How did you get started in Drag Racing?

[jimmyparker]

Attended the '57 US Nationals at Okla City as a 14 year old paper boy, been hooked every since. Won my first trophy there in '61. I see other racers adding a bit more info so i will do the same.
The race I won my class at in '61was a NHRA Regional, the precurser to divisionals. I won J/SA, still have the trophy, clipping out of the local paper with results and some pages of the ND that covered the race. NHRA added quite a few stock classes in '61 with "L" being the lowest, my Oldsmobile ran "E" in '60.
I remember Dale Ham being at least one OCTA meeting in that era explaining the next years rule changes.
Okla City only lasted a couple or three more years after that with the closest track 70 or 80 miles away.
When I was drafted in Dec, '65 i was sent to Fort Benning, Ga. I asked a local about drag strips and he named off about three that was in the immediate area with 3-4 more in withine 100 miles. That was music to my ears so I, with a little luck spent my whole tour at FB and been here since.