Atco Dragway (1 Viewer)
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yoda
Nitro Member
Be me; I was SOOOOO jazzed to buy a house that was 20 minutes away from Atco (same distance as the house in AZ is from Tucson Dragway) only to get the WTF news that they were shutting down (similar fate as E-town; sold to a corporate entity for something totally not racing-related). I can only imagine what the guys that grew up here had to be going through.
I've been lucky enough to have been a Lions kid (my first), New York National Speedway, O.C.I.R., Irwindale, Ontario, E-town (my first quater-mile pass as well as my first kiss of a guardrail in a race car), and at least a dozen more that I outlived (How TF did THAT happen??).
I get where this guy feels the pain... It's like watching a part of your youth just fade away and there's nothing you can do to stop it.
I've been lucky enough to have been a Lions kid (my first), New York National Speedway, O.C.I.R., Irwindale, Ontario, E-town (my first quater-mile pass as well as my first kiss of a guardrail in a race car), and at least a dozen more that I outlived (How TF did THAT happen??).
I get where this guy feels the pain... It's like watching a part of your youth just fade away and there's nothing you can do to stop it.
stitcherbob
Nitro Member
Being 15 - 20 minutes away from Island Dragway , I am glad they cleaned it up ( with volunteers helping) and are running again
U.S.30 and Oswego,IL. as a kid growing up.
Lions was Lions. Someone once commented that the property itself was no big shakes. True - but the track was always fast. You could go there & see a 16 car T/F race and they'd run times better than national events. Plus they always had shows like AA/FA, JR/F and Top Gas Dragster, all 3 catagories at once. Injected alky F/C (Ken Veney was part of that), SR/G dragsters & JR/Gas dragsters. Sundays was always door cars. Anyone remember The Booby Trap '57 Ford? I think the first time I went to Lions was 1963. I remember one race where Prudhomme in the G-B-P car won T/F over ? in a Chevy car & the Chevy car ran the first 200 MPH for a small block Chevy. Smoke the tires a good way down and all you could see was smoke & header flames. The memory that sticks out the most was when Garlits had the accident that cut off part of his foot. Ah man, I thought he'd been killed. Then one year later, the back motor car that changed T/F forever. I've been to a number of tracks and non will ever compare to Lions.
Randy
Nitro Member
Orange County International Raceway (OCIR) was it for me. I bracket raced there almost every weekend they were open from the mid 1970's when I got my driver's license until it closed in 1983. I rode my motorcycle out there a few months after it closed and found myself sitting on my bike in the right lane on the starting line on the kickstand after driving through a gate that said "No Trespassing". Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see Irvine's finest pulling up. He stopped, walked over to me and at first didn't say anything. We both just looked down the track. Finally, I said, "This is like coming to a cemetery to visit an old friend." He agreed. We talked for a minute, and he left. I rode down the track, took the last return road, drove past the time slip booth into the water hole, through the pits and out the front gate. I vowed to never set foot on that property again no matter what they built there.
This is one of the few pit pictures I have. You can barely see me leaning into Larry Martin's "Vicious Vette," at the water hole at OCIR. He so graciously allowed me to drive it. You can see what I believe to be Gordy Bonin's dually a few lanes over.
This is one of the few pit pictures I have. You can barely see me leaning into Larry Martin's "Vicious Vette," at the water hole at OCIR. He so graciously allowed me to drive it. You can see what I believe to be Gordy Bonin's dually a few lanes over.
ZWeinstein
Nitro Member
Firebird will always be the place that has changed my life forever in multiple ways. As a fan, the first time I ever went there was back in 2000 or 2001 when my Boy Scout troop leader took us for one of the Jets vs. Funny Car shows. It was several more years before I went to my first nationals in 2007. My uncle worked for Checker Auto and got free tickets and they took me, within an hour of getting there we watched Robert Hight make what will forever be the quickest quarter mile run. Getting a dose of nitro really set the hook deep for this 15/yo. It was also the first time I ever met a big time professional racer at a race. Jeff Arend talked to us for a good 15-20 minutes after qualifying and that impressed me. (Jeff I hope you see this, and thank you for taking the time for a first-time fan.)
On a professional level Firebird was the first place I got to transition past being a fan and shot trackside thanks to the mentorship of the late Gil Rebilas. I was at pre-season testing one year doing an article on Scott Palmer when Gil pulled me aside and had me shoot a session of runs next to him. That also set the hook and I was fortunate enough to shoot with him several more times and that led me into a few gigs writing for a couple local magazines and providing photos/social media for Jim Maroney
As a "racer", last year when it looked like Firebird was closing, I wanted to check off an item off the bucket list and run a race there. I ran a Friday night test and tune to get familiarized again (had not made a run down the track in over ten years) and then entered the final Summit race. While I stunk pretty bad, gave up the stripe pretty bad against the 2022 D7 sportsman rep at the Summit finals Russ Lindsay (who I interviewed in Vegas) and red lit big time in the buyback round. I was easily the slowest guy out there but it was so much fun and for the third time, the hook was set pretty deep. I am looking forward to entering more bracket races in my little pickup this year. Depending on how work goes tomorrow I may make my way to Tucson for this weekend's Hangover race.
Me racing my buddy AJ Crader (who was this year's D7 Sportsman rep at the Summit finals) in his street car during a Friday night hard tire street gambler.
I am happy that Firebird has another lease on life and until the track goes away or I wake up dead, I will always be there and support my home track whether its as a fan, photographer or crappy bracket racer. Its amazing how a strip of concrete/asphalt and a few walls and grandstands can change a persons' life in multiple ways.
On a professional level Firebird was the first place I got to transition past being a fan and shot trackside thanks to the mentorship of the late Gil Rebilas. I was at pre-season testing one year doing an article on Scott Palmer when Gil pulled me aside and had me shoot a session of runs next to him. That also set the hook and I was fortunate enough to shoot with him several more times and that led me into a few gigs writing for a couple local magazines and providing photos/social media for Jim Maroney
As a "racer", last year when it looked like Firebird was closing, I wanted to check off an item off the bucket list and run a race there. I ran a Friday night test and tune to get familiarized again (had not made a run down the track in over ten years) and then entered the final Summit race. While I stunk pretty bad, gave up the stripe pretty bad against the 2022 D7 sportsman rep at the Summit finals Russ Lindsay (who I interviewed in Vegas) and red lit big time in the buyback round. I was easily the slowest guy out there but it was so much fun and for the third time, the hook was set pretty deep. I am looking forward to entering more bracket races in my little pickup this year. Depending on how work goes tomorrow I may make my way to Tucson for this weekend's Hangover race.
Me racing my buddy AJ Crader (who was this year's D7 Sportsman rep at the Summit finals) in his street car during a Friday night hard tire street gambler.
I am happy that Firebird has another lease on life and until the track goes away or I wake up dead, I will always be there and support my home track whether its as a fan, photographer or crappy bracket racer. Its amazing how a strip of concrete/asphalt and a few walls and grandstands can change a persons' life in multiple ways.
sammi
Nitro Member
Fan Fotos: West Coast pits
If you've read drag racing magazines for any amount of time, the name Cliff Morgan should be familiar to you as a regular contributor to various "letters to the editor" columns, including in National DRAGSTER.
I kinda hesitated to show this, but it does have some photos I shot at some of the tracks mentioned here.
TopFuel@Lions
Nitro Member
Lions changed my life after the first meet. It will always be my happiest racetrack place.
TopFuel@Lions
Talladega Announcer
TopFuel@Lions
Talladega Announcer
vegasnitro
Nitro Member
I went to my first national event at Columbus in 1977, I was 3. I went to National Events at Indy, Bristol (old IHRA and new NHRA), Gainesville, Pomona, Phoenix and so many match races at Edgewater. I have probably been to a dozen smaller tracks like Ohio Valley and the old Las Vegas Speedway Park. I always felt like an interloper at those tracks, like I was crashing someone else’s party, as much fun as it was.
Then they built “The Strip” at Las Vegas Motorspeedway. It was shiny, new and in my backyard. It felt like home, felt like everyone was coming to my party. Unbelievable to me this year will be the 25th Spring Race. Even though I live 2,000 miles away … it is still my favorite place, no where else is even close. It is still the place I most want to see cars blast down the quarter mile.
Then they built “The Strip” at Las Vegas Motorspeedway. It was shiny, new and in my backyard. It felt like home, felt like everyone was coming to my party. Unbelievable to me this year will be the 25th Spring Race. Even though I live 2,000 miles away … it is still my favorite place, no where else is even close. It is still the place I most want to see cars blast down the quarter mile.
I grew up in Cherry Hill, NJ, about 20-25 minutes from Atco. The father of one of my friends was part of the original ownership group. We spent a lot of time at that track. My favorite memories back then were watching Jungle Jim Liberman in his '66 Chevy, Lew Arrington in the '65 Brutus GTO, the Kingfish Barracuda and Bruce Larson's USA-1 '67 Chevelle in a match racing exhibition.
In the video, he talks about the old tower. Joe Sway did tear that down and put in new aluminum stands with a pre-fab race control tower at the top of the stands. The track was located in the NJ Pinelands so there were a lot of restrictions on what they could do there. One year, I came back to cover the Lucas Oil race and Joe had paved a lot of the parking/pit area that had been sand. I asked him how he got permission from the state to do that. He said "I didn't ask."
I spent many great days at Atco, reporting on the races and photographing them. I loved going there. Joe Sway was always fun to be around. The bar was fun. And it was one of the few tracks I worked at that was less than an hour from home, so I could go back and forth every day. The track was not as fun after Joe sold it.
I miss that place.
In the video, he talks about the old tower. Joe Sway did tear that down and put in new aluminum stands with a pre-fab race control tower at the top of the stands. The track was located in the NJ Pinelands so there were a lot of restrictions on what they could do there. One year, I came back to cover the Lucas Oil race and Joe had paved a lot of the parking/pit area that had been sand. I asked him how he got permission from the state to do that. He said "I didn't ask."
I spent many great days at Atco, reporting on the races and photographing them. I loved going there. Joe Sway was always fun to be around. The bar was fun. And it was one of the few tracks I worked at that was less than an hour from home, so I could go back and forth every day. The track was not as fun after Joe sold it.
I miss that place.
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