More Milne Bros.

California, Aug. 31, 1962

Anti-Missile missile

California, Nov. 16, 1962

Cash for clunker

Nov. 26, 1962; obviously, the copy editor wasn't a drag racing fan.

No exaggeration

Nov. 25, 1962; tomorrow, the winner

Barrier breaker

July 29, 1962

Missile sighting

June 22, 1962

West Coast action

March 9, 1962. California tracks didn't seem to advertise much, but a lot of races got decent writeups in the sports section. A lot of the interest was on fuel dragsters. No super stock results for this race; Sammy Hale, top fuel eliminator, beat Pete Robinson, top gas eliminator, for the overall title. Don Prudhomme was quickest. "Race Queen' is the only cheesecake I've found so far. The '61 Chevy makes it justifiable.

The car to beat

June 1, 1962

Wanted man

From April 5, 1962

A familiar subject/verb pairing

May 26, 1962

Who knows "The Nose"?

    Here is one more from Dec. 1962 at the Piedmont, N.C., track that included the previous Richard Petty photos.
    The car on the right looks a lot like the '62 Plymouth in the pic I found online (sorry, I don't know whose it is). It's just a snapshot, fuzzy enough that you can't make out the driver's name (Johnny ----?). Anyway, it has the classic "super stock" look of the era -- homemade hood scoops, back edge of the hood raised up, and nose in the air. You can read its name on the hood --The Nose.

Petty at Piedmont

Richard Petty was mentioned a couple of posts back. Here he is at Piedmont, in December 1962, in a 1963 Dodge. The first shot sums up the racing at so many of the small tracks of that time -- Guardrails? We don't need no stinkin' guardrails. I'd love to know whose car he is driving. Does Jones and Joyce Engineering ring a bell with anyone? Sorry, no results from this day.

Life on Easy Street

From July 30,1962

The winner

Big names, big money

    Back at Mason-Dixon, and at York U.S. 30, for a big-money meet in September, barely a week after Hayden Proffitt won Stock Eliminator at the U.S. Nationals. Tomorrow, the winner.

Pontiac power

   Some familiar names at a famous Southern track, from January 1962. I guess Petty was just trying to keep busy until Daytona.

Crazy 'bout a Mercury

More from Illinois: May 1962 (top), and July 1962

Dishing some dirt

Not that I'm any authority on old racetracks, but I did spend a lot of my teenage years reading pretty much any car/drag racing magazine I could get my hands on, and this place is new to me. However, it lives on at www.whdow.org . A few facts from the site: Opened in 1959 as 1/8th mile dirt, which it would have been at the time of this September 1962 ad. Asphalt in 1969, closed in 1975. White Hall is north of Alton on U.S. 67, and south of Interstate 72.

Decisions, decisions

   Two good races on Oct. 21, 1962, at two famous East Coast tracks, with results from one. I probably would have chosen the Brannan-Faubel match. Too bad the Dodge overheated.

No. 1

    Chronological order seems to make the most sense, so let's set the way-back machine for 1962 and hop in.
    Naturally, I'll begin in the South, in Panama City, Fla., on June 22 (first),  July 6 and June 1, 1962. Sunset Dragway advertised a lot, and Billy Jacobs and Pete Mount were mentioned often. Panama City was our family vacation spot, and one trip, in the late 1960s, I talked my folks into letting me take the car and go to Sunset. All I remember about it was being a lot farther from the action than at the strip back home, which turned out to be a good thing because a gasser -- the name "Big Iron" sticks in my mind -- ran off the track and spun out, just kissing the fence as it skidded to a stop.