stitcherbob
Nitro Member
racing against a jet took cajones....if he crossed the centerline at that 1100 feet I would expect you could look like the cartoon character when they turn into a burnt match
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Jet Cars
- Thread starter Holeinthehead
- Start date
Nick Name
Nitro Member
That was Tex Collins. He had all of Jim Lytle's cars and the truck.Now that I think about it, who was the guy who had Allison engines in dragsters and the coupe and even a White Truck cab over. Saw it run at San Fernando. What a noise.....
Photo of us racing Walt Arfons jet powered mercury cyclone back in the day. You can see the afterburner on the far left of the picture.That's Walt flagging and if my memory is correct he was thrown back several feet by the jet blast and broke a bone or two. The tree was destroyed on the first pass. That's been more than a day or two (probably 67 or 68) so I could be wrong about the injury
That was west of OKC on I-40. It's now a housing development and a good friend of mine who won the AHRA dragster national championship long ago now lives a short walk from the starting line. We actually had the loose rubber from the slicks on fire and won the race. Arfons was so mad he just about couldn't talk. He brought 3 jet cars to the race. We races each of them but I couldn't begin to tell you who else was there or what the total results were. They had the Pennzoil stunt plane performing and landing on and taking off from the drag strip. Don't have any idea what the strip seating capacity was but it was packed and we had to struggle to get through the pits after a pass. I was working on the bottom end and a spectator actually crawled under and started to talk to me. .
Wow, that's a great story. I can imagine you under the engine & suddenly there is a spectator! HA You should have put him to work. 
The track now is the site of a housing development. All the tracks I went to in SoCalif are long gone, except Pomona. Lions became a parking lot, Irwindale went to a beer company, OCIR became what ever it is today, on & on. argh Gotta tell a little story. Once I went to San Fernando drags and the Top Fuel final was between a blown Chrysler car & a little blown Chevy small block car (around 1962). At the start, the Chevy went into a wheelie, came down, went into another wheelie and then went down the track. The Chrysler driver had to pedal it 1/2 way down, was still "smoking the hides", and the Chevy won. Wild race. I was around 15 then & I still remember that race today.
The track now is the site of a housing development. All the tracks I went to in SoCalif are long gone, except Pomona. Lions became a parking lot, Irwindale went to a beer company, OCIR became what ever it is today, on & on. argh Gotta tell a little story. Once I went to San Fernando drags and the Top Fuel final was between a blown Chrysler car & a little blown Chevy small block car (around 1962). At the start, the Chevy went into a wheelie, came down, went into another wheelie and then went down the track. The Chrysler driver had to pedal it 1/2 way down, was still "smoking the hides", and the Chevy won. Wild race. I was around 15 then & I still remember that race today. I think the Chevy was Jimmy Nix's gas dragster ( I remember that happening but it could have been a different dragster). He won the Winters with that car and switched to fuel shortly after. Spent a lot of time working on that car. We used to make the west coast for a few weeks in the winter. That little car set a bunch of records back in the day and depending on the field it got entered in fuel several times although it was a AA gas dragster. Ran at most of those tracks as well as a few up north. Ran Bakersfield several times. Great times but a different day.
none
Nitro Member
Was that track west of OKC Jimmy's track?
CORRECTION..... Brain fart time, I was wrong on directions. That track was east on I-40 out by Choctaw Road. When it opened it was called Willow Run then when Dean Dillingham bought it he changed the name to 89er Raceway, Jimmy's track (Sand Valley) was on the west edge of OKC, just south of Reno and just west of Council Rd. Saw Frank and Charlie Smith race at Nix's many times. They were both superior racers, national champs, record holders in multiple classes and good guys. I know your related but not sure how.
Back in the day, I was known as "Charlie's son". Now it's "Todd's brother" lol. I did not know Willow Run was called 89er raceway. That is an interesting piece of information. Did they sell A&W root beer at the track when Dean owned it?
Good to hear from you. Charlie was a really good guy guy.Todd has made a good name for himself. I last saw Frank about 5 or more years ago.Hope he doing well?
They probably had A&W for a short time but knowing Do-Wah I'm sure it was short lived although that was a beatiful funny car. I may be wrong but it seems like it had dual sbc engines. I guess you know he passed away 4 or 5 (?) years ago. Anyway, Dean operated the track for not over 2 seasons if that long. Had some great shows there He was the ultimate promoter but a good guy and a lot of fun.
