Weekend Warriors - AHRA & NHRA Winternationals

[@quickdeuce]

My favorite race of this entire video was the KS Pitman altered and Stone, Woods and Cook '40 Willys. I was a sophmore in high school the year this was filmed and bought the AMT models of both cars, put them together and admired them for years. It was a dream to make enough money to one day build a car for these class's but alas, married and had kids way too early and that dream was never realized. The difference between those guys and myself [as was the case for many] is they did not let anything get in their way, they dreamed, they built and they raced their cars to destiny's as the hero's of the sport they could never have imagined.

[@johnpharis8498]

I share your feeling as to admiring the cars and drivers... I'm a little younger than you.... The first time my dad took me to the drag strip as a kid about 12 years old I was hooked.... I'll never forget seeing the KS Pitman 1941 bright red Willys for the first time.... from that day on I loved the Gasser class... The 41 willys driven by "Big John" Mazmanian was another favorite along with the Stone, Wood, and Cook 41 Willys.... I really like "Grumpy" Bill Jenkins too.... Well I guess I loved them all Sox & Martin made my list too...My father and I had a 1978 Chevy Malibu that we used to take to the drag strip.... We won quite a few trophies with that car.But when I graduated high school in 1991 I joined the Marine Corps. For the next 20 years there was really no time for drag racing... I'm still a die hard drag racing fan and fully intend of blasting down the quarter mile again one day...

[@Alec-nd7qd]

😮my all-time fav is bill Jenkins every Race car he had an. The cars he tuned I love watching to this day God bless dagrump😅😅

[@robbiejones4933]

When the average person could build a car in his driveway and actually come out and win awesome to watch thanks for the upload love these cool old cars makes a person wonder how many of these old cars are still out there waiting to be found

[@georgedejesus6929]

No doubt the best period ever for organized drag racing in the history of drag racing. The cars and the people were fascinating then. I find that drag racing has mostly been a borefest since the 1980's. What brought me back to drag racing is the nostalgic drag racing that is so popular today. At least nostalgia drag racing is trying to recapture the best period in drag racing. Thanks for sharing this amazing footage. Cheers.

[@johnpharis8498]

I agree with you... The top Fuel dragster and funny cars of today are not as exciting as they were in the past... There was not only amazingly beautiful cars the the drivers added a element of showmanship to the sport with thier nicknames and grudge match races... Today all the cars look the same and the drivers are always so politically correct except John Force he always adds some excitement to the sport.... But I will always always be a die hard drag racing fan.

[@topenddean]

Man those Max Wedge MoPar's DOMINATED!

[@nassermansour3516]

Excellent vintage video. I will watch it again.

[@overcastfriday81]

Audio is amazingly clean

[@blkft]

This is SO FREAKIN' COOL!. It's like watchinging those old 70's NFL Highlights video's.

[@SmackintoshSr]

Ronnie Sox driving a Ford and Grumpy & Strickler driving a "Dodge Boys" Chrysler. That's some history right there, folks.

[@ernestross1239]

Good

[@MustangGTA390]

Thank you for posting. Love watching these old videos.

[@goratgo1970]

Super footage in all classes of teams. Amazing to see how barren the Pomona area was then! No pre-stage lights...

[@gorflunk]

It's been a couple of years since I've been out that way but the old Bee Line Dragway buildings were still visible from the, well, Beeline Hwy (AZ-87). The old test track was still there, too.

[@mattkaustickomments]

3:48. Dig that Cadillac funeral flower car being used as a tow rig!

[@irocitZ]

Crazy daddy-o...

[@craigwilson4439]

I was trying to work out if someone built that out of a wagon or something. In Australia we call them utes ,short for utilities. You guys call them pickups. There was a guy in Sydney in the 80's who had a Caddy cut down to a one tonner , which is a ute with a tray on the back, more of an actual pickup to us because the body didn't continue down the quarters in one piece like a real ute. An Aussie wrote to Henry Ford begging for a vehicle that was a car on Sunday and a work horse on the farm. The ute was here in 1934 , maybe late 33 ,not sure there. America did it later with rancheros and el caminos.

[@mattkaustickomments]

@@craigwilson4439 Craig, Utes are the coolest! I really wish they had imported a Holden based Ute back around 2007 when GM was fooling with the Oz-based GTO…. There were a few companies such as Miller-Meteor and Brewster that did conversions for hearses, ambulances and flower cars, like the one shown. I think this one is actually based on a 4-Dr sedan, you can actually see the back door is still there, which was used to access the flowers.

seeing the Melrose Missile again brought back memories of seeing it at the World Series of drags in cordova Ill. summer of '68(i think)...

[@gorfind6730]

I watched every awesome second of this !!!!!

[@kylemortensen5011]

I was born in 89, wish I was born in 49. I missed out, big time.

[@79tazman]

This stuff is awesome I love the old school racing better than today's racing. Back then the driver worked on the car and drove it unlike today the driver don't do nothing but drive. And I love "Big Daddy" Don Garlits and "The Bounty Hunter" Connie Kalitta. This was when drag racing ruled.

[@johnpharis8498]

I agree wholeheartedly..... It wasnt in common to see Big Daddy Don Garlits climb into his dragster with grease up to his elbows.... The drivers back then not only drove but the actually BUILT thier cars in thier garages.... Now today the NHRA teams are owned by big corporations.... The days of building your own car and competing at the professional level is over unless you are backed by BIG BUCKS.

[@kevintucker3354]

According to the soundtrack I hear what sounds like a 6 cylinder a couple of different times! I wish they shared more info on the drivetrains of these cars.

[@jimbiddle8646]

Had my ‘64 GTO painted at Harrel Performance center “ soul paint by Oop. John Fensom. Beautiful job. 1969

[@kevintucker3354]

Pump gas looked like whiskey back in the day! In fact I remember it looking that way until about 20 years ago

[@dylanlee1001]

Same

[@Mercmad]

46:29 ,that has to be the Michigan mad man,EJ Potter on his SBC powered harley frame .What a hero!

[@toddburgess6792]

I love the dude who pushed his dragster because it stalled and the other guy red lighted.

[@kevintucker3354]

A hard fought win!

[@timmensch3601]

I love how when it was slowed down for the fuel dragsters it sounded like a truck pull lol great old footage top notch

[@shiftintohigh5564]

The Ramchargers were Chrysler Engineers racing on their own time. Cool stuff👍👍👍😎😎😎🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 So much cool stuff👍👍👍

[@aricsnyder5882]

95% in this era powerglide.. Many today still running powerglide

[@kevs56chev]

False. I’m seeing 3 and 4 speed sticks, sticks running high gear only, torqueflites, and maybe a couple powerglides in lower junior stock classes. Not 95%. Not even close.

[@kevintucker3354]

Lot of 4 speed cars, and a few 3 speed autos but mostly glides, who’s is still one of the best transmissions today, especially with tune able lockup converters!

[@CH3NO2Semonious]

Today's drag racing is no where close to being as exciting as these races are. Modern Funny Cars are closer to the Mercury Space Capsule than a real car. (I was a AA/FC owner since mid eighties by the way.)

[@rzeric]

boy the hey day! dude pushed his car to finish.. so sad for maynard in logghee car red light! man thats ruff super nice guy and logghe speaks for itself

[@portsidebear]

3:40 Big Daddy Don Garlits!

[@toddbob55]

Fords Drag team use to dominate the tracks...... miss the good ol days

[@carlsenden8750]

This is awesome. Did you notice? No fat people. Amazing😃

[@jeremythompson9122]

@amy bastian I call CNN the Counterfeit News Network or the Communist News Network

[@johnberkbigler4542]

Fat people \I know how much it done today

[@johnberkbigler4542]

Tip ,Food do not want to make sure I don't have questions or something like that

[@danielmauter1737]

Yeah? Five years ago. Stumble upon this. Saw same thing. Told a bunch of younger guys to look at these old flims. No fat guys!!..

[@mikebaker9574]

Cool video!

[@oldsickwolf7795]

Golden era

[@quickdeuce]

@1:15:35, did you catch the shot of the guy moving the automatic shifter to LOW instead of Drive as we would believe was the right shift as the car moves down track. I dunno, maybe they were showing the driver jerking the shifter to LOW at the start? but I don't thinks so, the film editor didn't think a sharp eye would catch that blunder LOL

[@LeftForDeadGarage]

Good stuff sir

[@robbiejones4933]

All those sweet max wedges and hemis and the lone big block ford thunderbolt sweet no doubt in my mind that the original muscle cars were Plymouth way before the GTO

[@josephcottone8776]

I MISS THE DAYS WHEN CARS WERE COOL AND FAST.

[@TheGreenmeeny]

Ossum, thanks.

[@josephwinkler4863]

OMG 44:56 WOW!!

[@dandavis4797]

Awesome footage!!! Too bad about the 30 minutes of ads KZbin forces on the viewer; but greed is everywhere

[@MustangGuru]

I like it better back then. The wall wasn’t 3ft away. Plenty of buffer room on these old tracks. Less damage to the cars if they get out of shape.

[@russellnotestine6436]

So funny to watch them smoke the tires all the way down the strip. A stock Dodge Demon now runs in the 9's. With a manufacturer's warranty. Top Fuel goes in the 3's at 330 MPH.

[@mikehasit]

Took 55 years of technology to achieve what you claimed. Didn't exactly happen overnight. 55 years from now cars will fly.... Literally

[@steveharrigan7811]

Modern Top Fuel is about as exiting as watching paint dry. In the 60's it was magic. These old films are viewed millions of times. Modern NHRA stuff is viewed ONCE !

[@russellnotestine6436]

@@steveharrigan7811 Agree. Their crowds are all but non-existent

[@johnnickle4180]

Dave strickler.wins.a/fx.woopie

[@richardrice40]

Yeah, 3's at 330 in a 1000 ft not a 1/4 mile like it's supposed to be.

[@larrydrozd2740]

12:40 T-shirt, no shoulder belts, no roll cage......wow.

[@quickdeuce]

At Phoenix, anyone else wonder what the H kind of starter stuff they had to race to?

[@jenniferherron3258]

It was a very accurate method to start the race. Flag man would point at each car and make eye contact with driver, then jump in then, raising and twirling the flag and then when he lowered the flag that was the signal to go, so red lighters were spotted immediately. Different classes gave different amounts of car lengths, very fair.

[@darryledwards9829]

ditto, dan!

[@brucebainmatunucksurfrat7911]

Buster couch looks about 20 years old

[@kevintucker3354]

Back when all drag racing was “No Prep”!!

[@DonCatherman]

I think it would be cool to have a no burn out drag race today...no prep no burn out..just pull up and go...I run 6.50 s in the 1/8... I think it would be an interesting race....

[@markchase4513]

Walls of my room were completely covered with centerfold of these cars. Then Leno crashes semi under glass.

[@tkso.philly3879]

Being from Philly,I clearly remember going over to Atco Raceway,N.J.The sounds,smells,the excitement of the people back in the early 70's,still during drag racing's heyday.Personally.I find NASCAR boring.Going around and around....-And now they're doing dirty racing,bumping fellow racers in the rear off the track,possibly killing them.That quarter mile race is BY FAR,more exciting-

[@DM-qp7do]

The hit the traps at almost 200 mph but their wheel speed must be like 250 lol

[@thevictorianworkshop8660]

When did the pre burn out start .before the race ???

[@robbiejones4933]

I was wondering the same thing seems like they would have been alot faster had they got traction

[@andyharman3022]

It made it to the nitro classes by 1970. Before that, if the tires hooked up, they would break drivelines.

[@richardrice40]

I find it odd that in 1965 that that faculty didn't have a christmas tree.

[@richardrice40]

Joe schubeck went on to drive the Hurst hairy Olds.

[@robertbihn3005]

why didn't surfers make it, AA/FD ?

[@onestepbeyond7240]

Wish I had the money back then . Woulda bought every car .... including the ones in the parking lot . ha !

[@robbiejones4933]

Me too would've been a very wise investment so many sweet cars heck I would have settled for the max wedge cars and the thunderbolt

[@dannyruble5488]

That was when dragsters were just getting into the sevens and two hundred miles per hour... IN THE QUARTER MILE!!!!!! The top dragster numbers are a baby race track now days... no way to compare with what happened when the Beatles were still touring. If you were not there part of the scene, then you have no idea what made it so incredibly special. 1320 feet is the History the sport is built on . 1000 feet is a yawn. Even watching brackets for an eighth mile interests me more than the ridiculous thousand foot dog and pony show.

[@kevintucker3354]

If they were still running top fuel cars to 1320 ft they would be disintegrating because of the 360 mile per hour speeds.

[@hemifiedsixtyfour2813]

Back before corporate got involved.

[@aricsnyder5882]

It's Kallitta not Kaleeeeta

[@kevintucker3354]

Connie kallitta, however you pronounce it, is a real legend!

[@kevintucker3354]

Winter Nationals and it sure looks like people are shading themselves from a HOT sun.

[@briansd2772]

That's because it's in Pomona California.

[@brucebainmatunucksurfrat7911]

Swc willys gasser was the baddest car to ever hit the quarter mile

[@kevinmorton4439]

All good stuff Just to bad the commentator doesn’t know how to quote a decimal number.

[@brucefulper4204]

"And Fauble leads the length of the strip!" Really dude.....duh

[@randylockard1192]

Winternationals in Indiana 🤔🤔

[@79tazman]

Winternats were at Pomona since 1961

[@billmiller7138]

The first 45 minutes are the Indy Nationals. 10th annual should be 1965.

[@alanarmstrong2323]

Gas Ronda was on top in 65 !

[@david54106]

Jimmy Nix knows how to celebrate a win ... wow lol...

[@ThomasDeLello]

The video photographer if fond of focusing on women's butts... He wouldn't get away with much of that today.

[@brucefulper4204]

HORRIBLE fake engine sounds. Have to watch with the sound off

[@paulseabrook8179]

MOPAR or go home.

[@kevintucker3354]

Lol, that’s better than Mopar or no car

[@luisdakillkustomgarageminis]

Wtf AHRA?

[@richardrice40]

American Hot Rod assn., around, I think, 'til the mid '70's.