How did you get started in Drag Racing?

[Jeff Niceswanger]

In high school I had a 1969 RS Z-28 that John and I had put a crate motor 427/425 L-72 in. Terry Lynn, who was the parts manager at Bowman Chevrolet told us to "Put this in" before we fired it. He handed us a L-88 Camshaft. He said if we bring back the old L-72 shaft he would just trade us even up. A set of 4.88's, Hooker 2 1/4 inch Hooker Headers, Hayes Aluminum Flywheel, Lakewood traction bars and set of 9 inch white dot #8 Firestone 500 slicks and ..... 11.88 @ 116 driving it back and forth to National Trail Raceway on weekends. That set the hook for life.

The class racing part. Blame Joey Wilkes! A few years later we purchased the Green GT Car that Huntzberry now owns. The new pretty blue and black one.

We mentioned to Joey Wilkes that I would like to try SS. We had the car, but running SST. Joey said " We have extras engines ! Try one of ours..". Joey and I worked out a deal, 2000 dollars for four races. I told my brother John about it and he says "what happens if you blow it up". I told John that Joey said not to worry about it,. John wants no part of that... until he hears it for himself, so we head over to Joeys (we both live in the same town). John ask him about it, and Joeys answer was " I've seen him race several times". If its gonna blow up, its gonna blow up on whoever's driving, whether its me or him.. So I'll eat it." So that afternoon we're putting a new SS engine (a 993) in our car. Our first time out was a points race at Quaker City. On the second pass, the rods come flying out of the 993. Joey was about four or five pair behind me, so he was aware the downtime at the track being "from the new guy". Cell phones were just becoming commonplace, and Raymond was sitting in the stands.(Joeys Dad). He called Joey and ask "How bad did Jeff just blow up our motor"? . Joey tells him "how the heck do I know, I'm strapped in the car!" . I'm still at the bottom end, with a huge puddle of oil under the car. My brother shows up, and while looking over the holes in the pan says " Well little brother, your Superstock career was short lived huh?". We were discussing what Joey was going to say, as 2000 didn't even start to cover the damage that I just caused. Joey makes pass, pulls over behind us in the shutdown area, and while walking up and witnessing the oil under the car chuckles "Did that junk Rossler Transmission take a ***** on you! "? LOL. I answered nope.. He says, "Well your gonna be busy tonight". I assumed that he wanted his motor back, and this deal was over. I knew he had a crane in his rig, so I figured we would just pull the broken engine out and head home. To my utter surprise, Joey says " We will have to put my spare in (a 624). He says, its about 15 hundredths faster than that 993... I bout fell over.....So did John. That was 20 years ago, and that weekend had a lot to do with our addictiveness of this class.

Jeff Gillette and I were street racing 750 Honda’s (in 72/73) or anything anyone would throw at us. I rode for Pat Watson ( comp eliminator) back then and started bracket drag racing Honda’s. We did really well!! Pat decided to go comp racing so Jeff and I tagged along. We crewed for Mike Dunn ( BHJ) on his F-G/ Gas Vette. Then we went comp racing with Pat. All the time Jeff and I had Chevelle’s back then bracket cars. I bought a front engine car in 1977-78 and started winning races. I put Jeff in for one race ( ruined him) and he sold everything in one weekend and had a front engine digger in two weeks running! Then it was on! And here we are racing a 69 Camaro Stocker and Hass 2006 Pro Stock GTO in Top Sportsman. If you would have told us then we’d be dialing in 6.70’s in 2023 we would have had you committed insane!

[Tom Goldman]

I grew up around two uncles who were drag racers .One a Stock elim racer and the other a Comp eliminator racer.
I've been told my first drag race was when I was 2 years old. My mom took me to see my uncle race at the NHRA airport drags in '55
I was going with my uncles to races at Vargo , Hatfield, Pocono Drag Lodge, Numidia ,Island ,Maple Grove Cecil ,Capitol from the time I was around 10 years old in '63. Went to my first Indy in '66.
My first trip down the track at 16 in '69 was in my '50 Olds convertible with a stroker ,roller cammed '57 Olds J2 and a hydro . 13.0's on Bucrons
It was heavy but with a 4.10 rear and the Hydro it rarely spun the tires on the street and nocthed a lot of wins over more than a few Z28's 440's and Vettes when they struggled to hook up on the street ..
Got a lot of tickets for loud pipes but somehow never got nicked for street racing.
with heavy influence from racing with my uncle, John Troxell ,I've been addicted to Stock/SS racing for life.

[BRETV]

In the spring of 1971 I was 5 and my dad took me to Midstate Dragway in Havana, IL to see my uncle Jeff Velde race his 69 Mach 1 428 SCJ in SS/G. My uncle told me to jump in the car and ride up to the staging lanes with him to get teched. I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever done. The sound of that CJ with open headers got me hooked. I've had the disease ever since. Absolutely love it!!!




Bret Velde
2003 I/SA