how did you get bit by the racing bug?

[bigdaddy4026]

i know I'm not a true stock or super stock racer but i am a true fan and would love to hear some of you guys replies.
well i think that it would have to be my dad! might of been growing up in a gas station with a dad that raced,yes full service (fill up your car wash the windows,check the tires, and oil) for you young people , i remember going to the track mom, dad ,my brother and i in a 55 chevy truck 235ci 3 on the tree, open trailer 1966 chevelle 327 th400, mom and dad slept on air mattres in back the truck, my brother and i slept in a tent we were in heaven. when i turned 16 we got to the track my dad said where are you going i said going sit on the starting line with the starter, he said you are driveing the chevelle today!! i went 12.85 and was hooked.
going to southland drags in houma i only remember 3 distinct cars
1 the candies family funny car
2 a man named Murphy with a bright yellow 41 Willis
3 and one of the many southland flyer hemi cars
and i was hooked!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks Aaron

[Dion Hildebrandt]

My dear old Dad got me hooked, took me and my siblings to the track for the first time when I was 3 years old
-I can still hear the Modified Eliminator cars and the 5 digit RPM's on the starting line.....

What is funny is Mom at times was the one to encourage both Dad and myself to continue racing when things werent so great

[John Leichtamer Jr]

They built a drag strip outside of the town
I grew up in.
Got to ride on the grader while they built
the track. Worked at the track from the early
60s thru the 70s

Hammer

[Chad Rhodes]

i was born into it, my dad started in the mid 60's

[cutta]

My dad got me hooked when we raced our bracket car at Centerville and Prescott raceway here in AR. He also took me to the divisionals and nationals in Memphis nearly ever year where I got to watch Comp, Super Stock, Stock, and Pro Stock; I was then hooked for life.

[SuperStockDodge]

Watching high rpm, wheel standing stick shift cars back in the mid to late 70's at local drag strips with my dad....those were the days!!! I miss the real racing from back then. I have had the drag racing bug ever since!

[Rich Biebel]

Being in school at the height of the Musclecar era and reading little Hot Rod magazines long before I could legally drive a car pretty much set the hook....

One trip to the local drag strip when I was about 13 or 14 pushed me to get into it and I quickly made friends with others who were already racing...

[Superfan1]

In 1962, at the age of 15, a few of my friends took me to Dover Drag Strip in Wingdale, NY. I was instantly and completely addicted. Next month, on April 11, I will be 66 years old; and I love the sport even more than I did then. Drag racing is truly an addiction for which there is no cure!

[MEXJOE]

OPEN TRAILERS!!
I live 60 miles from Brainerd, MN. I would see cars drag go by on trailers. And I wanted to go see them race. My brother Brad took me to my first drag race in 1985
IT WAS AWESOME !
The div. 5 NHRA at BIR I will never forget it. As I watched I heard the announcer say,
"Here is Lawrence Line from Wright, MN".
I said to my self...Wright, MN,.. we play little league baseball against Wright.
They were very a good team, the one no one wanted to play because we got blown away every time! What a pitcher! (I'll let you figure out who that was).

Well, any way I'll give you two guesses who the Wright little league baseball coach was.
He had a 1967 chevy Impala marina blue with satin finish centerline wheels and M/T slicks.
Wow! Some body who drag raced FOR REAL from Wright MN.
I thought maybe someday I could go with him to a race. That would be cool.

One thing lead to another and I got a car. A 1969 Impala. It had auto transmission trouble. Every one said take it to Lawrence Line. I said the guy who drag races?
They said YUP! that's the guy.
Upon arrival it was obvious that winning was a part of life here. One look at all the trophies on the shelf along the wall in the shop, baseball, blowing, and drag racing.
I could see that this was a place of high standards.
After having some "self induced" trouble with the transmission I had Lawrence fix for me, I stopped in again.
This time it was a Friday night. I learned that not only did Lawrence race, so did his son Lance, but for some reason, he had a green Mustang not a Chevy ( I'm still confused about that).
They had open trailers and pickups to tow with "these guys were serious!" WOW!

Then all at once I hear another car fire up with open headers and back out of the shop.
It was a beautiful 68 Chevelle lite blue with a white roof. I had seen the car before but had no Idea it was from the Line Auto shop.
It was Jason. He asked me to go to the races with them on Sat.
I meet them at the track in the pits. I had never been that close to the racing action before. It was exhilarating. All the awesome cars, some I had seen on trailers going by my house. The sound of open headers the smell of race gas, tire smoke and the energy in the air.
Then I see this 70"S ish burgundy Oldsmobile 4 door roll up. original hubcaps, velvet seats, bone a stock grandma's car.
Jason said that's my sister she is going up to run now, we can go up and watch her.
I said, "she is going to race THAT?!" Jason said ya, that's the family car she runs in bracket 4. I thought what in the heck kind of a deal is this?
Jason was then kind enough to explain the fine points of bracket racing to me and it all started to come together for me.
Jason raced in bracket 3 that day. He had a leak in one of his slicks.
I was nominated to run back and forth to fill the air tank and re-fill his slick.
went on to win, It was cool.

The next race I raced my car, man it was slow! It seemed so fast on the street? I thought, this track must be way too long, or something. Needless to say by the next race the Line Auto crew helped me get my car running better and I won the second race I had ever entered in, bracket 4 champ.
That was it ! I've been totally hooked ever since!
Not to mention I gained a second family and we have had a good life drag racing together all over the country.
Jason of course has gone on to do great things in Pro Stock.

So the moral of the story is,enclosed trailers are very nice, AND NEEDED but they have taken away a certain element of our sport that we will never have again. I am glad I got to be a part of it when it was the way it was.

Glen DeMenge

[treessavoy]

Street racing in the '60's turned into regular trips to Atco and on from there.

JimR