[Skip Fix]

For all my car buddies going through an old box of stuff from elementary school and high school (50th high school reunion this weekend in Dallas) I found a stack for my first time slips from time trials at the 1972 IHRA Longhorn Nationals just a few days after high school graduation. We got it in the high 12s after figuring the old timey Mallory rev limiter was cutting the motor off between gear changes. It just had a knob to turn for the rpm you wanted but the calibration was off.

The best story about this is the car was down i think replacing a clutch. Got it running the day before the race. test run up a nearby street 1-2-3. Turned around same deal back to the house. open headers.10 minutes later while we were all patting our selves on the back how good it was running we hear a Dallas police helicopter hoovering over the house9one of the small ones like on MASH). then 2 squad cars pull up. Ask if that was my car-yes sir. Well since we did not see it driving we can not write you a ticket but do the neighbors a favor and put the mufflers on it!

At the Nationals that fall got it down in the 12.20s @108-9mph before ot broke a rocker shooting a pushrod through the valve cover. i was racing with a cast on my arm football injury. Ronnie Sox also had a cast or split on also.

[Verdoro 68]

Super cool pics and great story. Nice runs! I bet that car was a terror on the street.

It's so cool that it was at DIMS, it was such a flash in the pan. That whole area is so unrecognizable now, but the dilapidated tower off 35 was a landmark for years. We went to a few kart races at one of the old tracks in the late 80's before it all got redeveloped. I put a DIMS sticker on my '68 since I grew up in Lewisville and it was a local car.

My first runs were at Texas Motorplex since DIMS was long gone. I have some pics somewhere, but my times are not worth documenting LOL.

[4dblnkldude]

Awesome!! And your still Skip Fix!!! LOL

[Skip Fix]

I had to pull all the sponsor stickers off to get street races!. It's just a 348 truck motor most folks had forgotten about 409d by then (71-73) and thought it had a 327 in it-we had pulled the 409 badges off of it. Accel recurved the distributor in the pit for free! 4.56s cheater slicks in the street and a light flywheel it would launch and pull hard -did not loose too many races. Stuart Owens (Owens sausage family) had a 417 67 Chevelle and would never run me.

[JUDGE3]

Fun post!

brings back great memories. I still have these from my first time ever on a real 1/4 mile track. kansas international raceway.

1982 ish

back then they hand wrote your time on the card, no multi data slips at all.

original 1969 Gto Judge, 4 speed RAIII, had those cool cheeter slicks on it. 4.11 posi
what a blast. us young guys always left our written in shoe polish times on the windshield for a few days after racing as a badge of honor.

whitlock auto was the go to parts shop then.

[Skip Fix]

I was at DIMS in 69 as a spectator-too young to drive -when the red Mickey Thompson Mach 1 funny car (driver pat Foster?) crashed in front of us- I think killing the driver of the other car.

[BILL BOWMAN1]

That was Gerry Schwartz in the Ratty Cat F/C.

[Verdoro 68]

Originally Posted by Skip Fix

I was at DIMS in 69 as a spectator-too young to drive -when the red Mickey Thompson Mach 1 funny car (driver pat Foster?) crashed in front of us- I think killing the driver of the other car.

DIMS on the whole had a really short and tragic history. It was a state of the art track, but the rain during the Springnationals and the flooding for the SCCA event put them in the hole from the get go. They moved from NHRA to IHRA to try to make up for some of the lost cash. IIRC, there was another fatal incident involving a new reporter and jet car in '71 or so that didn't help things. Your pics from '72 are near the tail end of the track's life. It's all a wash anyway with the way that area has sprawled and grown. There's no way that track could have survived long term. Super interesting - love seeing these posts.

[will slow gto]

Very cool. Those are some very good times for a 10 year old car you drove on the street. That tower looks likes it for air traffic control, lol. Looks like you added headrests to your 64, your passengers necks probably appreciated that!

[will slow gto]

Originally Posted by JUDGE3

Fun post!

brings back great memories. I still have these from my first time ever on a real 1/4 mile track. kansas international raceway.

1982 ish

back then they hand wrote your time on the card, no multi data slips at all.

original 1969 Gto Judge, 4 speed RAIII, had those cool cheeter slicks on it. 4.11 posi
what a blast. us young guys always left our written in shoe polish times on the windshield for a few days after racing as a badge of honor.

whitlock auto was the go to parts shop then.

Great times here too!

[jhein]

That's very cool. Yep.

[scott70]

Classic pics!! The good ole days!

[Jay S]

Very cool photos Skip! You had that 409 making that car move.

Did your 64 have a painted black roof? Or was that black vinyl? Black roof, black interior on red is just not something you see much on that era of Impala. Appeared you put some later seats in it, maybe those things did not start out black?

[Bills Auto Works]

Great Pictures & Memories for sure!

Now I have to go up in the attic & see if I have any left! Lived here almost 20 years & the box of old trophies, (hopefully) times slips & race track magazines have been up there ever since.

Ironically I had been thinking a lot about the old racing days as 2 guys who we legendary racers from around here & also important parts of my life for many years passed two & three weeks ago (Jerry Steinbrick & Joe "B.J." Thompson)

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...closed.614419/

[Murf]

So Skip, the only slip you could find was 13’s?��

[Skip Fix]

There was a load of 13s time slips but I know the car went in the 12s as the IHRA newsletter of the event had them from both events.

Impala had a vinyl roof but the material was more like what was used on convertibles-kind of woven. Started as a 340 HP low perf 409. Added the better heads then a single Holley then the dual Holleys sideways-linkage pinned so all 8 bbls opened at once. You could see the gas gauge go down after a run!

I actually gave the class trophies to the guy that owned the Monk King 455 HO GT 37 car years ago at one of the Pontiac Southern Nationals to keep up the history of that car.

Funny thing too at the Nationals in the fall my college freshman biology grad student(who graded the quizs) saw me and we struck up a friendship. He was a big Pontiac guy Phil Baumann in Dallas. He had a 64 GTO. Had a boat load of cool Pontiac stuff in his mom's attic. Bathtub intake .Isky solid roller with rev plates! We swapped in a 2.56 wagon rear end to get better gas mileage commuting to College Station Texas A&M. He went on to get an Environmental Biology PhD and helped on the Glen Rose nuclear power plant. Taking a ride around Texas World Speedway the GTO oil pan did not like the high bank on the oval and the oil pressure dropped a lot.

The story I heard on DIMS was they had rushed the completion for those '69 NHRA events that they did not prep the base under the track well and it slowly started to crumble. SCCA still held some event there until it got too unsafe.

[beemergary]

Took my 66 GTO pure stock tri power 4 speed to a test and tune. Went 13.99 at 101 mph in 1968. Took my 69 GTO to a sat. night drags in 1971. Fast forward to 2004 and I tell my son dad's going to race the 63 tempest 421 now a 421 super duty sat. in the stock class (100) cars and put in car show sun. I win and in the finals race an old super stock driver. Lucky Me and I have the time slips. Couple years later moved up to full time drag racer and been down hill ever since. That 66 GTO was an exception to the rules.

[RocktimusPryme]

Those are awesome pictures.

My high school time slips were much less triumphant. I had an 86 IROC that I loved, but that car unfortunately hated me. Or at least it hated me trying to go fast with $12 and duct tape.

Went to the track several times always expecting a better result, but it never ran better than 15.6 in the quarter. Ran down around 8.3 in the 1/8th but I count just never get that 700r4 to shift out of second at WOT.

My friends, who mostly had pretty quick DSMs at the time ribbed me mercilessly. Technically I still own that car on paper. I had a dirtbag uncle sell it with no title when I was out of town working a few years later. Wish I still had the actual car.

[Skip Fix]

I still have the title for this car. Sold it(body) to a guy that worked at the gas station we used forever when I was in college after my folks moved to Pittsburgh(dad worked for Gulf for 3 wears there). Never paid me for it said I came and stole it from his house, got a small claims court decision for it-never a penny!

Those were 69ish Chevelle buckets. Got tired of the non latching Impala seats flopping up when hit the brakes!

[Blowd]

They didn't pass out time slips at my 1st trips to the dragstrip. The (in)famous Stars and Stripes dragway / KWHP street nite in Okla City. Got my 1st time slip at Eastex dragstrip (Houston area). This would be embarrassing, but it's a fun story. Car was a 1967 Malibu I bought from a girl at work for $50, motor was a Pontiac 400 I built for a GTO that proved too rusty to save. Dubbed the Goatelle (Go Tell em a Pontiac beat ya!) Lost a couple of lifter rods on the 1st pass. Actually found parts to replace them at the track, reused gaskets with liberal sealer and drove it home. Was asked not to come back until I "finished" the car. Did get it dialed in eventually and drove around on the street. Never was a monster, but quite the sleeper, and surprised a few people.
Thanks Skip for reminding me of the good times at tracks that are gone, except in our memories.!