Ohio is Gasser Country. Whether you like it or not, that?s the word brother. Sure, by the mid ?60s cars all over the nation were getting the ?nose-up? treatment, but there has always been something about the Midwestern ?street? classes th... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Great pics. Ohio does have a ton of history, in all forms of racing, really. 42 is WEST Salem btw, Quaker City is Salem, two different places.
Dragway 42 was my favorite place to be in the late 60's. Too bad the 70's came along, cause most of my memories from the 60's went up in smoke.
**shameless plug** i wish i could find my uncles old gasser...link in signature or http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=690676
Thompson: The Drag Racing Capitol Of Mid America,at least thats what they called it in the radio commercials back in the 60's. always looked forward to the comercials to find out what was going on that weekend.
Here is a shot of my friend Dave Ehrman's old gasser. He, and his team mates, are from the Cleveland area and in the early 60's he drove it to two class wins in a row at the US Nats. It had a straight six and fuel injection. Gary
I grew up near Lions Drag Strip in the Gasser Heyday, begging my Dad to take me. Being a Gearhead Guy himself, often we would go Friday nights or Saturday afternoons, which was cool, the Pits were wide open. I saw Big John, Stone-Woods-Cook, Ohio George, Johnny Loper's Anglia was very Fast & very Clean....I had all the Revell kits to build their models or my own Fantasy Gassers..A million others long forgotten, the Willys Pickups, always tailgate down for more weight on the Slicks. This was '65 -'68. A lot of 'em were still straight Steel, maybe 'glass front ends, all Hand-Lettered, no computer faux graphics on the cars then. They really weren't that fast then, but Forever Loud, Colorful & Cool...
The tailgates on the pickups weren't down for more weight on the slicks. They were down so the air coming over the cab wouldn't be trapped in the bed at high speed causing it to act like a parachute slowing the truck down. My friend with a '40 pickup gained almost 3 miles an hour when he dropped his tailgate. Frank
Dragway 42 is still in operation. I love that place. I remember being on the bridge while Garlits was doing a burnout undeneath when I was 3 years old. Dad said I was a foot away from the zoomies on Gene Snow's funny car when they fired it up that day in the pits too but I don't remember it. Kids just don't get the oppotunity to get the crap scared out of them like that nowadays.
As a teenager in the Mid-60's I often went to Yellow River and Atlanta Speed Shop Drag-way. The Gasser's always put on a Good Show. Never liked the Funny Cars as it seems that they Pushed the Gassers out of the LimeLight !!! Barnett Brothers, sponsored by Hanson Buick in Decatur, Ga was a favorite. A Cherry Red 33 Willys Coupe. There were plenty of Gassers and plenty of Gas Classes running back then. The memories of those Cars still influence me to this Day..................... Jeff
I love gassers, i quite like that 49 Merc as well.... 49 was a good year. I really like "Ohio George" and his 67 and 69 Gasser mustangs. GMP does really cool models of these cars. I build Scale models as a hobbie and enjoy turning them into gassers.
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