Time Travel to a ’60s Dragstrip on Your Lunch Break
Motorsport and racing is on a never-ending rollercoaster of evolution that all but ensures things will never be the same for long. Well, at least for any of the ones that focus more on the podium than the experience for racers and fans alike. Southeast Gassers and their traveling horsepower show, on the other hand, is as much about capturing a cherished moment in time as it is seeing who crosses the line first.
Dylan Horton is there to capture the time-warp experience of the Southeast Gassers, and he does so in shimmering images that get wedged in my brain hard enough that even one of his 10-second reels will have me dreaming of bang-shifting a top loader for at least a week.
His latest YouTube upload shares the emotions of dreamers like us who occasionally long for a time we never genuinely experienced. He grew up immersed in the culture, hearing first-hand accounts and stories from family. Then came attending events and making new memories, turning today into one of the good old days. A passion for cars led him into videography, and anyone with an eye for video and heart for horsepower dreams of the vivid colors, emotion, and straight-axle lifts on pie-crust slicks that fill his videos of the Southeast Gassers. The visual he creates makes us yearn for those moments even more.
And a little bit for good reason, as Horton points out in the video. It was a simpler time and the cars had tons of individual personality—to say nothing of adding the drivers into the mix. And those seeking proof that it was a simpler time needn’t look any further than the rulebook. Give a gander at the 1965 NHRA rule book for the Gas — Coupe/sedan class. It’s in plain English, straightforward, and can be read beginning-to-end in a couple minutes. It allows anyone with an interest in racing to get in and have fun.
Now, we get to create an even better version of the past. The wonderful choice to add in modern safety and tuning which helps dial back—but certainly does not eliminate—the risk. These cars are running fast as ever and I would be willing to wager have fewer significant safety incidents. It’s really fun to play with these old cars—we more or less know what works and what doesn’t since someone’s been developing many of these designs for the better part of 60 years. That’s not to minimize the effort—quite the opposite. It still takes dedication to build an authentic car, and that is an admirable task.
More than anything though, it keeps the history alive. It would be one thing to read about gassers in books and see pictures, but to go out and experience the sights and sounds brings history to life. Or even just watching clips on YouTube over your lunch break—I could watch that red wheel-standing Ford Falcon all day. Horton and everyone in the Southeast Gassers are doing yeoman’s work preserving and sharing this gem of an era in drag racing.
Very enjoyable video, thank you.
Growing up in the 60’s, I watched Stones Woods and Cook, Mazmanian, and others at the different strips back then. Gassers were more fun to watch because you never knew how they would take off or go down the strip. Still have my Lions trophy that I got with my 58 tripower 348 powerglide Chevy Impala. Now that Irwindale is closing at the end of the month, only Pomona will be left, and probably a rise in street racing will occur! One thing we learn fro history is we don’t learn from history!
Thanks for the memories Dylan!! With the summer of 1962 my brother and I raced in Topeka Ks at the Kaw Valley Raceway with a ’47 Chevy Coupe. The sanctioning body at the time was the American Hot Rod Assn. As we had built the coupe with a 265 engine salvaged from a 56 corvette it ran E/G. At that time Jim Tice who went on to become president of the AHRA lived in Topeka. Doug Boyce recently published Drag Racing’s Rebels, forwarded by Don Garlits a story of the AHRA. I know you would enjoy!! Great Photo’s Cheers!!
I remember in the 70s Orange County Raceway, where they had a rocket car for takeoff and a Volkswagen bug behind it and they burn the bug to the ground. The commercials always said chicks for free because the girls got in free bringing guys to the races.
Our local strip has the annual “Fox Hunt” – very un-PC, I guess, but a good time!
That was a really awesome hour of browsing!!!Thanks very much,and god bless all you Oldschool men and women out there.AT.
Nice! 👍
A great time to be an early teen it was something new every week.
My buddies and I have been to the nostalgia drags at Atmore, AL several times to watch the Southeast Gassers race weekends. What a blast!! Nothing fancy about these cars, just pure race cars. And the guys that drive and work on them are the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. They all welcome you to look around, ask them questions and just jaw about the cars and themselves.
And, just a shoutout to Jim Marsh with his ‘51 Studabaker, The Prosperctor, who drives from Odessa, Tx to Atmore, to spend the weekend racing with his buddies!!!
If you ever have a chance to catch one of these events, treat yourself to a fun day of old school racing!!!
My local track has been hosting a nostalgia drag weekend for some years but recently their idea of nostalgia contains more super-charged Fox Mustangs and blown 80s station wagons than true nostlgia. I hope they are paying attention. Then I might start paying again.