Anyone remember Rocky Mtn. Dragway at Commerce, CO?

[JRyan]

Originally Posted by Eddie Rezac

I certainly remember the place. I won the Div. 5 championship there in 1978, with my 65 Chevelle. It was the final Div 5. race of the season, and at the end of the day, Judy Lilly and I were tied for points. So Zim, our Div. director had us run a tie breaker for the championship, and she lit the RED bulb.
Eddie Rezac

So that's why they were always after your butt. Remember the burnouts at Minnesota Dragway before they had water?

Eddie, I need you phone number.

Jerry

[bill dedman]

Thanks, John; that was probably '69, or so. Are you the John Mason from the East Coast (New Yawk?) who used to run the red A/SA 427/425 Camaro in Div. VII about ten years ago? If so, we talked at Sonoma a couple of times...

A100 (whoever you are), I was only at that strip about three years; moved to Des Moines for the '65 season, and that strip closed after '68, I believe. I did hold down the Stocker tech job there for those 3 years.

There's a guy in Des Moines named Lary Latham who's writing a book about the Des Moines strip. His email address is larry49@dwx.com if you have something to contribute to the book, or would like to get on a list to get notice sent to you when he finishes it, you can contact him at that email address.

Right now, he's trying to locate a racer named "Don Biggers," from the Kansas City area who ran at Des Moines, some. Don was the 1962 AHRA Green Valley Nationals B/G Class Champion, having beat our car at Green Valley in the Class finals that year. He had a Hilborn injected SBC that ran a lot faster than anybody else in our neighborhood. His partner's last name was "Solomon," so the name on the door of this green, '40 Ford Coupe, was "Biggers and Soloman."

Anybody have an info on the whereabouts of those guys?

Wow; I hijacked my own thread.... is there some kind of Darwin Award for that??? LOL!

[bill dedman]

Here's the Biggers and Soloman Gasser...

Click on it and its size will increase incrementally...

[Eddie Rezac]

Originally Posted by bill dedman

Congratulations, Eddie!!! And, thanks for the info!!!

Any idea when it closed???

Bill

Bill,
Bandimere went NHRA in 1978. The Denver Div 5 race and the 1st Mile-high Sportsnanionals were held there after that. In 1979 the National event became the Mile-high Nationals, with the pros included. I can't tell you when Rocky mountain closed for good, as I only ran the Div, & and National races in Denver. maybe some locals could tell you the exact closing date.
Eddie Rezac

[Bob Miller]

I was just a kid but I remember the track well. We lived in Commerce City and went there often. My dad ran in stock and super stock in the sixties and did very well and helped a lot of people do well also. He had a number of drivers from the area drive his cars successfully. Thats pretty much where I fell in love with drag racing and still trying to do as well as he did, but enjoying it more than ever now. Some of you may have seen his blue 66 SS396 Chevelle or remember Dan Miller. At 72 he still goes with us some and still enjoys it all, but he just cant seem to get the index system figured out. What joyous memories those were back then.

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads on here.

[GarysZ24]

Originally Posted by Eddie Rezac

I certainly remember the place. I won the Div. 5 championship there in 1977, with my 65 Chevelle. It was the final Div 5. race of the season, and at the end of the day, Judy Lilly and I were tied for points. So Zim, our Div. director had us run a tie breaker for the championship, and she lit the RED bulb.
Eddie Rezac

Eddie,

I'm certain that the same place that you won your championship at (in '77), is the same place that Bill is talking about, and I'm thinking about too...Rocky Mountain Dragway, in Denver/Commerce City. I pulled up a webpage about a "Metalshapers Association", and they apparently used to make parachutes for cars such as "Guzman & Ward's Corvair 'Assassination' Funny Car", back in May, '68, plus they showed photos of other cars at that track driven by "Alan Bockla", (who was the first drag racer to reach 200 mph at that altitude..per "Pete Garramone" who took the shown photos, and made the quotes of those achievements at that track, by him and others).

Aparently that track has had several names, and Rocky Mountain Dragway must have been the first, because those pictures reminded me of the same drag strip that was later called "Dragway Denver", during the years that you spoke of Eddie, because I was there as a racing fan/newbe racer during that era, and I watched you win the runoff from Judy...wasn't your car Orange in color, and a 4spd.? My guess is that track that was originally called Rocky Mountain Dragway from at least '65-'68, was next called "Thunder Road" for a stint, then became "Dragway Denver" (sometime around '75), and held that name until '78 when it was called "Thunder Road Race/Dragway" again for only the one year. It spent it's last two drag strip years being called "Mile High Raceway", and after that the strip was split in half---the northern half became a dirt oval and was called "Rocky Mountain Speedway", while the southern part was made into a road course and became "Second Creek Raceway". As of 2005 it appears that the track is being leveled and is now being developed for housing/businesses, and about the only part of all that history that remains is the house that the owner of the track lived in (if it's still even there...what with the building of "Denver International Airport", just east of there, the "Rocky Mountain Arsenal/Wildlife Refuge" to the south/southwest of it, and housing communities from Commerce City encroaching from the west/northwest of it)?

The track was just east of Commerce City, north of the Arsenal, and you had to either take 96th ave. east to a turn that became Buckley Road (from Hwy 2 from Commerce City), or you had to drive up I-70 from Tower Road, to 88th Ave. Turn left and head west to Buckley Rd. (from the south/east), then make a right turn and drive up towards 96th Ave. to get to the entrance of the place.

WOW, I'm REALLY DATING MYSELF NOW (lol), but what memories that track had for me too...I won five bracket races in six final rounds in '79 at that track, and for 2-3 months I was actually a professional racer, driving the same '76 Chevy Vega that I later semi-finaled at the Div. V ET Finals with up there in Marion, Sd. Moreover, that track helped prepare me to win the '77 KING OF THE HILL MEMORIAL DAY HIGH SCHOOL DRAGS CHAMPIONSHIP, with at "BANDIMERE SPEEDWAY"!!!

Thanks Bill and Eddie for bringing back some great memories of one of my most successful race tracks in my history, along with Bandimeres & Thunder Valley Raceway (up there in great old Marion, Sd)!!!

[bill dedman]

Thanks for the rundown, Gary! I figured if I brought up that drag strip, somebody on here would have some memories from tthere; looks like you have a lot!!!

The one thing that stood out in my memory was the dual P.A. system that separated what the racers in the pits heard from what the spectators in the stands heard. It was REALLY NICE to get your instructions as to when to bring your car to the line from a dedicated audio circuit as opposed to having to monitor the general Public Address announcements that mostly were comments about on-track activity (mph's and e.t.'s.)

That dual sound system couldn't have cost them much more than the price of an amplifier. It's a shame more strips don't use that opportunity to talk directly to the racers, nowdays.

Sounds like that strip was in operation for at least fifteen years; I was there in '64 and it was pretty new, then; everything was shiny and clean.

Great memories... thanks, guys!!!

Bill

[Ricky Biggers]

Don Biggers was my father.
He died 1993

[bill dedman]

Thanks, Ricky. I'm sorry for your loss. Don was a fine racer and had the reputation of always campaigning cars that were fast for their class. I know he had us covered by a full second at Green Valley, in 1962....

I appreciate the information.

[Alan Nyhus]

Originally Posted by Eddie Rezac

I certainly remember the place. I won the Div. 5 championship there in 1977, with my 65 Chevelle. It was the final Div 5. race of the season, and at the end of the day, Judy Lilly and I were tied for points. So Zim, our Div. director had us run a tie breaker for the championship, and she lit the RED bulb. Eddie Rezac

Eddie, that was one for the books. Classic Div. 5..... Chevy vs. MoPar with two of the Divisions best punching it out. You have no idea how much that was discussed over the Winter up here.

Usually over an adult beverage or three...................... -Al