Tampa Dragstrip old video

The drag strip closed down due to noise around 1975. I use to drag race here and live right at the end of the drag strip. On Sunday mornings when the first car would fire up the noise was my alarm clock. I would get up and tow the car about 1/2 mile and start racing. here is a old video taken in the early 60's.

Very cool stuff, Roy.

I saw Jack McClure run at Farmington, NC probably mid 70s. By then, he had sleeker setup. He was laid way back. He had a parachute on the car and a parachute on himself. He was ready to stage, there was a quick blast of the rocket engine that didn't quite get him to the starting line so he sat up and took hold of the front tire to roll himself in to the staging lights. At that time, Farmington was running 1/5 mile and he ran 154 mph.

Gotta love the "Father Knows Best" type music.

We were going to go over the hill to Orange County Raceway one Saturday night. Nitro, Funny Cars, I don't remember exactly, plus the radio ads kept touting that some daredevil was going to attempt to jump 15 school buses or whatever the obstacle was on a Rocket Powered Go Kart . Something came up and we were unable to go. Monday morning we hear that the daredevil and his rocket powered vehicle did half barrel roll in mid flight. The outcome was not good and we were rather relieved we didn't make the trip. Just something about OCIR , we saw Gary Beck bang his blower at the starting line, before the days of restraints. We saw it go straight up and out of the lights, we never did see where it landed . Armor All Rocket Car poppin' that hydrogen peroxide rocket before his run, BLOWS the plywood fence behind the staging lanes to the ground on to the pedestrian walkway from the spectator side to the pit side of the track . Crazy stuff. Glad I got to see it Almost forgot. Shrewsbury in the LA Dart, his usual show was a pass from start line to finish line and then a pass back to the starting line. He made the first half had an issue in the shutoff area and wound up upside down in the sand trap

That reminded me. At Tampa Drags they had the Green Monster jet car making exhibition runs. And when he lined up he blew the fence down that they show in the above video. He made a short blast and still ran out the end of the track and crossed Hwy 574. Some great memories.

Thanks for posting this!!

Search Turbonique. That is some of the damndest stuff every invented.