What it's called: LIONS, The Greatest Drag Strip: Part Two
Who done it: Don Gillespie, narrated by Rick Carlson
What it's about: A video documentation of Lions Associated Drag Strip as told by the characters that made it famous.
Notes: Yeah, you look cool in your reproduction Lions Drag Strip T-shirt, but if you don't know the story about the track founded by a couple cops and kids who talked the Lions Clubs International into bankrolling one of America's first purpose-built dragstrips, we've got news for you, Jack: You're just a poser.
For those of you who don't know, Lions Associated Drag Strip, or LADS, as it was known, was a sacred patch of ground on the corner of 223rd Street and Alameda Boulevard, a couple hundred feet south of the San Diego freeway in Long Beach, California. Though many debate whether or not it was the first purpose-built dragstrip, nobody will contest the idea that it was the most magical track in the drag-racing circuit. For nearly two decades, it served as an incubator for drag-racing pioneers and a proving ground for their creations.
Back in 2006, drag-racing photojournalist Don Gillespie (National Dragster, Drag News, and Car Craft, among others) released LIONS, the Greatest Drag Strip. It's a nearly two-hour-long rundown of LADS, starting with its inception by a few cops and car clubs who aligned forces with local Lions Club chapters to prevent street racing. Among dozens of interviews, narrator Rick Carlson tells the story of how a 20-something go-fast junkie named Mickey Thompson transformed a quirky subculture into a viable business. Set to dozens of edited home movies shot at various LADS events and near countless numbers of static photos, luminaries like Chet Herbert, Fritz Voigt, CJ "Pappy" Hart, Frank "Ike" Iacono, Joe Reath, and Harry Hibler, among others, reveal in their own words the significance of the track. A true jaw-dropping experience, the video includes snippets from KTTV's 90-minute broadcast of the September 16, 1961, meet.
If you're one who's been wringing your hands since Part One left us hanging at the reintroduction of nitromethane as a legal racing fuel, your wait is over. Part Two picks up at full stride. Whereas the first installment sets the tone for what Lions represented, the follow-up illustrates the events that transpired at Lions that defined drag racing in general: Isky and Engle cam wars; junior fuelers; the fast e.t.'s; famed match races; the first big-name non-automotive drag-racing sponsorships; first 7-second e.t.'s and 200-mph runs; the advent of zoomies; the birth of the Funny Car; and, possibly most significant, the filming of a Munsters TV program.
OK, so the Munsters reference was sarcasm, but there's nothing insignificant about this not-for-profit track. Nor is there anything trivial about this video. In fact, whether you're an old hand who remembers night runs at The Beach or a greenhorn who's captivated by drag-racing history, this is a pair of videos you need to own.
What makes this video so special are the personalities of the people, some of whom have passed since this video was shot. The only thing that can top these two videos is the soon-to-come release of Volume Three. After all, this video ends in the mid-1960s, and Lions lasted to 1972.
Where to find it:
www.lionsvideo.com