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You Stay Classy, America

1K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  willys36@aol.com 
#1 ·
New essay from Coop's "Positive Ape Index" blog:

Our conversation began (as it almost always does) with a discussion of the glory days of drag racing...

These were our bellbottomed gods and goddesses, coming down from the shag-carpeted comfort of Mt. Olympus in their metalflaked chariots to feud and fight for the entertainment of we mere mortals. The giants all went away eventually, and real drag racing went away with them, with the last example of the extinct species left in the person of motormouth pitchmeister John Force, bless him.
Full text: http://positiveapeindex.blogspot.com/2006/03/you-stay-classy-america.html
 
#5 ·
I have to go with the Gasser gang; Stone Woods and Doug Cook, John Mazmanian, Jr. Thompson, Chuck Finders, Wayne Harry, Jack Coonrod, Ohio George Montgomery, Barb Hamilton, K. S. Pittman. But just about any racer from just before the pro movement to just after conversion to a pro sport are extremely fascinating people. Don Garlitz, Shirley Muldowney, Don Prudhomme, all these people have very interesting stories to tell as opposed to the plain vanilla corporate teams nowadays. Here is the SWC car shown by Doug's son last weekend at the rained out March Meet in Bakersfield.

 
#6 ·
Were you there, Jeff? Looked for your car on sunday, didn't see you. Quite a mess with the A/gassers, posted it in the lounge, March Meet Madness. Got to meet Garlits, a nice guy. Dan
 
#7 ·
Great article, Jon, you've been doing some cool posts lately, are you on vacation?...lol. That article brings back a lot of memories, the gassers still get 100% of my attention at the nostalgia type of drags. John Force keeps the sport alive in times of corporate sponsorship when the rich boy snobs (thinking nascar here)haven't got the time to give you the time of day. You can see Force running around on a little scooter, talking to the fans, popping off on the P.A. system and generally keeping everyone amused. I met Garlits last weekend, grease under the fingernails, running around in a primered 39 Ford roadster from the announcing stand to his trailer, I met Big John at the Peterson museum, real people. Drag racing and dirt tracking, still a sport that's affordable for the average guy. Dan
 
#8 ·
dinger said:
Great article, Jon, you've been doing some cool posts lately, are you on vacation?...lol.
Good one :) -- whatever the opposite of vacation is, that's what I'm on now.

I've been using RSS feeds and monitoring keywords to find fresh stuff to post in the Lounge. I can add "gasser" to my keyword list, to see what comes up.

Here's another that might interest you: Barbara Hamilton Fast Five Interview, from a Racing History series.
 
#9 ·
I went Friday and it rained most of the day. They got one round of Sportsman category in but I was out cruising the pits so didn't see any runs. When I got to the stands about 11 to eat my tuna sandwich, the stands were bare. I was literally the only one there. Watched them sweep and heat the track for a couple hours, got it just about dry and the rain cam back so I went home about 2. I guess they didn't run anything after that? Did they run Saturday? I heard they condemned the track condition Sunday due to water oozing up thru it even though it was a fairly clear day. Now you see why NHRA dumped the March Meet - never can trust the weather - this is our only rainy month when we usually get 90% of our 5"/yr! Anyway, I had to get ready to pour 9yds of cement at my new home on Monday so Sunday was spent digging in the dirt.
 
#10 ·
The info I got from one of the Goodguy gals in the booth was that they run a couple of hours fri morning, 3-5 sat afternoon, then the mess on sun morning. The Famoso website forum had the Willys rolling 12 times, another said 20, 12 is probably more like it. Made me ill. The place was about 1/4 as busy sunday as normal, maybe you're not the only one tired of GG antics. NSRA in the fall will probably be my next stop there. Too bad there isn't more nostalgia or even good drag racing there, it's a nice facility. 9 yards of concrete? The truck only holds 9 1/2, one full load coming up. My muscles ache just thinking of all that work. I poured 12 yards here 5 years ago when we had our house built I still remember the pain. :pain: Dan
 
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