Folks Of Interest Mr. Sunday!-Sunday!-Sunday! is gone...

The jokes may come, but he died on Sunday, last, and will be memorialised on Sunday, next.
Yes, Chicagoans will long remember the anthem for US rt 30 Dragstrip:
SUNDAY!!! SUNDAY!!! SUNDAY!!! At smokin' US 30 Dragstrip....

That was Jan Gabriel, and this is his story.

RIP Jan, a voice that will echo for generations.

Cosmo

 

that stinks

 

rip...wonder if he did alot of the dragstrips...we had the same - sunday-sunday-sunday @Green Valley Raceway in Texas...

 

Same thing for Atco,NJ back in the 60's when I was a kid.

 

Ditto for Lakeland International Racway in Memphis!

 

WOW. What a guy. Did ya see that nehru jacket?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMqhq67xei0

 

R.I.P. Jan Gabtriel. I don't know if it was his voice, but here in Michigan, we also had the same type of radio spots for Detroit Dragway. Used to here them all the time on CKLW AM radio...the "Big 8" when I was a kid in the '60s and into the '70s. I enjoyed hearing the ads...

Sunday! Sunday! At Detroit dragway!!!
Sibley and Dix!!!
Some GO........and some BLOOOOOOWWW!!!

Then sometime around the '80s, they unpped the ante, and instead of yelling the chant, they started SCAAAARRRRREEEEEMMMING it!​

 

NPR had a good story about his life tonite on the radio.Sounds like there won't be another like him. RIP

 

Heard this on the way home today. Truly a sad day for drag fans everywhere.
I believe there were copy cats all over the US who used his style and remember hearing the local ads by Bob Metz(spelling?) for Great Lakes Dragway, Union Grove, Wisconsin when I was a kid and always thought they were so cool.

 

We had the same thing on Long Island and a bunch of race tracks now we go zilch

 

Anyone living in the Chicago area should know his famous voice.
"At Smoking US 30 dragstrip." And Santa Fe Speedway.
God Speed. Our prayers and thoughts are with his family.

 

Used to hear those ads on WLS,I think, back in the 60s..down here in the sticks of Tennessee,I could pick up their signal late at night on AM..Hell yeah,I remember his voice.Heard a lot of ads we didn't hear locally,made this skinny kid want to see the world.

 

A true showman, RIP

 

grew up hearing jans voice on the radio, he never got a copy right on the advertisement so everybody used it nationwide. would love to go back to those days, miss the track as well, we had alot of fun out there. rip jan!

 

Seats are 10 bucks but you'll only need the edge!!!!!!!!

 

herd it on NPR also, get story, traveling up and down the valley as a kid [central valley of calif.] we would here on KYNO, KAFY, the sunday drag race ads, was'nt the same guy, but a AM radio copy. RD

 

growing up just north of the illinois line i heard them to. i have a cassette tape of those old ads and once or twice a year i play them while i work on the cars. it takes me back to being a kid again listening late at night to the am radio. rip

 

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY, at U.S. 30 Dragstrip. WHERE THE GREAT ONES RUN-RUN-RUN-RUN...... What a shame that these parts of dragracing history are slowly fading away into oblivion...

 

two years ago guys...

 

I think Steve Evans was another Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!!!!!!! guy.
They were different commercials for a different kind of drag racing.
Sure wish Jan, Steve, and 60's drag racing were still around.
RIP,
Larry T

 

Old thread... least we never forget!

I remember the contests at the car shows live on radio for doing the Sunday routine... and a good friend of mine "Tom" knocked it out of the park!

Total ad-lib!!

 

As a teenager in the late 60s living in a small town in the hills of Arkansas, we could only get WLS Chicago after 11pm. Most of our local stations went off the air about that time. would listen to the US 30 drag strip, followed by MR NORMS Grand Spalding Dodge commercials on Saturday nights. He will be missed.

 

As a kid growing up in New Haven CT I would listen to the AM radio hoping I would hear those words SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY once I heard those words I would listen intently for the cars booked to race on Sunday. I never did get to the strip as a kid but just hearing those words took this young gear head for a ride in those race cars making there passes on the air waves.
Ronnieroadster

 

As a kid growing up on the East side of Detroit I too remember these ad's well. Yes it was CKLW and always for Detroit Dragway at Sibley and Dix. In the exotic place known as "down river" to all of us East Siders.
My favorite ad was the one heralding the wheel stand championships where the "Little Red Wagon" squared off against the "Bat Mobile".
Great times and great memories never to be repeated.
Karl.

 

It could have been 10 years ago and if no one ever brings things like this back up, they fade away and are forgotten. Its like an internet camp fire, you never get tired of sharing the good ones.

 

living in hanover park il. just outside chicago, i remember him well. being about 12 or 13 and having just a little transistor radio i for awhile thought he was saying us dirtyest drag strip.lol well it was funny then. really do miss all the hype that the local strips used to get.his voice is just one of the many sights and sounds of my youth.

 

No shame in bringing this one back to the top. I'll bet a majority of the membership here remember some sort of commercial for drag racing on their AM radio. Just reading about some of it again brings back lots of cool memories of an often times mis-spent youth.

Frank

 

Awww man! I grew up listening to that voice.

 

Freeway close. I remember those too.

 

Heard the ads many times too, usually for P. I. D. back then. Always got your attention! As an aside, Al Roker still uses a similar call, on occassion. Maybe Al remembers those ads too, and it's a tip of the hat to the originator. I'd like to think so anyway, RIP Jan.