Connecting Highway

[cammer427]

I don't know how many of you bother with Facebook, but there's also two social groups dedicated to the Connecting Highway and Cross Bay Blvd & South Conduit/150th Street:

Group: "We Raced on Cross Bay Blvd. and The South Conduit"
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=307813812940

Group: "Connecting Highway"
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54726643443

[Paul Ceasrine]

Yonkers Joe,
I remember the 69' L-88 Corvette that the body shop guy owned.
He had his girlfriend drive it, and on the back was lettered,
'If you can beat me, you can eat me'.
What was his minimum, $500 per race?
Raced 'heads-up only', no car-length handicaps.
Don't remember anyone coming up with that amount of cash back then
71'/72'.
Never saw it at E-Town or Dover, but it was supposed to be a
11.50 machine. Yes, it was a street driven. Hung out along
Central Avenue Scarsdale/Yonkers..
Close-ratio, w/4.56's.
P

[chris ok]

there was a vette like that at fountain in about 83 when I joined the scene(18 year old w a war torn stock 69 GTO). A lot of older killers spotting out and running us down. after wards late negotiations at TSS on Linden or Airport Diner on Conduit w the big guns running on 150th thru early 90's(now all blacktop w no racing, but the parallel service road.......).

Don't worry guys, NYC is alive and well, just more underground, except for posted videos, which you can find on youtube if you look.

Yes the fartpipe kids generation does not get it like we(the generation after you all,30- 40 somethings now). But we are "still alive and well".

Thanks for the look back on NYC street racing. True NYC history.

[hemicop]

Some of the streetracers were actually a bit better or at least on par with some pros of the day. I heard there was a pic. of russo's L-88 'vette beating Ronnie sox's S/S GTX and Bernie Agaman was good enough to win a few Nat'l championships. Of course the Mutt Bros. eventually developed into a legitimate P/S team & who could forget the "Wild Pumpkin" race team of Brooklyn Heavy? ...and Scott Schafiroff was no "virgin".
Except for Dave Maskins & some rogue Mopar engineers I don't think you hear of too many admitted streetracers turning pro except those in NY

[Mopar Steve]

Originally Posted by hemicop

Some of the streetracers were actually a bit better or at least on par with some pros of the day. I heard there was a pic. of russo's L-88 'vette beating Ronnie sox's S/S GTX and Bernie Agaman was good enough to win a few Nat'l championships. Of course the Mutt Bros. eventually developed into a legitimate P/S team & who could forget the "Wild Pumpkin" race team of Brooklyn Heavy? ...and Scott Schafiroff was no "virgin".
Except for Dave Maskins & some rogue Mopar engineers I don't think you hear of too many admitted streetracers turning pro except those in NY

Ronnie's '68/9 Road Runner S/S car was bought by an NY street racer. To this day the car still has the radius on the 1/4's.

[cammer427]

Originally Posted by Mopar Steve

Ronnie's '68/9 Road Runner S/S car was bought by an NY street racer. To this day the car still has the radius on the 1/4's.

What's the name of the racer who bought it from S&M? Where is it now? I always find it exciting to hear of ex-race cars that were purchased by street racers... especially when they're still around and haven't been crushed and melted into a fleet of tea pots and toasters.

[Mopar Steve]

Originally Posted by cammer427

What's the name of the racer who bought it from S&M? Where is it now? I always find it exciting to hear of ex-race cars that were purchased by street racers... especially when they're still around and haven't been crushed and melted into a fleet of tea pots and toasters.

No idea who bought it from them originally, If I remember correctly it was a younger gentleman. The car is now in Don Snyder's collection, restored, except for the 1/4's.

[mopar68]

Originally Posted by cammer427

What's the name of the racer who bought it from S&M? Where is it now? I always find it exciting to hear of ex-race cars that were purchased by street racers... especially when they're still around and haven't been crushed and melted into a fleet of tea pots and toasters.

Well, I don't know the name of the racer who bought Sox & Martin's Road Runner after the 1969 season but do know for sure Eric Petosa from Staten Island, NY owned it by the late 1970s. The then 19-year-old's car was featured in an 1979 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. The kid had money...in fact, I saw him in Staten Island one night (circa 1987) as he drove past us with a white Lamborghini with his surname on the license plate. Having said that, I believe this is also one of the Petosa's who campaigned the Petosa Bros. funnycar back in the early 1990s with driver Mark Oswald behind the (butterfly steering) wheel.



M68

[Ron Steiner]

There is a book called Muscle car Confidential that has stories and pictures of almost all the locations mentioned. My best experiences were on the clearview expressway with cars blocking the traffic at the union turnpike entrance while pairs of cars raced a marked off 1/4 mile. My ultimate race was with my brand new '68 Camaro 396/375 racing and beating a GTX street Hemi on union turnpike those were the days.

[Paul Ceasrine]

Lots of Cool Places to Street-Race.
Even some great Musclecars. Each contingent had their own pack to follow. Big-Body Chevy's, Corvette's, Nova's, Camaro's, Ford, Mercury, Olds, Pontiac, Buick, AMC, and VW's and the Foreign Cars.
Even Plymouth versus Dodge. Man those guys hated each other!
Remember 1968 thru 1972, not too many tracks running
'Bracket Racing'. So if you had a car with an Edelbrock aluminum intake, Holley carb and 8" tires, if you went to the track you got classed in
Modified/Production, and your street-car got pounded by a track-car.
On the street, anything went. And it was great fun 'After Midnight'.
PC