A Run at Motor City Dragway - Spring 1965

When I think about it, I can still almost smell the rubber burning and feel the ground shaking. It was over 40 years ago, but it seems like only yesterday that I raced a ‘59 Ford stick six in the ‘P’ Stock class at the old International Raceway Park near Marine City, Michigan. 26 Mile Road and Meldrum, just off the Marine City Highway exit, was how the ad came over the radio – “SUNDAY, SUNDAY at MOTOR CITY DRAGWAY…” I’m sure that you all remember the weekend chant played over the radio.

Well, it just so happened that a group of friends (who shall remain nameless) and I were very much into drag racing during those years and we made a point of being out at either Motor City or Detroit Dragway every weekend we possibly could. I ran a black 1959 Ford Custom 300 with a stick six (223 cubic inches with a one barrel carb) in the “P Stock” class and if I do say so myself, I did pretty well -- running in the mid 17’s, getting into the trophy run almost every weekend (not too bad for a 3,300 pound car with a stick six). Of course, we had removed everything that wasn’t bolted down and some stuff that was (like the rear window mechanisms, dum-dum and undercoating throughout and anything else we deemed was unnecessary weight (and was not visible to the Tech Guys).

As it turned out one late spring day (or maybe it was very early summer), the gang and I were at Motor City and I was running the ‘59. All went well and I won my class; I don’t remember how many (if any) cars I had to run to get the class trophy. It might have been “O.C.T.” – Only Car Trophy – which was a fairly common occurrence in the lower classes.

Anyway, as the evening turned into night, we occupied ourselves with watching the Big Boys race, the Super Stocks dealer and factory-sponsored ‘stockers’. There were the Golden Com-mandoes, King Kong, Bob Ford, Mid-West Auto Parts, Color-Me-Gone and the Ramcharger’s Dodges, just to name a few.

As luck would have it, I managed to get into the “Stock Eliminator” finals that night and my opponent turned out to be a dealer/factory-backed MoPar called King Kong, a Super Stock that was running very well at the time. In those days, they didn’t stage one car ahead of the other like they do today on Pinks. The starter just set the “tree” to begin one side sooner than the other. This was, I believe, calculated by the difference in E.T. between the two cars. Well, my side of the tree came down first and off I went, running thru the gears like a madman, trying to outrun the inevitable. But once I got that Ford into third gear, it was flat. I know that I heard the MoPar come off the line (sounded like an explosion) and I could actually feel him closing in on me. When he went past, it was like getting passed by a jet plane on take-off or a freight train running wide open. He blew past me and went into the lights at least 4 or 5 cars ahead of me. No real contest, but it was something that I’ll never forget.

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