I happened across this movie a couple nights ago on Amazon Prime TV. I watched it and it made me have a new appreciation for Rick Stewart as well as a true glimpse of the "Good Old Days" of drag racing. Before this movie, I knew Rick raced dragsters back in the day, but not much else. It was neat to see how truly low-dollar the operation was and how they considered the cars to be very safe compared to their predecessors. I loved seeing a couple guys wrench on the car during the week in a dingy garage, tow it to the races behind their push truck on an open trailer and kick ass. That's a part of this sport that will never come again. Here's what I thought was interesting, compared to today, even by local track standards, the fabled Lions Dragstrip looked like a dump, with very few fans in the stands. There seemed to be zero track prep, aside from maybe sweeping it off and the thing looked VERY narrow. But all in all it was a good movie and quite a time capsule. Anyone else seen it and care to share any stuff? Also, one of the guys helping wrench on Rick's car looked a LOT like John "Zookeeper" Mulligan, was it?
7 Second Love Affair (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Sandman
- Start date
I have seen the movie & it really is a time capsule of the sport back then. I used to go to Lions a lot. Didn't think it looked that bad, but it had been a vacant lot before it was built as a track in 1955. There was no track prep then. Maybe sweep the track, maybe not. The track was always good for ET & MPH cuz it was so close to the ocean. Sometimes at a night race, dew would come in and it was hard for the fuelers to get traction. Track surface was all asphalt. No burnouts, just come to the line and smoke the tires on the run. That did change around 1967, when the slipper clutches came in. I remember seeing teams pour VHT traction compound out of a bottle and the the drivers would do the burnout in the VHT. That helped a lot. At times you could see the VHT plumes, kinda like cotton candy, coming off the rear tires after the burnout. I was always bummed that there was never a 5 second ET at Lions. Don Moody ran very close at the Last Race, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. Moody had run that unreal 5.91 at Ontario about a month or so before Lions Last Race Dec 1972. I do miss that place, even after all these years. Trivia: Jeb Allen was the last driver to go down the track in the T/F final. Carl Olsen won & Jeb was right behind him. Yeah I was there..... Oh, there actually were a lot of races where the stands were packed & no reserved seats. You found a seat & kept it! heh
NITRO JUNKIE
Nitro Member
That was cool wow 75 bucks a run!
SoCal Racer
Nitro Member
I have this movie on DVD...... watched it numerous times. It's one of the rawest portrayals of what racing was really like back then. No fluff, no fake drama, just racing the way it was, and fantastic historical footage. A must-see for any racing fan.
It is a great flick, that's for sure. I guess my favorite aspect of the movie was how it showed how simple the sport actually was at that time. Guys did it just because they loved it. I found another one over the weekend, "Hog Slayer" that's about TC Christenson's twin-engine Norton Top Fuel Bike from the '60's and '70's. That thing was unbeatable and home brewed by guys that loved to party and loved to race. Well worth watching as well. Still hoping someone can answer the question about the helper on Stewarts' dragster being Mulligan or not. Gotta be someone who knows.
Yes it was Mulligan in the movie. He was a great driver. We lost him way too early.
