Forrest Shropshire is a walking, talking Chevrolet encyclopedia. He focuses his attention these days on building 1955-'57 Chevys at his Cassville, GA home, but there was a time when Shropshire was a genuine terror on the Southeastern strips in his "Black Widow" '57 coupe and "Milk Wagon" Nomad. Shropshire also has been involved in Bonneville speed runs with brothers Gene and Tom Burkland.

During a lull in the action at a recent Super Chevy Show, Shropshire reminisced about the summer of 1953, when he entered his first drag race.

"I'd been readin' in the magazines since the late '40s or early '50s about drag racing and racing in general. I felt like I could do good in drag racing 'cause it didn't take a major amount of money.

"We had a dairy farm up there in Cartersville, Georgia and right down about a mile below us, they opened up a dirt drag strip; but it was just as smooth and level as any modern-day strip. It was a full quarter mile, but of course, back then we probably weren't runnin' at much more
than about 60 mile an hour and it didn't take a whole lot of room to stop.

"So I went down there one Saturday afternoon after I'd borrowed my brother's four-door, dark green '52 Chevrolet. It had a three speed and a six-cylinder engine in it, and I had mud-grip tires on the car 'cause I figured it'd grab better.

"They had a flagman down there and there was a bunch of people I knew, and of course I was a little bit nervous with it being the first time I'd ever run on a drag strip, but it was pretty excitin' too, with crowds everywhere you looked.

"This was my first run, 'cause there wasn't any time trials in those days, it was just my time to run somebody. So I was sittin' there, waitin' for the flagman -- and I started off in reverse! Went the wrong way and nearly run over some people! People was runnin' everywhere. It looked like a
bunch of ducks gettin' shot at. They went every which way.

"By the time I got it in low and got it going the right way, the other guy was long gone, he was down at the other end of the drag strip.

"So I got beat and that was it. They throwed me out, and told me, 'You're goin' home buddy.' But it was fun and I had a big time that day. You've gotta' learn sometime and I've enjoyed it ever since."

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