1st TIME FUNNY CAR

[CaddyDaddy]

Tell us about the first time in person you saw a Funny Car make a run. Who was it? Where and when? Most important, what did you FEEL? Gotta apologize for all these "nostalgia" questions, but my wife bought me a big box of Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines from 1967 to 1974 for Christmas. I'm reliving my childhood! 

[TonyK]

Can't recall exactly the first time because I'm old and it was a long time ago. Had to be around 1970 and I was 12 or 13. Saw them at Portland and later at Seattle for those 32 and 64 Funny Car meets so no one driver in particular. The term "ground pounding" was what I felt and was close enough to them that my chest would feel the air impact when they'd blip the throttle. Walking down to the finish line and hearing the engine at full song, I thought they should blow up.

A related story which is a favorite memory for me is when we went to Seattle when my son was maybe 10 years old. My wife had my son in front of her and we were waiting for a Top Fuel car to start up in their pit. My son looked up and asked if they started it yet. LOL Told him you'll know when they start it! Started it and blipped the throttle a couple of times and I looked around and my son and wife had left the area.

[Ace-Garageguy]

First "funny cars" I saw run were the altered wheelbase match-racers that evolved from the A/FX cars...before anybody called them "funny cars".

"Loud" doesn't do justice to the blown flopper glass-bodied cars that came later and sounded like top-fuel rail jobs...though the full bodies tended to block some of the far-side exhaust noise.  

Edited January 13 by Ace-Garageguy

[stitchdup]

dick dastardley was driving and it was the waccy racers championship

[LDO]

…Dragster… Houston, 1992. Way back then, I thought drag racing was the dumbest thing that could be done with money and horsepower. A coworker kept trying to get me to go watch it. I finally said I would go, if he would drop it if I didn’t like it. I went to a small event with another buddy. It was kind of cool watching the sportsman classes. Then there was Top Alcohol. I had to admit that was a heck of a thing to see. After that we were in the pits, talking with Don Prudhomme’s crew members. All of a sudden, everyone started walking away from the pits. We asked why. He said Eddie Hill and Joe Amato were about to make a run. That’s why we were there, so we RAN to the track. We didn’t realize we had run past barricades that said No Spectators Past This Point. We were just a few feet away from Joe Amato’s dragster. When that light turned green, everything changed. Wow. I have only been to see it a few times, but man what a spectacle. 

[NitroMarty]

Dad was heavy into hot rods and drag racing and the dragstrip was quite literally in our backyard, so we spent a LOT of time there.

One of my very earliest memories, was seeing Arnie Berwick and Lee Smith face off at the Quad City (Cordova) Dragway..... Berwick in his tiger striped AWB Tempest and Smith in his AWB Plymouth... This had to be 1965 or 66, making me four or five years old.

I remember, quite well, seeing quite a number of glass bodied floppers from the late 60's and early 70's.... It was an awesome time to be a kid at the drags!

[bobss396]

My first was at NY National Speedway IIRC in 1975. It was the Summer Funny Car Shootout or something like that. We paid the extra $2 and got to walk through the pits, no ear protection. My eyes were running from the nitro fumes. 

[gbdolfans]

Hi, my first time with Funny Cars was at Miami-Hollywood Speedway Park. It is now defunct. Making way for condos. 

Anyway, it was between Terry's Seaton Super Shaker and another car with an Allison engine. The night did not last long as the Allison made a run and tore up the Asphalt with two ruts all the way down the strip. They had to close the strip and we spent the rest of the night in the pits. I was hooked from then on. I don't know the name of the Allison car.

Top say it was impressive was an understatement !!!

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi!

My first funny-car "duel" took place at the Pont-Rouge Dragstrip, near Quebec city, early 60's. I vividly remember the most flamboyant car of the two: Phil Castronovo's Custom Auto Body Mini-Charger. As the name implied, it wore a spectacular paint and lettering job. Mr. Castronovo hailed from NY state. 

A few years later, NHRA brought a NATIONALS event at the SANAIR strip near Mtl. All the big players were there, including Don Garlits with one of his front-engined Swamp Rat. 

Time flyes!

[Muncie]

Under the lights, Saturday night at P I R. 

The Pacific NW had several of the national hitters - you know the names. Ed the Ace McCulloch, Twig Ziegler Pizza haven, Jim Green the Green Elephant, Kenney Goodell... but there was plenty of funny cars that just ran locally as well in those days. The screamer ads on the radio didn't hurt the show. Wish I could dig some of those out of the memory banks and replay them as well.

and you know why they call him 240 Gordy!

[Zen]

Mid 70's at Martin US 131 drag way, when Popular hot rodding magazine had the funny car shootout.

[NYLIBUD]

It was at E Town.I think it was Kenny Bernstein at the Summer Nationals.First time at a drag race..First up were the amateur classes..So I’m thinking that’s not too loud.I figured ah,the hell with it,I don’t need no stinkin ear plugs.Then the pro classes came up.My friends were all urging me to wear the plugs,or at least cover my ears.I just brushed them off.The pro stocks were up,I remember thinking that they were pretty loud,but not ear splitting.Next up were the funny cars.They rolled up to the water box,and before I could say a word to my buddy,both lanes did a massive insane burnout.Omg,it was so ???‍??#%+&@ loud,terrifying,and awesome,all at the same time.And not just the noise.I could feel it through my whole body.So from then on,I always wore my ear plugs at every race.?

Edited January 15 by NYLIBUD

[Mike 1017]

[Mike C]

On 1/13/2024 at 9:01 AM, bobss396 said:

My first was at NY National Speedway IIRC in 1975. It was the Summer Funny Car Shootout or something like that. We paid the extra $2 and got to walk through the pits, no ear protection. My eyes were running from the nitro fumes. 

My first time was at the same track too. I had aced my regents exam in HS and my Dad took me there. It was in 1970 I think.

[Horrorshow]

It was at Dragway Park, Cayuga Ontario (now called Toronto Motorsport Park), would not be able to say who the driver was, there is a picture of me standing beside Ed McColloug’s Revolution, but it probably wasn’t him. It was probably 1969 or 70.

[DPNM]

Well I hope you don't mind it comes with a story.

When I was young my best friends dad was the "wrench" on a dragster. They ran at PID, Pittsburgh International Dragway. I think it was around my 13th birthday, would be 1968, that I had the choice to go to a motorcycle TT race, kinda the early Motocross, with my brother and my dad or go to the dragstrip with my friend. I went to the dragstrip.

My friend's dad was already there so we went with my friend's mom. They had a Ford Ranchero. To use the horn you squeezed the steering wheel. On the way we crossed a bridge that had an incline leading to it. When we hit the lip we were airborne and the horn blew until we touched down. She was in a hurry. It's funny now.

Once we got there I saw the Flintstone Flyer Barracuda of Dave Koffel. It wasn't a "funny car" per se as it came before that class was made. It was classified as an A/XS which, I believe, was the Super Stock class. Sadly, the car did not make a pass while I was there. 

I did get the opportunity to sit in the dragster with the stern warning NOT to touch the parachute lever. I didn't. You'd see the driver with his knees bent while in it. My feet didn't touch the pedals.

The dragster did make one pass. It was against a car which IIRC got close to a half track start. The dragster smoked it at the top end.

It was a great time and a wonderful birthday. It will always be a fond memory.

Edited January 20 by DPNM

[TarheelRick]

Farmington Dragstrip, Farmington, NC, still in operation but now 1/8 mile. 1967 match race between Scotty Scott's Jeep (do not recall it's name) and the Stardust Charger driven by Don Schumacher. I believe it was their second run, Stardust got squirrelly in his burnout, went sideways and rolled. Quite a bit of fiberglass pieces everywhere. I was on the wrong side of the protective fence and could not grab a souvenir. They were loud. That same year a few other ones showed up, I remember a flip-top Cadillac, a four-engine Buick station wagon (not Ivo's), and a long-nose Mustang. Too many years have passed since then so my memory is a bit foggy, but these few do stand out in my mind.

[Oldriginal86]

First drag race was at Capitol Raceway in Maryland. Early ‘70’s. My dad took my brother and I just to see the races. What we saw was the “King of Kings” match races. Don Schumacher, Jim Lieberman, Roland Leong and all of the drivers I had read about in Hot Rod magazine. I thought they were there every weekend after that. Later in life I’ve been to Englishtown, Reading, and Indianapolis since.