Dragzine

There’s something that aches in our soul for lost drag strips. Not because we raced there or wasted hours wandering the pits, but because we never will. We caught wind of this home video of some awesome drag racing action at New York National Drag Strip taken in May of 1969.

Posted on YouTube thanks to the collection of Tim Lopata of The Forge Invitational Musclecar Classic, the grainy reel footage shows quite a bit of racing action, including a quick impromptu teardown and rebuild of a blown 392 Hemi sitting between the rails of a front-engine dragster.

In fact, there’s plenty of front-engine dragster action, including an appearance by the Dodge Ramchagers and their blown 426 Gen II HEMI digger. After chipping away at the competition, there even is a showdown between the Ramcharger rail and Jungle Jim’s Nova (unfortunately, Jungle Pam was nowhere to be found).

Besides the floppers, rails, diggers, and A/FX’ers, there’s a handful of VW-powered buggies, and some four-lane-wide racing. There’s plenty of street machine racing as well (the movie is 16 minutes long), including a cherry-new ’69 Charger R/T Charger against a handful of third-year Camaros – all of which have their exhaust dangling below, their open headers breathing loudly.

As the reel comes to an end, the film closes in on an ominous tone, a plume of black smoke spiraling upwards out of the not-too-far-off treeline. New York National didn’t burn down, but it did close a few years later, closing the book on yet another classic drag strip.