What got you started drag racing??

[Dean3870]

Im like a crack baby, thats born addicted. My grandfather ran pontiacs in stock passed away in his race car. My great uncle ran super stock for years. My dad still running stock when he can. my earliest recollections of anything is being at the drag strip, and around class racing. Nothing better in the world!!!!!

[danny waters sr]

My dad ,my brother , me , and now my son (and not too long off ,my grandson)

[Michael Kilduff]

I always had an interest in hot rods..born in 1967 and knew every year and make of muscle cars when i was 9 years old. I remember drawing images of front engine TF cars in first grade.

The first race I went to was at the Highway 258 Dragstrip( now Coastal Plains) in Jacksonville NC in 1976 or 78. There was a skinny guy with a long beard running a 69 AMX with 2 carbs and a tunnel ram sticking out of the hood, I thought was the coolest car ever.

When I was in high school circa 1982 my best friend dated Gene Garrett's daughter....Gene was the record holder in C/SA with a 396/375 Nova called 'Strike Force' back then, I used to go to local races with them whenever I could. Record was an 11.44 back then.

When I was in junior high and high school I got in good with the librarian every year to get me out of a study hall once a day to work in the library as a student aide. The only reason I wanted to do this was to be the first one to read the new Hot Rod Magazines when they came in. I don't know exactly why but I was always drawn to muscle and high-performance cars. Around my 10th grade year in high school (1986) I was working in the evenings after school and basketball practice at a local grocery store carrying out groceries and stocking shelves. One night, a local Stock Eliminator racer named Clarence Leyda (Eastern Ohio - divisional champ one year) came in with his '78 Camaro on the trailer. We got to talking and he asked me if I wanted to come up and work on it. I'll never forget the first thing he had me do; clean all the rubber from under the fenders and on the quarter panel. Fun!!! He taught me everything I knew about working on cars as I traveled up and down the eastern part of the country with him racing. He introduced me to some great people: Gary Russell, Woodro Josey, Jeff Potts, ... I did this through high school and college until I was on my car and began to bracket race and even class race a little.

[Bob Lasko]

It was in 1966, and my older brother Joe took me to Dover Drag strip in Wingdale NY. That started it for me; put the disease in my veins. I raced my 67 SS Nova and 69 COPO Chevell at Dover till it closed in 1975.Now at 57 years old it has become an addiction. Presently I run a Camaro in Super Stock.
Bob Lasko
SS/CS

[treessavoy]

Car magazines and model cars, Hell, I even stripped down my bicycle and modified it. Once I got a driver's license and went to Atco I was hooked.

Started out racing a 1964 Valiant, 225 slant six with a 4sp.

JimR

[Paul Precht]

Jim, I think I asked you this before but I'm too tired to search, how fast did the 225 go, Paul.

[chris3racing]

1961, 13 years old, we lived in Charlotte, NC on a street right off of Independence Blvd. Across the street from from us a couple had, what most of the young guys in the neighborhood thought was the "sweetest" car in the country. It was a B/Gas, Injected '40 Ford Coupe. This bad boy had the chrome injector tube out the top of the hood. Those who don't remember, the pumps were mechanical and you had to squirt fuel in the top to crank it. They raced this car a the old Shuffle Town Dragstip in Charlotte.

The man was involve in a bad auto accident and his injuries left him paralized from his waist down. Bud Moore and Curtis Turner, old NASCAR racers, had their shops down the street from us. They took the car to the race shop and rigged the steering column such that all of the controls were on the steering wheel. The guy wanted to keep racing; therefore, on Saturday morning he would get a couple of young guys to help get the car ready and go to the track on Saturday night to work on the car. We changed plugs, sprayed injectors, what ever needed to be done for him to race that car. It is ironic that this post come up here. I met a man at the car show, where we had our race car on display, and we were discussing Shuffletown Dragstrip. He knew the man I have described and told me that he has just passed away within the last couple of years.

My wife and I raced up until 1973 and I can say I owe all of the memories I have of traveling over the country and getting to know and race against so many of the people who are, and were, a big part of drag racing history, to that neighbor and that little B/Gas coupe.

[Urraco]

A couple of buddies and me went to Great Bend Kansas in April 1958 to see the fuelers and I said"That looks like fun" and the rest is history as they say.

[ssladyracer]

Well lets see I watched for about the first 10 years of my married life and got to where I almost hated drag racing. I kept asking Can we do *something, anything* else this weekend? At our local track they had a powder puff race once every year. I begged my husband TC for about 2 years to just let me make a pass and see what was so fun about going down the track. In 1989 the powder puff race fell on my birthday and that's what I ask for, to get me to the track before anyone else and let me make a pass and he finally agreed.

To say the least he has no patience and he just knew the car would scare me to death and that would be the end of that. I could not get the car to set in the water box at all. We didn't use line locks then and after the 3rd try he pointed to the starting line with a look of "she can't do this" and I rolled up to the line.

We foot braked back then so I hit the pre-stage torqued up and lightly bumped in. The tree came down I had a .019 light and went a 6.94 @ 97mph on the 1/8 mile. That was maybe a few hundreths quicker than he usually ran. Funny thing was, the announcer at our local track said TC just walked off the starting line shaking his head while they were trying to ask him over the PA system who was in the car and he wouldn't even look up at the tower. I got out of the car jumping up and down talking a mile a minute and was hooked. I won the powder puff race that day and the first thing he said was "Your not getting my car"

The next year I had my own car and have been in it ever since. I can remember that first run to this day. So advise to some of you men out there that have wives or g/fs that hate racing, unless you want to loose your ride or build another don't give them the chance to make that first pass. Take it from a woman who got the chance, it is VERY addictive!!!! I am ready on Saturdays to load up hours before he is and the last that wants to leave the track.
Donna Morris