stock and super stock racing

[Alan Warman]

Jerry
I guess you were stationed at Fort Hood. I have to agree Little River is one of the Neatest tracks in Tx. Who would have thought the pecan sap from the trees would make such good traction compound. And yes Jerry they still race there every weekend.

[Jimi B]

Sorry to jack the thread a little bit. But out of all the divisionals and national event I have been at with friends running stock or super stock, there are a few things I have never bothered to figure out. Do you or did you used to get points or money for qualifying 1 at a div or nat event? Are class run offs just at national events? Are Class run offs related to the actual eliminator at each race, or separate from? Are class run offs ran at every national? What do you get for winning class run offs? Wally? Money? Also are you able to switch classes thru out the season, like go up or down a weight class? Do you just specify which class you are running when you feel out your tech card at each race?

[FrankChastain]

and lets add one more item, in the final if the winner was below his record that was a new record.....

Originally Posted by art leong

When the eliminators were run off records there was a 1/10 breakout allowed.
Except for the final then it was get to the stripe first.

And BTW there were no quickest loser qualifiers. You won class or you went home.

[JRyan]

Thanks Alan,

Glad to hear it's still a dragstrip. I wonder if they still graze cattle there during the week. That made for some interesting pit spots.

Jerry

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by FrankChastain

and lets add one more item, in the final if the winner was below his record that was a new record.....

That is how it was done before all the dumbing down, soft indexes, all run, too stinking many classes, etc.

[treessavoy]

While everyone is waxing how great the old days were let's look at the truth. It was simple...the guy that had the most money to put in their class car was the winner, if you couldn't run below or at the class record there was no reason for you to even go to the track unless you just liked to watch. Those of us that still went knew we were going to be out the first round if we ran into one of these guys.
If no killer cars were in your class you still had to run off the record when you went into stock eliminator, so you weren't going to win no matter what.....and that's why the change to index racing...to give more people a chance to race.

JimR

[treessavoy]

Originally Posted by JRyan

Thanks Alan,

Glad to hear it's still a dragstrip. I wonder if they still graze cattle there during the week. That made for some interesting pit spots.

Jerry

Alan/Jerry,

I was stationed at Ft. Hood and raced at Temple in '76 thru '78, it's the best kept secret in the drag racing world. I remember everyone trying to get there early enough to get one of the under tree parking places. I raced a guy in a SS chevy 2 who couldn't drive with his boot on so when it came time to race he raced barefoot!
Good times.

JimR

[bill dedman]

Jerry,
I was at Ft. Hood for awhile the summer of 1962, and they ran primitive drag races beside the loading ramps at the "railhead." They were all pretty much street cars; the quickest car I ever saw there, was a red, 1938 Willys 4-door sedan, with a GMC-blown Buick nailhead B/GS car. I believe he ran 13.30's.... not very fast, but pure excitement for a bunch of race-starved G.I.'s.

They had a flagman and a guy with a pair of binoculars and a stopwatch. The guy with the stopwatch sat on the finish line and watched the start with the binoculars....

Chrondek, it wasn't.... lol!!! But, it was LOTS of fun!!!

No classes at all; quickest car there won ALL the entry fee money....

Were they still doing that when you got to Ft. Hood????

[bill dedman]

Drag racing got complicated quickly, but got a lot MORE complicated in 1963, with the introduction of the Christmas Tree, and its handicapped-start capabilities.

The ensuing years saw many changes, some good, some bad, but sometimes I wonder if the direction that NHRA drag racing has taken (for Stockers) is a good thing...

There was a time when you took your car to the strip and raced for a trophy.... period.

In 1956, for example, there was A, B, C, and D Stock, In '57, I think they added E Stock (could be a year "off.") Sticks and automatics were not separated.

The classification process worked with so few classes, because the horsepower spectrum was so small; the very fastest cars in 1956 had around 300 horsepower; the slowest were in the 90-horsepower range.

So, you had only about 210 horsepower separating the slowest Stockers from the fastest. Separating them with 4 or 5 classes made for some fairly equitable "class" racing.

In 1956, There might be 7 or 8 cars in A Stock (dual-quad Chevies, Fords, Pontiacs, and Dodges,) with the occasional Chrysler 300, or Cadillac El Dorado (both of which sported dual quads, in '56.)

B Stock might have 12-14 cars, and might be made up of primarily, single 4bbl 317 cid., Pontiacs, Power Pack 265 Chevies, "Ford Interceptors" (312-powered sedans), and an occasional '56 Olds 88.

C Stock was usually the most populous class, with lots of 2bbl 265 Chevys, 272 cid '56 Fords, and an assortment of oddball V8 Studebakers, Mercury 292's and some '53-'54 Oldsmobiles. Maybe 15-18 cars in that class.

D Stock was not as popular, but was made up of some interesting cars, such as 232 cid, early V8, 2-bbl, Studebakers, '49-'51 Oldsmobiles, Hudson Hornets with 1 carb, and 2-bbl, '52 OHV Lincolns (with Hydramatics(!).

E Stock was the refuge of the inline, six-cylinder Chevies, GMC pickups, Ford Flatheads, and a whole bevy of nondescript Nashes, really early Buicks (1938?) with "compound carburetion," and most foreign cars of the day (of which, there were very few.) It was a crapshoot, as far as how many would show up to race... maybe 10....

You got 3 or 4 time trials, and would heed the call to the lanes for YOUR CLASS, after noon, or, thereabouts.

The classes were run off, one class at a time, hot-lapping, until a winner in that class was determined. Then, the next higher class had its eliminations. They were all run this way; hot-laps until the survivor was deemed the class champion.

They ran some competition Dragsters, Gassers, motorcycles, and Altereds between the autonomous class runs.... usually saving the "TOP ELIMINATOR" runs for the last runs of the day.

There was NO "Stock Eliminator." Just 5 class winners, with a nice trophy in the back seat of each. No cash payouts.

There were also, no $5,000.00, acid-ported cylinder heads, $$$$$ Headers, disguised, expensive, aluminum driveshafts, data loggers, $900.00 "blueprinted" carburetors, nor expen$ive drag slicks on these cars. They were required to run the tires they were equipped with, OEM.

When the racing program was over, the announcer invited any spectator who wanted to, to bring their car to the line for a free time trial, or to grudge race the car of their choice... multiple times, if so desired.

Lots of those folks got their first taste of competition there, and came back the next month as a competitor!!!

It was so simple...

Is what we have, today, better???

You decide...

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by treessavoy

While everyone is waxing how great the old days were let's look at the truth. It was simple...the guy that had the most money to put in their class car was the winner, if you couldn't run below or at the class record there was no reason for you to even go to the track unless you just liked to watch. Those of us that still went knew we were going to be out the first round if we ran into one of these guys.
If no killer cars were in your class you still had to run off the record when you went into stock eliminator, so you weren't going to win no matter what.....and that's why the change to index racing...to give more people a chance to race.

JimR

Very few "pro built" engines, about zero "pro built" cars. Anybody could bolt on slapper bars and 90/10 shocks. 95% of the fast cars were owner built. Until Stahl & Moroso came along, (they later split up and became Stahl & Associates, and Moroso) there was no place to buy trick parts. Jere Stahl had some of the coolest stuff I had seen at the time. Most everybody made things themselves. Most guys did their own engine back then. Some still do. Yeah, many slow guys cried it was all money, just like they do today. Not many of us had any back then. The "rich" guys had open trailers, the rest of us used tow bars.

That last sentance is what I meant about dumbing it down. You don't have to know anything or work very hard to be able run the inexes we have now. Unless you have a heads up it's just bracket racing. That's sad. Used to be performance based, no longer.

And before christmas trees, we did indeed run eliminators. A 25' per class head start, with a 250' max. My 225 hp 2X4 265" '56 Chevy got the same 250' head start, or spot, from D/S through A/S. Only race car I ever had that made money.