History Lakeside Auto

Somebody please build a time machine, so we can go back and enjoy what we kind of took for granted as kids.......Great story.

 

Something that cool should be around forever.I never get tired of dragsters,loved 'em since I was a kid and I always will.

 

An aside: I lived in Richmond in the late 70's for a couple of years. I wasn't far from the old drag strip and went there many times. The strip was next to an old military installation. I'm not sure the drag strip wasn't one of the old runways. Anyway, on another runway adjacent there was a complete mock WWII airbase. Rotting away were plywood and chicken wire P-51's, B-24's, and dozens of other aircraft plus buildings, vehicles, and everything you'd find on an actual air base. Sneaking through the fence onto the base was no big deal as there was a well worn trail from the dragstrip into the compound. It was an amazing and ghostly place all at once. 40 years later I'm sure they're all gone; just another forgotten piece of history. But at the time, drag races and WWII aircraft together was a heady mix sure to stir passions in any young man in his 20's.

 

I loved the sound of an injected little chevy with 12" pipes comimg out each port. They hauled as_!!

 

THAT'S VERY COOL

 

Joey, thanks for the recognition of the Weis family. The dragstrip they built continues to be racer friendly, and just a good old- fashioned "country" dragstrip.



Richmond was a hot bed of racing and rodding activity way back then, and continues to be to this day. The discovery and restoration of the Slick Patterson '39 by Roddy and Sally Moore is a good example of the activity here that might go unnoticed. The pic below is from the '50s along Richmond's historic Monument Ave. We believe from first-person accounts that cars of this caliber and quality were all over town at that time.



Scarcely a week goes by in these modern times that a long-lost speed shop or rod or custom isn't re-discovered. The Old Dominion is heaven for those of us archeologists who love the vernacular buildings and material culture of the automotive world.

Who would have thought such a buttoned down and conservative place was the home town of so many fellow hoodlums?

 

Tell me you found Roy's Big Burger. It would have been at the south end of Lakeside avenue.