We were always going to the track, as far back as I can remember. I'll share some of the photos I have, but they are pictures of pictures, so they don't reproduce too well. Fortuantly the originals are very crisp and in focus.
Grandpa was in to the hillclimb scene. He watched it every chance he got, and one year even entered the family sedan in the stock car class. This was the early 60s when stock meant stock, headlights and all.
Natually my dad started going to the races as well. Since Grandpa was in the Air Force at the time, my Dad first started attending races while living in Omaha. Racing took place on old air strips then. Here are some pic from '63.
Once he married my mom and moved back to Colorado, I came along and that naturally slowed down attendance to the races, but we eventually started going once i was big enough to not be carried around. Here is one of me, not much taller than a front tire on a funny car.
Tiring of just watching , my Dad convinced Mom that we need to trade in the '64 Barracuda on a '68 Road Runner. This is me and Mom with our brand new Plymouth. Looking at the coats, this was likely in the fall of '68. Dig the hub caps.
A year later and after attending a Sox & Martin sueprcar clinic, dad applied all the newly learned tricks, a few bolt ons and took a class win. That short guy would be me.
He kept after it and was adding occasional wins through '69 and into '70. He eventually accumulated enough points to run in a national meet. The Road Runner got decked out as "The Super Chicken" and ran in the High LAtitude Nationals at Continental Divide Raceways in Castle Rock.
Fast forward twenty years and many changes later, I decided oval track racing was more fun and walked away from the drags. After several years and many cars, I sold off all my oval track stuff and went back to the drags. Here is my first bracket car, a '67 Satellite with a 360. Ran mid 13s in Denver.
Deciding things needed to be a bit faster, I yanked the engine from the Sat and dropped it in an Aspen. Playing the part of a dedicated race car, this one got all stickered up to look the part. Unfortuanly, it wasn't much faster, low 13s, and the SS springs created so much lift I regulary shattered u-joints.
After that came a gutted and striped Aspen with lots of suspension work and a roll bar. I went after this one seriously and took a lot of weight out of it. Eventually got it down around 3000# running low twelves.
Since then, I've again tired of drag racing. I don't get out regularly enough to be any good at it and I'm tired of being a first round sucker. I may still go occasionaly, but the open track day events sound a lot more fun these days.
Just to keep this all Cuda/Challenger focused, here is a picture of my uncle's brand new, 1970 Challenger R/T. He had already swapped out the wheels by the time this pic was taken. Of course we was not too happy when my Dad's 383 out ran his 440, so he sold it the next year. For those who seem to forget what these cars were like when new, notice the rake, or lack of it, on orignal cars.
