As you may have noticed, we here at DRAGZINE are suckers for old drag racing footage shot on vintage film cameras. But honestly, who isn’t? We recently came upon this footage that’s borrowed from the Muscle Car Films DVD title “Glory Days” that highlights some spectacular drag racing footage from the 1960’s. Most notably is some action from “The Nationals,” or what we know today as the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.
The clip begins with Jimmy Parker’s infamous half track crash that is part of many 1960’s drag racing clips and films, and is followed by some Labor Day eliminations action in the Stock eliminator category. Dave Strickler in his “old Reliable” Impala grabbed the class title with a win over Jim Wangers’ Royal Oak Pontiac.
One of the best scenes in this clip is the sight of several classic hot rods pouring into the Indianapolis Raceway Park via Crawfordsville Road in front of the iconic old track sign. Back in those days, the cars were teched at a nearby shopping center due to the truly massive amount of cars that even outnumbers the entries at Indy today – certainly an intriguing element that got lost as the sport grew.
However, equally at exciting is the in-car footage of Dave Strickler – decked out in a T-shirt and shorts – rowing the gears on the old Impala on his way to the A/FX crown. The clip comes to a conclusion with a pass by the legendary Danny Ongais in Mickey Thompson’s Mach 1 Mustang flopper at Bristol Dragway.