Houston

[Tzoom]

Being a new guy here I have peen perusing the forum to find out what's here. I scanned the 'Lost Friends' and found names I knew about, some i knew about and had forgotten and some I didn't know about. Marvin Zindler I knew about and I made a comment over there but I hadn't heard about Don Gay. Reading his name reminded me of my days in Houston in the first half of the 70s when I was stationed at Ellington Field. I spent a lot of Wednesday nights at the drag strip south of Dickinson and just north of Gay Pontiac on I-45. I had a 340 Duster that I raced there until it was rear ended for the third time on 225 near the refineries and I decided to cut my losses and sold it. I had a lot of good times at that strip both as a competitor and as a spectator. I remember talking with Jack Roush and Grumpy Jenkins there when they were doing the match race thing with Grumpy's Toy and the Gapp & Roush Maverick. Roush answered all of my stupid questions but Grumpy just grunted and chewed on his cigar. I guess Grumpy came by his nickname honestly. I assume the drag strip is long gone now.

Another strip that showed me a good time was south of San Antonio in Poteet, TX. My ex-brother-in-law had a Mustang he raced there and later was a partner with two other guys who had a 69 AMX, 'The Little Green Giant'. A few AA/Fuel Altereds would come out to race on weekends from time to time. I think one belonged to the Lozano Brothers. It was fun watching them 'skate' down the 1/4 mile. I imagine that strip is now a subdivision or something.

Anyway, that's all I had. Gotta go to Farmtown and harvest some crops (It's an Iowa thing!)...................

[draglist]

Awesome post, Tzoom. Thanks for sharing those memories. It is always so great to get a new member and to hear their own experiences. bp

[Rapid Randy Baker]

HI Tzoom, welcome to the board and thanks for the post on your memories.

[Mr. Jean]

Nice to hear about some old memories. One advantage to being older, is we have more of them.

[Bret Kepner]

Another strip that showed me a good time was south of San Antonio in Poteet, TX. My ex-brother-in-law had a Mustang he raced there and later was a partner with two other guys who had a 69 AMX, 'The Little Green Giant'. A few AA/Fuel Altereds would come out to race on weekends from time to time. I think one belonged to the Lozano Brothers. It was fun watching them 'skate' down the 1/4 mile. I imagine that strip is now a subdivision or something.

Tzoom, is the track in Poteet to which you're referring the old Alamo Dragway or another track?

[Tzoom]

Another strip that showed me a good time was south of San Antonio in Poteet, TX. My ex-brother-in-law had a Mustang he raced there and later was a partner with two other guys who had a 69 AMX, 'The Little Green Giant'. A few AA/Fuel Altereds would come out to race on weekends from time to time. I think one belonged to the Lozano Brothers. It was fun watching them 'skate' down the 1/4 mile. I imagine that strip is now a subdivision or something.

Tzoom, is the track in Poteet to which you're referring the old Alamo Dragway or another track?

Alamo Dragway

[WildcatOne]

Great post, thanks for the memory...Don Gay's father, Carl, built and owned that drag strip until it closed in the 80s, then Don was a major player in the building of HRP in Baytown. Don Gay was a fantastic drag racer, as was his brother Roy and his sons, Don Jr. and Shane. I found this link to a photobucket album from the 1950s and 60s from Houston International (originally called Freeway Drag Strip). Cheers, WC1
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y103/N ... agway1.jpg

[Tzoom]

Great photos. It's neat seeing what used to be and then seeing how far things have come over the decades. The cars back then didn't go that fast by today's standards but to them they must have been flying. They had big balls in those days.

Another memory of Houston International was a 64 or 65 Chevelle called the Stars and Stripes Chevrolet. The front fenders and hood were painted blue with white stars and the rest of the body had red and white stripes running the length of it. It was a crowd favorite and ran in the low 10s. One Sunday a guy from Beaumont brought a VW over. The two cars lined up to run each other. The VW with its stinger exhaust did its zip-zip burnout on its little slicks and we all laughed. But when the light turned green it was all the Chevy could do to get away from it, beating it by about a car length. Suddenly there was a new crowd favorite for the day.

[Bret Kepner]

Don Gay's father, Carl, built and owned that drag strip until it closed in the 80s...

Often stated but not true.

The land on which the track was built was donated to the city by its owner, Joe Finger. The track was a joint effort of the Houston and Dickinson Police Departments and both the Gulf Coast and the Houston Timing Associations. The original charter called for all profits to be charged to the newly-formed Freeway Timing Association which would return all income to the operation of the track. Jack Sayres was named as the orginal track manager; he had supervised the construction in '57.

The property was later purchased by area landowner Robert Moody, who continued to offer the track for lease. In the mid-'60s, Carl and Marie Gay picked up the lease, (operating the track as Houston Drag Raceway) and, shortly thereafter, Moody sold to John Bellcamp who announced he had plans for the property. Twenty years later, while "Moose" Pearah was leasing the track and running it under the name Houston International Raceway, those plans finally came to fruition. The property was sold again and the lease was not renewed.

Ironically, it was another fifteen years before the property was developed.

[WildcatOne]

Thank you for the facts, Bret. I've been around here all my life and I never knew the exact history of that drag strip untll now...or how Roy Gay actually died. There are many stories but none are confirmed. Do you know what happened to Roy Gay? Cheers, WC1