Street racing your fave place...(in the past !)

-
In Little Rock Ar.From 1970 till 1978 we had port road. Every sunday we would run there.
Someimes as many as 50 cars. I was running the same 66 dart i still own. Back then it didnt look all that good. Duck tape on the seats,black painted rims but a bad 340 and i still claimed a 273 It was a sleeper. We ran for money most of the time.And I won more than my share. I was running low 13 and back then that was good. Got busted by my boys little league football coach(cop). As always I had my son with me. I was lucky all i got was a long lecture. Great memories for both of us.
 
Early '70s in SoCal one of the hot spots was the Nabisco plant in La Mirada like 'crackedback' said earlier. We'd also head out to Diamond Bar since there weren't many houses out there yet.
One of the best places to gather was York Field in Whittier - always a big presence from Big Willie and the International Brotherhood of Street Racers. Never any racing at York Field, you'd eyeball each others cars there, make your bets and head somewhere else to race.
Whittier Blvd. west of the cruising area was a good place to race too until Whittier PD got there first helicopter (don't ask me how I know).
 
We used to race on the south entrance road to Travis AFB. The gate was closed at night. Looking back, I'm not sure what the heck we were thinking. They must have seen us, but on the other hand we never got in trouble.
 
we had a place out here called Ampex, a good 1/2 mile , 4 lane flat blacktop. we had bought a 73 318 dart sport for 400 bucks, that had been sitting in a field for 6 years. we threw a battery in it, some 8mm wires and plugs, cap, and rotor.changed the oil and ran it up to ampex that night.we get next to a 89? crossfire (or something or other) fuel injected 350 cammode that had been built. we holeshot him and never looked back, kicked his ***. we get back to the starting line, and this guy jumps out of his car, flipping out demanding to look under the hood.we pop the hood and all he sees is a smoking hot, greasy, 130,000 mile 318 with new plug wires and storms off telling his buddies we were running spray and that we were liars and cheats . one of the best times i ever had.
 
Colling Road. We got caught by a city worker, while we were marking out a 1/4 mile with white paint. We told Him it was a school project. He just laughed, and drove away.
 
Georgetown Ontario, after they shut down Toronto International Dragway between Georgetown and Acton. In the early 80's we used to go in there Sunday afternoons with a case of Canadian and drag race our street cars. It was great until the new owner came and bulldozed the track about every 50 ft.
 
Heh...Warrensburg High School is, for some unfathomable reason, set wayyyy back off the highway. How far? Precisely 1/4 mile. There's even a stoplight where the driveway meets the highway, and the driveway is closed on the school end. So you sit there waiting on the light, your buddy is in the turn lane looking for all intents and purposes like he's making a left and when the coast is clear and when the light changes...:burnout:

Shucks, there's even a carwash nearby for a freebie burnout pit.

The driveway runs past the school for access to the ag/fab area behind, so there's a great shutdown area. They've connected this to a country road since then ('96) so it still works as a strip, and it's even easier to avoid lightbar types. It's straight as an arrow and except for a small dip crossing the highway (which teaches you traction control really quick), flat as a board.

Proof (Bottom one is view facing south). I hope I haven't accidentally included enough info to incriminate myself and if anyone sees this and tries it there, I'm not liable!
 

Attachments

  • Stripper Fun.jpg
    148.7 KB · Views: 173
  • Ready Set Go!.jpg
    91.5 KB · Views: 155
In the early seventies my town was about 7,000 people population. On Saturday night 2nd street, the main cruise and part of a highway through town, was the place to be. All the motorheads would cruise the streets trying to impress whoever would pay any attention. Then about ten o'clock cruising pretty much stopped and everyone gathered in one of three different parking lots, a drive-in restaraunt, a coffe shop or an auto parts shop. You pretty much stayed off the street if you didn't have 400 HP after ten! But, IF you cruised the street it meant you were looking for a little action. (Or driving a Ford 3/4 ton work truck and oblivious) Shortly after 10:00 there would be six or eight (sometimes a dozen) cars teasing each other. If you were parked and noticed that ther were no cars cruising and teasing that meant it was time to head about eight miles west of town to a nice, open, level stretch on the interstate. By the time you would get there a couple of guys would be opening exhaust, a few others discussing the night's activities and how things were going to be conducted, and a couple more re-painting the start and finish markers. THEN it would be time to see whether the 427, the 428, the 429, 413, 426, 454 etc, etc was fastest! It usually started with the two fastest cars from the previous week (strip cars made street legal) and worked it's way down the pecking order until it got down to the lowly folks like me. The spectaters dwindled as the horsepower did. One really cool feature of the Sat. night events was that two of the city cops had Mopars. One had a '64 Dodge 330 that he bought that someone had put a 413 in and the other cop had a '64 Fury with a 426 wedge. So, unless a Highway Patrol got lost and wandered by we were pretty immune to legal interference. By about midnight everyone in town knew whos car was faster tha who's!!!
 
Around here it used to be 2 areas in town.

One section about 3 blocks long, from the town square to the "five points".

Another from the Five Points to town (like 8 blocks of straight stretch). This one used to pass right by the cop shop, till the fuzz moved to a different location.

I always get people my own age in rice-mobiles revving their engines when I pull up to the redlight on that nice long straight stretch :D Was never much for street racing though, so I just pull out nice and easy (and still manage to spank them, without trying or breaking laws) :glasses7:
 
Back in the day 60's-70's

1ST Ave Bklyn
3RD Ave Bklyn
Kiwanis Pky Bklyn
Cross Bay Blvd Queens
Connecting Highway Queens
 
Back in the day 60's-70's

1ST Ave Bklyn
3RD Ave Bklyn
Kiwanis Pky Bklyn
Cross Bay Blvd Queens
Connecting Highway Queens

Just to name a few
 
We used to cruise Duke's Drive In on the south side of Chicago. They would have literally 1000 people crammed in their parking lots. After they closed at 10 PM then they would race in a few different places. 107th street, Ridgeland and Sauk Trail, or Ridgeland and Vollmer Road. If you didn't have an old 60's or 70's car, they (the other cruisers) would not let you park in Duke's lot - and you didn't if you knew what was good for you and your car. They would send scouts out with CB's and make sure the cops weren't around and then call back for the race to go.

Ridgeland and Sauk Trail was the favorite place as it had about 300 feet of cement at the starting line which allowed you to get better traction than on the pure asphault spots.
 
in my hometown we had "the georgia straights" in mitchell and hwy 446 outside of bedford. rarely does anybody really race anymore in bedford.alot of the guys now have never even heard of these roads.

the georgia straights was a cool spot. at the intersection where the road began there was a speed shop that my dad ran in the 70-early 80s. he said late at night he`d be working and guys would pull up needing things done. as soon as he was done they`d pull out of the lot and line up right in front of the shop. the road had a 2mi straight stretch.

446 is in between bedford and bloomington and goes past the hoosier national forest. its nice and straight with wide shoulders. but at the end it does have some curves. lots of people have died racing there and running from the cops.

one of the latest ones was a guy in a ws6 was running from the cops and lost it. went into the forest at over 120mph.
 
North of Denver in a town called Longmont. Woodland road, Road 34 & county Line were all in the rotation until the Fast and the Furious came out then every kid with a 4" chrome tip and a monster tach on the dash thought they ran 10's and wanted to race. It was normally 15-20 cars then over night it went to 30-40+. It was only a matter of time before it all got shut down but it kept us all out of real trouble. We never drank or did drugs beacuse we spent all the money we made on going fast.
 
Where I grew . just south of town. It was called the Turkey farms. A quarter mile streach. Most people from surounding towns came there. Not enough Sheriffs to go around, Or we would go into town and drag the ave. Alot of light to light stuff. This was in the mid to late 60's.
 
We have a small plane airport right along the road so there from the intersection and its not busy at all. A strait as a arrow 1 mile road. And you mark 1/4 of a mile and thats where. And you can see the car so you know when to go. And this is today not the past.
 
In the little town I grew up in we went to Gurley Pike every afternoon. Then on Friday and Saturday. Nights we would go to Martin rd in huntsville alabama. Man we had some fun. We went to the. Newer spots this year and its kids with fart cans on their civics and it was bad watching them.
 
The red line is the part you would race on and have to mark 1/4 of a mile there.
dragmarking.png
 
Gandy blvd. St Petersburg side of Gandy Bridge on friday nights after eleven pm,car cruise in and races over the bridge to Tampa.After sunshine speedway drag races were done some of the guys would bring trailered cars out and race a few of them [bracket cars usally] this was in the 70s, my oldest son has taken his nissan 240sx out there and raced it's mostly ricers now just a few early muscle cars according to him.The cops were more tolerant back then now they are strict as hell my son got a 156$ spectating ticket and 3 points on his licence he was just watching his 240sx was at home he has not gone out there [street raced] since.
 
Western was interesting...
Santa Fe/Del Amo
Bolsa/Bolsa Chica
Sand Canyon
Shoemaker
Painter Rd
Nabisco Plant in OC
Newhope
Roxford
Sepulveda Blvd in front of lumber city ??? been a LONG time
The onramp near Century Blvd/LAX
Woodley
Raymer
The street next to the wash in Encino?
Then the riverside/sanberdo places...

Been to a bunch of them I can't recall
all these places that you mentioned plus hum let's see Pasadena on Thursday nights Florence and Main downtown L.A. on Tuesday nights, Beach Blvd & Imperial Hwy at Buffims parking lot, then moved to Beach blvd & Harbor Blvd, then there was Beach Blvd and La Mirada blvd when we got kicked out of the two previous places, Jefferson & Lincoln in Culver City, Kramer & Glassell at Carl's jr in Anaheim, and you had the Hemet places also. Man I was all over the place 7 days of the week. No ricers just american racers.
 
-
Back
Top