WRAP MUSIC

12/8/04

If you're one of the half a dozen readers that have checked out this space when all else has failed this season, good news: This is a wrap. As in Christmas wrap. I'd say "gift wrap," but I know when I've overstayed my limits. I know that when a trio of shaded goons head for the table, the beer has dried up and the innkeeper is staring at me flicking the house lights and it's only 10:30 p.m. ... perhaps it would be wise for me to take my trade elsewhere. You know the feeling, "Geez, no one wants to sing another course of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Latrine."

Okay, okay. I thought I'd do things a little different this time. There are a number of races that fall under the "Races I Wish I Had Seen" heading, but to pick one for this month would be hard. The reason they're hard is because they're especially tricky to research. To call the coverage scant is like calling the Bush Administration error-prone. There's just not much information.

For instance, the indoor Chicago race had just the faintest of overall coverage in the trades. Very little in details of the race, just that it happened and that it was kind of weird. Of course, that explanation/excuse could cover subjects like sex with a goat, but I think you get my drift.

However and whatever ... to the point.

THE 1965 CHICAGO AMPHITHEATRE EVENT

Off the cuff, I can't recall what time of year this race was held. Given that it was indoors, my guess was that it was during the winter. Anyway, a 1/16-mile drag race was held inside the Chicago Amphitheatre in 1965. One end of the place had those huge wide swing-out arena doors, so that when they brought in the circus, the hippos wouldn't get stuck and go berserk. What management did was put pit parking and the shutoff area in the parking lot, and when it was time to race, wheeled in a specially built "fire-up road" in front of the stands. They would then turnaround, charge down the center of the amphitheatre, out the doors, and into a crowd of fleeing drunks.

At present, I don't recall any numbers or who won what. I do recall seeing a picture of Ed Rachanski's Comet launching, and an overall of the arena. Still, even with these poorly assembled shards of memory, you've gotta admit that this was a bizarre setting. A beer, a hot dog, nitro and exhaust clotting the air ... hell, imagine having lunch while you're being teargassed. Only the masochistic need apply? Maybe.

I will say this as soon as I get some info on this, we at DRO will do a feature on this one of a kind burndown.

SAN FERNANDO RACEWAY, DECEMBER 1969

The first dragstrip that I ever went to was San Fernando Raceway, 35 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Affectionately known as "The Pond," it was in the middle of a residential area located close to the San Fernando Airport at the intersection of Glenoaks Boulevard and Aurora Avenue.

The place ran every Sunday and from June of 1963 until roughly 1967 or 1968, I made the track my Sunday Service usually after spending the previous night at either Lions, Irwindale, Fontana, or in the later days, Orange County. Every nerve in my body that responds to the races was developed at this hedge-lined, guardrail-less straightaway and it had a lot of sentimental value for me.

I don't know what it was, but the sport seemed to outgrow this bucolic little playpen, and in its last two years the shows did not feature the hottest cars in town. By 1969, the track still hosted an 8-car Top Fuel and Gas eliminator, but half of each field consisted of injected fuel or gas burners. In these last few years, guys like a 17-year-old Dale Pulde won Top Fuel with an unblown car. Other competitors were a little more anonymous ... Ray Angelieri, Cliff Roa, Glenn Woosley, Tony Garza ... with all due respect, not exactly household names.

I talked to drag racing writer/editor extraordinaire Dave Wallace who got his start at the track and was there for most of the duration, and asked when the last drag race was at the plant. He unfortunately had been shanghaied by the Army and didn't make it for the last few months or so. As a result, he couldn't put an exact date on the Pond's last drag race.

I don't care if they raced box turtles at the final show, I would have wanted to be there. It probably would have featured weak elapsed times and oil downs, but call me a sentimental fool ... I would have loved to have been there.

When I get more details, you just might see a feature here on the best/maybe worst race I ever saw.