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

[Robert Swartz]

Originally Posted by 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.

Racing with a flagman! I got to do this once. It must've been about 1974. I went to the local track one Sunday, Brown County Dragway. All I had planned to do that day was relax and drink beer and BS. I'd been working 6-7 day weeks for a bit, just wanted some down time. I was only 19.

I had a 1967 ugly green Ford Falcon with a 170ci 6cyl. It was a work car, being a kid, I had the normal for the day, raised white letter tires on steel wheels. I did have a massive chromed Sun tach mounted on the dash. That was limit of it's perfomance. It had stock road gears, it wasn't fast.

Anyway, that day, the Xmas tree was malfunctioning. They announced, they could either shut down or race with a flag man. Bunch of the racers got together and said race with the flag. A bunch of my buddies got in a huddle and came over to me and said, race the Falcon. I laughed at them. I drove the car over to tech, just to see where it would land, they teched it into Y/SA! Only one letter left on the scale at that time, Z.

I did make a couple time trials, it was only an 1/8 mile track. I was still ungodly slow. With no electronics, I don't even know how slow it was? In the eliminator, I don't remember the class of the car I ran, but it had to be a B-C-D car, I got an unreal spot. I felt like I got walked half way down the track. I left as hard as I could, got nipped at the line. For a day with no expectations, turned into a fun day, glad I got to be reminded of it.

[NewHemi]

Ford Falcon's Oh Yes,

My mom had a 61 Ford Falcon with the 144 cu six and an automatic in it when I first got my drivers license. It only took me about six months to blow it up, and that was just on the street.

So my dad and I put a 170 Cu in six in it and that was soooo much better, but it only took me about three months to toast that engine, so Dad said, let's go the bone yard and see what we can find..

It was an econoline van with a 289, and we got the engine, tranny, and rear end for about $150 (which I had to work off since I was the one blowing engines..) After a couple of weeks, we had the shock towers cut, the firewall backed up in places, and the whole thing running. We ran stock headers out to two resonators, added some bigger tires on back, and there she was in all here glory. A light green 61 Ford Falcon that looked pretty stock but could smoke em when asked. We named her the Tin Lizzard.

I was put into I/SA at the local track (in 1964) and did a nice job of bringing the trophies home for a few Sundays. Then I was protested... At the time, I told them it wasn't my fault they put me in I/SA, they just did. At that track tech consisted of them asking you what year falcon is that. I said 1961, they said I/SA.. Sounded OK to me. But once they opened the hood, and saw the v8, the said, Oh, now you need to run C/MP.

My first and only run was up against a nasty sounding GTO. I launched, got him out of the hole, and was about at half track, when I heard him go by me.... I am not sure I even saw him, but I sure heard him go by me, and it seemed like forever before I tripped the timer. I did 15.5 or so, and he went about 14 flat. OK enough of C/MP for me....

So I decided to just crew for my buddy who had 1964 mustang convertible that had been run so hard it was super loose, and although it was rated at 210HP with a 4 bbl, his was just one of those engines where everything was just loose enough to make really good horsepower, and just tight enough to stay together. so we won a few races, and had some fun with that car.

But the real point is that Tech was pretty much up to the local tracks and some did a better job of others as to actually determining whether or not you were good in a particular class or not.

And being young and stupid, you didn't ever try to tell them anything, because a number of them would gladly tell you that you were young and stupid...After all, some of them had graduated high school a couple of years before you..

Anyway that is how it was at our local tracks. The good news was that we had three tracks in easy driving distance, so we could decide which one to invade based on how much gas money we had, and how much we really wanted to win that day.

David
The New Hemi Guy
________
Body Science

[TOM KASCH]

Heres a picture Ruth took in 1961 at pence drag strip & turkey farm down by Dayton,ohio
A son cut a dragstrip out of his fathers turkey farm, you had to drive thou the farm to get to the drag strip in the back of the farm....We would race here Sunday and go 20 miles north to a strip whos name I cann't remember right now & run Sunday night.

Won a lot with that 315 H.P. Pontiac in 61 & 62

[hadtobethere]

Originally Posted by TOM KASCH

Heres a picture Ruth took in 1961 at pence drag strip & turkey farm down by Dayton,ohio
A son cut a dragstrip out of his fathers turkey farm, you had to drive thou the farm to get to the drag strip in the back of the farm....We would race here Sunday and go 20 miles north to a strip whos name I cann't remember right now & run Sunday night.

Won a lot with that 315 H.P. Pontiac in 61 & 62

Tom, neat story, I had heard something about this track years ago...and nice looking Pontiac....thanks for the pics

[JRyan]

Hey "hadto", we probably drove right by the place in the old "Rent-A-Wreck" Oldsmobile back in 1979. Couldn't beat the price for the thing either.

Jerry

[Paul Ceasrine]

Tom K.
I like that. Race, win your class, bring home a trophy,,, and a fresh Turkey
for Sunday dinner...The way junior-stock racing should be,, drive to the track,,, open the dumps,,, and race..
Does anybody remember Little Stock Eliminator or the Little-Guy Nationals???
Paul

[Charrlie_S]

Originally Posted by Paul Ceasrine

Tom K.
.
Does anybody remember Little Stock Eliminator or the Little-Guy Nationals???
Paul

Yep, I ran the little guy nationals in '75 or '76. I don't remember whether that was Bowling Green Ky, or Suffulk Va. One was the "little guy nationals, the other was "Sports Nationals".
1965 Valiant 170 slant six, Z/SA.
Only two nationals I ever went to. Won class at bowling green, then got bounced in tech for "wrong numbers on the carb". 1st round red light at Suffulk

[Dick Butler]

Tom, Pences Turkey Farm. We used to run Muncie Saturday night and Pence on Sunday. Track was 4 or 5 feet down from ground level with Concrete side walls. Spectators sat above on Stands.. Great view... Saw Behemoth run the HillBilly there Heads up and they ran off the concrete shutdown onto gravel. Dust cloud obscured their cars and we feared they had rolled one. In a couple of minutes they came by covered in dust but unhurt....
Fun History- I was running my 56 wagon/Converted Panel truck of John Dianna then and learning to set the timing and change jets....

[hadtobethere]

Originally Posted by JRyan

Hey "hadto", we probably drove right by the place in the old "Rent-A-Wreck" Oldsmobile back in 1979. Couldn't beat the price for the thing either.

Jerry

.....Jerry, thats funny, I remember our trip, the 'Rent a Wreck'. We made a stop at Kil-kare Dradway in Ohio, part of the trip to Indy from South Dakota....how the heck did we ever decide to go there?

[JRyan]

Originally Posted by JRyan
Hey "hadto", we probably drove right by the place in the old "Rent-A-Wreck" Oldsmobile back in 1979. Couldn't beat the price for the thing either.

Jerry

.....Jerry, thats funny, I remember our trip, the 'Rent a Wreck'. We made a stop at Kil-kare Dradway in Ohio, part of the trip to Indy from South Dakota....how the heck did we ever decide to go there?

Hell, I don't know. I guess gas was cheap, and it was something to do after pissing Don Prudomme off at Cordova. We had John & Jay & pool at "Ma's Diner & Truck Stop", "Joe, the mechanic to go" with the free ice, a pretty crabby motel room in Cordova, and the "Honeymoon Suite" in Dayton. Pretty hectic trip, 'cause we also raced at Muncie. Then we both got beat and headed back to TVD to race on Sunday. Do you remember towing about 95 drafting a semi on I-29 when we passed the rest area and the HP in the hopped-up Dart almost ran us off the road in pursuit of the truck? We were drafting so close the cop didn't know we were there and damn near side-swiped us, but he pulled the truck over and we whistled away. Fun Deal!

Jerry