What got you started drag racing??
 

I suspect that I already know the answer for most of us. It was simply having a driver's license, and a car.

But I am also sure that for some there were either special people or special events that triggered the urge to drag race...and I am sure those people or events will be of interest to all of us.

So, what got you started in drag racing?

David
The New Hemi Guy.
________
Dc medical marijuana dispensary

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

When I was growning up all we did was race on the weekend and being around Jeff and Charlie Taylor and seeing them win and seeing my dad and my brother have sucess. I always wanted to race it's in my dna!


Andy mylin

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

I have to say that my brother got me involve(my drag pusher as he was know for influencing such feeble minds to drag racing) we always had a car around the house and when he got involve with a Jr Stocker 57,56 sedan and we travel allover the U.S but mostly in Div.1 from race to race we had such adventures. After three tours in Vietnam as a Helicopter pilot, he use to say to me that it was the only thing that meant anything in life. The friendship we made always was an incredible experience in our lives. He's past on but I still love racing. My favorite quote of his was " a day drag racing beat's a year of working".

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

I was 9 years old and they built a dragstrip outside of town.plus my parents eloped at the Indy 500 so racing in my blood.

Hammer

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

1969 AHRA Winternational's @ Beeline Dragway, Scottsdale Az.

Was there the next year with a 62 Ford Falcon 6 cylinder with Dagenham 4 speed, ran as formula 4 H/S. Car was fun, but tore up a lot of transmissions and clutches.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Uh, You, Vic, stories around Grandpas table.

The 76 Winternationals, and all the Nationals I went to with my Mom and Stepdad between 76--81

A Guy like Purdohme taking a knee to look me in the eye and ask what I , ME a 7 year old liked best about Drag Racing, (I answered Dragsters :)

Good memories and the excuse to take something apart and put it back together repeatledy :)

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

I was 14 and a high school freshman. 1960...Worked after school a couple afternoons a week and weekends pumping gas at my home- town Gulf station. A few older 19-20 yr old guys that came in and occasionally hung out there had some pretty nice cars....one was a '57 Chev convert that was a 283 power-pack. powerglide car. Color was that Tropical Turquoise (aqua) w/blk top...a beauty. Well the guy decided he was going to turn it into a stocker, and make it a .030 over, 292", 270hp solid lifter, dual quad car, and also install a BW 4-speed, and 5.14 posi rear. Well, I became his "gofer" and helped him out throughout this almost 1 yr. project. Car turned out to be a beauty and ran excellent. He taught me how to turn wrenches and took me to the drags w/him to help out and learn. He's the one who got me going with this sport. I ended up buying that '57 from him when I was 17. He then bought a brand new '65 big block 396, 4sp Impala, which also did well at the track. His next drag car was a '62 340hp 327 Corvette stocker. He also ran Modified Production for a short time with it. Then, he and a partner built a 1940 Ford C/MP Chevrolet powered coupe, and competed at the 1967 Indy National event w/it....I went from the '57 270hp car to a '64 Malibu 283-220hp, 4 sp. stocker....Orange, Ma. Drag Strip, Sanford, Me. Drag Strip, Charlestown, R.I. Drag Strip, Connecticut Dragway, Lebanon Valley Dragway, New England Dragway. Great times.....Thank you, Jay O'Day, for all your patience and teaching when I was just a kid trying to grow up...WJ:)

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Having two Uncles who were racers got me started, ... One running Middle eliminator in the late '50's and early '60's., and another from the mid '60's thru the '70's who was a major player in Stock and Super Stock...........My first cars were always something that I could get hand me down parts for. .......'50 Old's and '62' Dodges galore!! .........I wish I had taken more pictures back then,but I was like a kid in the candy shop when I went to the track........I was more interested in looking at stuff up close and learning what I could from talking to the racers, [who were very free with information to a kid who was interested , untill they found out who I was there with ! ] .......Tom

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

1978 Cajun Nationals!!!!! I had never seen anything like it!!! From that moment on I was hooked!!!!

TF Kelly Brown def Mike Tarter
FC Bob Pickett def Tom Anderson
PS Bob Glidden def Lee Shepherd
COMP Wayne Clapp def Joe Williamson
MOD Cotton Perry def Paul Mercure
SS Steve Bagwell def Cotten Perry
STK Jeff Powers def Gary Long


P.S. I was born later that year in November....Talk about prenatal care!!!

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

My dad and uncles got me hooked. They ran stick cars, Fulton did a couple of motors for them. If you have ever been in a full stick small block car at 8,500-9,000 rpm you can understand. When I heard those Modified cars come through at Rockingham that was music to my ears. Racing has changed but it is still good, got a motor in the shop now. Bottom line.... racing is just plain fun, not to mention the competition and friends we make.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Im like a crack baby, thats born addicted. My grandfather ran pontiacs in stock passed away in his race car. My great uncle ran super stock for years. My dad still running stock when he can. my earliest recollections of anything is being at the drag strip, and around class racing. Nothing better in the world!!!!!

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

My dad ,my brother , me , and now my son (and not too long off ,my grandson)

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

I always had an interest in hot rods..born in 1967 and knew every year and make of muscle cars when i was 9 years old. I remember drawing images of front engine TF cars in first grade.

The first race I went to was at the Highway 258 Dragstrip( now Coastal Plains) in Jacksonville NC in 1976 or 78. There was a skinny guy with a long beard running a 69 AMX with 2 carbs and a tunnel ram sticking out of the hood, I thought was the coolest car ever.

When I was in high school circa 1982 my best friend dated Gene Garrett's daughter....Gene was the record holder in C/SA with a 396/375 Nova called 'Strike Force' back then, I used to go to local races with them whenever I could. Record was an 11.44 back then.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

When I was in junior high and high school I got in good with the librarian every year to get me out of a study hall once a day to work in the library as a student aide. The only reason I wanted to do this was to be the first one to read the new Hot Rod Magazines when they came in. I don't know exactly why but I was always drawn to muscle and high-performance cars. Around my 10th grade year in high school (1986) I was working in the evenings after school and basketball practice at a local grocery store carrying out groceries and stocking shelves. One night, a local Stock Eliminator racer named Clarence Leyda (Eastern Ohio - divisional champ one year) came in with his '78 Camaro on the trailer. We got to talking and he asked me if I wanted to come up and work on it. I'll never forget the first thing he had me do; clean all the rubber from under the fenders and on the quarter panel. Fun!!! He taught me everything I knew about working on cars as I traveled up and down the eastern part of the country with him racing. He introduced me to some great people: Gary Russell, Woodro Josey, Jeff Potts, ... I did this through high school and college until I was on my car and began to bracket race and even class race a little.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

It was in 1966, and my older brother Joe took me to Dover Drag strip in Wingdale NY. That started it for me; put the disease in my veins. I raced my 67 SS Nova and 69 COPO Chevell at Dover till it closed in 1975.Now at 57 years old it has become an addiction. Presently I run a Camaro in Super Stock.
Bob Lasko
SS/CS

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Car magazines and model cars, Hell, I even stripped down my bicycle and modified it. Once I got a driver's license and went to Atco I was hooked.

Started out racing a 1964 Valiant, 225 slant six with a 4sp.

JimR

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Jim, I think I asked you this before but I'm too tired to search, how fast did the 225 go, Paul.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

1961, 13 years old, we lived in Charlotte, NC on a street right off of Independence Blvd. Across the street from from us a couple had, what most of the young guys in the neighborhood thought was the "sweetest" car in the country. It was a B/Gas, Injected '40 Ford Coupe. This bad boy had the chrome injector tube out the top of the hood. Those who don't remember, the pumps were mechanical and you had to squirt fuel in the top to crank it. They raced this car a the old Shuffle Town Dragstip in Charlotte.

The man was involve in a bad auto accident and his injuries left him paralized from his waist down. Bud Moore and Curtis Turner, old NASCAR racers, had their shops down the street from us. They took the car to the race shop and rigged the steering column such that all of the controls were on the steering wheel. The guy wanted to keep racing; therefore, on Saturday morning he would get a couple of young guys to help get the car ready and go to the track on Saturday night to work on the car. We changed plugs, sprayed injectors, what ever needed to be done for him to race that car. It is ironic that this post come up here. I met a man at the car show, where we had our race car on display, and we were discussing Shuffletown Dragstrip. He knew the man I have described and told me that he has just passed away within the last couple of years.

My wife and I raced up until 1973 and I can say I owe all of the memories I have of traveling over the country and getting to know and race against so many of the people who are, and were, a big part of drag racing history, to that neighbor and that little B/Gas coupe.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

A couple of buddies and me went to Great Bend Kansas in April 1958 to see the fuelers and I said"That looks like fun" and the rest is history as they say.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Well lets see I watched for about the first 10 years of my married life and got to where I almost hated drag racing. I kept asking Can we do *something, anything* else this weekend? At our local track they had a powder puff race once every year. I begged my husband TC for about 2 years to just let me make a pass and see what was so fun about going down the track. In 1989 the powder puff race fell on my birthday and that's what I ask for, to get me to the track before anyone else and let me make a pass and he finally agreed.

To say the least he has no patience and he just knew the car would scare me to death and that would be the end of that. I could not get the car to set in the water box at all. We didn't use line locks then and after the 3rd try he pointed to the starting line with a look of "she can't do this" and I rolled up to the line.

We foot braked back then so I hit the pre-stage torqued up and lightly bumped in. The tree came down I had a .019 light and went a 6.94 @ 97mph on the 1/8 mile. That was maybe a few hundreths quicker than he usually ran. Funny thing was, the announcer at our local track said TC just walked off the starting line shaking his head while they were trying to ask him over the PA system who was in the car and he wouldn't even look up at the tower. I got out of the car jumping up and down talking a mile a minute and was hooked. I won the powder puff race that day and the first thing he said was "Your not getting my car"

The next year I had my own car and have been in it ever since. I can remember that first run to this day. So advise to some of you men out there that have wives or g/fs that hate racing, unless you want to loose your ride or build another don't give them the chance to make that first pass. Take it from a woman who got the chance, it is VERY addictive!!!! :) I am ready on Saturdays to load up hours before he is and the last that wants to leave the track.
Donna Morris

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

It was 1978. Got a good deal on a 65 Nova SS street car with a 300 horse 327.....30/30 cam.....M21 4 speed. Wasn't that fast but when it's your first run down the 1/4 you think it's a rocket........LOL !! Been addicted ever since. With good luck and some "extra" money my be out a couple of times this year. :)

Phil aka Chevellewagon

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

I was borned, most of you know the rest of the story, lol

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

dad and his '59 El Camino.....

http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/a...s/1320x004.jpg

....and having the fastest Big Wheel on the block.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Got to start going with my Dad when I was 2 years old He ran modified at Bluegrass Dragway in Lexington Ky. and Mountain Park Dragway in Clay City Ky. He had 66 Chevelle ran E-F gas then built 67 SS/RS camaro that ran H/G had 292 sbc with Crower injection. he had to quit in 1974 I was one heatbroke 7 year old every Sat&Sun when we were'nt racing anymore it was all I had done as long as I could remember.I still remember the sound of that 292 @ 9200 and 40 pound flywheel on the way back down.He still has the Camaro and 292 shortblock and injection.
Dad would'nt let me go to track when I got my license finally in 1986 when I was 18,a bunch of my friends went,I could'nt go my nova street car was apart I was repainting it I had rearended a car,but next Sunday I had it back together in primer and went,I told Dad I just wanted to see what it would run,because he did'nt want me to go,he give me every excuse he could come up with from exagerating how much it would cost me to go to track or any other myth he could think of ,all because he knew I went I'd be hooked and he would'nt be able to stand it.
I did'nt miss a race after that for 3years,Dad was building a new race car within about a month after I started.I wanted to be drag racer as far back as I can remember.
Mike Taylor 3601

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

at the age of 3 mom told dad to take the truck to the track and get it out of your system. Well this stuff has staying power because the whole family is involved and the third generation is taking interest. It's in my blood, all the adventures this crazy hobby/sport brings with it. All the places it's taken me Orange county, spokane , seattle , The Big Go, pomona, as well as many others I wouldnt trade it for the fat wallet i would have instead.hahaha. Man I can still hear the old modifieds leaving the line ,Big daddy flipping over for the last time 20 feet away from me, Mike Dunn's engine explosion at OCIR, stockers running at the weekly races, Roger Bateman mowing over the christmas tree at the old edmonton track..all the memories and stories hard to turn a back to all that

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

In 1968 bought my first real car 1963 Pontiac Catalina factory 4 speed, the guy I bought it from suggested lets see what it can run in 1/4. Sooooo went to New York National speedway and luck would have it my first race was against Sam biondo, in a bracket race (image that’s your first race). Lost but got hooked forever. And by the way I have never beaten a biondo yet. I can still remember Sam looking over and pacing me as we race.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

I was given a copy of HOT ROD 1956. I liked some of the cars. Had friends who had 56 chevies and built their own motors and tuned while working Gas Stations evenings and Week ends. My High School lunch class had a view of the racing on the boulevard outside the school and I almost failed Latin watching. Helped dad do a few rebuilds of family car in the garage and saw my first race at STOUT AIR FIELD in Indy. Ohio George ran his 34 ford and his Chevy Cameo pickup.
Got into a local Car club with the guys and decided watching them always come up short on money to continue racing or buy the next parts I would go to College so I could afford to race and afford it.
It was a great stimulus to keep going. Then the Jr. Stock Articles from Car Craft ? and the infection was total and the rest just got better...

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

When i was in high school i had a friend that had a 65 chevy short bed p/up with a 283 4speed with a cam ,headers,4 barrel and posi rear..we went every where in that truck and i thought it was fast.i had a 74 gto 350 auto and i just knew it wasnt fast!! We raced down a side street one day and i beat him badly..we went to the track the next weekend and ive been there ever since..by the way that friend still lives in town and has an auto repair shop and buys parts from me at the pontiac/buick/gmc dealership that ive worked at for 19 years
scott fifield

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

I'm blaming this addiction on my uncle Jim Zane. He got out of the service in 1968 and he and his buddies took a little 9 year old to Cecil with them. Man it was a fun time with the sights, sounds and smells! Next thing, he brings home a brand new 69 Z/28 and off to the track we go. It's been a whirlwind of fun and excitement ever since! From Nat'l records and class wins and many round wins with Jim to S/SS, Div. and Nat'l event wins with Lee along with a World Championship. It's been fantastic! I have even managed to win a few rounds myself. Three semifinals, one with the Opel at Maguire AFB, one S/SS race in 2004 (lost to Mark Faul on a R/L) and late this past year at a bracket race at Atco, both with the Apollo. Gotta thank Barry Johnson for the Apollo!

Safe Trips All!

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

I have to blame Ed Wright. When I was a kid growing up in Tulsa I used to see his SS/MA Chevelle outside his shop on a ramp truck. I wondered what it was and stopped to investigate. His wife Jeannie let me look at the car and explained what it was. The next stop was to see it run at the track and I have been hooked ever since. I went from cars to drag boats but finally back to cars.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

First trip to Lions in 1966 as a pre-schooler planted the seed. Was surrounded by it my entire youth (coming from Long Beach it was hard to avoid). Dad, uncles, school teachers, and many neighbors were drag racers. Richard Bays, Gene Conway, Randy Humphrey, George Schreiber, and a host of other sportsman racers all within walking distance from where I grew up. Dad went to high school with Doug Cook. Next door neighbor bought one of Gary Hansen's old Camaros, restoring it back to a street car. When Lions closed several racers would test at Veterans Stadium or in McDonnell Douglas parking lots, only 1/2 mile from home. Weekends I would tag along with dad to Clark Cagle's shop, Reath Automotive and various other cool places.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

The locals, Donnie Schanz and his brother Del. I remember seeing Donnie pull their senior float in the homecoming parade with his brand new 1964 Stage 3 Ramcharger with the factory headers open. What a sound!! I was 13 then. The local track, Indianapolis Raceway Park was 15 minutes away and I used to go to the track with then and watch. I was hooked. I remember Donnie filling up his car with Sunoco 260 and writing FUJIMO on the back window. Anyone remember that one????

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Being from the Flint, Michigan area, all my high school friends had 1 or both parents working for G.M. It was after all where all the Small Block chevy's and Buick V-6 and V-8's were built. we tried to race anything ( my dad's mercury monterey 4 dr. with snow tires at Lapeer Dragway). my brother and I used to go to Gratiot Auto Supply and dream about what we would buy and do if we had a race car ( we couldn"t afford anything back then) we would read about Paul Mercure, mike keener,wally booth, Ronnie Mancini, Andy manarino,mark yamarino(RIP), It's ironic they became friends years later... Luke SS 311

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

One of my Uncles was a mechanic. He got me interested in cars.

I remember drooling over the ads for the '64 GTO. That got me started, 1st pass down the track was in 1967 at Thunder Valley, Marion, SD.

I don't have many passes left, but plan on enjoying a few over the next year or two. Hopefully, the next several years.

#5457

Curt Rees

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Someone should start a poll on WHO got you hooked. Like many here, it seems like the older brothers got us interested in this sport. For me, it was when we moved from New Orleans to a place Southeast of Houston, where my father took a job with NASA. We were all living in a motel and one day I walked out and right in front of our room was Huston(sp) Platt's Altered, injected Chevy II sitting on his ramp truck. He was in town to match race someone at the old Houston International Speedway in Dickinson. I had never even seen a race car in my life other than pictures in magazines. That dragstrip would be where I later first raced a street car and then a racecar. I was there the last (freezing) night they ever ran. Home Depot is the starting line and Best Buy is the top end now.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Dougy, his Gramp's, old girlfriends, ex wife, my Mom & Dad..........They all warned me to stay away from it............To this date, I never listened. Never have, never will.

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Hanging out at San Bernardino Racing Equipment 1967-1972...
and going to Fontana, Irwindale, OCIR, Ontario and Fremont

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

April 1968,,I'm in Jr. High and even though I'd been reading car mags for 3 years(Hot Rod, Car Craft, Super Stock and Popular Hot Rodding) I had no idea there were 3 race tracks within a half hour of my house. Then one day a classmate of mine said he was going to a drag race and I said "Where?" He said Puyallup and I asked if I could go too. So his mom drops 3 of us off outside the gate ( no on had a license yet, we were 14 and 15) and we go in and I couldn't believe the cars we saw! I remember sitting in the front row of the stands across from the tower, and the announcer asking us "How 're you guys doin? Is this your first time to a drag race?" We shook our heads, then took in all the sites and sounds and had a blast.
Some of the cars I remember there that day were: Crazy Corky in the Charlie Brown Javelin, Wild Bill Ireland in his 427 Fairlane, The Hemi Countdown car of Harry Holton, Gary Coe and his Gunfighter Ford. There were lots of 55-57 chevys, big block Chevelles, a few Camaros, GTOs, 442s and of course a bunch of old hot rods, altereds and some dragsters(no fuelers). We were hooked and it got worse after we were old enough to drive and race ourselves. We ended up racing at Bremerton and Seattle as well as Puyallup until it closed in 78', and here in 2010 I still haven't kicked the habit, 42 years after good ol' Mrs.Lewis dropped us off and changed our lives forever.
Danny Durham

Re: What got you started drag racing??
 

Went to watch my first drag race in 1960, 1961 had a 57 Chev 283 Power pack. 1966 first race with a C/MP 56 Chev 327 Two 4's with Olds Hydro 4 speed with 4000 stall covt. Ran a D/MP , E/MP 56 chevy wagon then moved to Comp in 1970 to 1973 with B/D 426 Hemi, 1974 to 1978 to A/D with a 426 Hemi Pro Stock motor with Lenco 3 speed. Then 1980 to 1990 S/C with a 340 W-2 Mopar P/G. Had a ton on FUN racing.:D Photos of my Race cars:Dhttp://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...an0041-1-1.jpghttp://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...an0021-3-1.jpghttp://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...scan0029-1.jpghttp://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...scan0014-2.jpg