Fire Dept Drag Racing

[art leong]

Lew . Back in the day. We built race hemis for a couple of those guys. Don't remember which ones though. Mike Magistro got us to do them at cost.

[Paul Precht]

I think it was Patchogue that had the cut down 65 Coronet. My buddy Ken Bowers used to do the motors for Islip Terrace so I got to hang there once and a while.

[John Bender]

Hi Paul, I remember see those Fire Departments in competition on Wide World of Sports. You broyght back a lot of good memories. Thanks.
nd to all my fellow drag racers/firefighters. Thanks for the job you did and enjoy your retirements in good health. Carreer firefighter for 31 years. YES it is the best job in the world.

[Lew Silverman]

Art,

They took their C-rigs VERY seriously! Eddie Akim at A&P Automotive in Port Washington built the hemi's for the Great Neck Alert's when they had the Ford pickup and the Pacer's in Oceanside (Tasmanian Devil AA/A) always built the motors for that city's firematics team. I could never understand why New York was the only State to have the motorized firematics. In Florida we just did the "old-fashioned" events. Still fun but no where near the adrenalin rush!!

Lew

[art leong]

Originally Posted by Lew Silverman

Art,

They took their C-rigs VERY seriously! Eddie Akim at A&P Automotive in Port Washington built the hemi's for the Great Neck Alert's when they had the Ford pickup and the Pacer's in Oceanside (Tasmanian Devil AA/A) always built the motors for that city's firematics team. I could never understand why New York was the only State to have the motorized firematics. In Florida we just did the "old-fashioned" events. Still fun but no where near the adrenalin rush!!

Lew

I remember Eddie. A friend, had him do his machine work. At the time he was running a top fuel dragster

[Lew Silverman]

They brought the fueler out to Shore Drive in Roslyn one night for a "tune-up" run!

Eddie had a stroke a while back and was recuperating in a nursing home in Florida last I heard.

Lew

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by John Bender

Hi Paul, I remember see those Fire Departments in competition on Wide World of Sports. You broyght back a lot of good memories. Thanks.
nd to all my fellow drag racers/firefighters. Thanks for the job you did and enjoy your retirements in good health. Carreer firefighter for 31 years. YES it is the best job in the world.

Hey John,I'd pay good money to watch "Smokey" go up that ladder.

[Polara500]

I had completely forgotten about those trucks. I had a 63 Dodge max wedge that I bought from Freeport Dodge. It took 14 weeks to get and I race at Islip, W. Hampton and on the street every night "Sunrise Highway". I used it to drive to work everyday from Baldwin to Bellmore and wore it out in a year. I couldn't keep up with the new parts let alone the cost to rebuild it so I sold the engine and transmission to the Hempstead Fire Dept. tournament truck. I remember seeing them on Wide World of Sports. Those were crazy wild days.

Thanks Paul.

[DMann0825]

i remember reading an article about a new york fire dept that bought a new 1965 cross ram 426 hemi dodge 990 car for this competition and cut off the roof and half of the rear for the modifications to compete in this wild kind of competition! I gave my magazine collection away when we moved so i can,t tell you the name of the magazine---but could have been hi-performance cars--- i sure someone else must have seen it---help me out---and of course the car was red!

[Paul Precht]

Originally Posted by DMann0825

i remember reading an article about a new york fire dept that bought a new 1965 cross ram 426 hemi dodge 990 car for this competition and cut off the roof and half of the rear for the modifications to compete in this wild kind of competition! I gave my magazine collection away when we moved so i can,t tell you the name of the magazine---but could have been hi-performance cars--- i sure someone else must have seen it---help me out---and of course the car was red!

It was one of the few that would wheelstand with the poor guys hanging on to what was a 9 second car easily, as they ran it well into the late 80s. I believe the min weight was 2250lb for the C trucks. I saw some youtubes of it a year or so ago, I'll try to find it again. I'm almost positive it was Patchogue. Back in 72 I was at one of the races and Central Islip blew the motor in their A truck, it was a 413 Max Wedge with a 671 blower. The next few weeks I spent negotiating to buy it as is from them but they decided to rebuild it, 600 dollars was the price. I would have had one bad *** street/strip 63 Sport Fury for a 17 year old kid in 72.