More Legends of Drag Racing

[bill dedman]

Originally Posted by Rich Biebel

Bill your a few years older than me so you have more years and changes to cover from the early days.
I went to the racetrack for the first time in about 1962 or 1963. I convinced my father and mother on a sunday drive to go down the entry road to Island Dragway. I went "crazy" when I saw the cars racing and it must have warped my brain! I had no drivers license or a car for a couple years and tried to get older friends who did to pick me up and get back there. By 1966 I was racing all the time and was fortunate to see a heck of a lot of development in the sport first hand......I tell people today.....We just never knew what we were going to see when we went racing as cars and classes were developing and the sport was rapidly changing......Easily the best era......mid 60's to early 70's......

Rich,

You got in on most of the changes. Not a lot happened to the Gassers between 1955 and '62 that was significant except for the blown Gassers. They really weren't much in profusion in the really early years, but began to show up big time, in about 1961.

The Super Stock movement was also born (as a concept, if not as an Eliminator) in the very early '60s with teams like the Ramchargers, the Golden Commandos, Tasca Ford, Bill Thomas and Nickey Chevrolet sporting the latest in high performance "factory" OEM hardware.

That was pretty exciting, just seeing what the factories had come up with for the new model year.

Yep,it was a great time to be a fan of NHRA racing!!!!