‘Northeast Vintage Drags” Words and Photos by Joshua Elzey
Mother Nature decided to flex her wrath leading up to the vintage drags held by the Tornados CC during Memorial weekend creating a well know nor’easter event for those local. However the club and participants persevered, and the rain stopped early Saturday morning. The night before, Tornados CC arranged for a reliability cruise to Norway Brewery located north of the Dragway for those daring the weather. New Oxford Dragway staff quickly dried the 1/8th mile of asphalt and racers started lining up. The drag strip is located right next to the speedway allowing plenty of parking, vendor, and pit area yet with everything so close could feel the energy and hot rod culture! It’s easy to get to from the highways or plenty of scenic routes pending your preference.
Pre-Approved participants that met the pre-1957 and technical requirements started to get in several runs. Rain sprinkled here and there creating a few delays, which was a great time to catch up with hot rod friends, check out the period-correct swap meet, walk around the pits, and participate in the track parade. With a little of everything there, the Kingpins Racing Division had organized classes to compete within. This was unable to be completed by the end of the day as hoped when it rained again accompanied by a sudden drop in temperature making for dangerously slick conditions, so the track halted the racing. Racers took this time to tune or repair the jalopies for Sunday’s racing. Many checking to see what tricks and other modifications were used to get down the track. It was notable that several repeat participants were shaving off more than a second!
Staff started at the crack of dawn Sunday morning to prep the track so racing would start on time. The elimination rounds continued, and the track was shared with the ‘Gassah Guys’ event since their last event was rained out as well. Uninterrupted racing continued plus some interesting grudge match ups through the late afternoon with the sun making an appearance! It was a great day ending the well-attended event. NEVD was a huge success and look forward to another year of strictly heads-up run what ya brung old school racing! Thanks to Tornados CC for keeping the vintage racing alive as well as the culture.
