SoCal Funny Car Shows in the Sixties

By Bill Duke

While Fontana was my first (you always remember your "first"), it was Irwindale that really gave me my 1/4 mile education. The summer of ‘66 was when I started to attend with regularity events at Irwindale. I recall when Lions had fuelers, Irwindale ran the funnies, and vice versa. At that time, they were the two dominant tracks offering big car turnouts, touring pros, and night racing. I have to admit though, that I was not a real big fan of the funnies in ‘66. It seemed that the quality of racing was lacking. 

Out of ten cars, four would run well and two OK. The rest couldn't get out their own way and simply blew tranny chunks all over the track. Performance wise, there was a huge disparity amongst a pack of cars. Arrington's GTO ran high eights; ditto with Runyan. The Glendale Speed Shop Nova ran high nines and the rest were happy with elevens. It wasn't until the real back yard do-it-your-selfers were finally weeded out and replaced by competent racers with quality built cars that I began to really enjoy watching the cars race.

Bill Duke
Leftduke@aol.com