[Dennis Petras]

It was spring of 1971 and me and two of my high school buddies went to Raceway Park, Englishtown on a Wednesday night to collectively loose our drag racing virginity. I had a 1970 Nova SS 350 / 300 HP, 4-speed (factory stock). My buddy Nick has a 63 split window corvette, 327 (that turned out to be a 283), 4 speed and buddy John had a 60 Falcon, 6 cylinder auto.
I can remember like it was yesterday my left foot shaking as I inched into the beams to stage the car. Smoked off the line like Jungle Jim and powershifted to a mid 15 second run. As I was making my way down the return road to the time slip booth with a big smile on my face, Bobby Doerr, the track announcer, was relentlessly busting on John during his run culminating with him announcing his blistering 24 second ET.
John and I still laugh about it today as he has been my dear friend for 50 plus years. He now has a 60 Falcon gasser, small block Ford with hilborn injection on alcohol that he fields with his son in law. Lost track of Nick. For me, I have never made a pass down a drag strip in anything but a three pedal car.