Olathe, Kansas, 1972 (1 Viewer)

[DrRocket]

Well, I finally went out and bought myself a decent scanner. Then, I had to start looking through my piles of Cr&% to figure out where all the pictures I took years ago went. Here's a beginning.

The time is August, 1972, I had just returned from an internship working for a company in Idaho Falls, Idaho. (Aerojet Nuclear, and yes, they built nuclear powerplants.) (A VERY nice place to live. I loved my time there.) I was on my way back to school for my second year (via Greyhound bus) to Lawrence Kansas, via Minneapolis Minnesota. Met up with my room mate John, and drove down to my folk's house in Independence, Mo. Visited there for a couple of days,and heard of a big match race shootout at the Olathe air base in Kansas. We went there, and took in the races. I apologize for the poor quality of the pics. I had a cheap Kodak camera, and didn't know what the hell I was doing. For some odd reason, one of the cars that stood out in my mind was a early 60's vette called "Rumbleguts." The other thing that was notable was since this was an active air base, a couple of helicopters were warming up in the back ground, in front of the hangers you see in back of the Flying Dutchman photo. One of them lost control for some reason and spiraled back to earth, creating a hell of a scene. All the crew members survived if I remember right, but according to the paper at the time, the pilot had a compressed spine. Ouch.

I think Unk was at this race. Unk, this look familliar???

First one is Bob Lambeck. (And check out that "Drag World" t-shirt!)

Second one is Chris Karamasenes

The third one is of the Flying Dutchman funny car.

The last one is "Kansas" John Wiebe

I apologize for the poor quality of the pics, but I had a cheap camera (Anyone remember those rectangular Kodak "Cartridge" cameras???") and didn't know much about shooting photos. BUT!! I did love my drag racing, and we had a great time that day.

I've finally found my negatives from one of the early Brainerd races, (1986, I believe) including the BIMP, (Brainderd International Mud Pit) I'm going to get them reprinted and will post them here. Check back in about a week.

 

[Unk]

Olathe Grand American?

Yep, I was there.

Took some friends to their first race (I sure have done a lot of that over the years) and had a blast!

Didn't Garlits win that weekend?

Unk

 

[.]

David,

Those are great pictures and a great story to go along with them.

MORE PLEASE!!

I cant wait to see the BIR pictures from 86.

 

[Paul Lavoie]

Thanks for the pics David. Brought back some great memories! I was there also, working on Ron Potters's "GOLDEN NUGGET" funny car. I remember the crashed bird too. The track being an airstrip was so wide it was unbelievable.
Higginbotham took a wild ride in the "DRAG ON VEGA" that would have totaled it on any other track. Out there he never even came close to hitting anything !

 

[afx421]

thanks for the great pics! olathe is great country too. i went to an auto body paint and interior school there for a week back in 03. nice city!

 

[I was NITRO BREATH]

Great pics--- thanks

 

[marlin]

Always great to visit the past of NHRA...

very cool pictures and story, thanks for sharing indeed.

 

[Triple Nickel II]

I wonder who sanctioned the event? Olathe seems awfully close to AHRA's "hometown" venue, Kansas City International Raceway.

 

[Doug in the woods]

Idaho Falls is about a 2 hour drive S from Salmon

I guess you help build the reactor for Atomic City Idaho?

 

[Mr. Jean]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

 

[DragFan2]

I guess you help build the reactor for Atomic City Idaho?

Doug, where are you coming from with this question? Were you posting on another thread and got your wires crossed? Don't make any sense to me.

PS: David, was that green Mustang (?) named Flying Dutchman? If so, I never knew Al VanderWoude ran anything other than Chrysler bodied funny cars.

 

[Brad Anderson]

Al Vanderwoude

Al Vanderwoude actually ran the Mach 1 in the picture, a Maverick and his last funny car was a Mustang II. I have pictures of all them if you need them.

 

[DrRocket]

Doug, where are you coming from with this question? Were you posting on another thread and got your wires crossed? Don't make any sense to me.

PS: David, was that green Mustang (?) named Flying Dutchman? If so, I never knew Al VanderWoude ran anything other than Chrysler bodied funny cars.

Yep, it was the Flying Dutchman alright.

Doug's question wasn't really out of left field. If you read my first post again, you'll understand.

Working on the Brainerd photos. Hope to have them back in a couple of days.

 

[JAG]

Wow, didn't even know anyone knew about that race. I had my old Super Stocker there that day, but it's been so long ago I don't recall what sanction it was. Most likely AHRA though.

 

[DragFan2]

Yep, it was the Flying Dutchman alright.

Doug's question wasn't really out of left field. If you read my first post again, you'll understand.

Working on the Brainerd photos. Hope to have them back in a couple of days.

David, you got me there!

I passed right over the 1st part of your post so missed all the info about the nuclear powerplant, etc. and even your reference to the Flying Dutchman (DUH!) so 30 lashings for me. I only read the part you wrote after the pics and then the posts after that, so everything I posted or asked was pretty darn redundant! And, not sure if the Brad Anderson who posted is THE BRAD ANDERSON or not, but yeah, if you have some shots of those other Ford bodied Flying Dutchman funny cars and have a way of posting them on here (or a link to where they can be seen) that would be cool.

 

[DragFan2]

Brad, whether you are the BRAD ANDERSON or not, welcome to Nitromater since I just noticed that this was your 1st post.

And, apologies to Doug (in the woods of Idaho) Bezaire for my comments.

 

[LER58]

Add me the list of those that were there. it was definitely an AHRA race as all their booked in stars were there. I sure wished I remembered more than I do about the race. Wasn't that a one time event? Wonder why it wasn't held at nearby KCIR?

 

[DrRocket]

Doug, check your PM's.

 

[DrRocket]

Yep, I was there.

Took some friends to their first race (I sure have done a lot of that over the years) and had a blast!

Didn't Garlits win that weekend?

Unk

Yes Unk, I believe you're right. I'm a lifelong Don Garlits fan, and was really excited to see him in action. My pictures really got scattered over the years, there may be more. I'll keep looking.

 

[Brad Anderson]

My real name is Brad Anderson so I guess I am the "real" Brad Anderson, however I'm not the one you are probably thinking about. Here is a few of the pics of The Flying Dutchman funny cars that were Ford bodies. I guess Al's most famous car was the Charger III prototype body that was made into a model car. It was suppose to be a Dodge body but since Dodge had never produced this car the sanctioning bodies made him get rid of it.