First street race? ......(ages ago,of course!).

Here's a couple of 'oldie' stories for y'all, both from the very early '70s and both based on Whittier Blvd. here in SoCal:

Background for anyone who doesn't know, Whittier Blvd. and Bob's Big Boy in Whittier, CA, was one of the hot spots of weekend cruising back in the '60s and '70s - on par with Van Nuys Blvd. in Burbank and much better than Harvey's in Downey (lowriders cruised Harvey's). Any given Friday or Saturday night you could find anything from kids in mommy's grocery-getter to stock musclecars to almost full-on race cars out cruising. It was like a rolling car show but with lumpy cams and loud exhausts.
Great time to grow up in SoCal. At the time I was driving a '69 Dart Swinger 340 that I'd bought from the original owner in November '69 - he'd joined the Navy and his parents wouldn't keep up the payments for him.

Late one afternoon I was on my way home but was stopped at a red light when a new Chevelle SS396 pulls up alongside and gave me a slight rev. We both left at the green and I pulled him by about half a car since the Dart was lighter than the Chevelle and the 340 was such a quick winder. At the next light he pulls up and shouts over, "What do have in there?"
I answered back, "Just a small block." You should have seen his jaw drop.

Another evening, my 'ex' and I had been down to Whittier Blvd. cruising and decided to head back to our apartment. We were just heading into an industrial area west of the cruising area and, just as I'm pulling away from a red light, up alongside rolls a mid-60s Chevelle. We both rolled even with each other checking each other out when he suddenly jumps on it. I did the same and blew him away. I saw his headlights turn to the left and we turned right and headed home.
About four blocks later a Whittier black'n'white pulls up behind me and hits me with his red lights. I pull over and park, having no idea why he pulled me over. He walks up to my window and tells me to just sit still. About five minutes later the Chevelle pulls up to the curb with another black'n'white behind him. I got ticketed for "speed contest". The only thing we could figure was they had a chopper up in the air, saw us, and directed the cops to both of us. The area we'd raced in was dark without a lot of street lights so it would have been easy to follow both of our headlights after we split in different directions.

Boy, was that a fun time. There was some really heavy street action with Big Willie and the International Brotherhood of Street Racers meeting at York Field in south Whittier but I was never involved in any of that - way too rich for my meager income back then - other than going down there and looking at the cars.