Texas Nitro Nostalgia Drag Races at San Antonio

Still doing it the way they did ‘back in the day’

Words and photos by JM Hallas

When drag racing began there were front-engine dragsters, altered coupes and a vast array of local hot rodders. On May 5th San Antonio Raceway hosted the Inaugural Texas Nostalgia Drag Races, presented by Texastiming.com, running to both the quarter and eighth mile.

This was the second trip to San Antonio for the nostalgia classes after last fall’s running of the Texas State Championships. Racers from across Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma brought back memories for many of the old school drag racing fans.

The Texas Timing Association members cherish those days of traditional drag racing, as it was done when wheelbases were short, engines were out front where you could keep an eye on them, nitromethane and methanol were commonly used fuels, and most of the spectators were just other drag racers and hot rodders standing by the fence, waiting their turn to go to the starting line.

The association is working to keep the traditional roots of drag racing alive, show the new racers how our sport developed and what the cars of the earliest and most sensational days looked and ran like. We are particularly interested in encouraging the reunions of all types of hot rodders and car show owners, back into the union with drag racers. Our sport began and grew from a mixture of these three elements when hot rodding, car shows and drag racing were all simply different parts of the same thing.

Towards this goal, the TTA is developing a series of drag races with traditional hot rods and authentic, historical drag race cars. The original North Texas Timing Association was a group that brought together all the mid-20th Century car clubs into the singular body that operated the famed Caddo Mills Drag Strip. Now, in the early 21st Century, the subsequent Texas Timing Association seeks Texas car clubs to partner with and help to put on events in the same old way.
  
Three groups were part of this years “Cacklefest”, the Outlaw Fuel Altered Association (www.outlawfulaltereds.com), Texas Blown Fuel Association (www.texasblownfuel.com) and Southwest Junior Fuel Association (www.swjfa.com) all had a good turnout of nostalgia cars. Along with the nostalgia classes, index and bracket races were run during the morning.

Outlaw Fuel Altered Association

Terry Brian (New London) used his second sub-four-second run in the finals to grab the win over Jimmy Jones (Cleborne). Jones, in the 521ci, BAE-powered ’29 Ford “Texas Tremor”, was first off the line but the ’32 Bantam “II N’Tense” of Brian, with 526 cubic inches of Hemi, drove around Jones on the top end.

Brian, the 2011 class Rookie of the Year, posted a 3.961 in the Chicago-style qualifying round to advance along with Jones who turned a 3.981. Number-one qualifier with a 3.925, Mary Reep in her ’29 Ford, “Grim Reaper” failed to make the finals after not making a run in round one.