So is anyone out there old enough to remember Tri-State Dragway in Kahoka, MO??? Back in the 60's.
Well it was a great time back then. I was in highschool and my buddies and I had a car club called the Ishtar's Car Club and we worked at Tri-State Dragway just for the fun of it. That is where I first saw Don Garlits and Curt Wasson......I can't remember if Connie Kalita and Don Prudhomme were there or I saw them at Cordova.....well it was one or the other.
It was always a blast when Curt would come up from St Louis. There were always a lot of local favorites there like Gordon Selkirk from Peoria.....Ed Brugie ( I am probably spelling these names wrong )....Gabbie Bleaker.......jeeze......there are a bunch of other guys....I will have to ask my old buddies about them.....they can remember all those names better than I can.
I remember when Curt ran that Gold Corvette.....my god.....that thing would scream.....it seemed like it was hitting 10,000rpm all the way down the strip.....of course Tri-State was only an 1/8 of a mile strip so I am sure he had it geared pretty low. Anyway that damn vette seemed like it would jump straight up when he hit it......like a damn frog jumping.......at least that is the way it is in my mind.....ha.
They used to have a small tower at the finish line, they didn't have timing lights back then, and we would be in the tower watching the runs and we had a switch that we would flip one way for lane 1 and the other way for lane 2.....ha.....that is the high tech we had back then. But it was fun.
Well I will try and come up with some good stories of the strip for you guys.......if you like to hear old farts ramble on.