Postby Roger » Wed May 20, 2009 11:53 am
Still no luck in finding out where Shake Rattle & Run will be appearing this year, but I'll keep searching.
Time for another dip into my rather deep well. morebetter99 (Pete) sent me some You Tube shots of the chevy, but along with them came some other things which brought back some refreshing memories so here we go........
On the Draglist opening page there is a piece about Gabby Bleaker, its well worh opening, as a south side guy his name and legend still ring loudly if your in your 60's Both he and "The Greek" have logged many hours out on the streets of south Chicago, on Western Ave, down 87th street, on the Bldv of 55th street.............whew...... you talk about Nites of Fire, lordy!
But there is also a shot of Dale Creasy Jr's funny car and thats a name that carried alot of weight back in the day, his dad was the head guy at Nicky Chev. dealership and ran the dyno and was a tuning god in his day. He also had a pretty bad assed nationally known altered wheel base chev 2 which also saw some street time as remember.
Jack Sharky could be seen from time to time in his Hemi Dart a plastic and aluminum terror in its time. This was a pretty tight network of real hands on, inventive and if you think about it, fore fathers of Drag Racing in the late 50's and well into the 60's, add Gary Dyer, and several others to the list, and it's easy to see the people and things that began and fostered racing in the midwest. These fellows were at all the National evnts back then but they lived match racing from weekend to weekend all over the mid west. How they burned thier candles at both ends and are still amoung us is a wonderment even to this day. Hell I just saw "The Greek" a couple of weeks ago made the field in St Loiis. with a tow behind trailer for cripes sake!
Guys like Raipd Randy and some of the other national circut and touring pro's due so very much for this great sport, and for me, I would much rather go to a reunion or nosolgic event somewhere, than one of the 20 or so Nationals that the NHRA puts on. Been to two in the last couple of years, and although the power and speed are pretty awsome it seems like "Little Joe Racer" is left out..............oh well I guess "That's ENTERTAINMENT"
So if ever you get a chance to see one of the nostolgic deals, you really need to go and support these guy's with T-Shirts and autograph's They work thier butt's off for you, and thats something you won't see at Million Dollar Baby races. Don't get me wrong here guys, the Big guys (Force,Schumaker,Prodoume) are still at it but with budgets and paid gun's in the pits and the seats, and although every one of them came up the hard way they all appear to rolled over to the money, and thats ok too.
I guess if you got it flaunt it.
Glad thats over.....LOL so now lets all get together and crush ET bracket racing and start heads up, class racing, kill all the electronics, and deley boxes and go back to good old "Run whatcha brung, and hope ya brung enough"
See ya it the Big End!
Roger