72 AA/FD's-8 car show at Lions (1 Viewer)

[TopFuel@Lions]

A record that stood since that lone Saturday, the largest ever car count for a 8-car field, 72 cars!!!!!! A record held at the greatest weekly drag strip of all time, the unequaled Lions Drag Strip!!! So many nitro diggers that a second 8-car field was raced as a consolation. Just another feather in the hat for a track that started so many trends, created so many trends, and led the nation in "all" categories for a weekly track, Gosh those great days.

[email protected] you dad!!!!

 

[Cliff]

We've been talking about Top Gas Dragsters lately. Lions also had SR/GD and JR/GD. Senior Gas was A/D and JR/G was C/D. Just some classes for heads up racing, usually 8 car fields. I bet a lof of heavy hitters came out of those 2 classes. Lions also had injected F/C. People like Dale Armstrong & Ken veney raced that class.

 

[sammi]

Maybe you could get 72 clone T/D or S/C dragsters for an 8 car show today. Though severely lacking in charisma, those 72 could have easily qualified for any T/F show of the late 60's. (how many late 1960's garage T/F specials could be built for the cost of a modern S/C car?)

It is interesting watching people wax poetic about Lions. (or have sat on the left lane side) I remember it (we ran my dad's '57 Chevy E/Gasser there occasionally) as a dirty dangerous place. We romanticize the joint, but we also forget the moisture in the air after dark, dim lighting and vastly reduced fire and rescue. As many runs as Tom McEwen made their, you would have thought something would have punched his dance card. As one who benefited from a fast and attentive fire and rescue crew, you don't miss it until you really want it. If me and my little bracket dragster could be transported back to 1968, I would pass on Irwindale(watched a poor soul burn to death in a back seat Henry J)and Lions. I think OCIR would be the only place I'd feel safe.

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

We romanticize the place Mark because it deserved it. Dirty and dangerous? Dirty I think not for the 55 thru 72 run. Maybe by the 80's thru today standards. The moisture, remember Mark they called it the "duel in the dew." Added a great element to it, O.C.I.R had the moisture come in as well. Dim lighting, really? Maybe by todays standards. Lions had so many innovations for our sport. Dangerous? Lions had a lot of fatalities. I witnessed a lot of them, why? Because of the massive shows and the best competition "weekly" in the nation. When you have the best in the business going at it weekly like Lions did, things will happen. Please refresh me Mark on your claim of reduced fire and safety at that track in that era. Still think it was incredible of that many fuelers for that sized show. You may differ on the history, but Lions was the best.



TopFuel@Lions

 

[Cliff]

Yeah, compared to todays tracks, even OCIR wasn't that great. The guard rails of that time were steel, and if you flipped a dragster or F/C on them, they could cut you really bad. A T/F racer named Kenny (Logan???) lost both legs cuz he came down on top of the barrier. BUT... all of those tracks had their place in history. San Gabriel was famous for records being set. Garlits raced there. Lions was Lions. there will never be a track like that again. I would go watch a T/F show on a Sat night, and the times were better than that of a national meet. Sometimes it would get "dewey" at nite, and then you saw how skillful the drivers were. Irwindale took the place of San Gabe, and was never as good, but lots of big names raced there. OCIR was the first "super track", but it was also the track where you could end up on the freeway if you couldn't shut off. All this stuff I'm talking about is what made those track legendary. Lions was the king. No ifs ands or buts. That is the one track I wish I could go back in time to see just one race. L I O N S

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

Well said Cliff, I recall reading many, many, letters you wrote in the drag magazines of the day. My wife, missed going to Lions by a couple of years and she has heard the stories from me and many others at tracks across the country and she knows what that piece of property means to me. She has stated the greatest happiness when open and the heartache when it closed, for racing of course. She knows when December 2nd comes around, when I get up the morning she says, it's Lions Day!!!!
TopFuel@Lions

 

[Cliff]

I still have my Lions Last Race poster, the original one. Am thinking of telling the wife that when I croak, bury me holding that poster. BTW, I dunno if I'm famous or infamous for all those letters I wrote. Have had a few people call me out on what I wrote. HA Was trying to think what was the first year I went to Lions & I think 1963. Remember seeing Snake win T/F & they smoked the tires most of the way down. Might have been the Greer-Black-Prudhomme that night. The car he beat was a blown small block Chevy??? One of the cars from that race was Mr Lincoln, Earl Canavan, 550" Lincoln engine. I think that car has been restored & cackled at Bakersfield.