My dad, Ted Grucza, was co-owner of Dragcraft in Ohio. I still miss that shop, and all those great times at the races with the Purple Digger. He knew Don Garlits well. The best memories

Some friends and I drove up from Richmond, KY to attend this race. Favorite memory is the George Montgomery/ Stone-Woods-Cook race. We also attended the 1962 Nationals. I have an original Isky Cams winners poster and a ticket stub($2.00!)from the '62 race. Great memories!

@oneolddog8809

4 жыл бұрын

Pete Bribble I saw stone woods and Cooke many time at lions dead strip in so.cal. Remember dick landys dodge? Good times . 👍🏻

@jeremydes100

4 жыл бұрын

hey...I live in Richmond

@petebribble4651

4 жыл бұрын

@@jeremydes100 I was born and raised there, attended MCHS and EKU. All my siblings still live there. My "crew" and I loved drag racing, 1962 Indy was our 1st national event.

@thomasleclair7418

4 жыл бұрын

,,,,,awewsome to hear this,,,,,sir........

@ericjohn1975

3 жыл бұрын

you all prolly dont give a damn but does any of you know of a way to log back into an Instagram account?? I somehow lost my account password. I appreciate any assistance you can give me!

Don Garlits is such a giant of the sport. Started drag racing in 1950, and his innovations have revolutionized the sport many times over. Not all of his ideas have worked, but he never stops trying to create something new. Even off the track, Garlits is an impressario. He built his museum of drag racing, and who thought it would be worthwhile? I've been to it twice and loved it both times. I could smell the nitro and rubber burning, the place had such atmosphere. I never knew he ran a wedge engine, but I guess it was forced on him during the nitro ban era. I met him twice: once at the '77 Springnationals in the pits, when he was rebuilding his engine, and then once at the '01 PRI show in Miami, when I was manning the booth for my employer at the time. He asked me some questions about our engine, and we had a nice conversation back and forth about tuning and design details. I even saw him make a pass in a two-wheel-drive pulling truck once at an NTPA event. Too bad he didn't get elected to Congress when he ran. I would have voted for him if I lived in FL.

I miss class racing and these times. So lucky to have been a part of it.

@60viking

4 жыл бұрын

You and me both.

@willrobertson826

4 жыл бұрын

You no it

1963, I wasn't even a thought yet (born in 1965). I love watching all the old drag racing from the 1960's

My era. Fun to reminisce. I remember Stones, Woods and Cook and often saw them at Lions Drag strip in Long Beach, CA. I was 17 in 1963.

Very cool to see Big Daddy Don Garlits in the early days of drag racing!

I miss the wide world of sports, and the old days. They were fast even back then

I used to love watching Wide World of Sports back in the day...

@buxxbannerspov30

4 жыл бұрын

THE best sports show ever...they had a good variety every show and some really good boxing...they should bring it back

@robj2704

4 жыл бұрын

Remember Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, also?

Great memories!! I was a junior in High School in 63. Rebuilt my 265 Cu inch 1955 Chevy engine my senior year in High School. Raced my 1955 Belair at Lions in Wilmington, Ca and Orange County Raceway in the day.

I'm in my 50's.My memories of Abc's Wide World of Sports is from the 70's,especially,the scene in the opening credits when the skier lost control off ramp and bounced like a rag doll.Those commentators words,along with the music,"The THRILL of Victory,,,and the agony of defeat..."-The way it was put together,has put an everlasting memory in my mind-

@nicetna2010

Жыл бұрын

I haven't confirmed but was told that skier died from that skiing accident.

In 1963 I was a sophomore in high school just getting interested in hemi engines and drag racing. This is a fabulous video - thank you so much for uploading it!!!!

@johndavey72

4 жыл бұрын

Good morning from the UK. Can you explain a sophomore? A word l have never heard , l guess it's to do with education in your final years. Many thanks . Take care and stay safe.

@andyharman3022

4 жыл бұрын

@@johndavey72 In the US, sophomore is the second year of high school, grade 10. Freshman, sophomore, junior, senior.

@BobbyOfEarth

2 жыл бұрын

I was nine in 1963, I recall them putting in the first Tree lights in at Fremont drag strip. We lived about five miles from the track but I could hear the cars making their runs early on Sunday mornings, as I laid in bed. I really enjoy the memories..

I'll be 58 this year . My dad took me to a local track in 1967 and I became an instant fan . Every single Sunday I was glued to the TV hoping for Drag Racing on Wide World of Sports . Close as I ever got to owning a strip car were 1/25 scale . Makes me smile I've got or have had every well known name here . Plus I've been to the US Nationals 19 times . Man we came up during a great time....now guys are experimenting with electric , just ain't the same .

This is really awesome to watch, completely analog drag racing 👍

My first visit to race was at Detroit Dragway in 63. We still had a flag man, and he was a show buy himself. Someone must have a movie of his performance. I ended up at Chrysler engineering performance. Buy American.

Nothing BETTER than the Old Days

Am catching this on a Saturday afternoon, reminding me of my Dad getting me hooked, only TV I could watch all week!!...although I probably started watching circa 68.

I lucky enough to attend the '63 Nationals. Great race. Thanks for posting.

Jim McKay & Wide World of Sports & The lndy Nats...Wonderful Childhood Memories! (My First Car in '79 was My Family's '62 Grand Prix!) Thanks So Much For Posting!

@thomasleclair7418

4 жыл бұрын

,,,,,our times ,,when America was ours,,,,during our youth......

@dougauzene8389

4 жыл бұрын

@@thomasleclair7418 Couldn't Have Said lt Better! ;-)

Great Gas Class footage! My E/Gas '55 Chevy was at this race after a long flat tow to Indy with 10 other teams from the Lions Drag Strip area in Long Beach (SW&C being one of the teams in the caravan). Both my car and the team car, a D/Gas '57 Chevy Hirschfield Automotive/Oscar Gregory Chevrolet sponsored entries, broke in competition but, set national records at this event in D/Gas and E/Gas. My '55 set the E/Gas NHRA National ET Record of 12.71 et until it was reset the next year by Gene Schwartz in the spring of '64. After this race, on the flat tow home, the guys stopped at Half Moon Bay Dragstrip for a big event and set the National Speed Record for E/Gas at 110.56 mph. This is great video coverage of the Nationals! Thanks for posting!

I remember these days. Ohio George Stone Woods and Cook. And don't ever forget Wild Willie

Imagine 75k of families going to the drag races today. Incredible times.

No staging shenanigans back then. My dad ran B modified production in his 67 Corvette. It was his only car and drive it everywhere. He swears his new Camry would smoke it. My mom only decided to date him because of that car. I don’t think any woman has said that about a Camry.

@charlesmanis8863

4 жыл бұрын

That's great

Seat of the pants racing at it's very best. I had the privilege of meeting Don Garlits at the 78 NHRA Western Nationals. A fine gentleman and I still have the Promotional Photo he signed for me.

What a great step back in time!!! 59 years ago...This was a time that so many things were so much simpler in so many ways... Just plain Fun!!!

This was a great show used to watch this all the time when I was a kid. Great to see Big Daddy and Stone Woods & Cook in this one.

I don't want to say I'm old but I have been on Wide World of Sports........twice🤯

Cool ass races I was in the 9th grade and always watching them ..

Thank you Nick for this great race made my day to see Tony Nancy's georgeous digger fuel ban days

I used to go see Don Garlits race in Atlanta back then. This video brought back a lot of memories.

Hello Nick, Matías Solé, i very like the NHRA races of 60´s. Congratulations Nick, best wishes.

Those were the days!! I wish we could relive them.

Love the OG interview. I spoke to him at Beaver Springs drag strip. He told me he was a diehard Chevy guy till he saw the Ford SOHC. Then he became a Ford guy. Got rid of the Chev and put in a Cammer. One season he went 11 of 12 with the Ford engine. He told me it was a full second faster than any other gasser. I guess that is why the other guys started a petition to have him banned from the NHRA events. No more Ford SOHC. He also said he left the fastest engine at home, another Ford! True that.

Thanx Nick ! This sort of medicine right now is wicked quick sick on sidewise slicks ! It sure has me smiling like I was back at U.S. 30 or Great Lakes Dragaway . I don't remember Oswego muck way back then , but, for the moment , It's a terrific memory that has taken back to when I'd be happy to breath the burning rubber !

Wow!! So many cool cars n drivers. We had Don as our Grand Marshall at last year’s Florida Dragstrip Riot event Thanks for sharing I wasn’t quite born, when this was held. Not until November 18. Sadly 1 week later we lost JFK

@79tazman

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah Big Daddy was Grand Marshall of the Mopar Nationals a IHRA event at Grand Bend Motorplex in Grand Bend Ontario Canada back in 2017 or 18

Thanks for sharing these wonderful videos from the Glory Dayz of drag racing. We heard names that are forever known as the Fathers of Drag Racing. Thumbs up!

AWESOME!!!! I didn't know this was on WWofS back then in fact I didn't even know WWofS was on that far back.

great stuff! remember it well. had the stone,woods and cook model. for dry lake racing, check out screwdrivers of culver city hot rod club on F B.

WOW BIG DADDY DON GARLITTS , MAN IM GETTING OLD 😭

Love watching these old races ❤

Gotta love the whole "no helmet" aspect of early, nationally televised drag racing! And I have to wonder..if the teenage girls screaming sound bites after every race wasn't pulled from a Bo Diddley concert crowd.

That was so amazing to see! Alot of the real pioneers of Drag Racing in there heyday. 👍

Ahh, the good days of Americana history. Makes a guy wish he could jump into this video and stay right there forever.

Cool, the year that many friends, others n i were born. Love drag racing. Thank you Nick Pettitt.

"These cars capable of 110 to 112 mph" Good to see that my 2003 is up to 1963 standards

@jeffbecker8716

4 жыл бұрын

Was thinking the exact same thing. '87 Dodge Omni.

@MrTheHillfolk

4 жыл бұрын

Yea not bad , it only took 40 or 20 years if you go off those 2 examples

@mitchelrowe7363

4 жыл бұрын

I would rather drive one of those Willys with a lawnmower engine doing 5 mph than ANY modern car!

Great interviews! Thanks

Chevy has always been the go to engine for drag racing. Was then, is today.

@andyharman3022

Жыл бұрын

Except for nitro classes.

Big Daddy was competitive using a "B" wedge powerplant. That is amazing.

@michaelhayden8626

3 жыл бұрын

It could have been a 426 wedge RB though being a 1963 race.

The nostalgia is so thick one could cut it with a knife.

Ron Abbott's "Hellzapoppin" was a local favorite in '63 at The Dover Drag Strip where I went as a kid. Garlits only took him by inches...! [25:57]

Nothing but REAL cars here. It cost ME $3000 to get my '57 Chevy coupe into the high 10's. This was back in '67.

My dad was 20 in 1957.He came from the ORIGINAL HEYDAY',of dragracing.He would tell so much about the 50',that I wish I could go back in time to visit.DRAGRACING??? PURE- D AMERICAN---😎😎😎

And l thought this was as early as it gets! "Big daddy" started drag racing in 1950!? Fabulous stuff! Thankyou. Suddenly realised "Big daddy" beat Tony "the loner" Nancy .

I love these drag races--back when they actually ran a quarter mile. I hate the new drag races of only 1/8 mile. Just ain't the same. Great run by Big Daddy Garlits.

@jimjonrs3932

4 жыл бұрын

Except the fuel classes.

those 4 speeds took a lot of hell!

That was fantastic!! Thank you.

I was born Dec 1 of this yr. Later on I developed a keen interest in drag racing during the early 70's that continues to this day. I found the interview with "Ohio" George Montgomery particularly interesting.

Outstanding... Thanks Nick!

Show us that supercharged smblk George what's not to love

So cool to see the early days...when it was a sport for "everyone," not just the high dollar sponsor backed million dollar operations! Don Garlits is 88 now, push started his little front engine rig in those days to mid 8s. Now they're in the 3s (1000 ft.

This is classic.

Amazing - no one has even thought about Mustang's / GTO's when these guys were doing THEIR THING..

Were the Impalas running 409's?

Boy do I miss the dayz of modified production classes!

The final was very, very close as the Albany Assassin almost knocked off Garlits.

Didn't matter what we were doing on Saturday, neighborhood baseball game, jumping bicycles or blowing things up with cherry bombs, we all went home if WWOS was showing NHRA or NASCAR. My personal favorite was the Freight Train twin Chevy rail.

Herman Mozer and Jim Thornton classic!!!

Man I wish I was born just ten years earlier!!!!!!! Nothing like going fast

This is real old school racing, not that shit you see on tv nowadays.

I still laugh when I hear "The agony of De Feet".

This is awesome I love the 60's drag racing back when you did not have to be a millionaire and have a bunch of big sponsors to race

@Romans--bo7br

4 жыл бұрын

79tazman... It was the Sponsors that largely created the need to be "multy-millionaires" to be in the Pro classes, especially T/F & F/C... while at the same time, they "made multi-millionaires" out of the few that were "picked up" by them for sponsorship... while forcing Many Hundreds of the T/F (AA/F back then) and F/C (actually started with F/C) owner/drivers out of the sport, because they could not compete with the big buck sponsorship money of the few. Of course, Wally & his gang (NHRA) saw the $$$ signs looming large to help fatten their own bank accounts as a result of allowing it to happen. It must be said though, that "Big" (Garlits) NEVER operated on "Big Corporate" money sponsorship like Bernstein, Prudhomme and all the others. What sponsorship he had was mostly in the form of hard core parts, with a little money being secondary... and winning being primarily of his pure "genius" in designing and building as well as his driving abilities. You rarely (if ever) would ever see him completely tear down an engine, or remove Any parts whatsoever between rounds other than just checking the valves, spark plugs, etc... he couldn't afford that, like the "big boys"... but sure beat lots of them and set more track, divisional and national records than all those he beat, put together... not to mention the myriads of innovations that he came up with over the decades.... not the least of which, building a back motored digger that finally went "Straight". I remember when over 130 AA/Fuelers (T/F these days) would show up to qualify for a 64 car field!!... there is barely half that many (of 64) T/F's in the entire country anymore! I remember when Prudhomme & McCulloch first showed up with their fancy new Dodge ramp trucks with their Mattel Hot Wheels sponsored F/C's. That, was the "Beginning of the End", for All the racers who couldn't get significant money sponsorship to compete against them and it quickly spread to AA/F (T/F) within weeks. It was also The End of "grass roots" drag racing and Wally & his crew quickly turned it into an "Entertainment" business for TV and the masses.... and fat bank accounts for themselves.

✝️🇺🇸👍 god bless and thanks for the video

Anybody else notice that 90%+ of cars in the right lane lose? Damn. That's messed up!

Great they didn't dick around with staging then, got right to it! Good ol' days...

I have the trunk lid off SW&C Willys. Dont know what to do with it, but I got it.

1/4 mile drag racing is in my opinion is way it should been. No 1000 ft or 660ft.

how simple life used to be... load your car up on the trailer, drop by the local gas station, fill up your tanks with ETHOL, and head to the track.... race what ya brung... no fancy fuels.....

Ron Abbott's Hellsapoppin was a clone of Sneaky Pete's 1961Tinker Toy that had run faster than the 1963 Swamp Rat with the wedge engine, Big Daddy was lucky with this win. This was real racing when you had to be at the christmas tree before the cars ahead crossed the finish line, not like the song and dance you see today. If you were a spectator you better get there early as it was standing room only if you were late, vs. the empty seats today.

@waltmonroe4994

4 жыл бұрын

I remember them not announcing Pete's times at first -he was shattering the record on nearly each pass and they were asking,"Who the hell is this guy(not over the P A system) and how can he be going so fast?" That's how he got the nickname "Sneaky Pete" !

@thomasleclair7418

4 жыл бұрын

@@waltmonroe4994 ,,,I heard of Mr. Robinson in the later years,,,,when he was kickin ass with the 427 SOHC ford top fueler,,,,,,,and remember he died way too young.......rip ....

Funny, I have a reproduction retro t-shirt I bought a few years ago that advertises this exact race....

... groovy whitewalls... BIG Daddy Don Garlits wasn't famous yet - great archive !

@andyharman3022

Жыл бұрын

When he made his first trip to compete in California in (maybe) 1958, the rivalry between east and west coast drag racers was full of trash talk. The Californians were calling him Don Garbage because his car wasn't pretty.

The good ol’ days when you’d be drunk before the checkered flag and drive home with a doctor approved cigarette hanging outta the window. And that was me Ma!

Today, the "rail cars" race at over 300 miles per hour!

What's with the NDN chief wearing the war bonnet running around at the start line?

@NickPettitt

4 жыл бұрын

cdrhf.com/Inductees/bob-beezer/

@radio645

4 жыл бұрын

@@NickPettitt Thanks for the information,very cool, never hurts to have some NDN medicine in the air!

@danielsmith-ze3wy

4 жыл бұрын

Learn something new every day thanks and god bless

Did I see an Indian in full headdress staging a car ?

@remylopez4821

4 жыл бұрын

flyinwalenda The story I heard was he was there so that if there was a chance of rain he could do the anti-rain dance to keep it away and keep the race is gone they had one at lions drag strip as well at least that’s the story I heard

@Pro1er

4 жыл бұрын

He was checking the cars to see who stole his apple. What a drag, Indian appless. That joke's as old as this video. 😋

"The Big Go" has always been, and always will be the moment in a persons life, when Labour Day Weekend becomes more than just a Holiday..............attend Indy once. Go find your bucket list, and a pencil................................

Was this the first ever nationally televised drag racing meet?

25.57 big daddy Don Garlits

10:20, Super stock Max wedge...MOPAR!

Now for a message from Newport Menthol cigarettes...lol

Big Daddy is the man!

stone woods cook willys - everybody here

It's a shame that the announcer didn't call out the times and speed in all the races.

You don't see a lot of Henry J's at the drag strip anymore. 😋

@downtownbobbybrown6237

4 жыл бұрын

You should attend the Dover dragstrip reunion .saw some there and alot of Willy s and 55 Chev gassers .

Why no speeds and times? Ridiculous.

I would say that the Chrysler execs. of these years were trying to save their asses with money . A national event with B / RB engines in Fuel .

Ramchargers.... Helmet? ... We don't need no #!@? helmet.

big daddy gettin' at 'er

Drag racing has become so far out of reach for the average working class American, i find it boring today. These old races i can relate to. So in 2023, this is entertainment. And history

...........

Look