New photos up from the last day at 75 & 80
1 Comments Published by JKREW on Sunday, October 30, 2005 at 10:17 PM.
When I was 16 and a few months, I took my CRX down rte. 355 for the first time at around 10 at night. It was dark yet quite warm out in the middle of October. I had just gotten into a fight with my mom over something stupid so I took my car out to clear my head. If you know of this road then consider yourself lucky as I have shown it to very few people. I thought of it as my road. Exactly 22 miles on the dot from my house at the time to the end of 355. It was two lanes, one light and the speed limits were merely a suggestion to me.
On my travels that night, while the sun had already set early that day, the darkness took over everything in front of me. I could scream out song lyrics if I wanted as I drove with the windows down. In front of me, there was a light that slowly grew larger and larger in the distance. I decided to get lost and take another road that was aiming towards the light in the distance and finally ended up at a crossroads of rte. 75 and rte. 80. I was in the middle of nowhere letting this light in the distance guide me and eventually I ended up at a dragstrip. It was my first time ever seeing such a thing. Here was this dragstrip literally in the middle of nowhere. Farm land as far as the eye could see and smack dab in the middle, a dragstrip.
I paid the 10 bucks, parked as far away from the gleaming muscle cars as possible out of Honda-owning shame and quietly walked to the bleachers and found my seat. Before my eyes, I saw normal human beings, rather, normal working class, blue collared men and woman getting to drive their cars as fast as they could against eachother. And it was legal! Now, I'm a road course kind of car guy myself as I believe it takes more skill to drive fast AND make turns (Nascar isn't a sport, it's going fast and turning left) but as I studied how people would put bags of ice on their manifolds to cool everything down or air down their slicks to get more flat surface on the launch, there definately was a sweet science to this sport. I was hooked.
What was once a chance encounter, turned into an almost weekly visit. I would eventually steal my moms scooter helmet and take it to the track to run my car one night. Scared out of my mind, totally out gunned, I took my first run. I got creamed by a '67 Fastback. My 115hp engine was obliterated. I loved every second of it.
Well, today, the 30th of October was the last day anyone would run at 75 & 80. What was once a local secret will now be a housing development. The almighty dollar has won once again and without getting into dramatics, I present to you some photos I took there today.
Please enjoy.
(click photo)
On my travels that night, while the sun had already set early that day, the darkness took over everything in front of me. I could scream out song lyrics if I wanted as I drove with the windows down. In front of me, there was a light that slowly grew larger and larger in the distance. I decided to get lost and take another road that was aiming towards the light in the distance and finally ended up at a crossroads of rte. 75 and rte. 80. I was in the middle of nowhere letting this light in the distance guide me and eventually I ended up at a dragstrip. It was my first time ever seeing such a thing. Here was this dragstrip literally in the middle of nowhere. Farm land as far as the eye could see and smack dab in the middle, a dragstrip.
I paid the 10 bucks, parked as far away from the gleaming muscle cars as possible out of Honda-owning shame and quietly walked to the bleachers and found my seat. Before my eyes, I saw normal human beings, rather, normal working class, blue collared men and woman getting to drive their cars as fast as they could against eachother. And it was legal! Now, I'm a road course kind of car guy myself as I believe it takes more skill to drive fast AND make turns (Nascar isn't a sport, it's going fast and turning left) but as I studied how people would put bags of ice on their manifolds to cool everything down or air down their slicks to get more flat surface on the launch, there definately was a sweet science to this sport. I was hooked.
What was once a chance encounter, turned into an almost weekly visit. I would eventually steal my moms scooter helmet and take it to the track to run my car one night. Scared out of my mind, totally out gunned, I took my first run. I got creamed by a '67 Fastback. My 115hp engine was obliterated. I loved every second of it.
Well, today, the 30th of October was the last day anyone would run at 75 & 80. What was once a local secret will now be a housing development. The almighty dollar has won once again and without getting into dramatics, I present to you some photos I took there today.
Please enjoy.
(click photo)
I've said it a million times and I'll say it once more. I love. LOVE your photos. I'm really glad you made it out. (: