When was your first time at a dragstrip?

Santa Ana dragstrip in 1952. I was 14 then. I remember Jim (Jazzy) Nelson and his flathead powered Fiat bodied dragster.

 

1991 when i was 5 years old at sear point raceway. 2 clearest memories i remember were 2 early roadster taking off.Then seeing a funney car losing it's lid at half track. It's funney how everytime i smell burnt rubber, i think of the first time i went to the drag races with uncle rick.

 

1968 - Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ - went with my cousin, and her new boyfriend, in his brand new 1968 400/4spd. GTO - feature match race that night, "the Swamp Rat" vs. "TV Tommy" - Garlits took 2 out of 3 -

 

1954 Santa Ana then 3 locations of the San Gabriel strips on Rivergrade Rd. before the moved to Irwindale

 

1965 at Lions. Jr. Stock '55 Sedan Delivery was the first car I remember seeing it from the parking lot after we got out of the car.

 

'61 Winternationals, I was 15 and my brother and I talked Dad into dropping us off at entrance. Sat on those telephone poles they had laid down beyond the bleachers so cars wouldn't park on return road. Then after races were over we hitched home. Within 3 months after that I was working there, riding bike back and forth every Sun. until I got my license in Aug.

 

First time I went I raced. 1962 at Caddo Mills, Texas. An old War 2 airfield. Nothing but runways. Built out in the middle of Nowhere North Texas for pilots in training who got lost and ran out of gas. Ran stock class in a blue 1962 Bonneville. Lined us up five abreast and flagged us off. Remember watching the flagman look for the widest gap to stand. Laughed my ass off. I was hooked.

Bood

 

I'm 35 and I have never been close enough to a Drag Strip to attend. When I was a kid I really enjoyed watching NHRA drags on TV though.

 

1958 Stuttgart Arkansas age 14.

 

Noticed you referenced EJ Potter his home track was Onondaga Dragway where I spectated and raced early to mid 60s. My first time though was as a young teen at Stanton Mi. my dad took me in our 55 Dodge. Even though he cared less as I remember he went back to car to sleep. Probably one of nicer memories I have of my dad.

 

Did Detroit Dragway around 1965. It was an NHRA sanctioned strip then. Long gone now.

 

Update: Onondaga Daragway will be open in 2011. New burnout boxes, staging lanes and fences and more. Some pics can be seen at
www.DRAGZINE.com
The talk is that they are goining to try and get some big shows in. Was out there last year and ran a few times on the old stuff. I live in Eaton Rapids Mi. about 10 miles from there. And , I also was there in the late 60's and early 70's . Really took me back to be there.

 

7 years old.
Coon Rapids Dragstrip in Minnesota.
Saw the Quarter Horse, Stardust and the like.

Louder than I could have imagined.
Stinkier too.

But I loved it.

 

71' at Mel Larsons Phoenix dragway I was 5 years old.Go figure 40 years later and for the last 15 years have spent most of my weekends working there and occansionaly racing' there aswell.

 

73 Onondaga Dragway, I was 6yrs old, and it rained. Glad to hear its coming back to life.

 

Stanton MI 1983 High School Drags. Didn't have a race car so I just watched. A 66 Nove made a pass and broke at half track but still ran a 10. The track guy gave me the chunk of the side of the block he picked up off the track, it blwe sky high. My first time on the track was the same track in 87 in my 70 Chevelle SS 454 ran mid 13's on G60 14's good times.

 

1961 Maple Grove (watched with my father)
1964 Niagara Dragstrip (my fathers first race)
1974 Niagara Dragstrip (my first race)

 

First trip as a spectator was at Orange Mass. airport in early sixties. I still remember the Berkshire Beetle and the US Mule and I was about 12 years old.
First trip down a dragstrip as a competitor was at New England dragway on my 65 BSA Lightning Rocket. Some clown in a 59 Ford turned right into me in the pits and sent me to the hospital. I was 19 years old and pissed.

 

Union Grove in Milwaukee WI 1972 watching mu Uncle's and also later the same year US 30?? now gone by Gary IN.

Michael

 

First time as a spectator was about 1975 when I was 14. Went to an NHRA event at Sears Point International Raceway and I got to talk to Tommy Ivo and Don Prudohmme in the pits.
First time as a participant was in 1979...my first pass was a 20.46 at 66.66 mph in a '72 Mercury Capri. I had read in an article that the mph of Ivo's first trip down the strip was 66.66 mph, so I thought I was in pretty good company!

 

The first time I remember was about 1963. Dad had a B Gas Anglia and towed it to Mt. Park Dragway in big ole Clay City, Ky. Mom would run the 55 Ford pickup in K stock for trophies and the Anglia was the money car. We ended up with a lot more trophies than money. Dad later sold the Anglia while it sat on the starting line after the battery cable came off on the line in the finals one day. I have tracked the old 55 down and plan a trip to bring it back home this summer. Does anyone have a 48 Anglia sitting around that has teeth marks in the dash on the passenger side that looks like they were made by a 5 year old kid that wasnt belted in on a down shift?

 

I was 5 years old, it was 1957, and my father's employer transfered him to the Lancaster, PA area. I went to both my first drag race, held at a small airport there, as well as my first oval track race, at some small, obscure dirt track, also in the area.

 

In 1959 my Pop took my brother and I to Manasas,VA the 1st race I went to .Around 1961 we started going to Aquasco with our neighbor who was racing a '57 Fury w/2 fours

 

early 80's sometime, maybe 82 or 83 to watch my uncle race his cars, i was about 7 or 8.

 

The first drag stip I went to was a back road off the main highway back in the early 70s with my dad when I was just kid. He had a beat up old Dodge Dart w/ 383 4 speed that he couldn't resist blowing the guts out every chance. Many years later on a Christmans day I was on my way to my girl friends when I could'nt resist taking a pass down memory lane. I was 16 and it was freezing near zero. I stopped where the old guys use to blast off and set the 72 nova's tires to smokin when all of the sudden she popped a few times and died. The engine just spun over like nothing was connected. I knew I had stripped the timing gear on the old small block. Knowing I had to call dad I pushed the car about an 1/8 mile down the road and onto the main highway hoping to cover my tracks and then went to a neighbors house and called dad. When dad got there he said, "Did you break down before or after the race?" I knew better than to play dumb so I just shook my head. He laughed and said, "looks like its time to give her a new heart." We poked in a 396 a few weeks later. I laid a lot of rubber on that old road but I've never gotten over watching my dad grab the gears in that old Dart. 20 years later I was passing through in a 64 ss Impala 4sp w/ two 4s and once again had to stop for a quick burnout. I love my dad and can't wait to pick him up when the 53 is done. I'll take him back to the place it all began and say, "dad, turn her loose." He's a lot more cautious these day but he still likes that first 60 feet.

 

Labor Day-Green Valley 1962 AHRA Nationals. I was 12. Greer-Black-Prudhomme lost the final race to Vance Hunt for Top Eliminator

 

I'd say, '75 or '76 Winternationals, Pomona. I was five or six-years-old. But what I really remember were Fox Hunts at Orange County, when I was a couple years older.

 

i was about 10,went with my dad , he had a 54 Nash-Healy with a 57 j-2 Olds in it.

 

some time in 1963 - sunday sunday sunday at beautiful Aquasco (maryland) speedway. been hooked ever since.

 

How'd I miss this thread?
9 years old, June of 1963.
Dover Drag Strip, Wingdale, N.Y.
My older brother was racing my Mom's '59 D500 Dodge in D/SA
He not only had her permission, my Dad and Mom were with us, and that's how we raced, as a family.
In '64 we bought a new Max Wedge Dodge S/S'er and off we went.
Dover, Lebanon, Island, N.Y. National, Flemmington, all tracks we visited.