TopFuel@Lions
Nitro Member
Today marks another year since the greatest 1-day AA/FD race ever, the 1967 P.D.A. race at the greatest weekly drag strip ever, Lions Drag Strip. The brainchild of Doug Kruse. This race is in my top 5 of all time drag races ever, and I have seen a few.
The date was July 15th, a Saturday, it was a unique race as it was all dragsters as Doug wanted something to counter the emerging S/XS craze.
This race had every major and top team in Top Fuel except Garlits who wanted an appearance fee , he later highly regretted not being part of this epic race.
The format: AA/FD would be a mammoth 64-car field, Top Gas and Junior Fuel would have 16-car fields as well.
The payout. Top Fuel would have a huge winners check of $5100-to-win, huge for 67 and one of the biggest of the year in 67. The contingency's for the AA/FD class was at $5900. Top Time and top speed got $50.00 each. All in 67 dollars.
The schedule: teams arrived on Thursday and Friday parking outside the track all alongside 223rd, all alongside Alameda Avenue until the gates opened Saturday morning. There would be open time trials from 9:30am until 11:30am. for all 3 dragster classes.
Then at 11:30am. there would be unlimited qualifying from 11:30am until 4:30pm. The 1st round of AA./FD was scheduled to start at 5:30pm. It did not.
My take, my dad and myself, veterans at Lions as we were weekly fans, dad knew this was going to be epic, it was one of the longest days ever we spent at Lions. We left the San Fernanda Valley town of Van Nuys at 7:45am sharp. We arrived somewhere around 8:30/8:45am. When we drove in in his Hemi-powered Desoto, we could see this was going to be a epic event. By 9:00am. we had the "race blanket" in place in "our" seats. At this time of the morning there were a good bit of "digger" fans in place.
Open time trials started right on time, the stars and cars was evident, this was dreamland. Incredible how many cars ran in open time trials. The it got ultra hard-core for the next five hours. We were witnessing the best 1-day dragster race ever in AA/FD, AA/GD, and Junior Fuel. The crowd built by the hour and by mid-afternoon the place was full.....or so we thought. 96 cars started the 3-division race out of over 130 in the house.
The Junior Fuel class had the highest ever car count for the class in the history.
The first round was delayed around 30 to 45 minutes as the backup of fans was astounding, The surrounding streets and the freeway was backed up for miles, I could see from "our seats" the back up.
The races: the first round of Top Fuel, the 64-car 1st round, 32 races went oil-down free, took less than 90 minutes, think about it, 90 minutes for 32 races. What was so frigin' cool was watching the 64-car field pulling under that iconic and one-of-a-kind tower right in front of dad and me and driving up the road in the right lane to the top end than pushed out onto the track to be pushed started, "LIKE IT SHOULD BE" heading to the starting line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By the time round 1 went off Lions was packed like I had never seen it. "MY" track never looked so pretty and right. The track had freshly painted yellow lines at the edge of the track, the center of the strip had fresh lines, There were banners and fresh bunting galore.
The Lions Staff: Pappy had all his ducks in a row, the on-track staff was on top of it's game, the guys and gals in the tower had it going on on this massive event. The concession stands were overwhelmed in my view. The parking lot was never so filled, they were parked outside the track, 17,500 fans packed this beautiful race palace. Just running this show was a giant undertaking and Lions shined thru it all. Dad and I were so proud of "our" track. There were fans sitting next to us from all over.
The race was over somewhere after 1:00am. It took a very long time to get out of the track , I think we got home about 3:00am. We had been at the track around 13 hours plus. It was worth every minute, every hour.
In closing the 1967 Professional Dragster Association Championships was the greatest 1-day Top Fuel Race ever!!!!!
I challenge anybody to prove me wrong on this, you won't or can't, all dragsters, 1 day, another historical moment at the greatest weekly drag strip ever. Lions Drag Strip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[email protected] father in heaven is smiling and agreeing about this race.. It was awesome!!!!!!!!
The date was July 15th, a Saturday, it was a unique race as it was all dragsters as Doug wanted something to counter the emerging S/XS craze.
This race had every major and top team in Top Fuel except Garlits who wanted an appearance fee , he later highly regretted not being part of this epic race.
The format: AA/FD would be a mammoth 64-car field, Top Gas and Junior Fuel would have 16-car fields as well.
The payout. Top Fuel would have a huge winners check of $5100-to-win, huge for 67 and one of the biggest of the year in 67. The contingency's for the AA/FD class was at $5900. Top Time and top speed got $50.00 each. All in 67 dollars.
The schedule: teams arrived on Thursday and Friday parking outside the track all alongside 223rd, all alongside Alameda Avenue until the gates opened Saturday morning. There would be open time trials from 9:30am until 11:30am. for all 3 dragster classes.
Then at 11:30am. there would be unlimited qualifying from 11:30am until 4:30pm. The 1st round of AA./FD was scheduled to start at 5:30pm. It did not.
My take, my dad and myself, veterans at Lions as we were weekly fans, dad knew this was going to be epic, it was one of the longest days ever we spent at Lions. We left the San Fernanda Valley town of Van Nuys at 7:45am sharp. We arrived somewhere around 8:30/8:45am. When we drove in in his Hemi-powered Desoto, we could see this was going to be a epic event. By 9:00am. we had the "race blanket" in place in "our" seats. At this time of the morning there were a good bit of "digger" fans in place.
Open time trials started right on time, the stars and cars was evident, this was dreamland. Incredible how many cars ran in open time trials. The it got ultra hard-core for the next five hours. We were witnessing the best 1-day dragster race ever in AA/FD, AA/GD, and Junior Fuel. The crowd built by the hour and by mid-afternoon the place was full.....or so we thought. 96 cars started the 3-division race out of over 130 in the house.
The Junior Fuel class had the highest ever car count for the class in the history.
The first round was delayed around 30 to 45 minutes as the backup of fans was astounding, The surrounding streets and the freeway was backed up for miles, I could see from "our seats" the back up.
The races: the first round of Top Fuel, the 64-car 1st round, 32 races went oil-down free, took less than 90 minutes, think about it, 90 minutes for 32 races. What was so frigin' cool was watching the 64-car field pulling under that iconic and one-of-a-kind tower right in front of dad and me and driving up the road in the right lane to the top end than pushed out onto the track to be pushed started, "LIKE IT SHOULD BE" heading to the starting line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By the time round 1 went off Lions was packed like I had never seen it. "MY" track never looked so pretty and right. The track had freshly painted yellow lines at the edge of the track, the center of the strip had fresh lines, There were banners and fresh bunting galore.
The Lions Staff: Pappy had all his ducks in a row, the on-track staff was on top of it's game, the guys and gals in the tower had it going on on this massive event. The concession stands were overwhelmed in my view. The parking lot was never so filled, they were parked outside the track, 17,500 fans packed this beautiful race palace. Just running this show was a giant undertaking and Lions shined thru it all. Dad and I were so proud of "our" track. There were fans sitting next to us from all over.
The race was over somewhere after 1:00am. It took a very long time to get out of the track , I think we got home about 3:00am. We had been at the track around 13 hours plus. It was worth every minute, every hour.
In closing the 1967 Professional Dragster Association Championships was the greatest 1-day Top Fuel Race ever!!!!!
I challenge anybody to prove me wrong on this, you won't or can't, all dragsters, 1 day, another historical moment at the greatest weekly drag strip ever. Lions Drag Strip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[email protected] father in heaven is smiling and agreeing about this race.. It was awesome!!!!!!!!
