Tucson Dragway Reunion event!!!

Saturday our new drag strip... Southwestern International Raceway... held a "reunion" event to celebrate the old track, that closed in the eighties. The old track was an AHRA sanction, which hosted the AHRA Winternationals... and also the Fuel Altered Nationals, for many many years.

The event featured a car show... many vintage racecars... and many of those cars "cackled" or did burnouts. The few currently legal cars made full passes!!! :-)

In the afternoon, a band called the Retro Rockets entertained... and the Arizona Museum Of Drag Racing held induction ceremonies.

I was surprised at the number of early cars on display... and you could also meet some of the heros of that era! All-in-all a great event!

More interesting cars...

The former McEwen Coors Corvette was for sale....

one of the original Arfons Green Monster cars attended, which has belonged to a local owner since the '50s...

and one of those twin engined diggers, which were so popular in the sixties.

The yellow Jeep may be the "Holy Toledo" car, that raced at the old track with the Secret Weapon and Destroyer Jeeps.

Yes! The Tempest has a "gennie" injected Pontiac motor!

The famous Speed Sport Roadsters have raced out of Tucson since the '50s! ...and still do! :-)

More good ones!

The Stone-Woods & Cook funny was being driven by Doug "Cooki" Cooks grandson... Mike Cook Junior!!!

The Hemi powered Willys is still owned by local racer Don Toia... and was the AHRA BB/GS record holder! It now is used... ON THE STREET!

The way it was!

The Buick straight eight engine was often run in D/Dragster...

as was the GMC six cylinder. This one had a 12-port head! :-)

The '33 Willys Gasser was running a blown Olds engine... which was popular in mid-sixties Gas classes.

"Starvin" Marvin Schwartz' beautiful "Anaconda" sixties fueler!

Marvin's career actually ended at our old track in the seventies. He puctured a rear tire on his rear-engined digger, when he ran over the timing lights in traps... rolled the car... and died in the crash. I was there that day, and it was truly sad.

It is rare when you see two Kaiser-Darrin sports cars in the same place. Obviously... (VERY)... the yellow one ran Modified Sports!

WOW, a lot of great cars! That must've been a blast to walk around and see'em again! And thanks again for sharing the pics!

My pleasure. This is a rare event, and many don't have the chance to see many of the old cars... so I will share when I can.

It was a great day up there, I guess I just missed Jay, he was getting there
as I was leaving. I drove the old 57 Plymouth up and put it in the car show. I didn't want to get too much sun as I had to get ready for a colonoscopy yesterday (what fun that is).

The main reason I was up there is that a friends wife was taking her BB 64 Chevy II to run for the first time. She had a ball, she was just getting used to the car so times weren't great, but from the grin on her face I suspect it won't be the last time the car goes up there.

http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...tom/kims64.jpg

Mike, Sorry I missed you. I saw you pulling out of the show area.

Got any more pictures? My camera ran out of space before I got all of them! :-)

that's some good looking ride's wish I could have been there.
thanks for sharing

Early Drag Racing history as it should be enjoyed and seen. Thanks for the coverage and the little stories about the different cars as that was an added bonus,thanks again guys.

Great stuff there Jay!!!! I sincerely believe we should all feel privileged to have grown up in that era!!!! I still love drag racin' and really appreciate the technology that goes into today's cars but at the same time I'll never forget how things were!!!! Events like this and organizations like the NMRA is a chance for the younguns to understand where and how drag racing was and maybe learn to appreciate just how nice things are for them at the track today!!!!!

I remember the first time I saw the Speed Sport roadster run at Lions in the early 60's. It was the noisy and loudest thing I'd had the pleasure of hearing since the High and Mighty in Detroit in 59

You are my "brother from another mother". :-)

You won't be surprised, but the Speed Sport roadster has a nickname. Since at least the sixties, it has been called "Old Noisey". It could be because of the header pipes that ran all of the way to the back edge of the body!!!

I saw one of the roadsters run at Indy in the sixties. I also saw the Speed Sport dragster with the three JATO rockets in the back. Now I will make you jealous. I bought one of the very earliest steel 26-27 bodies from the roadster for $25. It had been modified to pull a fiberglass mold for the new blown version. I tried to give it to Garlits museum, but he didn't want it. I eventually helped to get it back into the hands of Red Greth, who still has it today.

I also was lucky enough to see "The High & Mighty" run at Indy in '62 or '63. Love those wild headers! Great memories!!! :-)

HRP,,thanx a bunch for the pix..Awesome...I really enjoy seeing these old racecars..So much character,,and even better,knowing that there are people out there with the foresight,back then to keep them the way they are/were..:cool::cool:

I'm a shiney paint kinds guy, but I even enjoyed seeing cars like the '32 Vicky Gasser, and the '62 Plymouth. Those looked like they had been sitting behind the shop for 30-40 years! :-)

Thanks for the great shots (and even better memories!)!!!

Loved that Valiant, the straight 6 and 8's and Stone Woods & Cook??!!?!?!!!!!:3dSMILE:

Brings me back to Balboa Park in the middle to late 60's!

I had forgotten about the D/Dragster's!!! Ran into a couple of guys several years ago that were still working on straight engines...not much different than we used to watch before the big guys ran.

Wish I had photo's from back then...But thanks again for showing these!!!

You two guys mentioned a car that I had ridiculed a wee bit about it's height off the ground and to here you two talking about the car now makes me want to learn it's history. Is this the same car???

No, this is
Attachment 54027

To my Knowledge this is the first car "The Ramchargers" campaigned. It ran in C/A and held the national record for the class in the 50's. I'd say that it was the first "ram induction" system. The Ramchargers were a group of Chrysler engineers.

As I recall, the intake was built from tubing, attached to the manifold and plenum with rubber hose and clamps. :-)

I doubt it ever got any awards for appearance... but it ran real good!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

As I recall, the intake was built from tubing, attached to the manifold and plenum with rubber hose and clamps. :-)

I doubt it ever got any awards for appearance... but it ran real good!

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You are correct and at first glance from a distance one would think it was blown, at least that's what I thought when I first saw the car. I'm thinking that picture was at Detroit Dragway, but I was only there once and it was many moons ago.

I saw it at Indy in the very early sixties... but had seen a magazine feature on it before that.

What has become the US Nationals was originally just "The Nationals" and it was held at Detroit in 59 and 60 before it's permanent home in Indianapolis in 61. I was at Detroit in 59 and since our car club was an NHRA club I got to work in the timing trailer and it was close enough to the starting line that I had a pretty good view. There was another Plymouth business coupe in C/A called "The Steel Eel" and there was quite a rivalry between it and The High and Mighty. They faced off and the Eel won but got disqualified when they found out he was running a little shot of nitrous. At the time I heard he was running oxygen but I just assumed it was nitrous.

I could be wrong, but wasn't the Nationals held one year in Great Bend Kansas? I want to say the final was between Jack Moss' side-by-side twin.... and the Green Monster. ...Maybe even the one in my pictures! :-)

I know it moved to Indy in '61, because I didn't get to go! That was the year Eddie Hill's Double Dragon... with double slicks... dug ruts in the starting line !I did go from '62 to '74... before I moved to the Southwest.

Great Bend was 55, I believe. A couple of buddies and I drove to Indy in 61 from Dayton, Ohio and yes I remember Eddie Hill and the twin Pontiacs and the ruts he dug in the spectator lane. The race was stopped until they flew in a copter with whatever they filled the ruts with. We were there Sunday and Monday and Sunday night was a blast. Indiana is dry, might still be, on Sundays and holidays and there was quite a commotion in Cleremont on Sunday night. Guys were out in the middle of the intersection harassing everything driving by. There were cops all over the place and as I remember and they made a lot of arrests. We didn't have a place to stay so we parked at the entrance to the drag strip and it was crowded and not much going on till a Lincoln from Missouri pulling a covered U-Haul trailer pulled in. The guys in the Lincoln opened the trailer and it was filled with cases of Bud and 2 55 gallon drums filled with Bud and ice. They did a land office business that night and guys started harassing the crowd leaving the drive in theater across from the strip as it was letting out. Pretty soon cops from Cleremont arrived, but we had advance warning and the only guy not "asleep" was sitting in the back of a pickup strumming a guitar. That was quite a weekend. Three weeks later I was in San Diego starting Marine Corps boot camp.

I grew up 90 miles west of Indy. I remember that drive in. :-) I camped there one year.

I slept in a lot of the temporary camp grounds... set up in people's yards and businesses... for most of the thirteen years I attended. Lots of good stories about sitting around camp fires, and walking up and down that roadway. My best story might be that my daughter was "conceived" that Labor Day weekend in '71. :-) I guess I was "inspired" by the Nationals. (Sigh) {:-)

Are you in Springfield Ohio? In high school a buddy and I went there to buy a 'glass Fiat coupe body from a small manufacturer.

No, I'm in Springfield, Missouri. I bought my first car, a 52 Ford convertible from a guy in Springfield, Ohio

Another coincidence! I spent a night in a campgroup outside the Springfield, Missouri too! :-) I was on a road trip to Arizona in the early seventies.