My brother David came home one Saturday afternoon and mentioned that a buddy of his was planning to race his 1967 Beaumont the next day at St. Thomas Dragway. David wanted to go watch him race and asked me if I wanted to come along. I was thrilled, of course. In fact, I could hardly sleep that night.
We arrived at the track to attend what was advertised as “The International Drag Sweepstakes”, one of track owner Bob Harvey’s most popular events of the race season. The amount of prize money at stake brought in just about every popular drag car in the province and surrounding U.S. border states, filling the pits with big name racers.
As a regular reader of everything drag racing related, I knew of many of the Ontario racers who had been making headlines at tracks and events in the United States. I had known that guys like Ralph Hope, Roger Miller, Bill Kydd, Scott Wilson and Bert Straus were showing the U.S. racers and media that Canadian race cars could compete with the best.
I was also aware that John Elliot and Barrie Poole were winning NHRA National events with their Chatham-based Super Stock Ford Mustangs, often seeing their cars pictured in magazines with the distinctive black and white stripes on the back of their matching red cars. As a fan, I felt so proud to be a Canadian, sharing the pride in their wins and deserved recognition.
As much fun as it was to witness each race, walking through the crowded pit area and seeing so many top-name race cars made my head spin. Not wanting to miss a thing, I scoured each pit area to reassure myself that I hadn’t missed a single car. Almost hidden away near the fence line along Sparta Line Road, two empty trailers were lined side-by-side. The race cars had been unloaded and were parked one ahead of the other. As I walked through this area of the pits, I noticed the red Mustangs and I stopped dead in my tracks, staring at both cars. As my heart pounded, I slowly made my way closer to both Fords. Just days before, I had read about these very same cars and the success that Elliot and Poole had achieved. And now, here I was, standing in front of both cars!
David looked at me, then at the cars, knowing I was in a disbelieving trance. He said to me, “let me get a picture of you with the car”. I was very nervous and excited at the same time. At first, I didn’t know what to do. Should I look at the car? Or maybe look at the camera and smile? It was all too overwhelming. David went ahead and took this picture with his Polaroid camera.
At the end of this incredible day at the track, David and I did get to see his friend race his Beaumont, we both enjoyed the big-time action and excitement at the strip, and I got a picture of myself with one of the top Super Stocks in drag racing, which just happened to be from nearby Chatham, Ontario. This was one of those days that you can never forget.
Have you ever experienced a day like this as a child? Share your memories with me!