Met Dale Emery Driver of "Pure Hell" & Tuner of the "Blue Max"

[Jimmy Wilson]

A friend of mine's father owns a Jr. Fueler, and they invited me to come watch them race this weekend. They were only running 1/8 mile, but it was really cool to get to hang in the pits, and go to the starting line with them. An added bonus was meeting Dale Emery. He's good friends with my buddy's dad, and came to watch the races. He drove the Pure Hell Altered starting in 1965 for five seasons. He is also a great tuner, and took the Blue Max Funny Car to three consecutive world championships 1979-1981. It was awesome hearing stories from the early days of Drag Racing, and his wife makes a mean Carrot Cake.

Dale Emery (on left) and Ronnie Ussery, Owner and Tuner of the Ussery & Coker Jr. Fueler

[Bowtienutz]

Cool was that out at that track outside of Denton ? I heard it's great.

[Jimmy Wilson]

This was up at Ardmore, Oklahoma. They were also running some Top Fuel Altereds. At this track I was able to walk right down outside the guard rail and shoot pictures. Being 10-12 feet away from one of those on launch is pretty brutal. The winner of that class clocked in with a 3.84 and over 180 MPH in the 1/8 Mile.

[slusher]

That's pretty cool. I always use to go to the drag strip and enjoyed it...