Heroes of Yesteryear and today.

[badjuju342]

Growing up , I can remember the Snake and the Mongoose , Big Daddy Don Garlits among others . I watched John Force and Kenny Bernstein come up the ranks and read in magazines about Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins ,Sox & Martin . I also had the worst crush on Linda Vaughn as a kid. I must have built a couple of hundred models of drag cars and read a ton of magazines. I used to even eagerly wait for the next issue of CarToons to come out. Krass and Bernie are the same guys in Car Craft as they were in CarToons. A lot of great memoires and yep , I'm an old dude.So , tell us about your drag racing heroes.

[85zeee]

In Laharpe Ill they have the Fred Gibb car show every year...don't know if you remember the name.....but they have more and more restored race cars showing up at it evey year including some of the Dickie Harrell novas . It is sorta cool to see the cars in person after seeing all the old photos. I will try to get some pics at it this year!
Heres a link if anyones interested

http://fredgibb.com/history.htm

[Phoenix 5.7]

all the legendary racers, both drag and road raccing, were before my time. but i do know about them. i went to the Dong Gartlis museum down in flordia when i was on the power tour. they had everything from his first swamp rat, some really wild aero drag cars, up to his career ending crash, the one where the car flipped over backwards. the old road racers are more my thing, Penske, Shelby, Donahue, etc. i went to the 05 Shelby convention at California Speedway and they had genuine cobra and GT40 race cars, as well as a super sweet Can-Am car. ill try to get some pics up later

[01 Thunder]

CARToons was the shit..
I still to this day have some of those mags...

I always got a good laugh out of Krass and Bernie trying to build some bada$$
drag car out of a model plane or an RC car....LOL

[CRASH69]

Hey guy's Newbie here, Drag racing history is wicked, Man the list goes on and on. What Sticks in my head was the Weeliestanders, Little Cuck Wagon, The army tank. (The tank shot fireworks thew the top), John Force, Jungle Jim, Shirley, I grew up going to the track my whole life. The tracks my dad went to were Raceway Park Englishtown NJ, Island dragway NJ, National Speedway NY. It was part of my life going to the track, I can remember my dad street racing in 69-70. I was about 4 yrs old, It just stayed in the Blood ever since, I just cant stop...Crash

[SLT200MPH]

A lot of the legends of the sport have passed away this year. Dyno Don Nicholson, Ronnie Sox and most recently Big John Mazmainan. Those guys were legends and were stars when to me drag racing was in it "golden days"..the sport is still a good entertainment value but it was much better back in "the day" if you ask me. I was in HS back in the mid 60's (yeah I am an old fart) and I remember when I just couldn't wait for the next issue of Super Stock Magazine to come out. It was filled with stories and photos of the latest in the S\S, A\FX and AA\GS wars..we passed those mags around till they turned into rags and fell apart. Top Fuel was kool but the door slammers were the best..

[tbojbob]

You aren't the only "old fart" on here, I still have a stack of the old mags somewhere around the house. Back in high school I was a Ford guy, then I went Mopar, now I'm GM....(my employer) LOL. Do you have any memories of visiting new car dealerships back then and seeing the wild factory stuff on the showroom floor? Cobra Jet Stangs, 442's, Hemi Road Runners.. LOL...

[badjuju342]

I can remember as a kid , my uncle's brand spankin' new '70 Roadrunner. Bright yellow with a black vinyl top and a set of black Torq Thrusts. 383 with a pistol grip 4 speed. I thought it was the coolest car , ever. I still have a weak spot for 'em.

[tbojbob]

I worked at a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership for a while when I was in high school, one particular car stands out, it was in 1966 or 1967, we had a Copper Metallic Hemi GTX convertible on the showroom floor for awhile. I think it stickered at something like $4600.00. Across the street was a Chevy dealership, Joseph Chevrolet (still there today). I remember scouting their new car delivery lot one day and seeing a couple plain looking Camaro coupes, dog dish hub caps, cowl hoods....... and +$4k stickers........

[SLT200MPH]

My buddies and I constrantly monitored the new inventory at the local dealers..there were so many great cars coming from Detroit in those days no matter which brand had your loyalty..I will never be like that again..:thumbs up:

[Tailwind]

A lot of the legends of the sport have passed away this year. Dyno Don Nicholson, Ronnie Sox and most recently Big John Mazmainan. Those guys were legends and were stars when to me drag racing was in it "golden days"..the sport is still a good entertainment value but it was much better back in "the day" if you ask me. I was in HS back in the mid 60's (yeah I am an old fart) and I remember when I just couldn't wait for the next issue of Super Stock Magazine to come out. It was filled with stories and photos of the latest in the S\S, A\FX and AA\GS wars..we passed those mags around till they turned into rags and fell apart. Top Fuel was kool but the door slammers were the best..

I met Ronnie sox at an AFX racers reunion in Rockingham NC I think in 1987 or 88. I am 47 and watched big Daddy, Shirley, John Force all of them. I raced IHRA for many years on the local tracks in SC. And crewed for a B Stock auto 63 Max Wedge Polara Convertible factory liteweight racer for two years. Mike Davis was the driver on the track I was the driver to the track all over the country. King racing Owned by Kenny Bernstien sold us a g force indicator so you can tell at what rpms you need to be at the most. I met all of them many times due to the unusual nature of the man that drove our car. He would just go up to them and ask a question fully expecting a full answer. And usually he got one. He had a lot of charisma and sales ability. Plus his car was extremely rare and valuable and held the record for its class for 2 years. 10.72 on 9"slicks Auto trans, 4:75 gears and a stock but balanced and total sealed 426 max wedge built by Dan Dvorak at
Dvorak Engineering in Gainsville Fla. Original cam lift was used by rulebook but with more duration. I restored the car at carolina classic car restorations is how I got roped into it. It made a 6 or 7 page spread in Mopar Mag.