know it is not a hamb accepted car but....) anyway the car was brought there by a restorer along with other high dollar restored fords. The car had this mean attitude about it that it had me from first sight. I religiously looked the car over, and over, after a few minutes later a man from the restoration shop that brought it asked me if I wanted to sit in it I said yes PLEASE!. I felt like a million bucks sit'n behind that wheel. While I am taking everything in : the sheetmetal interior the toggle switches the big hurst stick stickin outta' the floor it was impressive, the man says" wanna start her up" I swear I never smiled so big. He told me what to do and I started it up man that sucker was loud open header full boat I believe pro stock motor, My highlight of it was when he said gas it up! I was about 10-11 at the time and I had always loved drag racing but when this happened I really was hooked, Hope you all enjoyed my story time to hear yours.

 

It's a decease! I love it myself even at my level for years.

 

Having an older cousin give me his old Hot Rod mags back in 1956 when I was 9.
I didn't get to actually see a drag race until I was 16.

 

The burning of the rubber the jamming of the gears the bending of the neck.

 

I should put a plug in here for Tom Cotters new book on the life of Tommy Ivo. I just read it and it's great. Lot's of pix for us "non-readers".

 

My dad and I were out driving in a friends 2010 shelby gt500 and a guy we new came up and said whats on the menu for dinner fried tires, witha side of shredded rubber?

 

My dad took me to OCIR when I was 8 years old. I've never been the same since.

As night fell, right before they started running the funny cars, I remember the announcer saying "As the sun sets in the acid haze, we bring you.. (both cars on the starting line fire off, growling and spitting nitro flares out the pipes) ... DRAG RACING!"

I still have the Budwiser King poster and the Pit Pass that I got that day.

 

Been hooked since I was 10 years old....
And of course..... This guy! ....

 

My dad taking me and my brother for a cruise in his screaming 55 Chevy 4 on the floor!

 

My neighbor took to me to the World Series at Cordova. He was a roundy round guy but knew a guy racing a Brogie 27T super comp car. That was the better part of thirty years ago and I still hang out with the guys that were there racing that night when I get a chance. I found drag racing was one of the hardest addictions to kick of all my bad habits, but my billfold thanks me.

 

A friends dad took us to Lyons. Tommy Ivo in his peppermint stripe dragster was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Big Daddy when he was just Big D. lol.
I was at the Grand opening, and the closing of OCIR. I met Linda Vaughn there too.
Now THATS all it took. I was just a kid but cars, really fast cars, and babes.
What could go wrong here?

 

my dad took me to detroit dragway in 1968 I was 5 to watch our cousin race
my older brother got bored and fell asleep I had to be pryed off the bleachers

after I got married and the kids came along I did a 12 step program away from going 12 seconds and I fell off the wagon again about 4 years ago

 

Nitro funny cars. in 1975 or 76. I still get a little chub everytime I hear one.

 

the cars,speed,noisy,burning rubber,the smoke, wheel stands,hp, paint jobs, ford veres chevy,nitro, O also the grils,and beer

 

Actually my Mother did. When I was in second grade she used to take me to the strip to watch the drags. Then the next year Don Garlits came to the track to do a match race with Dale Funk. Been a huge Garlits fan ever since. Never have raced personally except drag racing slot cars but always been a big fan.

 

I was hooked when my Dad took me to a 16 car Top Fuel show in August of 1969. It was the first time I ever saw Big Daddy run, I've been ruined ever since.

 

The first smell of Nitro at San Gabriel 1963....

 

Seeing the drags for the first time in INDY in the early 80s, my friends dad took us, I was blown away.
From that day forward it became a part of me.

 

- Where to start?!?!? Got the bug in the 70's with:
- Brother-inlaws 68 Plymouth GTX (440 powered)
- Standing directly behind a 4-speed, tunnel rammed, 10KRPM, open headered 67 - Camaro launch on the streets of Philly
- Muscle cars left and right driven daily in the 70's roasting tires on block long burnouts
- Street Racing in Philly (Front St.; Delaware Ave; Passyunk Ave. etc.)
- Could go on, and on, and on...

 

names like The Hawiian and Swamp Rat smokin' the hides for a quarter mile inflamed my imagination. I'll be 60 in December and still have the disease--and the HP to smoke-em myself though not in a HAMB accepted car (well maybe, 63 Vette)

 

Friend took me to Santa Ana in the summer of '57...first car I watched as a spectator was a bright red '29 roadster, smoked off the line and ran around 129...said "Harrell Engines, Los Angeles" on the side, I soon realized that it was Willy Borsch driving and that that first run I saw hooked me...Gene Adams was there in his Olds fastback B/G, Don Rowe in Pancho Gonzales dragster, etc...

 

B/G and altered roadsters!

 

What got you hooked???
I thought it was a GIVEN that boys liked drag racing..........

 

Well it all started for me when my uncle took me to Beach Bend raceway. The first cars i seen go down the drag strip was a top fuel dragster. Thats when i decided that i wanted to bee a top fuel dragracer.

 

Pic of 67 Grumpy's Toy

 

In summer of 1964, my uncle took my cousin and I to Cecil County Drag Strip . That night I saw some goofy looking old coupes with their front ends jacked up a mile high and throwing exhaust flames as they went down the track! I can still hear those engines! If only I had a camera......

 

Who says I'm hooked? I've quit several times...

 

Well first when I was a kid and didn't have a license yet, it was Keith Jackson and ABC Wide World of Sports that I never missed.



Then when I got a little older I'd ride my mini bike down a trail to a shop that had several drag cars in it. A few times I would go along with one of the guys from the shop to Lancaster Speedway to watch live drag racing. That's where I fell in love with a particular car driven by a particular driver. It was a local car driven by a somewhat famous guy. The guy was Jim Oddy and his car at the time was his Blown Injected 426 Hemi Powered Opal GT gasser. It was that car that truely sealed the deal for my love affair with small cars with big engines, gassers and drag racing. Today I run an Oddy built 408 SBC in my Nova Wagon. Funny how things go!

Here is the only photo I could find of Oddy's Opal GT. I also included a shot of Oddy's Austin he had prior to the Opal.

 

Hearing SUNDAAAYYYY NIAGARAAAA on the local radio stations. My buddys dad would fill his 58 Buick Special with us kids and take us to see the spectacle. RIP Art Murray and thank you.

 

The little red wagon, man I love that thing