Wow! Memories. Had not thought about this for a long time. Probably get timed out, but for what it's worth...
Don't ask what year, flat don't remember! Only 10 years old, or so, had no idea what a MoPar was. Grew up in northern Cal, that particular place was Santa Maria. The 'drag strip' was an old airfield taxiway, that ran along side a two lane blacktop road, it being lined with trees.
Met one of the racers one day, think his name was Skip Johnson, who ran a Bantum roadster, sporting a 354 Hemi. He's one of the few who would let me have a decent look at his car. After a few weekends of being at the strip, he started letting me 'help', letting me put fresh spark plugs in, and such.
But, sadly, it all came to a halt. That two lane road also made a turn past the end of the strip, with the line of trees. That particular time, a older woman driving a station wagon on the road, stopped her car in line with the end of the strip. Skip was making his run...his wife and child were in the stands...and Skip took off. 'Something happened', brakes failed, chute tangled, and he ran out of track.
With that station wagon in the way, Skip avoided her, but head on into one of those damn trees. Firefighters basicly had to gather his body parts.
After that, I stayed away from drag racing for a few years. But, it was my first brush with a MoPar.
