rep points for finding 2 pics that I have printed out in my filing cabinet? Nah. But I will give you a rep point for re-sparking my interest in this.

Some of the links I have posted came from my 'favorites' that I saved years ago. I have other links, but they all go to dead sites. I was so determined to locate these facilites back in the day, and try to find a way to 'use' them again. I even went to check out the Garlits Museum in Ocala...but when I got there, they were closed.

Maybe I should head back up there...now that I have a son, I want to share these things with him.

Charles

 

coolest thread ever!

rep for you

 

Tampa's racing history is pretty fascinating, that's for sure.

 

Tampa Dragway used to be located where the Rooms to Go warehouse is now.

 

Back in 2000, I visited that 'road'. It was 1/2 straight, and at the end, I turned right and there was a county facility there (i believe water treatment). I talked to an older gentleman there, and he said that the entrance (main road) was the track to the best of his knowledge. The county had been using the road to teach new 'pavement' stripers...so it had painted lines all over it.

When they built the park, they shifted the entrance over a couple hundred feet, but part of teh origianl road is part of the parking lot.

Charles

 

I found this story

I had a friend I helped who ran a front-engine dragster in Comp as a B/D, B/ED and brackets back in 1974 to 1984 . We ran at Desoto, Sunshine, Lakeland and Twin City. I forget the first time we ran at Twin City, but we went over there one Friday night and was (as usual during the 70's) the only non-door car there to bracket race. We asked one of the Super Pro racers how long was the shut-down area. He pointed down the track and said as far down where there were no trees. We were usually running in the 140 MPH range at that time, and the car had good brakes, so he decided not to pop the laundry on that first run. As was the norm back then, we followed down the track in the tow car to pick him up and as we got past the finish line there was no car! We kept headed down to the end and there was nothing but high weeds and grass ahead of us. About the time we came to the end of the asphalt out from the grass pop a helmet and a fire suit. The shut-down area was fairly short for the speeds we ran. Needless to say, from that day on, the laundry got popped every pass. There also was no return road at the far end of the track. You had to turn around to go to the return road, and the return road was not what a low ground clearance car could navigate. Therefore, every time we made a pass, racing stopped as we had to tow back UP the strip to the starting line, and back to the pits. I don't think we made many friends doing that, but we just wanted to race, too.

 

I must have been 15 years old in 1958 when I attended my first drag race at Tri-City Dragway in Oldsmar, Florida. I really don't recollect the event, other than it was a road trip with guys I looked up to who had "hot" cars. We all piled into one of my hero's '48 Chevy coupe and drove the 35-40 miles from the small orange grove town of Largo, located between Clearwater and St. Petersburg.Drag racing has been my life since that day, so the recollection of this one day is cloudy. I do remember I was "hooked" on the speed and especially the sound. The racers consisted of Ed Pantey, Don & Ed Garlits, Bob Langley, Connie Swingle, Hasely Hood, Charley Hogan, Emery Cook, Lucky Harris, Joe Herndon, the Nelson Brothers, and Marvin Schwartz to name a few.

Growing up an only child with loving parents that worked all day in the grocery store business, I was left on my own after school each day. I played Pop Warner football in the 5th and 6th grades and Jr. Varsity and Varsity football from the 7th to 11th grades. I tried basketball and baseball, but the contact sport was a lot more exciting to me.

I would see the first-string players driving neat '55 Crown Victorias and '57 Chevy convertibles all set up with lowering blocks in the rear and glass-packed mufflers that were soaked in oil when new so that over a (smoky) period of time they would become very loud. The sound was music to my ears. They also had all the best looking girls that wore form-fitting sweaters and lots of "crinolines" (petticoats) under their skirts. The fuzzy dice, Merc Cruiser fender skirts, mud flaps, Olds Fiesta and "flipper" hub caps were all the rage in the Tampa bay area at the time.

I was dating a girl whose uncle had a two-motored dragster. How weird! There was a girl from Tampa who had a '57 Chevy with a picture of two cherries on the trunk. Under this was painted, "If you can beat it, you can bust 'em." Man, I had a lot of dreams about that car!

My folks bought me my first car in 1958. It was a nice $300 '53 Chevy Belaire that I immediately modified. It had a 235" 6-cylinder with a 3-speed on the column. Within the first month I swapped motors with the family '55 Belaire 4-door (when they went on vacation), installed a set of Fenton cast iron headers, an Edelbrock 2-one barrel manifold with dual Rochester carbs and an Isky E-400 cam. I used flex-a-pipe to hook-up the two glass-packs and straight "lakes pipes" that exited under the rear axle to be "cool." At 16 years old, the cops hated me. My folks could not understand why I changed a good running car to the loud, smelly, ill handling car that got lots of the wrong kind of attention. It did get me plenty of girls but after blowing up 5 to 15 transmissions that first year (hey, they cost $15.00 each at the junk yard) and having too many girlfriend's parents calling my dad, I sold the car to a friend for $400 and joined the Air Force. I was shipped to Paris, France for my entire tour of duty as (what else) a mechanic in a motor pool....

.....It was the fall of 1964 when I started my new life back in Tampa Bay. I got married, had a couple of kids, had numerous jobs including machinist in an auto parts store, a Coca-Cola route salesman (great job but it literally broke my back), a heli-arc welder for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft and then....a welder/machinist for Don Garlits at his Tampa home shop. I worked with Connie Swingle and Tommy "T.C." Lemmons. I was way over my head but worked my butt off....

John "Mazz" Mazzarella

 

Great Thread!!! I work in Oldsmar, I may have to take a drive one day at lunch.

I found some stories too.

Kirby Back -
1973-1974 - After adding an Edelbock intake, 750 Holley, larger valve heads, a four speed and a 4:11 rearend -- a friend, Bill Sabin and I, towed my '69 Chevelle(307 engine) with his '72 Monte Carlo to Twin Cities Dragway just north of Tampa. I had a 15.50 dial-in. Friday night I won my class - 3rd overall. Then the race was called due to rain. Saturday night I won my class again and came out 2nd overall. My final was against a 20 second Chevy Station Wagon -- I broke out with a 15:25 -- My little Chevelle
surprised me and best of all -- I built it myself and of course with some help from some good hot rod friends.

Peter Nenos -
I used to race my 71 dodge 340 there. it is now a county sewage treatment facility on a road off of gunn highway. the old drag strip is gone, I went out there and everything is gone, but memories.

Don Richerson -
I had a friend I helped who ran a front-engine dragster in Comp as a B/D, B/ED and brackets back in 1974 to 1984 . We ran at Desoto, Sunshine, Lakeland and Twin City. I forget the first time we ran at Twin City, but we went over there one Friday night and was (as usual during the 70's) the only non-door car there to bracket race. We asked one of the Super Pro racers how long was the shut-down area. He pointed down the track and said as far down where there were no trees. We were usually running in the 140 MPH range at that time, and the car had good brakes, so he decided not to pop the laundry on that first run. As was the norm back then, we followed down the track in the tow car to pick him up and as we got past the finish line there was no car! We kept headed down to the end and there was nothing but high weeds and grass ahead of us. About the time we came to the end of the asphalt out from the grass pop a helmet and a fire suit. The shut-down area was fairly short for the speeds we ran. Needless to say, from that day on, the laundry got popped every pass. There also was no return road at the far end of the track. You had to turn around to go to the return road, and the return road was not what a low ground clearance car could navigate. Therefore, every time we made a pass, racing stopped as we had to tow back UP the strip to the starting line, and back to the pits. I don't think we made many friends doing that, but we just wanted to race, too.

 

my parents shop is literally 2 minutes from where that old drag strip was. its back in that industrial area. thats really awesome stories, to bad there closed down now . Although the road my parents shop is on is good for racing