the unfinished business cars

[TooTall999]

But it probably wouldn't increase in value.

 

[ironpony]

Probably the only "race car" a lot of people can afford and it was driven by WJ someone would love to own it.

 

[R.I.P. O.C.I.R.]

well, i am very sorry to express my concern over race cars as there are too many that are gone and will never be found. warrens car is nothing special. it is what he did with it is. 50 years from now the ppl that drove the cars will no longer be with us. i grew up at irwindale dragstrip and the county. something very, very, very few ppl here can say. so i value warrens car as a piece of history in our sport. ppl do not understand what i see in that car. and i will bet the barn they did not grow up at irwindale or the county either. as for it NOT being a barrett-jackson car have you watched the P.O.S. cars they auction during the first day of any of there fantastic events? NO, just like you did not grow up at irwindale or the county and want to preserve history for generations to come. i do, i want to preserve as much of the sport as possible. there is a jar full of irwindale speedway turn 3 dirt in the only speedway motorcycle museum in america. it is located down town new york. called um and told them what i had. they wanted it. so irwindale speedway dirt is now in that museum after i held on to it for 41 years. i also have a piece of the irwindale starting line. it is asphalt. not sure what to do with it yet. ....and thx bruce flanders, nobody could call a speedway race like you.

 

[r2]

i also have a piece of the irwindale starting line. it is asphalt. not sure what to do with it yet. ....

 

[R.I.P. O.C.I.R.]

That is funny!! Almost as funny as Ray has never been to O.C.I.R. / Irwindale / and both races at Ontario. Lets toss in Big Willies Terminal Island track. Small crowds, big fun. run what ya brung and hope you brung enough. I was at one of these tracks or others EVERY weekend with Mike Burbach. We ran quick 16. if you look close, you will notice that is a ontario hat on henry the dog.

 

[r2]

You're wrong and never been right. I don't play with others who own dirt and a malfunction. Pet your tarball and goodluck with life.

 

[R.I.P. O.C.I.R.]

well ray, there was a strange area in the pits around the finish line. it was very slick. can you describe it, and tell us the name of military field next to the county? and i will not ask if you attended the 100 F/C event, we all know you did not miss that. it was a matter of if you could survive the fun at one of bills events. and the common theme? jet cars go off at midnight.

 

[none]

well ray, there was a strange area in the pits around the finish line. it was very slick. can you describe it, and tell us the name of military field next to the county? and i will not ask if you attended the 100 F/C event, we all know you did not miss that. it was a matter of if you could survive the fun at one of bills events. and the common theme? jet cars go off at midnight.

So if I didn't grow up in SoCal, and attend all those events you did I can't be passionate about my sport? By that logic, Garlits and Kalitta don't measure up either.

I caught the NHRA bug in Arizona, it's not a disease that can only be caught in a certain zip code.

Alan

 

[TooTall999]

I caught the bug at Connecticut Dragway back in the early 70's. A lot of the top touring funny cars were there several times each summer...about as far from the west coast as you can get.

 

[James]

I really hope Warren wasn't the only one to turn the traction control off..

 

[Von Halen]

My avatar is me sitting on the tailgate of the push car with none other than The Greek at Green Valley Raceway. I was fortunate enough to travel around to a lot of different tracks as a kid living 2 doors from John Wiebe. I caught the bug at a very young age, at many different tracks.

 

[FABMAN]

I got my first car in 1969 a Silver 64 Impala SS . I found a 4 dr 58 Chevy a guy had put a 396 in and I bought it for the motor. So I got the bug (addiction ) in spring 1970 I made my first pass down KCIR car ran low 11s and it kool as hell.

 

[R.I.P. O.C.I.R.]

don and connie spent plenty of time at s.ca. tracks. this is don winning ontario 1973. don had a 2 out of 3 match race with shirley at irwindale. don somehow got a finger in the blower drive. they were one win each. she waited as they took don to hospital, patched up the finger and he returned to race her. i forget the results of who won the 3rd race. -mid 1970's

 

[none]

I am aware of the fact that both raced there, but your post about being there every week made it sound to me like that was the only way to have any credibility. My point was that you could develop a passion for the sport without being in SoCal.

You have made many statements about what hooked you on the sport and what you perceive is missing today. I won't argue what hooked you on the sport, only you know that. But I will argue that what we have today is generating interest in the next generation.

You have said you don't like the throttle stop classes, again no argument. If you don't like them, you don't like them. But I spoke to a group of Jr. racers this weekend that are planning on and looking forward to taking those classes as the next step when they graduate from Jr's. They look to Erica, Shawn, Leah, Chris, Derrick, Shane Westerfield, the Meyers sisters and others who used that as a stepping stone. They also look up to guys Like Luke Bogacki and Justin Lamb who have moved into the Lucas ranks and are enjoying tremendous success there. And they see that as an attainable goal.

The point that I'm trying to make is this, I certainly wouldn't tell you what you should like and not like, and you don't get to tell anybody else what they should like and not like.

I loved the Funny Cars and Fuel Altereds that came to Tucson when I was a kid. But if Jr's had been around then, my passion might very well have been trying to compete, not just watch. Times change, that doesn't automatically make it better of worse, just different.

Just my opinion
Alan

 

[T.Smith]

You all should've seen the crowds at OCIR back in '71 when Hayden Proffitt debuted his '52 Packard funny car, man I was hangin' on to the fence for dear life.

 

[R.I.P. O.C.I.R.]

alan, i must correct myself on being there every weekend. i was mikes only help, and we went to a bunch of tracks. bakersfield, palmdale, kern co, carlsbad, irwindale, big willies, the county, ontario, fremont, riverside. and pomona. so no telling where i was at and when, but one thing you could count on, mike burbach was going somewhere every weekend, and that is where i went. we never missed the big events at the county and irwindale as mike knew kenny green and others at the county. unloading the car at 3 to 5 am in the morning in a quiet neighborhood was cool. silence all night till we got home and fires up the BB to unload it and put in garage. and we did not use mufflers back then. open headers. the neighbors had to love it

 

[R.I.P. O.C.I.R.]

The crowds at the county were standing room only. the rocket cars of slammin sammy miller and rocket rod phelps were beyond cool.

 

[none]

The crowds at the county were standing room only. the rocket cars of slammin sammy miller and rocket rod phelps were beyond cool.

Again, I'm not arguing with what you say, I went to many events at the old Tucson Dragway. The rockets came there a couple of times and they were awesome! (Saw them in the early day of FireBird as well) I also saw Funny Car shows, Fuel Altered Shows and the AHRA WinterNationals that were standing room only, But I think Tucson had 5,000 seats, maybe? I know OCIR had more, but no where near what Pomona has.

Alan

 

[mikebcurve]

Wow I'm totally lost in this conversation, lol

 

[Luke Nieuwhof]

I am aware of the fact that both raced there, but your post about being there every week made it sound to me like that was the only way to have any credibility.

Also known as gatekeeping.
There's definitely a group of people, vocal on Facebook too, who love to maintain they were there for the glory days. And that's fine.
But for them to suggest we are enjoying a lesser version of the sport gets very old...