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KARAMESINES POINT – COUNTERPOINT

Thanks for making me famous!
 
Coupl'a counterpoints:
(1) Fastest fuel racers of 1960 were running low 180s -- TWENTY mph slower than 204; NOT "10 mph," as stated.
 
(2) Thus, that extra 20 mph in 1960 represented an increase of roughly 10 percent  -- equivalent to a sudden increase, today, from 300 mph to 330+ mph.  (If some modern T/F car suddenly picked up THIRTY mph, would anyone believe it?)

(3) Garlits continued to come close to 5.63 and 250, everywhere, following those record runs at Ontario.

(4) The Greek came to Chrondek-certified West Coast tracks such as Lions Drag Strip (NOT "Dragway" -- ugh!) and Famoso and Fremont every year after the reported 204 -- yet never got out of the 190s, even while Maynard was alive.  Only after Frank Cannon and others made repeated passes of 200+ in mid-1964 did the Greek crack the barrier on honest clocks.

(5) As you know, I'm a huge fan of Ron Leek's.  However, not even a genius like my ol' buddy could be expected to accurately calculate top-end speed from a starting line buried in tire smoke.

(6) Ditto for the late Don Maynard:  Even if we could dig him up and ask, how would HE have known whether the Greek went 204 or 194 or 184?

(7) I've been a Greek fan even longer than you! 

(8) Had you been paying attention to drag racing in the early '60s, you, too, would be skeptical of all of that era's 200-mph claims -- and know better than to hang your journalistic credentials on a speed that was almost universally dismissed at the time as bogus.  In fact, other than the Greek and "the Leek," I know of no one who was active at that time who believed it, then or now. 

(9) I respectfully suggest that you educate yourself about the true progression of dragster speeds by reading both Robert C. Post's "High Performance" and the Drag News CDs covering 1955 through 1965 (all available from www.HotRodNostalgia.com!).

XOXO,

Dave Wallace

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