In the realm of vintage drag racing videos, this couple minute clip from Connecticut Dragway’s heyday ranks up there with the best of them. Featuring a ton of great race cars, some cool pit footage, and little gems like a gasser being towed back to the pits by a Super Bird, it is riveting to watch. What kicks it into the sublime realm is the EJ Potter footage because this is probably the best we have seen of him in action back in the day.
You’ll see the Widowmaker sitting in the pits with EJ wrenching and yapping, getting started, rolling to the line and charging down the strip in its own man-made fog bank. Look at the reaction of the people watching to see how people responded to what has to be one of the top three exhibition drag machines of all time. At the time this video was made Potter has his act perfected and was running the bike into the eight second zone. Heady numbers for Nixon-era drag racing! You’ll also see the legendary “Backup Pickup” wheelstander as well. This is a fantastic piece of video.
Press play below!
I was there that day.