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Byron's Gasser Madness! ~
~ Photos by Charles Milikin, Jr. ~
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Okay boys and girls, you're in for another real treat now! Just
after Christmas last year (2006) I got an email from Don Ewald at We Did It For Love, the fuel dragster website.
He told me that he had received a series of very good photos from a
gentleman named Charles Milikin, Jr. and since Charles said he had some
Gasser photos too, Don sent him my way. A few days later, I received
an email from Charles, with a few samples of his photos, asking if I would
be interested in the rest of them. A quick return email saying
something to the effect of "HELL YES!" and I started getting several
photos every few days. The end result is 129 photos that you're going to love! I broke them up by track to keep each album a reasonable size. Pick an album (there are 7 of them) then just move your mouse over the thumbnails for a larger picture. If you'd like it even larger, click on the thumbnail or the larger photo. Click on the photo below of the Stone, Woods & Cook Willys at the March Meet below to go to the photo albums. If you can ID any of the unknowns, please email me at byron@gassermadness.com, it would be highly appreciated. Likewise, if you'd like to get a message to Charles, email me at the same address. Along the way, I asked if he was a professional photographer. His answer is below. By the way, Thank you, Charles! |
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Hello Byron, I first got interested in drag racing in the early sixties. A friend of mine was a manager at a local NAPA store and he used to sell speed equipment out of a small garage on the side. We would go to the local strip, Connecticut Dragway, every Sunday. I bought a 35mm Pentax camera and decided to start shooting some of the cars. During the mid sixties, we'd go to tracks in the east like Cecil County MD, Atco and Englishtown in Jersey, York, Vargo in PA and trekked out to Indy for the Summernationals in 1965. I went to Bakersfield, CA in both 1965 and '66. My cousin and I drove coast to coast in 1965. He had a friend living in El Cajon, CA. His father was in the Navy at the time and was transferred from Connecticut to San Diego. We decided to make a trip to Bakersfield for the March meet and then drive south to see him. My second trip out west was in March of 1966. Since I took quite a few pictures in 1965, I brought them with me to Bakersfield and showed them to Frank Maratta who at the time, was the owner of Connecticut Dragway. He helped me get a pass to get near the starting line for some closeup shots. Bakersfield was the only track that I had access to the staring line. Most of the other pictures (Indy, Cecil County etc) were taken with a telephoto lens, usually a 200mm or a 400mm. Also, I am strictly an amateur photographer, who happened to love the drags and was fortunate enough to save some of these pictures. I am glad to share these with you. Hats off to you and Don Ewald for great web sites for providing a place to view this bygone era of our youth. Best regards |
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