Fond memories of Osceola drag strip

[41 Frank]

Went to watch the drags to cheer on the Studes Friday and while standing there looking at Ted Harbits TOMATO 550HP Lark he looked at me and said "Wanna take her out?"......after I almost swallowed my partial I looked at Ted and wondered if he had been out in the sun too long,but no he had not, because he had allready asked Mariann, his wife to also.Having had plenty of drag race experience but with automatic transmission cars I thought that nevertheless I could do it. Wrong!!!I asked Ted what rpm to launch at, crawled in and fastened my seat belt and put on the helmet and the way I went. Got to the line,did my burnout, staged against Bill Jones from Garden City Kansas with his LT 1 C...y powered Beautiful Lark rag top. When the light turned green I launched the Tomato with too much trottle and it promptly headed towards my opponents lane, needless to say I had to get out of it and feather it until it regained traction, by that time Bill was long gone but I still got to feel the tremendous power of the TOMATO the rest of the quarter mile, what a ride.Launching these cars with street tires with that much power without either bogging the car or burning the tires off is something that is not learned overnight and I salute Ted for being so good at it.Thanks for the ride Ted and congrats on your win at Martin Mi.

[Guido]

I just had a chance to unload the pictures from the drags on Friday. It turns out that the only ones that came out were of Gary Ash running his M-5 against the blue one. [xx(]

Frank, I am glad that you posted about your ride, at least it explains about that launch the Tomato had. [:0] I wish that I had a vehicle there to run (management would not let me stage my horse drawn buggy against the Tomato).

[Guido]

I just had a chance to unload the pictures from the drags on Friday. It turns out that the only ones that came out were of Gary Ash running his M-5 against the blue one. [xx(]

Frank, I am glad that you posted about your ride, at least it explains about that launch the Tomato had. [:0] I wish that I had a vehicle there to run (management would not let me stage my horse drawn buggy against the Tomato).

[41 Frank]

Gary,the buggy would have been something I could have handled maybe if it had only one horsepower. Track management may have been afraid the horse could have left a deposit on the track they did not want to deal withStay tuned, my wife shot video of the drags and at some point it will show up here in a couple of weeks maybe.

quote:Originally posted by Guido

I just had a chance to unload the pictures from the drags on Friday. It turns out that the only ones that came out were of Gary Ash running his M-5 against the blue one. [xx(]

Frank, I am glad that you posted about your ride, at least it explains about that launch the Tomato had. [:0] I wish that I had a vehicle there to run (management would not let me stage my horse drawn buggy against the Tomato).

[41 Frank]

Gary,the buggy would have been something I could have handled maybe if it had only one horsepower. Track management may have been afraid the horse could have left a deposit on the track they did not want to deal withStay tuned, my wife shot video of the drags and at some point it will show up here in a couple of weeks maybe.

quote:Originally posted by Guido

I just had a chance to unload the pictures from the drags on Friday. It turns out that the only ones that came out were of Gary Ash running his M-5 against the blue one. [xx(]

Frank, I am glad that you posted about your ride, at least it explains about that launch the Tomato had. [:0] I wish that I had a vehicle there to run (management would not let me stage my horse drawn buggy against the Tomato).

[Guido]

Frank,

I thought that it would have been a great video to stage against Ted and the Tomato only to have him red light (due to the fear of losing ) and show me on my 2 minute trot to the end of the traps. I think there may have been some concerns about my hubs at the high speeds I would be running!

Gary

[Guido]

Frank,

I thought that it would have been a great video to stage against Ted and the Tomato only to have him red light (due to the fear of losing ) and show me on my 2 minute trot to the end of the traps. I think there may have been some concerns about my hubs at the high speeds I would be running!

Gary

[JDP]

When I went to the drag strip with my 460 cu.in. Ford powered Cobra replica I cut a high 12 second run the first time out and almost had to make a left hand turn to stay in my lane. The "management" walked up to me and said it was too risky for me to make any more passes. Once I convinced him that I was on the drag strip before he was conceived he let me keep running. He later told me he thought I was just a rich guy playing with a toy and feared I'd kill myself.
Funny thing was, I sold the car a few years later because I to was convinced I'd kill myself. I had taken to passing five or six cars on a two lane just for the thrill of running it from 60 MPH to double that by the time I cleared the last car when it occurred to me that the number 2 or 3 car could have pulled out to pass as I had my foot on the floor. I sold it to a airline pilot that added aluminum heads and a Paxton because he wanted still more power. Last i heard, he was alive and well.

JDP/Maryland
66 Sports sedan
64 Daytona HT/R2 clone
64 Daytona R2
63 GT R2
63 Lark 2 door
62 Gt Hawk
62 Lark 2 door
60 Lark HT-60Hawk
59 3E truck
58 Starlight
52 & 53 Starliner
51 Commander

[JDP]

When I went to the drag strip with my 460 cu.in. Ford powered Cobra replica I cut a high 12 second run the first time out and almost had to make a left hand turn to stay in my lane. The "management" walked up to me and said it was too risky for me to make any more passes. Once I convinced him that I was on the drag strip before he was conceived he let me keep running. He later told me he thought I was just a rich guy playing with a toy and feared I'd kill myself.
Funny thing was, I sold the car a few years later because I to was convinced I'd kill myself. I had taken to passing five or six cars on a two lane just for the thrill of running it from 60 MPH to double that by the time I cleared the last car when it occurred to me that the number 2 or 3 car could have pulled out to pass as I had my foot on the floor. I sold it to a airline pilot that added aluminum heads and a Paxton because he wanted still more power. Last i heard, he was alive and well.

JDP/Maryland
66 Sports sedan
64 Daytona HT/R2 clone
64 Daytona R2
63 GT R2
63 Lark 2 door
62 Gt Hawk
62 Lark 2 door
60 Lark HT-60Hawk
59 3E truck
58 Starlight
52 & 53 Starliner
51 Commander

[41 Frank]

I kind of know that feeling JDP. I got to drive a 426 Hemi powered Plymouth GTX once,a 4 speed car belonging to John Begian, SDC past President, during Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit, what a ride.Driving the Tomato is a lot like that.

[41 Frank]

I kind of know that feeling JDP. I got to drive a 426 Hemi powered Plymouth GTX once,a 4 speed car belonging to John Begian, SDC past President, during Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit, what a ride.Driving the Tomato is a lot like that.

[lstude]

Here are some of the pictures I took at Osceola.













Leonard Shepherd

http://leonardshepherd.com/

[lstude]

Here are some of the pictures I took at Osceola.













Leonard Shepherd

http://leonardshepherd.com/

[Guido]

You had to hand it to that guy campaigning in the '55 Packard. He was hauling around 5000 pounds of metal coupled to a 352 3 speed. He was running in the 18 second range and getting eaten up every trip down the track, but he made more passes than anyone (and also bought more gas).

[Guido]

You had to hand it to that guy campaigning in the '55 Packard. He was hauling around 5000 pounds of metal coupled to a 352 3 speed. He was running in the 18 second range and getting eaten up every trip down the track, but he made more passes than anyone (and also bought more gas).