Classic Drag Shots
A fellow racer emailed me some great pictures this weekend, that I wanted to post for a couple of reasons:
1. Because this is called "From the Drivers Seat" and there are no racing related entries on my blog yet. I thought it was time to put some up here.
2. To give all my new readers something visual to look at
3. To practice uploading pictures into the site.
This first shot is of an early Cuda funny car. I love the bondo all over the body (imagine a hevily sponsored ride today doing this) and look closely at the rear tires...all four are off the ground.
These next couple shots are of "engine failure" in order of least to most impressive. The first is Jim Dunn's early dragster (Jim Dunn still owns a funny car today and competed in the NHRA professional ranks last year). Anytime you have flames shooting out the general bottom area of the block, that isn't good.
You would be hard pressed to find a picture of a more catastrophic failure than the one below. With the crank shaft, and several piston/rod assemblies lying on the track, the reaction of the driver sitting in the car is priceless. I have a feeling the marketing department over at C & T Strokers left this photo off any ads or flyers they made.
The next shot is one of the explosion/wreck that most change the history of drag racing. Some of you die hard drag race fans probably have seen this one. This is of Big Daddy Don Gartlis who lost part of his foot in this engine/trans failure. After this incident, is when he decided it was time to build a rear engine dragster. The rest as they say...I have no idea who is circled. Since it is my blog, lets pretend it was my Dad who just happened to be in attendance in the front row on this historic day.
Here is a classic shot. Front wheels of the front engine dragster up in the air smokin the tires, and the flagman is classic. This is how it used to was folks, before christmas trees started everyone "fairly".
While we are looking at wheel standers, here is a shot of a Anglia getting way up in the air. If you can't see the name on the car, it says "Capp Fedderly Pioneer Anglia". Terry Capp and Bernie Fedderly were successful top fuel racers, and some of you even casual race fans might recognize Federly's name as one of the crew chief's with Force Racing.
These last three I just thought were cool pictures. The thing I liked about the first one wasn't the car so much as the lady in the pits in a skirt and heels. Never see that today, maybe on a model with 4" heels and a "skirt" that is skin tight and just past her butt (not that this is a bad thing).
Here is a shot heading down track from the driver seat in a front engine dragster. Note the 4 lane dragstrip and the smoke coming off the tires. Today this is a bad thing, the end of a run, and most assuredely a loss, but back then, they smoked the tires the entire length of the track.
This last one is my favorite picture of the ones that were sent. The info sent to me said this was taken on a chasis dyno in a lab at Ford and is one of Connie Kalitta's dragsters. I just thought the shot was cool.
I have some more that I can post later. Thanks for stopping by.