Tag: MISC

It was a magical thing to watch. The oldest top fuel finalist in NHRA history at 61 years of age, Chris Karamesines “The Golden Greek” the man, the myth, and the legend, was finally standing on the verge of winning an NHRA National event. The event in question was Le GrandNational Molson, which was the NHRA event held each year at the Sanair Super Speedway for decades. A day of awesome competition had seen the Greek outrun Lori Johns, beat Joe Amato, and finally find himself in the final against Gary Ormsby who had won the 1989 NHRA top fuel championship.

Karamesines was a long way from the halcyon days of 1960 at Alton, Illinois where he and crew chief Don Maynard supposedly made drag racing’s first 200mph run. It was that run that started a career that still maintains today as Karamesines can be found racing top fuel dragsters in 2020, albeit not with the success he had in 1990.

This is the first of two Christ Karamesines Time Machines I made and it’s a really fun watch. The dude it awesome and he is still awesome today. Quick with a smile, soft spoken but never one to be messed with, this 90-ish year old guy is a national treasure and he was one at the age 0f 61 as well.

Enjoy!

Press play below to see Chris Karamesines make his first career final round in 1990

There are certain times in drag racing where you can actually pinpoint the moment where a class or category put itself onto the map for good. That moment for the Pro275 class happened last weekend at Orlando Speed World Drag Strip in Florida during Donald Long’s Covid-8 race. The best Pro275 cars in the country were on hand and they were taking advantage of a well prepped course to set records and put on one heck of a show.

These cars are mostly machines from the Radial vs The World class that have elected to run on the smaller 275 width tire and at more weight than they’d be competitive at in RvW. The horsepower, technology, and ability of the cars and the teams is exactly the same as is found in the “bigger” tire class and since so many high profile teams have “made the switch” to the 275 class, its specter in the sport has grown. Now this being said, some of those well known teams struggled to get the hang of the smaller tire and while we knew it wouldn’t take them too long a time, it was a hot second before we saw a weekend like we just witnessed.

Mark Micke wresting the record from the hands of Ron Green was pretty awesome. The former RvW record holder ran 3.82 to better the 3.83 second mark that Green had set during the US Street Nationals in Bradenton, Florida earlier this year. You’ll also see the quickest side by side in the category’s history as well here.

Pro275 is no joke. It never was and it never has been. Now though? Now things have changed. It’s not growing up anymore. That class has officially arrived!

Press play below to watch record setting Pro275 passes at Orlando Speed World –

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This right here is some stuff! The first part of the video seems to date from the first half of the 1960s but the last half comes from 1968 and there’s one really specific way that we know that. This is rare footage of Mario Andretti drag racing for the only time in his life at Connecticut Dragway in 1968.

You will see him landing on the strip in a little Cessna, hanging out with the trophy queen and ultimately see him making laps in a Mustang on behalf of Tasca Ford! Andretti ran a match race against track owner Frank Maratta who is driving a Camaro prepared by Norwood Chevrolet. To double down on the awesome, the car that Andretti is likely a Tasca KR8, the car that the production Cobra Jet Mustangs were based off of! Surely they would not have stuck Mario in some 390 powered Mustang, right? He got the good stuff we’re sure.

There’s plenty of other fun stuff to be seen here in the form of wheel standers and loads of awesome cars but the real story if Mario. Recently on television he talked about this particular day and his memories all these years later are 100% spot on, the video proves it! You will see him fly in around the 13:00 minute mark and his runs against Maratta are shown around the 15:00 mark.

Drag racing history in living color!

Press play below to see this amazing footage from Connecticut Dragway!

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