Thread: Old time racing

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The sixties were interesting! I can remember when you might see racers running a blown Olds, Buick, Big Ford wedge, MoPar B-block or Caddy, and they might win! The baddest door cars were AA/GS! ...and they were a real car that a family used, but now had a blown dragster engine! Wheelstands were very tall... gear changes were violent... and your best view of a Top Eliminator race was down track, where you could still see the cars despite the roostertails of smoke!

As the sixties progressed, we saw the evolution of Pro stock from Super Stocks with a tunnel rams and giant cams and tires, and the funny cars, which evolved out of the matchracing Super Stocks and FX'ers! I loved it when flip top funnies had to run the body style's corporate engine, so if an AMC, or Ford won...that is what powered it. Brand identity meant alot more then, and the track announcers would have people standing and cheering for their "brand" to win!

Tires, automatic transmissions, and Fuel Engines went through a major development evolution....metalflake, candy, chrome & polish made the cars bigger than life ....and I should add that the most beautiful race cars in the world were, (and still are) full bodied slingshots!

Then there was the birth of jet dragsters, wheelstanders, Fuel Altereds, twin engined Top Gas cars, specialized events.....and...and... :-)

I should add that the arrival of Junior Fuel was very popular, since the lighter weight, and tires that could not hook up a blown car, worked very well on a lighter lesser powered car. They were very often giant killers! ...and as I said earlier, there was the Junior Fuel car that won a major California event over a stellar field in the injected/FD heyday. Great times.