Blast from the past

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Editor’s note: As this issue went to press, South Carolina was still in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing many events to be canceled or postponed. However, the 2020 Southeast Gassers Association drag race series is off and running at full speed. The South Carolina race at Carolina Dragway in Aiken is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 17, but given the uncertainty that comes with the coronavirus, readers should check for the latest information at southeastgassers.com. For current public health recommendations, consult scdhec.gov/covid19.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy these stories from the 2019 race.

Gary Smith and Chicken Bone

Minutes before vaulting more than 100 miles per hour down an eighth-mile stretch of black pavement at Aiken’s Carolina Dragway, Leesville resident Gary Smith explains why he spends 11 weekends each year competing in the Southeast Gassers Association drag racing series.

It’s surely not the prize money, as some race teams will spends upwards of $30,000 on their cars with hopes of claiming a $400 first-place purse. Nor is it merely the link to the past, as the association has grown to be one of the more popular nostalgia racing circuits in the country, with drivers behind the wheels of vintage Ford coupes, Chevrolets and Henry J models.

The number one draw, as Smith and other drivers attest, is the sight of watching the starting “Christmas tree” change from red to yellow to green, the stomping of the gas pedal and clutch, the feel of shifting gears, the sound of engines ramping past 10,000 rpm  and the smell of smoking tires.

It’s the thrill of drag racing—five or six seconds in which time slows and futures are uncertain.

“You’re just along for the ride a lot of times. These are very hard to drive,” Smith says of his car named Chicken Bone, a 1951 model Henry J, built by the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, outfitted with a Dodge Mopar 340-cubic-inch engine.

A week before, at a track near Knoxville, Tennessee., Smith had struck the wall, breaking a wheel, one of three times he’d rubbed the wall this season.

“I don’t want a repeat today,” he says, looking out toward the track at Carolina Dragway, better known to racers as The House of Hook. “You got to stay on your toes. It’s like riding a bullet. Just aim and shoot and hope for the best result.”

A few hours later, there would come an unnatural silence across the track as race officials, fellow drivers and Smith’s wife, Melanie, sprinted down the blackened raceway where Chicken Bone lay crumpled against a concrete barrier.

Seconds earlier, in his second of two practice runs before heads-up racing started, Smith’s car leapt into the air at the start and bounced after hitting the pavement. Smith fought the steering wheel as the back end swiveled and the rear tires spun. He appeared to regain control, but then Chicken Bone swerved hard to the left, missing the other car by inches, and skidded across the track before the front driver’s side struck the retaining wall hard.

As smoke slowly drifted upwards from the crumpled compartment, the 50-year-old Smith emerged from the wreckage for an ambulance ride to a nearby hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion and a damaged rib.

Still, the wreck wouldn’t keep a battered and bruised Smith from the season finale 13 days later. He showed up at Shady Side Dragway in Shelby, North Carolina, with a backup car to the surprise and cheers from his fellow competitors.

“Everybody thought I was done, they didn’t think I was coming,” says Smith, who would earn enough points to finish ninth for the season.

Days later he was back in his body shop in Leesville, adding a roll cage and rebuilding the frame of Chicken Bone, with an eye toward the start of the 2020 season. “I will be there for the first race,” Smith vowed. “The Chicken Bone will be back. We’re going to be back, bigger, badder and better.”

Bobby Frizzell and his 1963 Ford Galaxie 500

The mission of the Southeast Gassers Association is to replicate the drag racing scene of the 1960s and put on a show that the entire family will love.

The group was founded eight years ago by Quain Stott, a former champion in the International Hot Rod Association pro modified series. The association has grown from just a few cars competing that first year to more than 100 in 2019 that saw drivers competing on tracks in the Carolinas, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Indiana and Virginia.

At the 2019 race, Bobby Frizzell, 40, was in his first full year competing in the newly created Super Stock category, one of four divisions in which drivers compete.

The cars, which all must run on gasoline and meet rules designed to keep the cars authentic to the ‘60s, are split into divisions based on the car’s weight and engine displacement. The super stock cars stick to the mantra of “what won on Sunday sold on Monday,” Frizzell says.

“It’s more of the average man’s kind of street car, factory car, that anybody could go out and buy one,” he says of his 1963 Ford Galaxie 500, outfitted with a 390 cubic inch engine, full interior and factory suspension.

Frizzell, who finished the season in sixth place in the 12-car Super Stock category, was happy with his showing in his first season. “This is really a driver’s class. There’s no electronics, none of that. You’ve got to drive the car, shift the car. You got to be a decent wheelman to get from A to B.”

Ben Christopher Jr and his 1948 Ford Anglia

Ben Christopher Jr., a mechanic who operates his own repair shop in Boiling Springs, has always been a fan of racing and that likely stems from his father, who was a top drag racer during the ‘60s.

“He had several records back in the day,” he says of the Christopher-Roper team that raced all across the Southeast.

Christopher was 17 when his father died. When he took up racing in his 50s, his mother, Nancy Rogers, found some old camera reels of his father’s racing days. Using the old footage, Christopher duplicated the paint scheme and block numbering that now adorn his 1948 Ford Anglia that he’s been racing in the Southeast Gassers for the past two years. It was an emotional time when he was putting the car together and he made sure to share those memories with his mother.

“When I was building my car, I showed her several pictures and kept her involved,” he says. “She’s 77 and keeps up with me on Facebook. I know it’s funny. My family is probably the reason I’m doing it.”

Mary Beth & Daniel Haynes and The Patriot

While it may be racing that gets the headlines, there’s also a fair amount of attention devoted to the backup girls (BUGs) who line up the cars prior to them taking off down the track.

Mary Beth Haynes admits to not being much of a thrill-seeker, but has no problems standing as a BUG in front of full-throttled cars as the wheels turn in the burnout pit.

“I love it. I thrive on it. I love the attention,” says the 40-year-old Haynes. “When I go back home and do my normal job, I’m more of a quiet person.”

Her typical race day attire consists of short dresses and high boots—always in red, white and blue to go along with the paint scheme of husband Daniel’s 1962 Ford Falcon dubbed The Patriot.

“It’s fun to dress up and get into an era. We’re trying to make you feel like you’re in 1967 again,” says Haynes.

The couple, who have been married 19 years, make their home in Inman. They built their car from the ground up after going to a Southeast Gassers Association race two years prior.

“It’s a homegrown affair,” Daniel says of his race day crew that, in addition to Mary Beth, includes their 8-year-old daughter, Rebekah, and 10-year-old son, Nicolas.

“We just jumped in,” Mary Beth says. “The whole family, feet first.”

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Get There

The 2020 Southeast Gassers race is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 17, from 2 to 8 p.m. at Carolina Dragway, 302 Dragstrip Road in Aiken. For details and updates on the race, visit southeastgassers.com.

For more on the drag way affectionately known to racers as “The House of Hook,” visit carolinadragway.com or call (877) 471-RACE.