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Minnesota Dragways

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  • Minnesota Dragways

    We can't have a nostalgia area and leave this track out. No frickin way!

    I raced my Chevelle for the first time at this track. It was '75 and I had just put headers on her. I had tested it out on the street and felt pretty good about what she'd run. I pull into the pits and uncap the headers. If my adrenaline had a rev limiter and it was set at 6k, I had to be at 5800 that day! I pull up into staging and look over to see who I'd run against and it was a girl in some basic grocery-getter. Bob Doolittle was the staging director and was getting ready to line me up with the girl...I thought. All of a sudden a Camaro idling about 3k came up in the very right lane which was reserved for hi-powered drag cars and Bob pointed at me and then to the Camaro!!! I shook my head like I wasn't going to run him and Bob angrily motioned me to get my ass up there!

    I do my burnout and stage. The tree comes down and we leave. As my tach hit 4500 the car felt like it was running out of breath and I shift to 2nd. The Camaro's win light comes on and I'm still in 2nd gear! I picked up my timeslip and it said 14.64 I was so embarassed that I said I'd never race again. I pulled back into the pits and put my mufflers on and left.

    Later after messing around with the car I found out that the Doug Thorley headers were real short and worked best with exhaust connected. When I uncapped the exhaust it had leaned the car out and obviously needed to be jetted up.

    I won a trophy on the last day the track was open. Unfortunately, one of my slicks went flat and I figured I was through. My friend said why not try anyway with my street tires? The closest car in my class was one of those Scrambler Ramblers. I figured all I had to do was beat him and I had my trophy. When they called my class up, all the other cars failed to show. Now I had a problem. In order to win a trophy on a single, you had to run within a second of the track record which was 12.40. The best I was able to run up to this point was a 13.65.

    So I left the line at half throttle spinning and as soon as I felt the tires grab I floored it and clicked it into 2nd. When I came back and got my timeslip it had run a 13.38! I got the trophy and they said good-bye forever.

  • #2
    What a great memory! Thanks for sharing:cool:

    Comment


    • #3
      KDWB Drag Festival part1

      My brother moved here from So Ill with his Showdown Camaro in early '75. After working the bugs out of his new Viking Racing Engines powerplant, we felt we were ready to compete at an upcoming KDWB Drag Festival at Minn Dragways. The radio ads were buzzing about it and we were excited.

      The car had gone 11.60's @ 119 and we liked our chances. They put the car in SS/H a 350/295hp category. We were kind of the "outsider guys" (no different than now) and as we pulled into staging, there were a number of other cars in the same class. One was John Thorsen with his '69 Road Runner 440 6-pack. The car was silver with a black vinyl top & Keystone Classics. He was running 11.90's. (this same car still races at RF in the 10.60's by John Schei) Another was a white '71 SS-454 Chevelle 4-Speed of Peterson/Thompson (this car became Beluga) also 11.90's and a number of low 12 cars.

      Our thoughts were that we would run against other SS/H cars. These guys had seen the Camaro make some 11.70-11.80 passes (my bro was sandbagging). While we were eager to line 'em up and destroy the competition, I saw the group of guys looking at us and they were "pulling straws" to see who would run us. Well, instead of matching us up against the SS/H cars, they put him up against one of Dick Landy's old Pro cars. It was a 10 sec Hemi Challenger. We went . We talked to the track personnel and basically they said we had no choice but to run him????

      By this time, we were pissed to say the least. Well, they did their burnouts and lined 'em up. The Pro-tree came down (heads-up) real fair huh? and the Challenger did a big wheelstand and had to back out of it. lol All I could see was my brother's Camaro blowing the Challenger's doors off! My bro ran a 11.66 @ 119 I think. You could see the disbelief in the guys eyes who had planned on putting us out first round.

      The guy with the Challenger came over and congratulated my bro and said nice job...I'm gonna buy me a car with a small block Chevy!

      to be continued......

      Comment


      • #4
        Haha, back when KDWB was AM and the station was based out of Woodbury.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Z28SSMAN View Post
          We can't have a nostalgia area and leave this track out. No frickin way!

          I raced my Chevelle for the first time at this track. It was '75 and I had just put headers on her. I had tested it out on the street and felt pretty good about what she'd run. I pull into the pits and uncap the headers. If my adrenaline had a rev limiter and it was set at 6k, I had to be at 5800 that day! I pull up into staging and look over to see who I'd run against and it was a girl in some basic grocery-getter. Bob Doolittle was the staging director and was getting ready to line me up with the girl...I thought. All of a sudden a Camaro idling about 3k came up in the very right lane which was reserved for hi-powered drag cars and Bob pointed at me and then to the Camaro!!! I shook my head like I wasn't going to run him and Bob angrily motioned me to get my ass up there!

          I do my burnout and stage. The tree comes down and we leave. As my tach hit 4500 the car felt like it was running out of breath and I shift to 2nd. The Camaro's win light comes on and I'm still in 2nd gear! I picked up my timeslip and it said 14.64 I was so embarassed that I said I'd never race again. I pulled back into the pits and put my mufflers on and left.

          Later after messing around with the car I found out that the Doug Thorley headers were real short and worked best with exhaust connected. When I uncapped the exhaust it had leaned the car out and obviously needed to be jetted up.

          I won a trophy on the last day the track was open. Unfortunately, one of my slicks went flat and I figured I was through. My friend said why not try anyway with my street tires? The closest car in my class was one of those Scrambler Ramblers. I figured all I had to do was beat him and I had my trophy. When they called my class up, all the other cars failed to show. Now I had a problem. In order to win a trophy on a single, you had to run within a second of the track record which was 12.40. The best I was able to run up to this point was a 13.65.

          So I left the line at half throttle spinning and as soon as I felt the tires grab I floored it and clicked it into 2nd. When I came back and got my timeslip it had run a 13.38! I got the trophy and they said good-bye forever.
          do you remember this car?

          Comment


          • #6
            Wow have not seen that pic. in years

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by 602hp View Post
              Wow have not seen that pic. in years
              thats my uncle. that car actually came out of the woodwork about 3 years ago exactly as he sold it in the mid 70's. 800 some odd miles and still hadnt ever been registered.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by lark-o View Post
                do you remember this car?
                Unfortunately, I don't remember this Camaro. I've seen pics of it somewhere though.

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