Letter: Drag racing victory

To the Editor:

I really enjoyed the article written by David Petesch that provided a chronicle of the old Oswego Dragaway. I enjoyed it because I was once a trophy winner with my first car.

Now, before anyone compliments me on this accomplishment, I have to clarify my experience. In 1965, you could enter your car to compete at the dragstrip.

I was the proud owner of a light green, 1950 Buick Special two-door coupe. My Buick had dynaflo automatic transmission and lumbered down the street like a 25-year-old Great Dane. She was serviceable. I paid $100 for that car in Sycamore while attending NIU.

Now my Dragway experience involved putting down $10, and you waited until your name was called. At about 1:30 on that Sunday afternoon I was called. I positioned my Buick on the starting line waiting for the lights to go green.

Green flashed and I hit the gas. I rumbled down the strip covering the quarter mile in like two minutes. Most other entries covered that ground in like 40 seconds; however, I won my race. Why do you ask how that could happen and I was awarded a 2-foot trophy? Well the answer was simple, there were no other 1950 Buicks in the field to race. That wasn’t my fault; I followed the rules and won. The best part of this adventure was the memory of a drag racing victory. What fun that was.

Don Lass

Oswego