Chronicle Winter 2020  RISE OF HOT- RODDING In the wake of World War II, GIs with a taste for action returned home in droves. The shift from a war to consumer economy put money in their pockets—perhaps not enough The Rise and Fall of for a new car, but certainly enough to tinker with Depression-Era coupes and roadsters. MOTOR CITY Hot Rod magazine hit stands in 1948, and it did not take long for Michiganders to catch the fever. That DRAGWAY same year, the Motor City Modified Auto Club became the state’s first By Jim Bloch hot rod club. By 1951, the club- managed Michigan Hot Rod Association (MHRA) was created. If Detroit gave birth to the automotive industry, California provided the scene for the early It was 1967, and at a drag strip in St. Clair County, it days of hot-rodding and drag was the summer of showdowns. Motor City Dragway, racing. “All teenage car nuts had which opened in the late 1950s, was a haven for hot elements of both in their work— customizing and hot-rodding, rodders, drag racers, gearheads, and thrill seekers. From form and power—but tended to transistor radios poured the sound of two announcers concentrate on one or the other,” taking turns, sentence by© sentence, 2020 hyping up nights at wrote Tom Wolfe in his seminal the strip: “You may win a chance to take the wheel of a 1965 essay about the California ’67 Hemi Plymouth and take on the top nationally rated scene, “The Kandy-Kolored super stock team of Sox & Martin! Beautiful Motor City Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.” Dragway is located three miles east of the Edsel Ford In Michigan, car enthusiasts focused Expressway on 26 Mile Road….Be there!” on custom cars to drag race. And, following the lead of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), the MHRA wanted to take drag racing off the streets and onto the drag strip. To raise money for a track, the of MichiganMHRA held its first hot rod and custom car show, known as Historical SocietyAutorama, at the University of Detroit’s fieldhouse on January 31, 1953, showing about four dozen cars. By 1955, the MHRA was 40 clubs strong. In an effort to supercharge its bankroll, the MHRA signed a five- year contract with Don Ridler to produce and promote Autorama in 1955. According to Bob Larivee Sr., an MHRA member, Ridler obtained

(Photo courtesy of Hayden Walker.) courtesy(Photo of Hayden coverage for the event in newspapers  13   Historical Society of Michigan and on television and hoped to “bring in musical entertainment so the whole Norm Lupo racing in his 1956 Chevy stock car at Motor City Dragway in 1968. family could enjoy Autorama.” A barn is visible in the background, since the drag strip was located among several St. Clair County farms. (Photo courtesy of Patrice Lehman/JoeStevensPhotos.com.) Ridler’s work paid off, and the association soon purchased 42 acres in Ira Township that would become the drag strip. “MHRA secured loans to pay for the concrete racing surface, and Michigan’s first official drag strip was a reality,” wrote Michael Sheridan and Sam Bushala in Show Time. Although Central Michigan Dragway— later named Mid-Michigan Motorplex—opened in 1956, the strip was not paved until September 1957. With MHRA members spending their weekends helping build the track, Motor City Dragway became the first full-time, paved drag strip in the state.

THE TRACK’S EARLY YEARS ending his role and experiment with different as the drag strip’s techniques.” The track opened with a bang from manager. May 30 to June 1, 1957, as the MHRA Dragway. Money poured in, Dick Forton FINANCIAL and the MHRA soon purchased 40 remembers racing HARDSHIPS acres west of the strip for a runoff.© 2020his chopped and Two years after its debut, the strip ran Bob Larivee Sr. served as track channeled 1931 into financial problems. The MHRA manager during its inaugural year and Model A coupe, Bob Larivee Sr. instituted a two-dollar assessment on (Photo courtesy of was president of the MHRA twice in powered by a the author.) club members—many of whom began the late-1950s. 1948 Mercury to drop out. Larivee’s main passion was circle track flathead, at the drag strip. “A lot Gil Kohn opened Detroit Dragway racing, but he bought a Plymouth of people got their start at Motor in Wayne County in 1959, and wagon with a 350 engine in it so he City and later became famous,” said suddenly, drag racers had a venue could drag race at the new track he Forton. “The first time I ran, it was closer to the city. Other tracks managed. In 1958, Larivee moved on against Connie Kalitta.” Conrad followed, such as International to producing hot rod shows full-time, “Connie” Kalitta skyrocketed to fame Acres Raceway, near Grand Rapids; ofin the mid-1960s Michigan as “The Bounty Onondaga Dragway, located north Hunter.” Forton, who beat Kalitta for of Jackson; U.S. 131 Dragway in Historicalthe top eliminator, hit 98 milesSociety per Martin; Milan Dragway, south of hour and ran the quarter-mile strip Ypsilanti; and Tri-City Dragway in Saginaw. By 1965, there were 130 in 13.3 seconds. drag strips in 42 states regulated by The book Hot Rod the NHRA, plus a slew of tracks Detroit, edited by sanctioned by smaller organizations. Larivee, describes The MHRA, strapped for cash, rented the “fun atmosphere the drag strip to a promoter, but he Above: Pouring concrete for the to the races,” such struggled too. It was not until 1963, original quarter mile. Inset: The poster as when “drivers for the dragway’s grand opening in when John Bloom and Leo Martin 1957. (Photos courtesy of Bob Larivee Sr.) would switch cars leased the facility from the MHRA, with one another that things began to turn around.  14  Chronicle Winter 2020  “Bloom and Martin improved the when he was thrown from his front from his drag racing museum in Ocala, track and started promoting crowd- engine rail as it came apart at 160 Florida—though he “never raced there pleasing shows with nationally known miles per hour under the force of its when Kohn owned it.” dragsters, funny cars, gassers and super deploying parachute. He left a wife Garlits accepted appearance money stocks,” according to Hot Rod Detroit. and three daughters. to race and recalled that he and his The track became “International Matthew May of Detroit died on opponents, such as Connie Kalitta, Raceway Park” in 1963 and “Motor July 20, 1975, when his 1967 Chevy would be the only Top Fuel drag racers City Dragway” in 1965—the year it rolled three times during a race. on the bill. When asked about the was illuminated for night racing. According to bracket racer Jim Blake Motor City Dragway scene, Garlits said “I put a 427 [engine] in a 1964 of St. Clair, who witnessed the tragic that it was “not bad for a very small Falcon and used to go out there from event, May “developed a water leak operation” and that he loved “the up Hamtramck,” recalled Don Sioma and sprayed the track and his tires with close interaction with the fans.” of Maumee, Ohio. “The ‘Little Red engine coolant. It spun him around In the early 1960s, Super Stocks had Wagon’ and the Ramchargers were the at top speed. He blew out a tire, went specific carburetor setups, and racers preeminent cars at that time. Everybody down on his rims and flipped the car.” was trying something different.” had to stick with factory engines and May was 20. original seat layouts. Beginning in 1964, However, turning a profit remained Dave Warren of Lexington, Michigan, a challenge, and in 1968, Bloom and TOP FUEL & raced a 389 GTO at Motor City Martin did not renew their lease. On SUPER STOCKS Dragway with his brother, Sid. The car October 22, 1968, the MHRA sold its Top Fuel dragsters have been the kings ran 12.3 elapsed times at the drag strip, 82 acres of land to Detroit Dragway’s hitting 112-113 miles per hour. Gil Kohn for $85,000. Hot Rod Detroit of the quarter mile since the late 1950s, tells of how, during the next decade, with their elongated frames, small front “Just about everybody ran out there,” Kohn “continued to run weekly bracket tires, giant slicks, and huge engines said Warren, including Shirley races, with a healthy dose of rail and powered by nitromethane. Muldowney, the most famous woman funny car shows.” Kohn, now in Boca In 2001, Don “Big Daddy” Garlits in drag racing. Raton, Florida, was still the taxpayer on headed the list of the NHRA’s top 50 In 1966, Sid and Dave Warren went to the property in 2019. © 2020drag racers of all time. Driving his series work for Royal Pontiac, the number- of Swamp Rat dragsters, Garlits won 17 one performance car dealership in DEATH AT THE national championships, his last at the the nation. The brothers tested cars at DRAG STRIP age of 54. Garlits is now approaching 90 Motor City Dragway. “They do the years old and trying to break 200 miles mechanical work in the Royal garage While the rise of drag strips in the per hour in an electric dragster. He raced in Royal Oak, then run the car out to 1950s and 1960s made city streets at Motor City Dragway a number of Motor City Dragway,” wrote Roger safer, the sport retained its inherent times beginning in 1959 and continuing Huntington in the February 1967 issue danger. In North America, 281 drag through most of the 1960s, Garlits said of Super Stock. racers were killed from 1950 to 1980—15 in Michigan and 4 at the Motor City Dragway. Ed Kaczorowski, aged 19, was a of Michigan member of the Bearing Burners, a Mount ClemensHistorical hot rod club. He died Society June 1, 1958, one day after his stock car crashed at 100 miles per hour during a solo qualification run. William Maltby of Birmingham was killed August 15, 1965, at the age Roger Lindamood of 22. His car flipped over while posing beside his going 100 miles per hour, and he was “Color Me Gone” pitched out of the vehicle. Charger in 1968. (Photo courtesy of Thirty-year-old Dick Sawallich of Patrice Lehman/ Brighton died on May 20, 1967, JoeStevensPhotos.com.)  15   Historical Society of Michigan FUNNY CARS & BRACKET RACING By the end of the decade, funny cars eclipsed Super Stocks, and Dave Warren walked away from the sport. But he remembers fondly his time spent at drag strips in the 1960s: “You had a little tower. The pits were all gravel. It was barbaric, really. But it was fun. The average guy could run a car and be competitive.” In 1966, Logghe Stamping Company of Fraser, Michigan, built the first flip-top funny car for Don Nicholson’s Mercury Comet. The car’s body was constructed out of fiberglass and hinged at the back, allowing the crew to lift the whole body above the lightweight chassis. That design set the course for all future funny cars. Top: Motor City Dragway’s quarter-mile strip today, looking west. Above left: The timing Some of the biggest names in funny stand at Motor City Dragway, as it is seen today. Above right: The former concession stand cars raced at Motor City Dragway, at the drag strip. (Photos courtesy of the author.) including Roger Lindamood in “Color Me Gone” and Terry Hendricks in 1976. “Reaction time was everything,” Tough individual circumstances did “Seaton’s Super Shaker.” said Blake. “And my car was very not help. When manager John Broaden Jim Blake competed in bracket racing, consistent. I won a lot of races there. went to open Motor City Dragway which is a “run what you brung” I won a lot of money there.” for the 1978 season, all of the track’s competition with a built-in handicap wiring had been sabotaged. “The © 2020 vandals were thorough; they cut the system. Drivers establish their own THE DRAGWAY’S END wires every three feet or so, ensuring dial-in times through test runs and According to Blake, the drag strip competitions. In races, they try to the cables would have to be entirely stayed busy until the recession of replaced,” said Hot Rod Detroit about come as close as possible to the dial-in 1973, right before dying off rapidly. time without exceeding it. the incident. Faced with the cost of The recession and subsequent rewiring the facility, the rising expense Blake drove a 1967 Barracuda with a stagflation of the 1970s took their of track safety, and dwindling crowds, 340-cubic-inch engine, hitting 100 toll on drag strips everywhere. Gas owner Gil Kohn shuttered the strip. miles per hour in around 12 seconds. was often in short supply, and prices He raced from 1972 to 1978, winning nearly doubled during the decade. The Today, at its former location, Motor City Dragway’s “Outstanding Motor City, Onondaga, and Tri-City evidence of Motor City Dragway’s Drag Racer of the Year” award in drag strips all closed in 1978. roaring past remain, such as the of Michigancrumbling quarter-mile drag strip and quarter-mile runoff, the base of the HistoricalBelow: ASociety funny car announcer’s tower, and the teetering drag race at Motor frame of the old MHRA Dragway City Dragway in 1977. sign—all succumbing to nature. (Photo courtesy of Bob Larivee Sr.) But, for two decades in the heart of the twentieth century, deafening quarter-mile contests made Motor City Dragway a coliseum for gearheads. U

Jim Bloch is a freelance writer who Above: A roadster squares off against a motorcycle at has contributed to both Michigan MHRA Dragway. (Photo courtesy of Bob Larivee Sr.) History and Chronicle magazines.  16 