When were you hooked? Fuel Racing... (3 Viewers)

[TJ]

Can you all remember your first encounter w/ a fuel/alcohol car that got you interested?

Mine was 1982 Winternats...14 years old...my best friends father was an owner of a fuel dragster driven by Larry Sutton...I would see the car @ their shop but had no idea of its potential.
The family invited me to the race and they were the first car to fire up in the pits on Thurs morning.....I was blown away and interested....Kalitta was parked next door and he fired up....I thought right then I wanted to be involved somehow.....My high school freshmen buddies wanted to walk around and look @ girls...I wanted to stay w/ the car and be connected....The owner, who recently passed away took me in and showed me evrything about the car....Sad because the owner had 5 boys who could care less about the car...I'd soak up every National Dragster I could when I went to their house...My friends would go out cruising and I'd stay w/ the father reading dragster....later in life he apologized for exposing me to this expensive habit....In a way it changed my direction in life....

 

[Professor Dave]

It was in the early 60s. I saw Rapid Red Lang run TV Tommy Ivo at CT dragway (now the test track for Consumer Reports). Bot cars came in on open trailers-it was a different world then.

 

[yoda]

1968... Night race at Lions. Standing at the fence on the right side of the track, so you were right at the rollers and the box. A couple of spindly cars that made quite a bit of noise, but what I notice most was the fire coming out of the pipes that just seemed so rhythmic... The sound and the smell were secondary to the visual that was going on. I think it's why I can watch the races now on the tube at a bar with no volume on and still get off on WATCHING a good race.

It wasn't deafing at the launch- nothing like it is now- but the sound pressure in combination with the flames that stretched for the night sky hooked me to this day. Just *#$%in awesome. There is NOTHING else like this stuff...

 

[partsman]

Indy....1969

 

[mike]

Ravenswood (Australia) 1990 (officialy hooked) six years of age! I can't count the years b4 that, but trust me I still remember the races I went to when I was 4/5 I have a very clear memory... I just finally started to understand it all in 90

 

[pete]

Mid or early 70's ( brain fade) Blaney Dragstrip in Columbia, SC. Saw the Mischief Maker Gremlin and the Mountain Music Mustang funny cars. Also, I think, the Golden Gator turbo charged dragster was there,

 

[speedster]

1976 32 funny cars at portland international raceway.
i had watched on tv when they would show it and seen the cars in the mag's but 1976 was my first time ever at a race track.
i seen the snake and mongoose and some guy in a wendys funny car that was all greasy and dirty??? 240 gordie bonnin ernie hall the action man kenny cadale and a bunch more! they say you never forget your first love?

 

[.]

Late 70's.
My dad owned a few gas stations/repair shops in Northern CA.
I have 3 brothers and a sister.
The brothers were made to "earn their keep" as it were by working the business.
1 was great at administrative accounting office stuff, 1 was great at customer service/relations, and 1 was great at mechanical work.
The mechanic was/is the black sheep of the family.
He had a blown '55 chevy with a glove box full of speeding tickets. He loved the drags.
One night in '77 or '78 ??? (somewhere in there) he took me to the Fremont drags.
Been hooked ever since.

 

[Nick Name]

For me,. late 50s, maybe early 60s at San Fernando.

Jay

 

[r2]

1968 March Meet at Bakersfield...
Standing at the finish line when a fuel car came by us, throwing the clutch out of the car in a shower of sparks, and the Blower letting go in a ball of my Avatar...
Mom throwing me to the ground and trying to cover my eyes, so I would'nt see someone die... I knew then and there... That is what I am going to do!!

I grew up at the Drag Strip in all facets of the sport...
But the hook was set in 68...
Will this ever go away?? I sure hope not...

 

[none]

Early 70's @ OCIR

 

[Shazam]

About 1970 - Went to the National Dragster Open at National Trail. Remember camping and sitting out on the starting line on Sat. Night talking with a lot of people. Saw Bill Mullins run a 6.95 with his twin-engine Top Gas car on Sunday. Can't remember who won T/F or F/C but from that day on I was hooked on nitro.
I had a drag strip about 1/2 mile from me and went from sneaking in to manager/announcer when I was a teenager. I went to a Division 3 meeting in Indy one winter and Bob Daniels (D.D. then) asked me if my father was with me. Told him who I was and he died laughing.

 

[The Counterfeiter]

1960 (I think) - neighbor Herb McCandless had one of the first 409 four speed Chevys. My Dad took me to Lakeland raceway in Memphis to watch Herb run.
And . . . Ray Godman was there in his wheelchair tuning the Tennessee Boll Weevil! Nitro fumes, noise and tires smoking all the way down the quarter.
Hooked? Probably more now than 46 years ago - fire 'em up!

 

[Jimbo]

1973 AHRA Winternationals @ Beeline Dragway Phx AZ I was 13

 

[d'kid]

69 Funny Car 500 OCIR...

 

[mike cummings]

Sometime in 1971 @ Irwindale Raceway.

 

[Bob]

I was hooked before I even went to my first race! My dad had one of those Diamond P season in review videos (wanna say it was 1987), and we would sit and watch that. All I could think is wow....watching Amato, LaHaie, Bernstein, etc on that tape just sucked me in. Due to financial constraints growing up, I didn't get to my first national event till 1989 at Bandimere (the race where Snake more or less saved Don Gay Jr's life during qualifying). First season after the remodel. Wish I could've seen it before it was remodeled, but pics will have to suffice.

 

[none]

1977- My dad took my brother and me to the Firebird Ignitor here in Boise, I was 11. Ed McCulloch beat Gordie Bonin in the final, and none of my friends knew what the hell I was talking about the next day at school...."What`s a funny car"?

 

[James]

Spring 1970, Capitol Dragway in Maryland. My dad took me to see a Sox & Martin vs Dyno Don match race, testing that day was the George's Corvette AA/FC, I was hooked after the first warm up!! I was 11 at the time.

 

[Jeff Paul]

76 in Tulsa. It must have been a national event,the only car I remember was Grumpys Toy but the fuel cars hooked me bigtime.