1961 NHRA US Nationals
Vložit
- čas přidán 29. 09. 2022
- 1961 NHRA Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park ..
Where else can you have ham and eggs and tear down your engine at the same time?
Thought this would be of interest to those who keep asking and wondering where these people are today...
Thanks to 247wallst dot com for the now 2 year old statistics.
The share of people born each year since 1937-38-39-40 alive in 2021 was calculated by comparing U.S. Census Bureau population projections to the number of births each year from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vital Statistics of the United States report series. Total U.S. population figures in each year are from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Since it is now March 2023 as of this writing, I think it would be fair to assume an additional 2% deduction per year since 2021 for each age category.
24-year-old pop., 1961, People born in 1937 still alive in 2021: 38.8%
23-year-old pop., 1961, People born in 1938 still alive in 2021: 42.4%
22-year-old pop., 1961, People born in 1939 still alive in 2021: 46.4%
21-year-old pop., 1961, People born in 1940 still alive in 2021: 48.9% - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Pete Robinson lived next door to my grade school. I was in the 6th grade and fascinated by all things mechanical. I walked to school or rode my bike and one day I noticed this odd-looking car. I was scared to get close, so I hid in the shrubs growing beside the carport and watched this guy work on his odd-looking car. I'm sure he had seen me hiding for several weeks when he said "hey kid" are you going to help me or hide in the bushes forever.
That was the beginning of my love of racing. Pete took me under his wing and showed me how to do all sorts of things. I started out fetching things and sweeping the carport. Later I was given the task of dragging a magnet around the crusher run gravel on the playground of my school. The magnet would load up with iron ore which I would scrap off and put in a bucket. After a week or so I had a full bucket which we poured into the rear frame rails of his dragster. Pete was an engineer and made blower drives in his machine shop located in the basement. He was always inventing new ways to do things. He filled the water jacket his SB Chevy with cement to stiffen the block. He also came up with a lever operated jack that would lift the rear wheels of his dragster just enough to get them spinning - at the drop of the flag he would release the lever dropping the car onto the track. The NHRA outlawed it. He also had an immaculate 40 Ford with a Buick engine that he raced early in his career.
Pontiac Tempest complete with that rear mounted 2 speed transmission. The forerunner to the Pontiac GTO.
After starting high school, I lost touch. I was flying helicopters in Vietnam when I learned of his death. Ironically, he was killed on my birthday in 1971. To this day I think of him frequently.
Wow, that is an amazing memory to relive, thanks for sharing. I was born in 70' so I was just a wee lad during the iconic glory days of NRHA.
Great story❤!
Great story, cheers for sharing. 👍
Always great to hear true stories of the legends first hand. Thanks so much for sharing 👍
"With cars, as with women, too much weight in the wrong place can create problems...."
Man, I loved the 1960's.
Interesting I see no overweight people.
'uh, pass the pickles will ya Harry?"
2+ packs of cigarettes a day keep ya thin….
@@mikeg4163, non filter too. Mixed with little or no fast food. Limited sugary drinks.
@@bradleyvantassal8328 more like most of the people there would have been under 40 and the tools were all hand tools people had to do all the work they diet wasn't that different I grew up in the 1960 there was fast food and soda , but people had to work back them. that had nothing to do with setting at a desk all day.
@@mbsnyderc i think the Internet and cell phones might have something to do with it. Growing up my bicycle was my cell phone and the Internet was seeing how far from home i can go without my mom finding out.
16:47 - I saw TV Tommy Ivo run the four engine Buick dragster back in the 60's. Man what a smoky beast it was!
I was around for the 50s and 60s and they were the years of real drag racing. It has evolved into big business with no room for the little guy.
This was when NHRA had a nitro ban in place, this was all on gasoline, pump gas as there was no race gas then, no methanol no nitro. This was when all the other HRAs were started like AHRA, IHRA, UDRA, PDRA all so they could run nitro. I was too young to race here but I did my first race in 1963, I still have Hot Rod Magazines going back to 1957. I have never quit racing, but have taken pauses to regroup. Still race today although my 22 year old son drives. We have four dragsters, one is a simple DYO car, then a single mag injected nitro car, and a blown alcohol class car for Comp a BB/DA and still have a Top Alcohol car but dont race it now for a few reasons. I am only 77 now and if I can lose some weight I might get back in the seat for a bit.
Closest thing to race gas, then, was when you went to a general aviation “strip” with a gas can and got some “green” 100/130 octane avgas - or if you were really lucky, the mil-spec 115/145 purple stuff! (You could get the green stuff with a gas can at Flabob general aviation airstrip in Riverside, CA, as late as 1988 or so. I got some for my bike, then. Seemed to help low rpm throttle response in the F7. (Kawasaki two-stroke.)
Then again, premium pump gas was close to 100 octane, or better still if you could find *Sunoco 260!*
I saw not a single obese person. No one even over weight at all. Not one.
The generation that the people in this video raised were the first obese generation.
Back when money didn't ruin the sport,( Run what you bring !)
(And you better bring enough)!!🔥💪
I'd much rather watch drag racing back then than today. Today it's just like NASCAR, They are basically they're all the same cars with different paint jobs.
I was there. This is the first time I've seen this film. Thanks for posting. Brings back a lot of memories. 😊
Thats amazing, glad to have ya here! I hope those were good memories!
My friends and I drove up from Columbus Indiana and were in the stands. An exciting day.
I saw Garlits when he was still running front engine dragsters, the Hemi Under Glass and several Jet dragsters (Green Monster was one) at Dover in N.Y. I raced a 66 Barracuda then a 68 Roadrunner at Raceway Park in N.J. We were all young and times were much simpler not perfect but simpler.
Watching this brings back memories of my dad telling stories of his racing day's. A story of meeting Don Garlits at a race in California. The breaking of a tie rod during a quarter mile. I miss the stories of his wild day's. I miss you dad,❤.
Mine, too.
What a prize video for American History. Thanks for the post! This will live on no doubt.
Back when you could campaign a nitro dragster out of a typical suburban garage.
this was during the nitro ban- all gas burners here, much, much cheaper
My father was participating in drag racing in that era at the local level. Even back then in 1960, he said the costs of drag racing at the national event level was astonishing high.
@@69Applekrate so?
No you couldn't...the average guy had nowhere near the money...same as today, just add zeros....
We still work out of our suburban garage.....
Back when these guys were the driver,mechanic and sponsor of their cars….great stuff 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Look how much skinnier people are compared to no days lmao people used to actully go outside and do stuff. Our food must really be poison geeze
Growth Hormones make animals grow fast!!!
its the smoking, cant eat when you smoke 2 packs a day
@@daniel-it2lw As a smoker, let me tell you, ya still eat.
@@ryanhummel7714 yes but considerably less, my partner and dad both smoke. And my dad especially eats very little as he is always smoking,
Same with the blokes at work. They don't eat lunch they smoke, so healthy being skinny haha
It's fantastic that the technology exists to make these old videos looks so great! Thanks for posting!
I was there! 10 years old, raised in Speedway, sitting just beyond the finish line with my brother. But I didn't recall that Sneaky Pete beat an A/Competition (dragster with a "full" body) car: could have sworn it was either Jazzy Jim Nelson in the Dragmaster with the 413 Wedge or Jack Chrisman in the side-by-side twin Chevy Howards cam dragster.
Oh well. I'm old enough I've forgotten my first wife, too.
And only vaguely recall the second.
We always seem to remember the things that mean the most to us. Hopefully this video brought you back to a good place.
Four marriages for me. The last is the true love of my life. I wish I had forgotten the first three before I married them.
Was ready to remain single after the first three. But we are both all in, and have been since the night we met.
Before that, I was (successfully) chasing the wrong women for the wrong reasons.
Matt’s our son
-Matt’s dad
Stupid question, but do you know what engine was in that white 61 Dart coupe? 383 or 413?
Still using the same basic formula… big supercharged pushrod V8s. So much has advanced but a lot hasn’t changed in 60 years. Honestly these old gassers are far more interesting than the modern ones
The tires were definitely the weak point, many of these cars would have a second or more with drag slicks
Love that comment about too much weight causes problems........
Good to know some things havent changed over the years
I saw Eddie Hill's twin engine dragster in the video. He's still racing today! I love the old drag racing footage. Thanks for sharing.
That’s crazy.
I love watching this old stuff to see that almost everything has changed, at 18:27 you see him torquing the blower down to 30 foot pounds. In 1961 there were no burst panels and the "pop" valve on the inlet manifold actually did nothing but leak a bit. Years later we learned to use aluminum studs to hold the blower down and those torqued to 120 INCH pounds and would snap off if the compressed air fuel charge in the intake manifold found an ignition source. Putting straps on the blower to limit the travel when this happened also came later.
vintage know-how is just as interesting as these films. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Great insight..thx KW
That was FAN. TAS. TIC !!
Look how packed it was back then and look how many people had race cars. Now days if you drag race your considered rich and people can't afford to go and watch every weekend like back then. Country some how changed drastically and some where some how at some point we made some wrong decisions
Pure drag racing, no show ponies, no Christmas tree
Get to the line & GO! With no tire prep or crew chief strategy & pep talk & which way is the finish line talk, there's no time to waste.
A time when I had a hell of a lot of enthusiasm but no money.
They mentioned Jess Van Deventer in this video, set the record for his class at 8.95 seconds and retired unbeaten, died recently in 2019.
The clarity of this video is excellent, thanks for posting. Was nice to see Pete Robinson take the win there. Unfortunately, I was to be witness to the run that took his life, at the 71' WinterNationals. It was debated whether or not to finish the race on Sunday...but was decided to so. The feeling at the Pomona fairgrounds that Sunday, was of such great sadness, you could darn near hear a pin drop between rounds, and the usual happy/smiling faces of race fans & participants alike, were conspicuously absent that day 😔.
I did post some of the '71 Winternationals in case you hadn't seen it ( czcams.com/video/xzpJUKTfhsM/video.html ), but much of the televised video footage that was taken is surprisingly scarce and hard to find. I wonder if that is why. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.
I appreciate these legends and how they went fast. Old school tech and trial by error, unlike todays computers and wind tunnels…
3:07...........the wisdom of our forefathers is ageless.
Excellent ! This is better than the stuff we watch today !
Glad you enjoyed it
I remember going to Flamborough Speedway (Ontario Canada) early 1970's, loved the smell of the smoke and burnt tires, than when dusk would settle, and the temperature would cool down, all the lights from the strip would turn the area into a magic-land.
THANK YOU SO MUCH. I REALLY ENJOY WATCHING VINTAGE MOTORSPORTS. I LEARN A LOT FROM THE PAST AND FROM THR PRESENT. GREAT VIDEO AND THANKS FOR SHARING.
Glad you like them!
Found my Dad's car at 4:50. #120 Orange front engine
excellent! 🧐 good sleuthing!
Seems like just a bunch of good ol boys getting together to race whatever they had. Must have been a hoot.
The old DA tower and no bridge, a full quarter mile, and a flag man, yes.
Yep first time i did it was were my dad run out of Houston,Tex at Dickenston flag man ect NHRA in in 64-5 worlds point champion race !!! got the win!!!
in J-stock
Those days are long gone sadly.
Yes it is sad but we can always re-live the good old days even just a tiny bit by watching these documentaries on CZcams! 👍🏾
I love these old videos I remember early drag racing I remember when Big Daddy Don was the first to go over 200 mph and later the first man to break the 6 second mark
This was my first, was 10yo and lost in this for life!
A few years later (1962-5) my mother was taking me to *Irwindale* on a regular basis.
Thank You! Still have a D-A tin can holding some parts. I didn't see any big castor angles, that's what really made an impression on me in 61 when the dragsters front wheels would almost lay on their sides when turned. That & Don Garlits black leather jacket with Swamp Rat pic &some low Roman Numeral painted on!
note, that the support cars are all within a few years of 1961
I like this kind of drag racing better than the one that's on MTV!
I had a copy of the Hot Rod 1961 yearbook that just captured my imagination. It is very cool to finally see many of those pictures come to life!
here's my '61 Winternats video as well if you're interested czcams.com/video/TDpHeEx5UxA/video.html
@@supertubr Very cool!
If I had a time machine that’s that’s where I would go!
Show up with your phone and show them a modern top fuel car
@@mitchvankesteren6771 It would blow their minds.
Not when JFK was around. You might wind up dead in a Vietnamese rice paddy.
My ole man ran his D/G 57' Chevy
" Shaker 2" there..
days of old .... love these vids , thank you
Back when these really were hot rods, every car was different even when they looked alike, there were no rules restricting the format of top fuel and ingenuity was king.
THANKS for posting these!
you're very welcome glad your enjoying them!
Excellent footage and color considering the age of this film!!!
Very well done too!!!
Thank you! Cheers!
Great footage!!
This is back when racing was good.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, a decade from the birth of Drag Racing...................................................
When "run what you brung" was alive and well
in between 1960 and 1970 they picked up 6 seconds, went from mid 13.s to mid 7s, it was fookin UNREAL as s kid 9 years old to see cars were going this fast, my mass car did a 19 second quarter, and it was fast, oldsmobile..
Wonder how many of these poor fellas had to go to Vietnam war sucks.
Beautiful cars during a beautiful time of American excellence.
Yes indeed!
Great video ❤️ And people look slim and healthy. No computer games, just outdoor hobbies.
One of the first things I noticed.
Slim and healthy? Are you insane?
Rampant alcoholism and everyone smoked.
But yeah...what you said.
I like the flagman who is now obsolete . Talk about old school
Thank you sir! This is exactly the content I was looking for! Liked and subscribed, I endeavour to watch every one of your videos and look forward to seeing the evolution of drag racing.
Welcome aboard and thank you!
The variety was what fascinated me. All kinds of combinations of engines, body’s, no limits to the imagination of the individual.
AA dragster runs 1320 ft in 8.8 seconds @ 170, 63 years later Top Fuel runs 1000 ft in 3.7 seconds @ 338.
While I really enjoy the pro classes today, it’s the sportsman classes that are still to core of NHRA.
i love the sportsman classes. I wish Diamond P in the 70s and 80s covered more of those classes in their productions.
Luv this stuff! Lots of different ideas about how to go fast!
I was three years old in 61. I didn’t realize they were so sophisticated this far back.
I was 14 that year and bought my first "hot rod" type magazine for about 25 cents, didn't get to go to the drags for another two years...
It's great to see racing in its simple form, no protracted burnouts and other timewasting, just get up on the line and do it!!!
Yup. Today, it takes about 2 minutes to stage.
Yep and flag drop no Christmas tree
No tree, no rev-limiters no time trials just flat out drags
They started running the front engine class again and I’ve got most all the stuff to build one I need a blower lower intake for a sbc
Thanks for this. Sometimes, I feel like I was born decades too late.
Lions and Pomona where it all went down when I was a kid growing up in L.A.
It's crazy that today, daily driver cars on the streets are faster
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Yeah ,,, and the money to own one is out of this world.............Corporate money ate the hobbist backyard wrench.........................
When times were simpler and we could afford new cars homes speed parts race cars . We built them ourselves fir less money and tjiseveith more money bought from speed shops and had built from speed shops. I miss those days speed shops were like a toy store to me. Hours in one
Ya don't know what you got until it's gone.But ya know it's good fun at the time.
Just think all this started on a dry California lake bed called El Mirage. As a kid in the 60s we were only a 20 minute drive away and visited El Mirage all the time. Loved it
What started on El Mirage?
@@thomaskunz8029 the Southern California Timing Association started real drags
I miss the old world
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL NHRA DRIVERS AND TEAMS.
Wow, 6 years before I was born. Great job cleaning it up!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is GREAT content, so glad I found it. Thanks!
Welcome!
Great Video! Early Ramchargers and future legends!
Very awesome to watch 😆
Great watch this was, it's one thing to see old Hot rods being built in the modern age but seeing the old atmosphere prior to all the modern technology (phones) and commentated on at the time is special.
I was born in April of 1961 and I wish I could have gone I was about 3 months old it would have been great
No over weight car pushers.
When “pump gas” was high octane leaded
And that pale pink gasoline was good smelling shit too!
I remember the choices where, regular or Ethel..aslo gas was 32.9 per gallon and my dad at the time bitched about that ..
Super cool. There's a bunch of stuff I've not seen in a long time. Thanks
you're very welcome :)
Now, it's turning nitro into three seconds of noise. I remember seeing TV Tommy's 4 engine dragster in Bozeman MT.
For a second i thought the moon eyes car was grandpas dragula.
1993 NHRA Top Fuel Champion Eddie Hill with the twin engines and dual slicks setup at 5:43. He had the right idea with 2x power and dual slicks, just too heavy, a bit short, and low on power at that time, Seen a photo of that twin car in a nostalgia edition of Hot Rod I think. He won races with that setup.
Wasn’t Eddie the first driver to break into the 3’s at 3.99??
@@MichaelandCathy1999 Yes he was. Set track record and broke the barrier at Billy Meyers Texas Motorplex. Collected $50k I think, from someone for that deal. He retired and went on to fly model airplane airshows for schools, Ercie was his music lady for the airshows. Got to hang in the Super Shops tent in 93 at SIR when he won it all. Hung with Ercie and had a ball with their dog, Peanut. We happened by at lunch time in the pits, and hung by the rope for a signature. Ercie came over and lifted the rope for me and my wife after the crowd walked off a bit. Had some Texas BBq,, just by chance. Hung in front of the cooler fans with a cold drink and the crew. Then the PA cracked to life again, and the pits woke up.
@@MichaelandCathy1999 first in the 4’s IHRA.
I saw Eddie Hill’s 4.93 second run in Baytown beat Joe Amato, as thunderstorm approached, awesome
thankyou for uploading this piece of history ,just made my day so many memories of a better time,my reaction times arent so good these days but i still managed to hit the subscribe and get on board your channel i didnt red light
great reaction time! 👍
Very cool! I've always wondered why Indianapolis 500 racetrack has been preserved and has a museum but this Dragstrip which I never knew existed has vanished
I'm glad to see the vintage drag cars getting preserved and respect now
If you are referring to the drag strip in this video, it is still operating in Clermont, Indiana.
1961 - Checks fuel to make sure no one's running nitro
2021 - Everybody runs nitro
TV Tommy Ivo already running 4 motors in 1961~!
My dad won Little Eliminator that day in his roadster called "Raunchy" His small block Chevy outran three supercharged cars during eliminations. Semifinal @21:15, final @ 21:58, Trophy presentation @ 24:27
That is really cool I'm glad this video was able to show you that. 👍 Thanks for letting me know.
VERY COOL!!! I was there with my oldest brother (I was 11, he was 18). Great video and memories!!!
So your last name is Ragsdale? I watched the clip 2x to figure out which car your dad was in... very cool!
@@telcobilly yes thats my last name. Dad went on to have a very successful career in drag racing and was inducted into the NHRA Hall of Fame
The good old days👍😎
that starter guy was pure entertainment
Amazing hand built machines. The real fast and furious
The first car proves that Dominic Toretto could to a burnout and wheelie at the same time. Fast and Furious fans have vindication!
Helped a guy at the San Fernando Drags one time do a quick plug change on his Chrysler powered rail and he went out and recorded the first 200+ MPH at that strip. I also got a kick out of the human 'Christmas Tree'. Earlier days of racing allowed fans to see more of a race due to more time on each run. Now it seems like 'bang' and it's over. JMHO
The nice thing about NHRA is they have never really stamped out old drag racing. Their website has tons of stories, photos and archived footage of the legends and the good old days. They definitely respect the old stuff. We can't do anything about progression. Drag racing has always been about speed, quicker ET's and mph. But it's still great that we at least get to choose what we want to watch.
btw congratulations on becoming a helping hand in the first 200mph run at San Fernando! Thats awesome.
It's 10:00 pm, do you know where your kid's are at. Who remembers that?
Interesting blower setup on the car at 12:04 Looks like a supercharger is mounted *in front* of two side-by-side Chevy small-block V8s.😳 I've never seen anything like that before!
I had a model of this one as a kid many years ago.
Fabulous period footage *