Vintage Drag Racing: Behind The Scenes 

Coming from a 71 year old, the races I attended & watched on TV, from late 60's through the 80's ,were the glory years for me. Thank you for these great pictures & narrative of days gone by. I'd be very interested in a video of the dragstrips,that have closed over the last 30 years or so. Not only the major strips,but the smaller tracks as well. I understand that this would be very time consuming. Still,i think a lot of us would greatly appreciate it! Subbed to your great channel!

I raced funny cars and a dragster. 1971 to 1987 it was a great time to be alive.

Except for the computer narration this was a pretty good video. I’m 73. I’ve raced at Half Moon Bay, Fremont, Lyons, Orange County, Sears Point and Sacramento, Sears point and Sacramento were in the late 90s and early 2000s. Half Moon Bay, Fremont, Orange County and Lyons were in the 60s and early 70s. It was more fun in the early days. No one had 5 star haulers or 10 guys working on the cars. It was raw. I miss those days.

A trip down memory lane. Cheers

Thanks for the history lesson in this awesome sport, 41 AA/FD's all try to qualify for top 16. Now they can't get 16 top fuel car's at one NHRA event.

Thank you so very much for your channel. I’m close to seventy seven. My cool Dad used to take us to York US 30 back in the day. I really appreciate all the memories contained in your photos. Every once in a while you show a photo of a car I have never seen before. Case in point the Don Garlits/Scorpion association. Dig the little tails on the roll cage and chute surround. Please keep posting your very very cool photos.

Two things I miss from back then, Jungle Pam and The Freight Train. Pam bent over and the scream of twin small blocks, Oooo...

I remember 32 car top fueler fields and 32 car pro stock fields and 16 car pro races at maple grove during the summertime

Thanks for sharing these old classics photos

I'm 65 and I grew up around these cars and people! NEVER have I had so much fun. I raced some ridiculous fast Street cars then later got a drag strip car, bracket raced a street legal street car and OMG it was the MOST FUN you can have with your clothes on.

Not a fan of AI and that feeling hasn't changed but watching this vid was fun and amusing.....sure do miss those days and to echo the AI narration, "The Vibe" , 41 AA/FD's, and showmanship is long gone.....like I said, those were the days

Jungle Pam... Had the Hot Pants Shorts on long before the So Called Daisy Dukes came along...

I grew up in the DC area and raced in Modified Eliminator. Thanks for giving Kenny Warren and the Mori Brothers a shout out.

ya brother i saw my first funny car in 1968 i still go 4 times a year. you are rite its not the same but i still love it.

Thanks for the memories!!! Great video and commentary. Use to live at the east coast dragstrips during the late 60's , 70's , and 80's. Great time in my life. You are correct the Nostalgic feeling of drag racing is not there now. Those were the days. Happy that I was able to enjoy the experience. Thanks again.

For some reason, I think I need a Hurst shifter now.

Billy "the Kid" Stepp at 9:10, Wild Willy Borsch (known for racing with one hand on the wheel and the other holding on to the car!), Linda Vaughan! All solid memories I have from watching drag racing beginning in 1967. My brother knew the management at the local drag strip (ESTA in Cicero, NY) and got me and my friend a job running the "dog house", aka the ET shack. It was our job to listen to the tower on headphones, write down the time and speed on a little card, and hand it to the drivers on their way back to the pits. From those days i went on to numerous NHRA national events which were super-thrilling compared to upstate NY competition. Thanks for bring back the memories.

Wish I could go back!! Best days of my life!

A local track, here in New York State still exists, 1/4 mile strip, ESTA Safety Park, in Cicero, NY. Has been there at least 60 years plus...

Thank you for the Connecticut Dragway picture. My uncle raced there and I always wondered what it looked like. Now I know.

this is the best drag video i have ever saw! thank you. i am a retired professional transmission builder and shop owner. at 18:40 those are Chrysler TF8/727 transmissions. the best ever made, i have rebuilt God only knows how many for the last 45 years along with any and everything else,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Great video and research, I have never seen most of these pictures. Can’t wait to see more videos from this channel.

Great video. Great pics. I was at New England Drag Way a lot during high school until I was deployed in the service in 1980. Drag Racing memories from N. E. Drag way , kept me going during tough times. Thank you for sharing

You did a Really gOod job of sharing some Great moments in DRAG Racing🏁🏁

amazing nothing like the ol skool😁🤩love Pam shes the one you alwys forget about😎

From my first drag race at San Fernando Drag strip driving a ‘62 Corvair, as a very nervous 17 year old I launched in 2nd gear, to toasting a 389cu GTO driving a ‘68 built 396cu Chevelle at Lions Drag Strip I loved this era in the NHRA.

I spent lots of time at lions drag strip. We lived right down the street and my dad, uncle and all there friends raced there. Man how I long for a time machine. The best day of drag racing.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES.

What a wonderful trip down the Drag Racing memory lane. Really enjoy your fine efforts in putting them together, wonderful memories of E J Potter down here in Australia. Ahhh the good old days. Cheers Tom

Some real rare ones here. Thank you.

Nothing can comepair to the 60"-70-80 Simply the Glory Days of Drag Racing!!! A shame it's gone? But we have Nostalgia!!!! Thanks Be to God😎✌️

Thanks for posting 😊

that hairy greek van was angelo karitokis had a 426 hemi in it

LIONS DRAG STRIP... ABSOLUTELY THE BEST 👍🏻😎

Grew up in the Midwest, saw many of these race in the 60s and 70s. Great video , thanks for sharing and thanks for your military service 👍

My dad would take the family to Fremont Raceway in the mid 70's this definitely made an impression.In 79 we moved to Los Angeles the San Gabriel valley area.. He had grown up there. The vibe was strong there and this really rings a lot of bell's here now that I am 60. The photo of the video I think I spotted Badman. No mention in the video. Badman was a model by Monogram one of the more popular models of the era. I still desire a 55 Chevy because of this and a couple cars that floated around the circle of peers in my youth even though I gravitated towards Plymouth's and the like.

Wonderful video .. Lots of innovation and very cool drag cars .. these were the fun days and the racers were very serious about speed .. not the same today .. all about who has the most money …

Need to make the tracks safer and get back to quarter mile race.thanks for the memories. I remember Jungle Jim and Jungle Pam at York US 30 dragway.🇺🇸 .

Thanks for your great videos. In 1965 I was a junior in high school and started going to the drag races at Alton dragway and continue to go for many years. Forget the year but Don Garlits broke 200 mph barrier at that strip. Those were the great days. Can't stand what NHRA drag racing has become. Too homogenized and sterile.

My father passed on the love of racing. Drag racing NASCAR any kind of racing except motorcycle. We used to go to the Dixie Nationals in South Carolina every year. They were held at the Blaine drag strip in Elgin . We also raced our own street hot rods . We raced at the walterboro drag strip. I still love drag racing, especially the old gassers. Classic cars and drag racing is all that is on my feed.

Drag racing Changed from the day when we used to take as little as passable and go as fast as we could to , Look at me I spent a million dollars on my car and i still can't be competitive.

Snapped half shafts were quite common, back in the day - or snapping UJ’s making the drive shaft enter the cabin, or giving the car a rear end wheelie. Live long enough, I’m 76, and you’ve seen it all ! 😁👍🏼

anyone out there remember --sunday niagara screaming out of your radio, one of the best east coast tracks in the country. all gone now except for whats left of the original track and alot of weeds.

I went to the races just to see ‘’bloody Mary’’-i remember the ‘’wizzer’’gas tank with the name embossed in the sides, three runs on the tires, -348 Chevy if i remember correctly,--that was 1964 -Saint Thomas ?drag way Ontario Canada --60 years ago and i had my bike out for a ride yesterday may 6 /24 at82 years of age.still puttin,

Very very cool!!!!!!!!! 🏁🏁

Great video and details!

The Firs van named the “Hairy Greek” was owned by Angelo Kariotis. It erased at Island dragway in New Jersey and at Englishtown, New Jersey as a bracket vehicle in the late 70s and early 80s It was powered at one time by 440 Chrysler with a tunnel ram and 24 barrels hooked to a torque flight transmission with a 9 inch Ford rear Was a good driver and helped Island dragway win the division one bracket final championship, which was held at Maple Grove in 1980.

Great!! Thanks.

Loved it!

392 hemi was in lots of cars back the then.

That sure doesn’t look like Mickey Thompson standing by that Pontiac Hemi engine dragster. That looks like Jack Chrisman.

Good video. Thanks for sharing. I just subscribed to your channel. Have a good day.

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!. . . My 1st time at the track was 1962 as a 12 year old at Atco Dragway in Atco NJ at the edge of the Pine Barrens with dirt pits and cheap hot dogs. And obviously, that was milk in that bucket, yes sir! And the High And Mighty was The Ramchargers before they became famous. Talk about political correctness, they've closed almost all the dragstrips here in the USA, now the kids are killing themselves again out on the streets.Strips were initiated to get racing off the streets but greed has taken over.

Yep not the same. In the late 60's watched them run at Tri Cities Airport strip in Binghamton N.Y many time, the likes of Ed Miller, Jimmy Oddy, Bob Chipper and even the Hemi Under Glass once. Miss it all

Seen a lot since 1963

Also seen Shirley Maldowny race also she had a car called DRAG ON LADY which a girl raced her in my 1969 cheville SS.

Looks like the "Flintstone Flyer" cuda funny car the ex "Chi-Town Hustler" car....just watching the vid again....love the pics and some of the AI comments make me smirk....the late Bobby Langley....killed in that car "The Shark"

I have seen the beer Wagon run against my boss that run a 1955 chevy named Mighty Mouse at Rockford drag way in 1965 and 66.

I grew up on drag racing starting about 1960. I agree with your commentary. I can't even watch it on TV. What's up with, jump out of your car, put on a logo cap and hold a can of Mello Yello? ...and talk talk talk.

❤best time

Brian Lohnes has done 2 pieces on the time 955 Turbonique I thought he did a piece on the time 1307 V8 Motorcycle but I could not find it.

Please put me back in the time machine, racing is on life support, ready to return to a time when girls were safe and cars were dangerous.

Big Willy Robinson to me had the right idea.

I ran a 71 pinto with a boss 302 4 speed

Great photos. Not a fan of “Oh Christ” moments.

say is the narration done by A I ?

Hey paradise because you deleted previous videos of yours?? I had them saved in my playlist.

👍👍

I don't know if I'm buying the story about the C&T Fiat @4:37 where the engine builder got the torque sequence wrong. The other story concerning hydrazine appears feasible. Looks expensive in either case. The picture of Garlit's car @7:18 was taken while he still had the 392 in it. I remember well after he put the 426 in it because it started out as his worst year ever competing until out of frustration he advanced the timing to an insane 50 degrees just trying to either get something out of it or blow it up or both. So it did a quantum leap in gaining 20 mph and losing half a second and just kept on doing that. I sure as hell noticed after reading about it because I wanted to build a 354 digger someday but was still in HS. I had been hoping for the continuing failure of that second generation Chrysler hemi. Now they run those 2nd generation derived hemis with the timing advanced as a standard practice. Don has a funny video about that on the tube. Thanks for the post.

YES SIR,lost THANK U

Dude,put the dragster videos back up

Big money ruined drag racing, your video showed the best of times

You keep racing til the $💴 $💴$💴 runs out. The💰out runs the race car. 🙂👍

U will never see that in California again!

look out pass IDAHO ... close call yall 62-63 ? 1976 evnt

11.10 - 11.11 in Documentary... If not mistaken that would be Sloppy... From the Video... Hang on Sloppy... Sloppy Hang on... The McCoys... Sang that... Probably Ice in the Bucket... Hiding Party Materials...🎉

The Chev Wagon VW is on Racing Junk My last comment got deleted by YT.

Far OUT !

I guess someone doesn't like correct politics very much.

I have not been back to a drag strip since the 80's. Have no desire to watch wats there any more. Shout out to Dragway Park, Cayuga.

Thanks for the memories I'm 67 and still busy building cars have a 71 Cuda drag car and we're shoe horning a 440 in a Duster. My Son is building a 71 Roadrunner tribute car 440 with 2 4s

Thanks for taking the time out of your life to do this for Ol’ Drag fans! Sure brings back memories!! b(‘_💦