Sunday will never be the same... (2 Viewers)

[Gone Dead Train]

Here are some NorthWest AA/FC, from the early 80s that I saw run at Seattle. A number of times in the early 80s
Sadly we have lost some of these drivers. RIP
"Nasty" Dave Benjamin, still races today AA/Fuel Altered

Jim Moore

Mike Miller, His last ride.

Mike Cyr

Marty Maltais. Marty raced Pro Stock in the late 70s

"Nitro Nick" Harmon

Bill Spevacek

Paul Luppy. Saw this car burn to the ground at Seattle

"240" Gordy Bonin

"Gentleman" Hank Johnson

G

 

[Gone Dead Train]

Frank Dade in the Mr. Ed BFH at Long Beach, CA

John Burrows "Executioner" BFH at Long Beach

Climax BFH at Long Beach

The late Gary Gabelich in "Climax" BFH at Long Beach early 70s
If you know who Gary is, he could and would drive anything!!

Ed Hyder in the "Mud Hen" BFH at Oakland, CA 1975

BFH=Blown Fuel Hydro
The boats allways had beautiful paint jobs and bitchin names.

 

[stitcherbob]

 

[Gone Dead Train]

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Bob the rules are if you post a picture, you have to write a caption. LOL. Like this, Ed "The Ace" McCulloch looks like 1973 Fremont.CA
It is Fremont trust me.

 

[stitcherbob]

Oh it’s Fremont... a bunch of them were. I’ll leave it to those older than me to caption whatever needs captioning.... leaves me more time to post pics

 

[Gone Dead Train]

Oh it’s Fremont... a bunch of them were. I’ll leave it to those older than me to caption whatever needs captioning.... leaves me more time to post pics

LOL. It's not nice to pick on old people, young man. LOL The pictures of Jungle the monza car, Wild Bill, The Snake, The Ace are from Fremont.
Not bad for a old guy don't you think. Ok it's 8pm on the left coast, time for bed. night-night

 

[BaldyLochs]

Jeepers Creepers!!!! One might ask - why does Nitromater.com exist??? See above, I say.......See Above.

 

[Cliff]

The flag starter shown above was the NHRA starter, if I remember right. Joe Guiterrez??? Have seen lotsa photos & he is in them. Was a starter from 1950's until? When I first started going to San Fernando, they had a flag starter. Lots of stories about how drivers would study the starter, & notice that each time he raised the flag, his shoulder would twitch, etc. That gave the drivers an edge, cuz the starter was the one who judged if they left too soon & gave a red flag (today's red lite).

 

[Gone Dead Train]

Dodger Glenn-1970 maybe 71

Billy Tidwell in Lou Baney's car, Folger Ford Special- Irwindale 1969

Ed Fox-Englishtown 1971

The late Gary Ormsby-1970

"The Watch Dog" Tommy Allen-1967 Looks like Carlsbad.CA

The late Tony "The Loner" Nancy near lane at Pomona 1970 check out the crowd!

Danny Ongais "Beaver Bros" AA/FD Lions 1966

The late John Wenderski in the ill-fated "Black Beauty" AA/FD at San Fernando 1963
John would be killed in this car Feb 23, 1964 San Diego Raceway, Ramona, CA
What I learned over the years. The car was one of the best in the day.

Jr. Fueler. looks like San Fernando, year?? getting a little sideways you think.

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

As I am listening to the Skyliners sing "since I don't have you" and now the "Jive 5 sing my true story" the nostalgia blood is flowing thru my veins.

That great, no super awesome shot of the Beach City Vette getting air against Grove is a treasure. Of course dad and I were there for that show.

What's next in the super cool thread, a picture of Bad Bascomes Ghost or Clarence baileys "King Boo-Ga-Loo."

I need to go watch part 2 of the Lions video or I'll crack,lol.


[email protected] Jay Dejulios in the UFO Blown Fuel Jet at Long Beach Marine Stadium on a Sunday..epic...

 

[Cliff]

Beach Boys 409..... Little Deuce Coupe. Jan & Dean Dead Man's Curve, etc. Little Old Lady From Pasadena... terrorizing Colorado Blvd in Pasadonuts (Pasedena). Yes I have been down that road, lota street races there. The Suicide Bridge going from Glendale to Pasadena. All this in SoCal of course. Dumb story; Suicide Bridge infamous for people jumping from it. There was a river bed below with lotsa rocks. One idiot decided to parachute from the bridge. He lived, but was in bad shape. Kinda like going off the end of the track at San Fernando. Sign said "spin out area" for good reason. BIG rocks just past that. Once when I ran my old 58 Ford, I went all the way down to the end of the shut off area to see what it looked like. That's how I know about the sign. I think the tower thought I'd lost my breaks. Only did that once.

 

[Gone Dead Train]

Jim Wemett Looks like a 71 challenger

Linda with the Pat Foster driven, Barry Setzer AA/FC like I said before this car was bad ass!

The late Mike Mitchell "The World's Fastest Hippie" 1972? OCIR?

The great Pat Minick. Could this be the first roof hatch ever on a AA/FC.
Mike are you out there looking?

Steve Bovan AA/FC OCIR

The Northwest own "The Action Man" Kenny Goodell AA/FC looks like Pomona
Kenny always had great looking cars!

Ray Alley AA/FC at Lions 1972

Omar Garrothers "The Tentmaker" AA/FC Lions 1971

The late Roger Garten "War Horse" Mustang AA/FC OCIR 1973

Phil Castronovo in the seat of his AA/FC 1972 OCIR. Tom Prock would
start driving for Phil in 1973, you might have heard of Tom's son Jimmy
and grandson Austin?

That's it for today. I have magazines and pictures every where. Some of this
**** I haven't seen in years. Time to clean up. Do guy's and gal's want to see
more or are you bored with this thread???

 

[4onthefl4]

Bring it on! Don't stop now.

 

[MM]

View attachment 6454
The great Pat Minick. Could this be the first roof hatch ever on a AA/FC.
Mike are you out there looking?

To my knowledge, the '69 car was the first flip top funny car to have an escape hatch. Prior to that drivers just bailed out the window in an emergency. This is a cool shot. I've never seen it before and I don't come across that very often. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Cliff]

What I hate is looking at all these photos & all the memories and then suddenly I realize it'a 2020.....

 

[ocdart]

That great, no super awesome shot of the Beach City Vette getting air against Grove is a treasure. Of course dad and I were there for that show....

The Beach City Corvette was a beautiful car but always with bad luck.
I was at OCIR the night in 1970 when it went all the way through the shutoff area at the end of the track, through the weeds, the fence, and burned to the ground on the I-5 freeway...

 

[Gone Dead Train]

To my knowledge, the '69 car was the first flip top funny car to have an escape hatch. Prior to that drivers just bailed out the window in an emergency. This is a cool shot. I've never seen it before and I don't come across that very often. Thanks for sharing!

Your welcome Mike. I learned something new today, and that is a great thing! Like I said when I started this thread
I have saved all magazines, pictures, posters ect. From 1968 on. Not much today because of the internet and the price
of paper. The last 30 years it has bin Drag Racing magazine ( changed names a couple of times) Drag Racing Edge, ect.
The best rite now is Nitro Madness only 2 issues a year since 2007. Thank you Scott! But bar none the best since the
last issue of Drag Racing USA June 1975 is Elapsed Times only 9 issues from Sept 2012 to Jan 2016. That picture of
your dad is from Newport Productions back in early 70s you could buy posters one off magazines ect. you could send
them $1.00 they would send you 12 B&W 8x10 photos, never new what you were going to get. Looks I spent at least
$25.00. To many great magazines back in the day to list here for my pictures and info, But alot of info is coming what
I remember and I could be wrong. LOL And thanks to my son Mike for helping me with this computer crap.
I miss the old day's!!!
The West is the Best!!!

 

[vegasnitro]

What I hate is looking at all these photos & all the memories and then suddenly I realize it'a 2020.....

Looking at this thread and the San Fernando thread and I realized the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway has been open quite a bit longer than most of the places featured here. It makes me feel old to realize the Strip at LVMS has been open 20 years ... can't imagine how you guys feel about places that have been closed for 50 years. In any event, thanks for sharing.

 

[Gone Dead Train]

Kenny Goodell AA/FD 1971 Looks like Boise, ID

Grant Stoms looking for the crank?

Dwight Hughes looks like OCIR, year? Check out the headers glowing red.

Herm Petersen Seattle 1975 His aunt or cousin was my 8th grade teacher.
I can't remember everthing. Her name was Mrs. Ludwig

Old hand out 1974?

R. Gaines Markley Seattle 1972

Jerry "The King" Ruth Seattle 1973

A very young Jeb Allen 17 Got the call to drive the family's digger. Lion's 1971

Randy Allison in the "Allison Bros" Fuel Digger 1972 looks like OCIR

 

[TSK]

Again, great pics! You do realize this thread could go on forever, right? Which would be ok with me, LOL.

There’s a thread somewhere in this forum with a lot of old photos. I tried searching for it but I’m on my phone and it’s a pain trying to find it.
We need to merge this thread with that other and keep it going.