This is the type of drag racing video that you really have to kind of be a dork to fully enjoy, BUT, anyone that was live in 1981 will appreciate it as well. You are going to watch some shockingly professional level stuff that was shot at the legendary and long dead Orange County International Raceway in California. The video seems to have been made by someone attached to a group of guys who were there on a track rental day. There’s no one at the track, they are running their own junk, and they are having a blast. You’ll see Mustangs, cool bikes, a ratty and awesome Firebird, and a Monza with a scoop that is literally taller than the roof.
We say this is professionally made because the editing of it and the footage seems like it was actually done by someone who knew what they were doing. Combine that with the addition of music in a couple of scenes and you have a freaking neat hunk of video.
The true beauty of this footage is that it gives us a look at what regular guy drag racing was in 1981, right? This is not funny cars or top fuel dragsters, this is just dudes in their hot rods, plunking down their money to hang out, have the track, and have a blast. The stuff is all pretty slow, even the Monza, but hell, the vibe is absolutely awesome.
This is the best video we have ever seen from OCIR as well. You really get a sense of the place when watching this in terms of its layout, size, and scope. Cool, right?
interesting looks like the guy who owned pro stock engineering it was a ford oriented shop in paramount california, mostly ford fe parts i think he even had air cups instead of valve springs way before the euro surrender monkeys did in formula 1 name was paul badoian our close to it
Thanks for posting this Brian. Man, I could have gone the rest of my lifetime without seeing dudes in short shorts again! This reminds me of the day some friends and I snuck into the old Fresno Dragways on a Sunday when they were closed. They actually used to leave the chain on the gate loose enough so you could push the gate open wide enough to drive a car through and onto the property. I wore out a set of almost new tires in one day doing open header burnouts pretending I was driving something that was actually fast. Well, ok it may have only been one tire cause I had an open diff in my 1970 Mach 1! Back to the video, I am not sure if that was a Kawasaki 500 or 750 two stroke triple in the video. Given how slow it looked I’m guessing it was a 500 with expansion chambers. Man, that is a sound I haven’t heard in like 40 years. We even got to see an old Elco do the G body shuffle going down the track. Cool seeing OCIR. Never made it to the strip before it closed. So I guess the fact that I enjoyed the video establishes me as a dork. Guess I already knew that. LOL.
The Monza has a familiar name on the door…Mike Meziere of Meziere Enterprises. Bunch of “cool” dudes. Pun intended.