Onondaga Dragway

Sorry for long post but this brought back a lot of great car memories for me. I grew up in Jackson (East Jackson actually) and spent many a Saturday night from 1972 through 1975 at Onondaga Dragway. My brother in-law used to race there. My first trip to the Dragway was in 1972 to watch him run his 68 Coronet 440 R/T, the car I credit with my lifelong obsession with Mopars. He later bought a 69 Dart Swinger 340; this car forever etched the legend of the 340 and A-bodies in my brain.
The Swinger was a drag car from the day it rolled off the assembly line. Heater and radio delete with a LD-340 intake, headers, 4-speed, Holley and 4:56 gears. The car ran in Super Stock and turned consistent 13.0 and occasionally dipped into the 12.90 range. My brother and I were his pit crew, for a young kid of 15, I was in heaven. This was the early 70s and he was a grass roots racer with very little money. He used an old pair of slicks that had seen their better day. I also remember watching the PF Flyer and Hot Fudge make passes. The PF Flyer (68 Hemi Cuda notch back) was freakin awesome, it would carry the front wheels through the entire 60’, I lusted after that car.
After I got my driver’s license in 74 my brother in-law let me put plates on the Swinger and take it out on the streets on a Saturday night. We bolted up a pair of cheap header mufflers and washed and waxed the car. I remember passing the local cops and pushing in the clutch so I could coast by them without making too much noise. I wasted many a Chevy that night. Those were the days of street racing on Michigan Ave (east end) and late night grudge matches at Micor Park, just off of Highway 27 north of Vandercook. Good times.
I made my first “legal” ¼ mile pass down Onondaga in 1975 and have been hooked on drag racing and Mopars ever since.