Part of what made the Junior Stock Class so popular was the fact that the cars looked just like the cars everyone was driving on the street and you could almost picture either your car or your mom and dad's are looking like that. Just my opinion. Jimbo
Jimbo you are so right! Most of the cars that ran on Sundays where "stockers" that people drove to the track, took of the hub caps maybe put on their Bucrons and went racing. When people can participate in a sport it grows. Pat
The rules also made it affordable, as you had to use most everything as it came from the factoryPlus cars were cheap back then.Racers tell stories of building complete racecars for under $1000. Hey if there are any Jr racers out there reading this lets hear some stories of your builds.
Pat: I find drag racing is getting more like NASCAR every day in that I cannot tell which manufacturer is which without seeing their name some where on the car. Drag Racing has in a sense lost it identity for many of the fans. At least Pro Stock cars from the 60's and 70's looked kind of like your family car with much larger tires but today I see Pro Stock cars that don't look anything like a car you buy at any dealership. Just my opinion. Jimbo
Most of the new cars these days are front wheel drive cars except for the Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers, and who can afford a new or recent offering from US car manufacturers when you're young. Heck, I can't afford one today( unless I sell all my coll 57 stuff- NO WAY). The car we raced at the Winternationals in '69 came from around the corner, and it cost me $25 in 1966. Good luck finding anything like that today.
Most everyone remembers Dave Boertman's Tulsa-winning 'Budget Breaker' yellow '59 Biscayne, but there sure were a lot more of those (2-B) 185/283 4-sp cars running for a couple of years. I wonder how many of them employed the infamous vacuum-leak trick before NHRA got wise and banned "vacuum leaks"?
I remember DIV III's Marty Barret telling a couple of them to tighten down the carb. He said, ''they didn't come from the factory loose so fix it''. You could listen to one and tell if the carb was loose.
Absolutely!! I don,t go to either drag races or NASCAR races (or watch them on TV) for that very reason.
Vacuum nipples off all over the intake. The most ingenious I ever saw was Bob Dwyers Crockagator 55 Studebaker stocker out of Ft Lauderdale that had spring loaded bolts holding the carb down supposedly to eliminate fuel foaming. What it did was lift the front of the carb slightly when the throttle linkage bottomed out. Also worked well on 280 hydroplanes in the Orange Bowl Regatta on a 273 Plymouth 2 barrel motors. It set the indoor speed record back in the early 70s
The Jalopy Journal
