YORK US 30 BACK IN THE DAY 1960's
#013 DVD
This ninety-seven minute original movie production includes rare footage of drag racing at York US 30 Drag Strip as well as the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana. The video begins with us following a group of York US 30 racers to the 1961 U.S. Nationals. We get to see the 1961 "Old Reliable" 409 Chevrolet campaigned by Dave Strickler and Bill Jenkins as it competes against a field of Chevrolets, Fords, Pontiacs and Chryslers. In an exclusive interview Jenkins talks about the car and what it took to make the car into a National Record Holder during the 1961 season. Bill Stiles also has a connection to the car and we hear his story in another interview during this segment. This was also a very important race for the Ramchargers team as their success at this race earned them full factory support from that time forward. Ramcharger Team member Tom Hoover gives us the inside scoop on this story. We also get to see York racer George Weiler drive his B/C dragster to a class victory at the Nationals.
It is back to Indy in 1962 and our York guys are loaded for bear. Strickler, Jenkins and Stiles have a brand new lightweight 62 409 Chevy and they want to do better than they did in 1961. They do, as they capture the Super/Super Stock Class Championship but fall to Hayden Proffitt in the eliminator rounds. We have an interview with Hayden Proffitt where he recalls that big win.
In 1963 the Strickler, Jenkins, Stiles Team returned to Indy this time with two cars. In addition to the '62 409 car they also have a new 1963 Z-11 Chevy. Both cars are successful at the race but the '63 car takes home the A/FX class championship and the Little Eliminator title. Dave Strickler's cousins Tom and Terry Strickler have their F/S '58 Chevy at the event and we get to see it make a couple passes. We talk to Bill Stiles about the Strickler 348 powered '58 and later talk to a guy who bought the car from the Stricklers after the Indy race. Cool story.
The '63 Indy coverage includes some great shots of some other Z-11 cars including the Sox & Martin car and the Strip Blazer of Malcolm Durham. We also follow George Weiler as he wins the Junior Eliminator Championship at the race while driving the Scott Reider owned B/Street Roadster. George also recalls that day during an interview we had with him.
In 1964 Dave Strickler and Bill Jenkins became the "Dodge Boys" and we see their 1964 Hemi Dodge at the '64 U.S. Nationals. Take a ride down the track with Dave in this neat in-car sequence. Another York guy, Bud Faubel, was also at the show with his Honker Dodge.
In 1965 it's back to York US 30 for the running of the first Super Stock Magazine Nationals on August 7th. This is new footage of the event and the camera is positioned with a three-quarter rear shot behind the right lane. Really cool stuff. One of my favorite parts of this footage is a shot of Ronnie Sox helping Wally Bell with his Thunderball Comet. It is hard to believe that Ronnie had any time to do this as he was driving two cars of his own at the event. Boy they were the good old days. That was some race and almost every big name driver in the SS and FX ranks was there.
From there we move to the 1969 Super Stock Magazine Nationals where we look at the Blown Funny Cars, Injected Funny Cars and Experimental Super Stockers. Even though we have profiled this race in some of our other videos this is all new footage that I am sure you will really enjoy. What makes it so different is that a lot of it was shot on the 4th floor observation area on top of the York tower. Man what a view. You can really see how the cars skate around the track and at what point they make their move to win a race. The footage also includes racing on Friday and Saturday most of which has never been seen before. My favorite part is the Saturday evening Funny Car runs. It is twilight to dark when they run and you get to see some header flames and how dimly the track was illuminated back in 1969. I had forgotten what it was like to watch nighttime racing back in the day but man this brought it all back. We also have Sunday Sunday coverage of the race and we take you through the Funny Car rounds to the Championship.
Bill Stiles tells us about the Super Stock Hemi Cuda he was running at the event in a special interview. Another great story told by one of the legends of our sport. Earl Wade, Dyno Don Nicholson's wrench, fills us in on the unique Mercury Cougar Experimental Super Stock car they were running at the '69 SS Nat's.
The last segment of this video rolls the clock back to 1967 as we watch Bill Stiles take his 440-powered Plymouth out to York during a non-race day to do some testing. This is too cool. You see Bill waiting for the airplanes to clear the area then making a pass in between take offs and landings. In an interview Bill tells us how he used to use York as his "Dyno" to break in engines. As I said before these were the good old days.
There are over 136 named cars in this video and many of them are shown multiple times during eliminations. As always we have taken the time to dub real car sounds on to the movie footage in order to give you the most realistic sights and sounds available of the golden era of drag racing. We have also included relative narration in the video so you can follow all the action that takes place. Get your copy today on DVD or VHS. Our DVD includes 27 Chapter markers so you can quickly navigate to your favorite part of the video.
