1966

[Paul Ceasrine]

Yes, I understand.
I stopped racing in 1976, at the ripe old age of 20.
The crazy thing, my father had an engine rebuilding/performance shop,
and it would have cost me nothing to build an engine.
Lost the bug, when the NHRA started playing games.
Big mistake when they took away the stock class, and made those
stockers compete with super/stockers.
And that Pure Stock class,through the mufflers and 8" cheater slicks.
Who's idea was that.
They went in the wrong direction.
Track car counts 'went south'.
PC

[Paul Ceasrine]

Frankie,
wrong thread to go on about the 'rights and wrongs' of the NHRA and
tracks back in the early 70's.
They killed the 'golden goose'.
They should have seen what was going on for the street cars, and smartly market that group to get them at the track, instead of chasing them away.
Nothing was more stupid, then some kid, in lets say a 66' Mustang
289 4-speed, basically a stock car.
He saves up his money, buys a set of 14" x 7" Cragars and L-60 x 14"
Formula 1 Super Stock tires. He goes to the track, and is told he has to run F/Gas, because his tires (which he can't spin anyway) stick outside the fender-well. Of course he runs, lets say a 16.00, gets blown away
by some properly set-up drag car. Just when do you think that kid would be coming back to the track with his 5 friends, to get embarrased.
Did those L-60 tires warrant that...NO!!!
There were suggestions, and good ones, about putting together
a class called Street-Competition (Street/Comp).
PC

[Paul Ceasrine]

Frankie,
The Street/Comp classes were suggested, I think in 1972.
It was basically pre-set times
A/SC ~ 12.50
B/SC ~ 13.50
C/SC ~ 14.50
D/SC ~ 15.50
It was a hybrid-bracket. You built your car to run the class time,
not dial-in. So everyone knew what to shoot for.
The A, B and C classes had one class for stick, and one class for
automatic, to keep things fair. The D/SC class was open, for both
stick cars and automatic. In all, (7) fair classes.
This division was to be set-up for basic performance street cars,
that applied some modifications. Bolt-on stuff for the day,
Edelbrock intakes, Holley carbs, Accel distributors, Headers, Gears and wide street tires. Any engine modification was allowed. Scatter-shields,
steel bell-housings were required for the A/SC 12.50 class.
The rear tires could stick out from the fenderwell, but I think 9" wide or
L-60 design was the maximum size alllowed. Slicks were allowed of course. Fiberglass hood scoops and spoilers were allowed, and so were Tunnel-rams.
The set-up was simple, run your class, win, get a trophy and class winner decal. If you wanted to run Street/Comp eliminator (handicap) against the other class winners, you could, just by putting up $10. If all the class winners joined, there would be $70 in the pot. The winner would get
$40 and an Eliminator Winner decal, the runner-up $20 and an Eliminator Runner-Up decal. $10 to the track for handling fee.
That class would have pulled in an additional 60 to 70 cars per week,
PC

[Run to Rund]

Speaking of Jere Stahl. . .no one in 1966 seemed to realize that his "Plymouth" sign under the front bumper was a spoiler also!

[Paul Ceasrine]

I think the technical term was a "FLAD' front-end lower air dam.
Plymouth just loved it when their name was added.
Wonder if Jere got advertising $'s.
Was that unit ever utilized at sanctioned events, or was it just for
Match Race competition?
PC

On that Street/Comp class. It would have done wonders for the local
speed shops.
And just how many guys remember good running performance cars that would not go to the track, because of being classed out.
I can remember a couple of 70 SS396 Nova's, that were basically stock,
but didn't bother going to the track because of classification. Would have
loved to see what they could really do. Would have been nice in
B/Street-Comp
PC