New England Dragway in Epping. Got photos?

Great history here. Wish I had a time machine!

 

I don't know who owned that Falcon "Drag Doll", but I do recognize some of the names. Bill Dee and Phil Thain, were from Malden, MA. Bill Dee would build a 33 Willy's just like the Ellison and McGarvey car, then would move on to funny cars. Phil Thain bought the original 1320 Engineering K-88 car. Phil drove several cars including a twin engine rail, and Billy Dee's blown Willys. Bill is still a fixture at the nostalgia drags, and Phil Thain shows up now and then. I also notice there is a name of a Sunoco Station printed on the car. That was located on the Malden - Melrose line on Lebanon St. That is were I would puchase expensive Sunoco 260 during the mid seventies. As racing gas is closed to $10.00 a gallon now...I wish I could go back to that Sunoco Station.

 

Great pictures. Baron, if you come across a '55 Chevy Post that says 'Jumpin Jack' on the rear quarters, that was my cousin and I've been searching for about 10 years for a picture of that car. I'll pay to get a good copy of it. He was out of the Littleton, Ma, Ayer, Westford area.

Thanks
Doug aka Fencepost.

 

I'm really loving this thread. I'm glad to see a John Rines car, please post more if you have them.
I hope someone has pictures of a Dick Vye of Auburn, Maine car, I think he ran a 55 chevy. He was my automotives instructor in high school.
Thanks.

 

4 seconds is a pretty big improvement!

 

These were two cars out of Gloucester around 1969-70.
Bobby Larsen's X-Rated 57 Chevy

Dave Ribeiro's 57 Small Stuff

 

That looks like a real deal 69 Trans Am Pace car in the back ground, certainlly no clone. . In 1969, a $725 optional handling package called the "Trans Am Performance and Appearance Package,", named after the Trans Am Series, which included a rear spoiler, was introduced. Of these first "Trans Ams," only 689 hardtops and eight convertibles were made. There was an additional Ram Air IV option for the 400 CID engine during that year, complementing the Ram Air III; these generated 345 and 335 hp (250 kW) respectively. The 350 "H.O." engine was revised again with a different cam and cylinder heads resulting in 330 hp (250 kW). During 1969 a special 303 cu in (5.0 L) engine was designed for SCCA road racing applications that was not available in production cars.<SUP id=cite_ref-3 class=reference>[3]</SUP>

 

LS6 Chevelle that set track record

 

Gene O'Neil's 68 Hemi Dart. Kandy Tangerine Orange with Pearl white side panels. Flintstonecharger and I are always looking for more pics / memories running back in the day so any forwarded are much appreciated. We do have one shot by Paul Wasilewski but have no idea who took this particular shot. Were there other track photographers there late 68/69? Sure would like to get a better reproduction of this and any other pics from Epping of the old warrior. thx

 

Too cool Baron, keep them coming........thanks for posting.

 

I remember the days that Gene drove that car to work in Worcester before he moved over to Shrewsbury St...lol
I was shooting at NED during those years as well as Ed Cenedella as we were shooting for Art Irwin and Drag News. I don't have any shots available as I lost all my files years ago, I'll check with Ed to see if he may have any. That shot could be one of Pauls as well, how big is the file/pic?

 

Gene's nephew Steve is a member on here and has the car. Maybe he will see this and post some.

 

thx for the history and I appreciate you taking the time to hunt some pics down. the b/w pic (photographer unknown)is 224kb.
I keep in touch with Steve and Gene, they've been a huge help with documenting the dart's lineage and forwarding pics so we could replicate the original paint scheme.

 

looking for pictures of a 427 cobra with "the judge" painted on the side. I believe it ran at new england dragway in the 60's

 

Harr Ford out of Worcester ran both a 289 and a 427 at NED not sure on the last pic but it is a 427 Cobra at NED

 

Cool this was brought up re the Harr Ford cobra. Gus Zeidama , who worked @ Harr, ran the car aka 1 of 1 Dragonsnake. Gus built 426 Hemi's for Gene O'Neill and helped out with his 65 SS Dodge and possibly the 68SS. There's a nice history of the car on HEMMINGS DAILY site, just google dragonsnake Gus Zeidama and you'll find it. It was a very expensive car back then and is real expensive now.

 

Here's a good shot of the Harr Ford 427 Cobra and a shot of the Carl Mentz 427 King Cobra raced mostly in NY and NJ. Now this would be a good match race. The Harr Ford Cobra was purchased from Bob Tasca

 

Name doesn't ring a bell with me. Gus ended up with a shop after Harr Ford. This was early 70s at this point . "Competition Automotive" . Don't remember the street but I was there a lot. He did the suspension over in my 427. The cars that were in his shop were unreal. Oh I remember Gus's hours.. "Sometime around 12" and to all hours of the morning !!

 

Check out some of the cars in the pits.

Not a lot of bikes running back than that I remember.

 

That bike rider could be Jon Provost, he was stunt rider who could ride a wheelie the entire lenth of the track.

 

^^^^ I'm liking that!

 

its change so much.

 

Great thread. Makes me want to look for my old video of the dragway.

 

The A&J Speed car with Ade Knyff

 

A couple of the Jade Grenade

 

Comanche vs El Diablo