Drag Racing Pins and Buttons
Description: While organized drag racing came about in 1951, it was in the early '60s that the big three started paying attention. Detroit began quietly building stock-looking cars stuffed full of high-performance parts and no factory warranty, aimed squarely at taking drag strips by storm. With this new breed of off the lot drag racers, increasing numbers of people were suddenly able to get into drag racing without having to build a car from scratch, and boy did they ever. Once the bug had bitten them, they were all in as drag nuts and their stock racers began the never-ending modification process that all hot rodders go through in pursuit of speed.
Description: Ed Iskenderian was a Southern California hot rodder in the years leading up to WWII, working to make his roadster go faster. Post war, a high demand for parts from returning GIs eager to get back to hot rodding was so great that Iskenderian was faced with a long wait for a cam he wanted for his own car. Figuring he could do just as well himself, he bought a surplus cylindrical grinder, converted it into a cam-grinding machine, and went to work. He wasn’t just making a similar cam to those available at the time – he made them better. His cams made big power, and a business grew on the strength of that reputation that would succeed for decades to come, rightfully earning the title of America's fastest racing cams.
Description: The B&M Hydro Stick became the only patented four-speed automatic racing transmission in history when it launched in 1961. Based on the popular Hydramatic line of transmissions, the B&M Hydro Stick allowed racers to manually shift their automatic transmissions. In a time when manuals ruled the track, B&M’s Hydro Stick changed the game by making it possible to keep an automatic transmission in low gear until the driver decided to upshift.
Description: More American Graffiti is set over the course of four New Year's Eve holidays beginning in 1964 and tells four separate stories, one of which is that of John Milner, the head honcho of the racing scene in the first film, as his drag racing career advances. John's story follows him and the Milner Racing Team crew through a series of personal and professional ups and downs, culminating in a fatal finale. This Milner Racing Team design is a replica based on a screen used tee, ensuring it's accurate to those seen in the film.
Description: Weber Speed Equipment started out in 1945 as Weber Tool Company, making some of the first aluminum performance fly wheels. As the company continued to expand their speed parts catalog with cams, clutches, and heads, becoming increasingly popular with hot rodders and racers alike, they changed their name to Weber Speed Equipment. Aside from making high quality, extreme high-performance parts, one of their biggest claims to fame was their 'blow up proof' guarantee on their flywheels, something that was a big draw to those pushing higher horsepower and revs in the early days of drag racing.
Description: Conceived in 1959 by the Smokers Car Club of Bakersfield as sort of an East vs. West challenge, the March Meet (aka United States Fuel and Gas Championships) became much more than that. Held at Famoso Bakersfield Raceway, the event's reputation as the most fierce outlaw drag race brought competitors from coast to coast. Winning the event gave a drag racer immediate caché as the race was that tough to win in its heyday.
Description: Midwest Auto Specialties was an early mail order speed equipment merchant. Based in Cleveland Ohio, with a branch in Indianapolis in 1967 and multiple retail stores throughout Ohio, they shipped nationwide. They carried an unbelievable selection of speed equipment and custom car parts making them a true hot rodders resource. The emphasis was on racing and street performance, but especially drag racing. Shifters, intake manifolds, exhaust headers, ignition systems, adapters, camshafts from many manufacturers plus racing steering, and dragster wheels They carried it all and for most people who wanted to soup up their car, they simply couldn't get these items locally, so Midwest Auto Specialties hooked them up by mail!
Description: Founded in 1964 in Columbus, Ohio, Nationwise was a chain of auto parts stores in the United States. In 1974, Nationwise partnered with Columbus-based engine builders, The Rod Shop, sponsoring a series of highly successful drag racecars. In stores, a Rod Shop section was created as kind of a speed shop inside of a parts store. In addition to go fast goodies from all the big names, Nationwise also sold Rod Shop branded performance parts. These parts were typically embossed with NRS (Nationwise Rod Shop), making them easy to identify by collectors, even decades later. The Rod Shop partnership ended in 1987, and less than a decade later, Nationwise became insolvent, and closed all stores on Sunday, October 15, 1995 at 3:00 PM.
Description: Like many early drag strips, Deer Park began life as an airfield and as post-war America went crazy for drag racing, runways previously used by the military during the war effort were the perfect place to scratch that itch. After opening in 1953, it wasn’t very long before Deer Park Drag Strip was the straight line scene’s place to be in the Spokane, Washington area. The track’s history was interesting and varied, and like all drag strips, there were plenty of great and not-so-great things about the place over the years. As drivers started pushing the limits of the speeds the track could safely support, construction began on a more modern track facility, Spokane Raceway Park, ending the nearly 20-year run of Deer Park Drag Strip.
Description: Foulger was a Blue Oval dealership on Huntington Drive in Monrovia, California and was one of the first dealerships to dive headfirst into drag racing, sponsoring several drag cars in the '60s and '70s. Their racing logo definitely reflected the times and their top competitors, most notably the 440 powered Plymouth Roadrunners.
Description: Super Stock & Drag Illustrated was founded by John "Monk" Reynolds, publisher of Eastern Drag News and owner of Pennsylvania's US30 drag strip. The first issue was November 1964 and the magazine published continuously until June 1996 when it was re-titled 'Drag Racing' and only made it a few more years until a final issue in March 1999. The magazine was a thoughtful mix of drag racing coverage, tech articles, and street machines, which gave it pretty diverse appeal to gear heads of all sorts.
Description: This design includes a large Bee Line Dragway imprint on the back and a small AHRA logo on the front making it twice as cool! On July 20, 1963, ground was broken for a drag strip to be built on the Salt River Indian Reservation in what was then a pretty rural area in Scottsdale, Arizona. Jim Rodgers, national 1962 C/S drag champ, built the track on eighty acres of land leased for ten years from the Salt River Pima Indian tribe. Directions to the track were given as being four miles north of the McDowell Road on Arizona Highway 87. It was a 60-foot wide quarter-mile asphalt strip, with seating for 2,000 people, and a pit area to accommodate 300 cars. It opened for every-week Sunday racing on October 6, 1963, under AHRA sanction.
