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!
Press play below!
Dig those wheel standers,and Potter:).
I might have been at that event, though I was probably 13 years old at the time. I do remember a V8 bike that just blazed the rear tire all the way down the quarter. I seem to recall the guy going by the name “The Michigan Mad Man” and he was just that…crazy mad.
We’d get so frustrated when Malcolm Durham would loose to Tasca Ford in funny car. Malcolm was always wheels in the air and tons of power, while Tasca just seemed to plow down the track at 70% potential. But the family was Chevy fans back then…surprisingly we’re all Ford fans 35 years later. Go Figure!
Awsome picture of Dad’s Frank Pettinato & John Morey’s A/FA. I have never seen that shot before. However I rember the race. Huge meet at Dragway 42 in Ohio 1972. We set a national e.t. record at the race with a 7.42
Thanks a lot, Dan Pettinato
Thats my car! What a race that week! I can tell you all kinds of details. Does anyone care?
You bet your ass we do Frank!
I saw the Michigan Madman a couple of times at Irwindale Raceway. He had the looks of a college professor, the courage of an astronaut. Just looking at that scratchy film, I could not help but think how we took it for granted in those days. Living in Southern California, all the big names would be there every week, and we never gave it a second thought. I guess we thought it would never end. But then Lion’s closed, followed by Irwindale and Orange County. All of a sudden it was gone, without a trace.