Famous Texas Tracks, Cars, Stories and SpeedShops

Here ya go

 

Well Im back with a few more pics. Guys please help me keep this thread going. I say we include any state bordering Texas as well, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. (did you know Texas use to extend all the way up into Colorado? )

 

Hot Rod Exchange down on Beckley!! Used to go down there and trade worn out hot rod stuff for more worn out hot rod stuff. Some of those half finished race cars parked out front were kind of scary!!

 

When I was working for Dale Cowley at the NAPA store in Richardson, '68-'69, this car was sitting as a roller up the street at the Waterview 66 station on Spring Valley.
Always wondered what happened to it.

 

Here in the south east, we had a big Ford presence, but looking back on these cars today I have to agree on the scary factor. But back when we ran things like this......... we had major fun. Tom S. in Tn.

 

<center> SUPERTRACK HAS TRAGIC BEGINNING </center> Dallas International Motor Speedway (DIMS) opened in June of 1969, a new, modern super track that should have been destined for a long, bright future. The first event for the new dragstrip was the '69 NHRA Springnationals. So new, they were still paving the pits when time trials started on Friday of that weekend! That event was marred by a tragedy however, it was the first sign of trouble for the track which would have a rather short, sad life. Round one of Funny Car eliminations pitted F/C builder-driver Pat Foster in one of Mickey Thompsons Mach I's versus Gerry Schwartz in his "Ratty Cat" Chevy powered Cougar. Foster had left on Schwartz, but lost traction and mid-track, ended up sideways in the path of the oncoming Cougar. The resulting collision left Foster slightly injured. Gerry Schwartz was declared dead on arrival at Parkland Hospital, the same hospital JFK was taken to only 6 years before.
<center> HIPPIES INVADE DIMS</center> On a lighter note, on Labor Day weekend 1969, instead of loud screaming funny cars, DIMS hosted Jimmy Page and his loud screaming guitar. The event, held two weeks after Woodstock, was the Texas International Pop Festival, sort of the 'Woodstock' of the southwest U.S. The performers included future rock legends Led Zeppelin. Also on stage that weekend were Santana, Grand Funk Railroad, Chicago, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, B.B.King, Canned Heat, Sly & the Family Stone, Spirit, Ten Years After, and others. For three days in 1969, DIMS was sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. <center> SHOW ME THE MONEY</center> Despite the rough start, DIMS looked forward. NHRA had awarded the track two of the four national events at the time, the Springnationals and World Finals. DIMS also added a 2.5 mile road course and ran SCCA sanctioned events, and later added a quarter mile dirt track for motorcycle racing. Nascar and Championship Cars (Indy) were considered but the cost was prohibitive at the time. The track had visions of being a 'speed city' and land around the track was being marketed for race teams and sanctioning body offices. In spite of all these promising ideas, 1970 brought more trouble, in the form of Mother nature. Several rained-out events and a flooded track spelled financial disaster. The Trans Am race scheduled for April 26th was a wash, canceled due to heavy rainfall. The race was not rescheduled and the Trans Am series never returned to Dallas. The track management asked the NHRA for financial assistance to help recover, they declined. And in more bad news for DIMS, unhappy neighbors concerned about noise and traffic pressured the Lewisville City Council into imposing a 10 pm curfew. <center> MORE TRAGEDY IN DALLAS</center> In October of 1971, a Dallas TV news reporter named Gene Thomas was at DIMS doing a story on drag racing. Art Arfons was there with his two-seat "Super Cyclops" 280-mph jet-powered dragster, and Thomas strapped in for ride. At the end of the pass, the dragster apparently blew a tire and went into and then through the guardrail on Thomas' side. The crash killed Thomas and two spectators, Robert Kelsey and Sean Panse. Arfons retired after the tragic incident. <center> THE IHRA FIX AND THE END</center> Tremendous debt kept the track from really growing and in order to address that in 1971, the management of DIMS elected to switch to the new IHRA group led by Larry Carrier as they only got 25% of the gate for national events where the NHRA got 50%. That did not fix the financial problems and in 1973 the track went bankrupt, and closed forever. The property was sold to Xerox for a proposed new facility for them - that never happened and the tower finally came down in the late 70's and cattle took over. Today the property is part of a large retail complex and not a single sign of its existance remains. Even had it survived, the track would have never survived the growth of Dallas.

 

A few more from DIMS

 

Known around here as "hands".
Heard a good story 'bout him.
He used to race a 56 (I think) chevy at the old Houston/Galveston strip in Dickinson. He won most of the time, was protested forever and always passed the protest. Seems he had a generator/cool can/ect. on one side of the motor, other side was clean-so that was the side they pulled the head and checked the bore-which was always stock. Later it was found the cluttered side was bored .60 or over with hi comp. pistons-adding a bunch of hp.
Sure miss those days.
cooger

 

These photos are fantastic. Thanks you very much for posting them!

Slim

 

Enjoy my friends.

 

This shot had to be 74 or later; note on-board starter drive and the drawing to a close of a long era of drag racing.
I can not recall how many times we left town with nothing but an empty block and crankshaft in the car and the rest of the motor in boxes, and only hear it run after together and rolled it off for a t-t or to qualify once we arrived at the track. Personally, racing changed from a challenging thrill to more like an occupation at this point. Tom S. in Tn.

 

Yea honestly thats why I prefer outlaw tracks to NHRA tracks. No rules

 

Tom S. I want to thanks for the stories and pics and being one of the few people helping me to keep this thread going. Its really appreciated. Seems like to most ppl on here if it isnt Lions or another strip in Cali, they dont care.

 

Ya, but no safety either.... ye ha!
The pictures here on these forums all evoke so much memory for me. Some of these Texas photos look like they could have come from my neighborhood track. Those early altered funny cars, and the link to the the east Texas track video bring it back like yesterday!
Thank you for posting these, I'll come to view every day if my heart can hold up.
Now, where's a paramedic when you need one........

 

Any of you Texan's recognize this 151" FED? Ran a 413 Max Wedge fuel injected. More info here http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=665258&highlight=kisam
Thanks,
Kathy

 

Wow I didnt think any FED ran the max wedge engines. Ill certainly keep an eye out for it.

 

Great pictures from the Texas Dragstrips. Always looking for new
pictures of the "Tiger II " Altered Wheelbase Chevelle. Enclosed find a
couple of photos, along with the only 2 pictures I have, when it was
called "Blitzer". While searching for info about the Tiger II, I found
a DVD called "Blast from the Past" put out by the Abeilene Performance
Car Association, all converted from old 8mm home movies. It is about
2 hours long, I found 2 short clips of the Tiger II on it from Green Valley
probably from 1965 (about 15 seconds total) the only problem is that
you cannot freeze frame it, it just gets blurry.

John Wiley

 

Wow nice, do you know where I can get this DVD or download it?

 

Enclosed find a couple of photos of how the car sits today. Jim & Andy
Adcock sold the car sometime in early 1968 and there is about 20-25 years
where there is no history on the car. Sometime after they sold it , the rear
wheelwells were cutout for larger tires. Jim & Andy started out with an
injected 377 SBC with Enderle injection and ran it with a BBC with Hilborn
injection with a turbo 400 trans on fuel in its final configuration.
I hope to start the restoration after my Henry J Gasser is done.

John Wiley

 

The address I have for the DVD is as follows:
Abilene Performance Car Association
c/o Robertson Auto Consulting and Engineering
849 S. Leggett Abilene, Tx. 79605

The ad says you can use PayPal account- send your
payment to[email protected]

"got this off Google today, hope it is current info"

John

 

I have a copy of a photo of the Norris Bros. AA/FD, one of the last FEDs in division 4, in the bleach box at Dallas International in probably '70.
Problem is, I have no idea how to reproduce it for this thread. I'm doing good to surf on the computer.
200+ inches, cast iron '92, T-bar chassis, four hole "Laguna lean out" Hilborns. For a 21 year old it was a golden time!!!!

 

I have a copy also has footage of the Funny Car and earlier footage of it as Long Gone.

 

Page # 10, bottom row center. That is John Turley. Sherman, TX. I knew that car well. Busted a few knuckles on that one.

Page # 12. The Outlaw Mustang. This picture was taken shortly before my brother, Raymond Martin, bought it and ran it for 30 years. He has passed away but the car, looking much like it does in the picture, is running today at North Texas drag strips. I'm sorry I can't name the current owner.

Thanks for all those pictures. What memories. My weekends were Green Valley for several years.

 

Any chance you could give a Google maps image of the location? It's been a few years since I tried but I got lost driving around looking for the site.

 

Love seeing the old photos!

 

Bursey Rd, North Richland Hills, TX 76182

 

I am too young to ever have been to Green Valley Raceway, but I did spend alot of time at Kennedale racing O/T cars.

However I did have a girlfriend that lived in North Richland Hills near the old track, what a good piece of ass she was!!

Still dream about her somedays.

Tex

 

Kennedale is still here and was owned by the former owner of Green Valley. His family now owns it since his passing.

Better not be my current GF!

 

Probably not, I think I cured her of "Car Guys".

 

Stone & Woods before Cook, KS Pittman driving Swindler II.