Historic Drag Video: Take A Trip Back In Time With This Color Film From The 1958 NHRA US Nationals


Historic Drag Video: Take A Trip Back In Time With This Color Film From The 1958 NHRA US Nationals

This is one of the best weeks in the entire sport of drag racing. Know why? Because Indy and the YellowBullet Nationals are next week. That doesn’t make sense? Of course it does. EVERYONE in the sport with cool stuff is going to be out testing, racing,  or otherwise dialing their junk in to get ready for which ever massive event they are going to run next weekend.

There will be outlaw guys running their guts out for glory and to tune up for YellowBullet. There will be legal pro mod guys getting ready for Indy. At NMCA we’ll see Drag Packs, COPOs, and Cobra Jets running for cash and running to make sure that they can bring the house at the NHRA Chevrolet Performance US Nationals as well. This is a week where the sport of drag racing is more united than you’d ever actually imagine it to be. Seriously.

This brings us to the point of the video below. This is color footage that has never been published before and it was taken by people who attended the 1958 NHRA Nationals in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. After starting in Kansas back in ’55 and moving to Kansas City for a couple of years, the Nationals moved to OKC for ’58. The beauty of this video is the fact that it not only showcases the cars in brilliant color but it also has annotations to point out notable and cool cars. Frankly they are all cool, but you get to see those machines that live in drag racing lore and museums now actually doing stuff. As you would expect, the tow and push rigs are freaking awesome as well.

Ted Cyr was the winner of the race and you’ll see him and his car being pushed up the return road. One of the coolest clips in the film comes when a Chevy truck drives by the camera with the evetn trophies in it! We think that you’ll love this video.

Here’s what Robert Chambers told us about the video when he tipped us off –

NHRA Oklahoma Nationals 1958….These home movies were shared with us by Charles “Jr ” Hurley. He and Don Cramer started C&H Engineering one of the first speed shops in Springfield,Mo. in 1957. Don & Jr both ran cars in 1957 at the Nationals. This Modified Roadster was purchased out of California from an ad in Hot Rod Magazine. The speed shop closed in 65 or 66… Jr continued to have his hand in racing while having a real job. We lost Jr back in July…Boy the stories he told…If you have ever seen a MoKan Dragway T-shirt with a Wheels up dragster…That’s our guy……..

Click on the image below for amazing color film from the 1958 NHRA US Nationals

dragster

SaveSave


  • Share This
  • Pinterest
  • 0