My First U.S. Nationals

Words and photos by John "MAZZ"arella
8/9/04

I had joined the Air Force in early 1961 and was going through Automotive Tech School at Chanute AFB in the central Illinois town of Rantoul. A couple of barracks buddies were planning on attending this big drag race in Indianapolis around Labor Day and I begged to go along. Joining the Air Force gave me my first opportunity to be away from home in Largo, Florida, where drag racing was my #2 priority. Yep -- girls was #1.

Any night of the week or weekend days would find me at Sunshine Dragstrip in St. Petersburg or Tampa Dragway or my favorite, Twin Cities Dragway in Oldsmar. We would occasionally take trips to Opa-Locka near Miami and ValKaree somewhere in the middle of the state. My heroes back then were Don and Ed Garlits, Art Malone, Ed Pantley, Marvin Schwartz, Lucky Harris, Hasley Hood, and other blurs that popped out of my memory banks from time to time.

All I remember about this car is that it was beautiful.

I remember riding through miles and miles of cornfields from our base to Indy, but when we arrived I was amazed at the vast expanse of open space this race track was located on. The grass was all cut and green. From where we had to park, looking towards the starting line was like looking at Miami Beach from across the Intercostals. You could see the Quaker State Tower and hear the noise from the cars. The stands were on both sides of the track and full. A big departure from the one-sided stands which held up to 200 people that I was used to. There were food stands every 10 feet that had more selection than Morrison's Cafeteria. The nasty gray hot dogs and potato chips were our only selection back at the Florida home tracks.

As we got to the seats (I now know we sat on the west side), I could see the race cars parked all across the grass behind us in no order of any kind. There were no 18-wheelers. There lots of Chrysler station wagons and pickup trucks with open trailers. I remember a car hauler that had six door cars on it and a couple of old school buses converted to haulers. How cool.

All the name drivers were there somewhere. I had to go see these visions up close that I had only seen on the pages Hot Rod Magazine. I had no idea at the time I was looking at the history of our sport. Jack Chrisman and the Howards Cam car that looked like it had a piece of plywood from the front wheels to the motor. Kind of crude aerodynamics. The Dragmaster 2-Thing was a piece of art. Mickey Thompson had several cars there but, as with all the popular named drivers, the crowds around them made it difficult to see up close.

Only having a Saturday to be there, we made it back to the stands to watch the action. I don't remember much of the racing, but I do remember that George Hurst was giving away Pontiac Catalina's to racers that won their classes (I think). These white "ponchos" were everywhere. Linda Vaughn, Miss Hurst Shifter, was on the back of one of these convertibles going down the track, and we were so far away that I got a headache trying to focus on this beauty I had only seen in
magazines. Because we had an 8:00 p.m. curfew back at the base, I now know how much fun we missed by not hanging at both the track and the hotels around Indy where all the fun was after racing was done for the day.

It wasn't until 1973 that I returned to the U.S. Nationals and, believe me, I took it ALL in. I took plenty of pictures of my 1961 marriage to Indy and I find them every couple of years and reminisce about that day. (I just moved back to Florida and they are in a box -- somewhere.)

I was overwhelmed at the 25th Anniversary in 1978 and can't wait till the 50th this year. I'll be there and hope to see all of you again. I won't make the 100th.