Art Arfons

[Becky White]

Probably no one will read this, but I had to write it. Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove thrilled ALL racing fans for many years everywhere. I doubt there was a dinky little drag strip they missed...they would race ANYWHERE. Y'all know Farmington Dragway was my hometrack and it opened in 1963. Those guys were at their peak and they came to Farmington more than once. One of the times they raced there, they started on the top end and raced to the starting line! Since the starting line was so close to the road, there were people out there to stop traffic...just in case! When we heard the cars start on top end EVERYONE ran to the starting line to watch! HA! You can guess what happened next! The first time they came, there was a fence at the road, then a driveway, then another fence so when someone was going around the driveway, their car wouldn't get splattered with rubber, rocks, etc, from the water box. Well, when those guys fired up their jet engines, of course, the fences were the FIRST thing to go! HA! I don't know if it was one of them or not, but one time when we had a jet car there, some of the local guys rounded up a bunch of junk cars and piled them up behind the water box so they could get 'burnt' out! They did. Everyone loved it! Talked about rednecks! Anyway, I just had to put this in here...I hadn't thought about that stuff in years!!! Man...those were the days!

[draglist]

Great stuff, Becky. Thanks. bp

[RH]

The Arfons family did way more for motorsports than most folks will ever know. Innovators on the flats and at the strip.Those LSR battles were some of the greatest times in motorsports history.I saw the jets run at the great York US 30 AHRA races,Budds Creek and the narrow 1/4 mile outlaw strip at Colonial Beach where the car set the grass apron on fire for 1/8th of a mile one dry August.
God Bless Art and thank you Arfons family.
RIP

Ron

[WCB]

RIP Art

[Pappy1]

R.I.P.

[Jack Redd]

Here's a funny stories about Art Arfons. In the very early 60's Art and his "Green Monster" Jet-car was booked into Aquasco Speedway in Aquasco, Md. I was working the starting line. Art and I were talking and he handed me a coat hanger with a hot dog on it. He said when I fire-up watch for my hand signal and put the hot dog in the flame and cook it. I did it and took a bite of it and the people went crazy! He was not only a "GREAT" guy, but a "GREAT" showman too!
By the way, when you see a NASCAR race, the jet-dryers are built by Arfons' sons.
R.I.P. my ole friend.

[bandit]

I saw Art blow the siding off the timing building at US30. Some say the whole building moved. I'm not to sure about that but it makes a classic drag racing story.