Speed,
I started racing Stockers in 1956. I had a '49 Olds 88 that was the personification of "slow motion," If you looked up "sled" in the dictionary, there it was... 3.23 rear end, single exhaust, air cleaner and all... 72 mph, as I remember it... I can't remember ever outrunning anybody with it...
Back then, you had to run street tires, stock exhaust manifolds, stock cam, carb (with air cleaner bolted on TIGHT,) no traction bars of any kind... about the only thing you COULD do was put on dual exhaust.
Pure Stock was the order of the day, and there were FOUR (4) Stock classes; A, B, C, and D.... sticks and automatics ran together in the same class. No "Christmas Tree" (flag start only), with no handicaps, breakouts, reaction timers, two-steps, throttle stops, wheelie bars, headers, 90/10 shocks, rev limiters, hi-stall converters, Kool Cans, line locks, or MSD ignitions!
Drag racing a Stocker was CHEAP!!! No cash prizes for Stockers; trophys, only... and only 4 of them. If there were 90 Stockers there, they would probably have 25 in A Stock; 30 in B Stock, 20 in C Stock and 15 in D.
All racing was heads-up, and you ran just other cars in your "Class" to get your trophy. There was no Stock Eliminator. Everybody knew that the winner of A Stock was the baddest car there!!
After the regular racing program was over, the announcer invited anyone (spectators) who wanted to, to bring their family car to the starting line and see what it would do, or grudge race someone of their choice. This went on for a couple of hours... no charge.
THAT is grass roots drag racing, and a lot of people got their first taste of quarter mile drag racing that way. I think it was brilliant P.R.
That was 53 short years ago.... I remember it like it was yesterday...
