Thread: 60's Street racer from Chicago

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I'm a 60's/70's racer from Chicago, grew up in the city, went to
Waller High ( Now Lincoln Park High ) and raced every weekend
during the summer.

Watched most all the indoor races at the Amphitheater during
the winters they raced, you could see Mr Norm, Nickey,Beswick
and other big names race the 440 ft track and then see them
run thru those small doors at the end of the building, they had
the B###'s back then, a few missed the door.

You could walk into a dealership and buy about any type of a
muscle car with any hi-po option on the spot, two days at the
most for special installations. And they didn't care if you
hung around and BS for awhile and checked out what was HOT.

Then about every Friday/Saturday night you could watch street
racing with cars like Streetcleaner, Preperation H, Wooly Bully,
Shake-Rattle & Run, Time Machine, Killer Korvair (15 sec car)
Wild Thing and more. There were alot of popular locations back
then, like Elston Ave, Clyborne, 51st & Expressway, Foster Ave,
Forrest Preserve, Dotty Rd, to name a few.

There was nothing to see 25/50 hot cars racing for $50/300 per
race on any given night with 100/200 people watching the races.
There were very few tickets written back then, ( money behind
drivers lic trick ) The cops would usually turn on the fire
hydrants and flood the street, we then would just move to some
other location.

Sundays, everyone would end up at one of the strips like U S 30
Da Grove or Rockford ( most popular ) and race legal. We ran a
C/Gas car ( tough class ) and sometimes they would let us win
some $$ and put us in C/MP

Just wish ya could have spent a couple weeks in that time frame
to get the rush ( no drugs needed ) pure speed high.

At present, I restore muscle cars and classics as a full time
hobby and still enjoy racing like it was in the 60's .

Chicago Guy

Welcome to CHR Chicago guy. I too am from that same time and town.. But from the south side. we usualy went out to the forest preserves US 107 hahaha. 107 south and west of 45. but it wasn't anything to light them up where ever and when ever the oppertunity presented itself I have pictures of the indoor drags I was one of the ones that ran there, but not as often as I would have liked. Enjoy your stay here

Hey Charlie, then you know what it means "run it out the back door".

Thanks for the welcome,

Gene

I think every one has done it at least once lol

welcome to chr chicago. sounds like you had a great time back then.

Welcome to the forum. Yep, those were wonderful years, sounds like you are as happy as I am to have lived in that era. Wouldn't trade it for the world.

Don

Welcome! We have a few things in common. I grew up in Danville, but got to US30 sometimes. Moved to the Southwest, but also still doing restos and custom work, including '50s and '60s cars. We will have a few things to talk about!

Thanks Folks for the welcome, I was told this was a great site to belong
to, I see why now.

Yes Barb, had a wonderful time back then, that was an easy laid back
time to enjoy life.

Don I guess you enjoyed it too, I hope you had as much fun as I did.

HOTRODPAINT, ya remember NO BIG THING that ran at U S 30?, we ran
there once a month, Da Grove was our home track back then. Are you
still doing all your painting?

Again, thanks for the welcomes,

Gene

Welcome to the board. I was on the other side of the state back then (Quad City area) and still go back occasionally.

Mostly Cordova drag strip back then and then the strip at Wentzville and street racing on Hall street in St Louis when I moved there for about a year in 1970. Uncle Sam had me after that.

Like Jay (Hotrodpaint) I settled in the SW and am still building old cars.

Thanks Mike, I went to Cordova once to watch a big AA/FA bash, what I
remember was it was a long hot drive ( no AC ) and it was close to the
city of Albany ( buddy got a ticket that day there ).

Funny how you and Jay ended up in Arizona, never been there, heard it
was nice.

Have a good one.

Gene

Sorry, been out of touch with things that I love for awhile, won't do that again.

Like to stay in touch with all the folks from Chicago and the old racing crowd
that watched and street raced back in the 60's and 70's.

Gene

Welcome back, I'm more a east coast guy, but don't hold that against me!

Thanks, never hold that against anyone, east/west north/south, we are all just car guys at heart.



Gene

Just got in town last night for a two week vacation, had a beef at Johnnies for lunch, heading to Pats pizza for a thin crust and a few beers. Wife is loving the city, gonna check out the lakefront later tonight.

Gene

you chose a nice time to come--------gasser race at Byron Dragway this week end