Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Stewart
Such was not the case back in 1964. The Christmas Tree made its debut at the 1963 US Nationals
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Of course.
Dad had been racing several years before the tree was introduced.
He had pretty good success by learning the flagman's mannerisms. In one case, the flag man would look at you, look over at your opponent and then when he looked back at you the flag was going to drop. Knowing this allowed you a bit of a head start, enough to outrun one Jim Wangers on a couple of occasions.
He stated that when he first started hitting the tree he could cut it close enough that red light would come on - briefly - and then go back out.
Speaking of which - in 1956 when dad started racing at Central Michigan Dragway (formerly "Stanton" or "McBrides", now known as Mid Michigan Motorplex) - it was predominantly grass. There was a small paved pad to launch from after which you ran off into the grass portion of the strip.
It doubled as an airport so often racing was interrupted temporarily while a small plane would land and taxi out of the way.
K