To scratch an itch caused by an elephant

[Wayne M.]

Quite often I go through this, and it's usually at the end of the season. I've been going once or twice a year to a NHRA Sportsman event to watch what I aspire to do in the near future- go do some Racin'.
I just got back from a popular event on the Northeastern NHRA calendar, the "Dutch Classic". This event is held at Maple Grove Dragway near Reading PA. This is one of the last chances to see these beautiful cars, and a draw is the last round of the "Hemi Challenge" a runoff of the class established just for the specially built 1968 Hurst Hemi Barracudas and Darts. Unless I hit lotto- bigly- I'll never get a chance to wheel a car like that, but it's great to watch. Here's a video to get a taste. This video was shot at "the big go", the US Nationals in Indy but the Mopar faithful will know who's helping in the tower co-announcung.

https://youtu.be/2jMcOpf2KIw

 

[DavidC]

VERY NICE !!!!!. Thanks for posting

Dave

 

[TFucili]

Whew, I haven't been to Maple Grove since the mid-80s for the Ford Motorsport Nationals! Thanks for posting that!!!

 

[NIsaacs]

Thanks Wayne, that brings back some good times when I tried my hand at a little drag racing back in the mid 80's. I used my 1970 F-100 that I bought new in 1969 and even a little with the '75 pulling truck. I was never very good tho:-laf

Note the towbar brackets on the front bumper, I towed it to Phoenix Raceway Park with the '75 pullin truck, lol. It had/has a 427 sideoiler in it with a 428 crank and @ 0.30 over, it comes out to a 454, and a '69 Torino 4spd close ratio toploader in it. It has a C-6 in it now.

Some pictures of a Poster I had made.

Nick

 

[Wayne M.]

Nick, I didn't know you could mix those crank and blocks.
Maple Grove is a nice place on the north fringes of Lancaster farm country, so you're likely to get a aromatic mix of tire smoke, race fuel, and manure. The return road is a nice country lane, the staging lanes run downhill. Such a great place! I only ran there once at a Mopar event in the mid 90's.

 

[jhenderson]

Great video. In 1977 my buddy ( who now owns an automotive machine shop) and I went to Englishtown for the Summer Nationals. 2 eighteen year old hillbillys who'd never been out of town alone. We stayed all 3 days, sleeping in the back of my short bed pickup. We saw lots of great stuff but I'll never forget Steve Bagwell and his Hemi Cuda. At that time, A Stock was the only class that allowed wheelie bars. I immediately saw why. That thing was positively violent. We went to the pits and Mr Bagwell couldn't have been any nicer. Thanks for reminding me.