how was stock/super stock ran in the 60's and 70's?

[Ed Fernandez]

Got it.The piston and pin will be on the way later today.

[Mike Bassin]

Ed and others have it right, was run off Nat'l record with a tenth cushion, it had to be perfect air and a fast car to breakout. Had to win class first, then class winners ran for the money. At 75-80 Dragway we had some excellent drivers and cars but the guys who started building purpose built stockers soon easily out ran the daily driver type race cars. Car counts dropped, the remaining cars were the fast stuff, fun to watch and announce but track operators felt the low car numbers. For about two years, '69 and '70, we had a pure stock or factory stock class that was popular. Soon the better race car guys found ways to make these cars outrun the average bone stock entry and car counts fell off in this class too. Then the brackets. I remember at 75-80 one wed. nite in 1970 we tried a dial your own handicap deal. There was twelve cars entered, within two years bracket racing took off like crazy. The stock / super stock guys got a couple of events a year, at best, at most tracks. Divisional and National events then were about all that was left for them. It is good to see groups like Tri-State Stock / Super Stock and East Coast Stock / Super Stock Assoc. give you guys an alternative to go racing. Good luck to all class racers this year!

[Rich Biebel]

I started racing in 1966. Had a '57 sedan delivery 283/220. Raced mostly at Island Dragway and sometimes other tracks in the area. Island ran 2 seperate eliminators for stock. Stock 1 and Stock 2. Stock 1 was A to about J and Stock 2 was the lower class cars. You had to win your class first to run in the eliminator. Handicaps were based off the records and yes there was a 1 tenth breakout rule. Not many cars could ever exceed that 1 tenth but there were a few in good air. They ran what they called Cups or Bucks.....You had the choice to run just for a trophy in cups and the less well prepared cars ran there. You ran Bucks to have the chance at winning your class and moving into the eliminator. You got something like $10/20 or a trophy to win class in bucks and an eliminator win paid about $75 or maybe $100 in 1966. Englistown ran the same type deal.......We ran there at the first WCS event they held I believe......We also raced that weekend at Old Bridge stadium and set the track record for I/SA much to my surprise at the time......It was a 1/16th mile run on the straightaway of an oval! Dirt pits at both E-Town and Old Bridge.......and E-towns pits was only on one side....what is today the spectator side.....and they had trees where the lanes were!

[Robert Swartz]

Run off the record and a .10 cushion. Those were the days. You could still run a street car in stock. Saw it still happen until about 1976 or so. That picture in my photo gallery of me by my old Pinto, X/S. Won that trophy (and still have it by the way), had to run at least 3 rounds that day at Indianapolis Raceway Park. In those days, just winning class could be a war.

The purpose built stockers dominated the eliminator. At the end of the day, it was sure fun to roll out in your daily driver and brag to your buddies at the drive in that evening.

Something else that occurred around here. At the local tracks, mine were Brown County and Speed's in Hope, Indiana. Often they couldn't get enough cars to run seperate eliminators, ie, Stock, S/S, MP. They'd lump them all into a "M"oney class and run them off their respective records. That made for some interesting racing, especially if you paired a low class stocker against a high class MP car.

Cups or Bucks, ours were simpler, Money or Trophy. The purpose built cars ran the money class. Trophy was for the less well prepared cars and the street cars.

[Paul Ceasrine]

Great question,,
Local tracks handled things a little different than at National Events and Points Meets. Our local track, Dover Drag Strip (Wingdale, NY) let the
Super Stockers run for class first (trophy and class winner decal), then could compete in S/S Eliminator. For class, anything could go, but in
S/S Eliminator, they could not break-out (run under the NHRA record).
,,In Stock, the same thing, win your class first (any way)..Then head down to the tower, and pay $10 (I think that was the amount),, and run your typical handicap eliminations..But again no break-out. Guys that won
class early in the day,, could get out of there by 4:00,,if they weren't interested in $.
Paul,,,Everyone was happy,,then NHRA ruined the stock class for 73'
Good Bye Racing.

[Jack McCarthy]

and you could build a car and be a player for what a set of diamond piston rings cost today...

them was the days to race...

captain jack

Mj & I built the wagon for about $1800 including the car

[Pat Cook]

Originally Posted by Mike Bassin

Ed and others have it right, was run off Nat'l record with a tenth cushion, it had to be perfect air and a fast car to breakout. Had to win class first, then class winners ran for the money. At 75-80 Dragway we had some excellent drivers and cars but the guys who started building purpose built stockers soon easily out ran the daily driver type race cars. Car counts dropped, the remaining cars were the fast stuff, fun to watch and announce but track operators felt the low car numbers. For about two years, '69 and '70, we had a pure stock or factory stock class that was popular. Soon the better race car guys found ways to make these cars outrun the average bone stock entry and car counts fell off in this class too. Then the brackets. I remember at 75-80 one wed. nite in 1970 we tried a dial your own handicap deal. There was twelve cars entered, within two years bracket racing took off like crazy. The stock / super stock guys got a couple of events a year, at best, at most tracks. Divisional and National events then were about all that was left for them. It is good to see groups like Tri-State Stock / Super Stock and East Coast Stock / Super Stock Assoc. give you guys an alternative to go racing. Good luck to all class racers this year!

Those were the days, but like the man said, racer count was dropping because the car that could run the furthest under, would win. You didn't have to lean on the tree, and it got were two cars that were close in performance were getiing hard to find, so the racing was getting to be skewed.

If we didn't have the system we have in place now, I think, and of course it is just an opinion, and we all know that opinions are like rear ends, we all have one and most of them stink.....class racing would have disappeared. I like class racing, I have even won a heads up race once in a awhile. The system we currently have aint broke. I know they are a few folks who love to see it go away, for what ever reason......but the current format sure provides a lot more racing, and as far as spectator enjoyment or manufacture involvement, very few spectators understand it, even if it was a heads format ( with a half dozen cars involved) they still wouldn't watch,not like back in the late sixty's early seventy's, it just aint the same.....

It is snowing here in AZ, I have nothing better to do at the moment than to surf the net.....

We have don't to take of the racing enough to help it survive, and like the movie "Field of Dreams" if we build it they will come, if for no other reason because people are becoming burn out on NASCAR?

[Dick Butler]

Some here discuss the excitement of running off records... Obviously many do not remember the EAST coast WEST coast Stocker record battles. We in the midwest were killed by record dial in at a 1000 ft track at 90degrees and 90% humidity. If you raced a popular combo in Ohio versus a combo not hitting records every weekend you were in the hole before the light changed. Only good part was most of us were learning and fighting the weather together....Kind of evened it up.
Index system created to make it so ALL racers could dial in and become a big Bracket race even if you had a class car you drove to the track. Good and Bad things about it.
I rarely saw any form of Class racing outside a NHRA Nationals. That made it a MUST to attend. Then with explosion of numbers OF classes the cars werent plentiful enough to populate many. classes and due to time NHRA cut the entrants which made Class bye runs ....sad...
Want to have fun again. Cut classes to 12 Stick and auto classes and see 20 cars per class EVERYWHERE to have fun and entertain spectators.Gives back the drive to run fast and still can race eliminations if 64 car fields...

[Dan Bennett]

I'll go even further back to the days before the christmas tree. At least here in the midwest, it went like this racing AHRA.

Every class had a "spot" number. I can't remember the specific numbers but let's assume I/PS (Pure Stock) had a spot of 12. Say that a D/PS had a spot number of 9. The slower car got three spots. As I remember, it was basically one spot per class though not always.

The spots were actually painted off in the center of the track. Both cars pulled to the line and the starter (flagman) would gesture to the slower car to pull forward. He'd find the appropriate line on the track and stage the slower car there. The fast car staged on the starting line.

At the time we didn't have crazy horsepower so lining up way downtrack wasn't an issue. Since the flagman had to be ahead of both cars sometimes the fast car at the line was squinting to see the flagman way down the track.

There was a guy at the finish line in a raised chair (like a tennis referee) who would wave a flag or flashlight to show which lane got there first.

A few years later we actually got electronics and the "he couldn't have beat me, I had the quickest ET" education began.

I was very successful in Pure Stock, Stock, and Stock Production with a 340 Duster. It was a great combination that I just fell into. I never had a whole lot of competitiion for class other than a 360 Hornet that used to give me fits though I think I probably won a few more than I lost.

Racing for the Eliminator trophy was always the most fun, though there was a big block Nova that I could never get close to. Years later I ran into the owner when we both worked for Goodyear and he told me about the 427 he'd put in the car two weeks after he bought it new.

Yes, tech was pretty slipshod. Cheating would slowly get out of hand and the track owner would borrow a P&G displacement gauge to pump few engines for size. That would usually get things back closer to normal for a while.

It was still the most fun I've ever had at a dragstrip and that's saying a lot.

[Robert Swartz]

Originally Posted by Dick Butler

Some here discuss the excitement of running off records... Obviously many do not remember the EAST coast WEST coast Stocker record battles. We in the midwest were killed by record dial in at a 1000 ft track at 90degrees and 90% humidity. If you raced a popular combo in Ohio versus a combo not hitting records every weekend you were in the hole before the light changed. Only good part was most of us were learning and fighting the weather together....Kind of evened it up.
Index system created to make it so ALL racers could dial in and become a big Bracket race even if you had a class car you drove to the track. Good and Bad things about it.
I rarely saw any form of Class racing outside a NHRA Nationals. That made it a MUST to attend. Then with explosion of numbers OF classes the cars werent plentiful enough to populate many. classes and due to time NHRA cut the entrants which made Class bye runs ....sad...
Want to have fun again. Cut classes to 12 Stick and auto classes and see 20 cars per class EVERYWHERE to have fun and entertain spectators.Gives back the drive to run fast and still can race eliminations if 64 car fields...

Another point Dick. Under this old system. How many cars were turned into junk overnite, when your record got bombed? Unlike today when you can move a combination around to at least take advantage of the class to make the car run. Back then, the car factored where it lit. If a combo didn't at least get close to the class minimum. You might (more often than not) have a real hard time getting a car to run, much less be competitive.

Yes, the index system, at least allows us all to come and play. The system as it is today, lets you work with a car to make it run the class minimum. Just like my boss says, "no matter what you do, somebody's not gonna be happy"!