how was stock/super stock ran in the 60's and 70's?

[Pat Cook]

Originally Posted by Mike Bassin

Ed and others have it right, was run off Nat'l record with a tenth cushion, it had to be perfect air and a fast car to breakout. Had to win class first, then class winners ran for the money. At 75-80 Dragway we had some excellent drivers and cars but the guys who started building purpose built stockers soon easily out ran the daily driver type race cars. Car counts dropped, the remaining cars were the fast stuff, fun to watch and announce but track operators felt the low car numbers. For about two years, '69 and '70, we had a pure stock or factory stock class that was popular. Soon the better race car guys found ways to make these cars outrun the average bone stock entry and car counts fell off in this class too. Then the brackets. I remember at 75-80 one wed. nite in 1970 we tried a dial your own handicap deal. There was twelve cars entered, within two years bracket racing took off like crazy. The stock / super stock guys got a couple of events a year, at best, at most tracks. Divisional and National events then were about all that was left for them. It is good to see groups like Tri-State Stock / Super Stock and East Coast Stock / Super Stock Assoc. give you guys an alternative to go racing. Good luck to all class racers this year!

Those were the days, but like the man said, racer count was dropping because the car that could run the furthest under, would win. You didn't have to lean on the tree, and it got were two cars that were close in performance were getiing hard to find, so the racing was getting to be skewed.

If we didn't have the system we have in place now, I think, and of course it is just an opinion, and we all know that opinions are like rear ends, we all have one and most of them stink.....class racing would have disappeared. I like class racing, I have even won a heads up race once in a awhile. The system we currently have aint broke. I know they are a few folks who love to see it go away, for what ever reason......but the current format sure provides a lot more racing, and as far as spectator enjoyment or manufacture involvement, very few spectators understand it, even if it was a heads format ( with a half dozen cars involved) they still wouldn't watch,not like back in the late sixty's early seventy's, it just aint the same.....

It is snowing here in AZ, I have nothing better to do at the moment than to surf the net.....

We have don't to take of the racing enough to help it survive, and like the movie "Field of Dreams" if we build it they will come, if for no other reason because people are becoming burn out on NASCAR?