I hope this link works. There are some great pictures of Ct. Dragway back in the day. http://z15.invisionfree.com/Scuncio_Super_Cars/index.php?showtopic=78&st=0
Link working fine. Great old photos thanks for posting the link. figures dinotheweirdo would be in there directing folks to the dover site. The good old cold days at Connecticut Dragway LOL at the people with coats on.
Great pictures. The picture of Bob "hurri-cain" Cain remindes me of the time he bruoght the funny car to our local trade school back in the early 70s. He started it up inside the auto shop. Wow I can still remember the whole building shake.
Man - I betcha there's a story behind that topless brutus pic! On a CT dragway subject, I remember in the lat 80's and early 90's when the towns people moved things to get the strip shut down. If you look at the site on google earth or something like that, there just isn't hardly any population density near the track except for one neighborhood. The rest of the local area from the air appears to be all woods? It just pisses me off that people can move in next to a dragstrip and the get it shut down! Seems like the prob could have been solved with a sound wall or three and an alternate entrance road? The track still exists, it's owned now by the Consumer Reports people and they use it for car testing. -90% jimmy
Make one wonder what ever happened to all those funny cars? Back when a funny car looked like a car instead of a nasa reject... r
Awesome link, ridin dirty...thanks for sharing it. I grew up not far from Colchester and used to go there a lot. I got to see many of those cars run!
I grew up in East Haddam and worked at the strip as a junior fireman my senior year of high school, the last year the strip was open. I don't remember anything about "townspeople moved things to get the strip shut down".
About strip closing: I spoke with Frank Jr. today told him about the H.A.M.B. and this thread, asked him for the real Story. His father Frank sr. was partners in the strip with his brother and mother. Jrs grandmother and uncle.They were getting hassled all the time about the noise, and traffic.When Sr. died they lost there edge(use your imagination) dont know whos' lurking. the lady that was giving them the most BS became the towns 1st selectmen. they figured they were doomed, have to run mufflers,DEP busting balls every week they didn't want the BS. the uncle is was in Real Estate so they sold. Fucked up as it seems but these tree huggers also got speed limits and noise laws on the river, and pretty mutch killed the Drag boat scene. And thats the story Pauly B
Thanks for posting..................It was good to see the pics of Jimmy King driving the King and Marshall car. Jimmy just got home yesterday from a stay in the hospital, he is doing fine....one of the nicest guys you will ever meet!
Isn't that a fact, what a hot shit Jimmy is with a whole lot of stories...one hell of a nice guy!!! I'm glad to hear he's doing OK!
Thanks for posting.I just emailed a friend because I think I see his ex-Bob Johnson car in those pics....and who could forget the Hemi powered Shark corvette.. ... grudge matching the Tasca Ford
Ct. finally passed a law a few years back where if you move in next to an existing race track ,shooting range etc.you can't take action against it.I don't know the exact wording but it's basically if you don't like the noise move the track,gun range etc. was there first !I believe this was brought about after some Grey Hound breeders moved next door to a shooting range and then sued the range because the shooting scared the dogs!The club at that time lost it's rights to use all it's outdoor ranges.after a couple of things like this happened and it pissed of enough sportsman Ct. lawmakers figured out they better do something to protect sportsman or they weren't getting re elected!
A good friend of mine is building an exact copy of that car today. It's about 65% done. If you have any other pictures of that car, I'm sure he'd appreciate seeing them. It is not going to be a poser ie: "tribute", this thing is gonna rock! I made him swear on pain of death! lol just kidding..he would have made it killer on his own...polaroids...anything...even if they are not good pictures...thanks, Ken
I was pretty young in the hayday but sure remember the thrill of funny car shows at Ct Dragway. Worked a lot of hours summers at outing facilities life guarding and kitchen work,usually real heavy on the weekends. No Sunday,Sunday,Sunday like WDRC kept blaring except on rare occassion. At the few shows I made my favorites were Jungle Jim and the Damn Yankee. In later years I met Bob Simmons. pilot of the Damn Yankee and he told some wild stories. I sure miss that place and wish it was still in operation.
I grew up in Higganum and Haddam, just in time to see its demise. By the time I could legally take to the road, it was gone. Ain't gentrification grand?
Thanks for posting the link to all the great pictures of some of the best cars in drag racing ! I still love to see the ones that ruled the tracks back in the day when racing was racing . Jungle Jim was still one of my favorites ! That was real loss in drag racing ! It will never be the same ! Drag racing really suck now ! RetroJim
great old pics...many thanks for the link...thought i might see my friend bob chipper in one of them....if you like this, watch for the pocono drag lodge 2nd reunion next year - lots of nostalgia!
I was stationed on Cape Cod during the '60's. We would go over to Connecticut on many weekends to see the races. Drink lots of beer, get stupid, try to get back to the base without crashing on the twisty New England roads. Great memories of a great drag strip, in a great era.
The Jalopy Journal
