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Post by tracman on Jan 4, 2009 10:14:15 GMT -5
I'm sure many people remember the Utica Rome Drag Strip! It was a great place to spend a Saturday night and not get a ticket while having some fun! I am looking for old photos, newspaper clippings, magazines and home movies from Utica-Rome and Cicero's ESTA Dragway from the 60's and 70's. I'm trying to put together a couple of slide shows and the like. Besides posting here.....If you have anything to donate or discuss in person, please contact me Dick Aversa 315 724-6904 or tracman@adelphia.net here's one of my Dad in the mid 60's Thanks in advance! D  |
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Post by zarnock on Jan 4, 2009 10:29:07 GMT -5
Don't make me pull out all those old photo's.... Well, OK just one.... Don't make fun of my hair though....  |
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Post by tracman on Jan 4, 2009 12:34:09 GMT -5
Great looking ride! I don't remember seeing this photo from you before. you looked taller back then! Must be the high heeled racing boots! ha ha
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Post by Clipper on Jan 4, 2009 12:40:35 GMT -5
Hey, the hair styles from those days were wild. I was never inclined to grow my hair long, but many of my friends did. We have to get Kim to post her picture of her with "Mall Hair" from her blog. That was really funny, knowing her and seeing her now.
I am just enough older to have lived in the days of Elvis, sideburns, duck's ass hair styles, and groom and clean, hahaha!
How about it Kim!!! Put up the Mall Hair pic for us to check out, LOL.
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Post by zarnock on Jan 4, 2009 19:59:17 GMT -5
Great looking ride! I don't remember seeing this photo from you before. you looked taller back then! Must be the high heeled racing boots! ha ha LOL, I think it's just that the car is low.... `cause everybody knows.... I aint a towering individual.... As for the hair, well, I have a DA now and have had it for about 20 years. Ever since I cut my Mullet.... Here is my High School pic. somewhere about 1975. I was 17  |
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Post by bobbbiez on Jan 4, 2009 22:44:06 GMT -5
 Hey guys, I won't even touch the "hair thing." ;D I remember spending many a nights at Fonda Speed Way. Wednesdays were the drags and Saturdays was stock cars. My ex, Vinny, raced his cars there as did his friends Vinny Maugeri and Lou Razzano. We were there one Wednesday night when Cha Cha Mardany hit a pole and split her Corvette in half during a race. The damn thing shattered completely. She walked away limping but was okay. She went on to be quite a pro driver and even after her near fatal crash, she still continued to race on the pro-circuit. Fonda was quite the race track back then and brought in many a good driver. All before Utica Rome Drag Strip. 
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Post by tracman on Jan 6, 2009 20:53:48 GMT -5
I remember first going to Fonda around 1963- 1964 I wasn't old enough to drive! lol My dad was racing a 62 Catalina convertible and my brother started with a 61 Olds convertible and later on, when the '65 GTO's came out, used to go there with the new goat.. They got the racing bug bad! Shirley Muldowney was there weekly and had a favorite saying written on the side of her car " If you beat me ___ ___ ___ __! She had quite a vivid imagination! ha ha The Dragstrip was down the middle of the oval track and not much room to stop. The "SPOT" between the racers was given in feet or car lengths, not time on the clock like today. We raced at Fonda, Utica - Rome, Cicero, Lebannon Valley,Tri County - Binghamton, Fulton, Lancaster, and Later when I joined the Army Reserves ('69) I would bring my car to Ft. Dix and race at Atco and visit Maplegrove during my AT's. When the roads opened from the STORM of '66, we left in my Dads 2+2 Poncho and drove cross country and witnessed the '66 Winter Nationals at Pomona California, My Dad also went with Johnny Buttons and his car to race the Indy Nationals a few years later. I went almost yearly to the Summer Nationals and the Canadian Nationals 1971. I was also lucky to have Relatives who lived in California, and went to many of the tracks out there including the old LIONS Dragway. Well how about some photos people! Get Digging in them old boxes! |
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Post by bobbbiez on Jan 6, 2009 21:31:41 GMT -5
Tracman, on your many rounds of the racing circuit you probably met up with a very close friend of mine, Rod Skinner from Cold Brook. He raced alot of Burkhart's vehicles for many years.  Both you and Zarnock must know another dear friend, Joe Patene, from Delta who shows a lot of his vehicles. Went to the show he sponsored last summer at the Delta Firehouse. Good show with lots of vehicles and some good home-cooked food with great entertainment. Really great turn out.
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Post by tracman on Jan 6, 2009 21:34:01 GMT -5
This was my car in the early 70's  |
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Post by tracman on Jan 6, 2009 21:39:45 GMT -5
Rod is a very good friend of mine! He still races and is very hard to beat when he shows up at the track. He sold that beautiful wagon this year...what a great machine that was!
I worked with Phily Burkhart senior in 1967 at Genuine auto parts and we have been friends ever since..
I remember when the Delta Cruise was but didn't go. I know quite a few cars in Rome. Seems you learn the car first and the owners name later...lol Rome has a couple of different car clubs there. We are really lucky in this area ... so many car enthusiasts!
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Post by tracman on Jan 6, 2009 21:55:23 GMT -5
This is one of my Race Friends of today..his name is Carl.... his car was featured in SUPER CHEVY Magazine last year and he Races ESTA with me in the summer months... the old '55 has a newer 454 cubic inch big block under the hood!  |
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Post by tracman on Jan 6, 2009 22:11:58 GMT -5
These guys raced all over the area and had a lot of great cars in the 60-70's  |
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Post by zarnock on Jan 6, 2009 22:16:58 GMT -5
I too know Rod Skinner and he is a great guy! I met him when he got back from the service back in 1979 or so. I believe that is when he built that little Vega that he had (still may have it?) He is a good friend of my cousin Bill too who has property up there in Ohio.
I'll have to start digging up some old pic;s of the car that I had back in the 70's and scan them for the net....
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Post by zarnock on Jan 6, 2009 22:17:55 GMT -5
Ya know Dick, you need to get Norm Jones here. He has all kinds of stuff from back in the day....
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Post by bobbbiez on Jan 6, 2009 22:40:47 GMT -5
Rod and Cindy drove his old Chevy he rebuilt up to my camp this summer. I am their son, Henry's, godmother. They're always up at camp. Rod might not be racing this summer. He's been ill and now is undergoing treatments. Hopefully, all will be okay for him. He's quite the guy. Great family and I love em all. 
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Hey guys, I won't even touch the "hair thing." ;D
