grew up in denver, where the cruise was downtown on friday and saturday nights. seemed like it was a cop for every two people there, and you so much as let your tire hit a yellow line, and it was a ticket!

racing was out on a service road by I-70. same story every time, gather until the cops came to shut it down. cops were total jerks too, this "my territory" attitude. once again, any little thing they could ticket you for...

but it was great, i was only 12 or so, watching these cars go for it at the drop of the flagman's arm. lots of fast cars to, occasionally one would be towed in.

my best story though...

68 hemi gtx 4 speed, black on black, stock with headers. car ran pretty bad most of the time i owned it. lived in denver, and it was a sea level car, and for some reason that i never found out, (just fixed it), it was starving for fuel above 4500 or so. so it was running really rich and really lean at the same time. but before i sold it, i got it all dialed in and it was running really strong.

was in the parking lot of the guy who re-painted the car. 69 chevelle pulls in, rumbling like a small earthquake. someone mentioned that was tim, he and his dad owned a machine shop that built race engines. everyone went to look at the car. don't remember all the details, but a well built 396 with a turbo 400.

after a few minutes i said, out of nowhere, "want to race?". "yea sure, what?" i pointed over to my car thinking, what the hell did i just do that for? i was just going to make a fool of myself. i knew that the gtx was fast, but a built car from engine to rear end?

ah well, i decided. would look worse if i backed down. a friend said, "he's got a buddy with him, i'll ride with you!" i almost said no, as i didn't want the extra weight, but i went for it.

we get the cars out on a nice long, long straight stretch of open road, right in front of the body shop. no other cars. 20mph or so, and my friend with his arm out the window drops his hand. i slip the clutch a little and nail it. we both took off at the exact same time, no hesitation, a great start! all the way through first, we are dead even. i shift into second, and i pull about 1/2 a fender length in front, shift into third and jump to almost half a car length, 4th and i am close to a car length in front of him!

we shut it down and bring it back down to about 20 again. my friend can hardly believe it, i'm thinking "[Edited by Moparts - Keep it clean], i knew this thing was fast, but not this fast", the guy in the chevelle is looking like i just sideswiped him or something.

we go for it again, and by 4th, i have him by a car length! (long road, 6th ave viaduct in denver) i can hardly believe it, proud as hell of putting that car back together!

we exit and turn around to come back. we go for it a third time and my buddy says "give him a car length this time, you'll still beat him!" "what the hell" i thought. we went for it, and by the time i nailed it, he was a little more than a car length ahead of me. not sure why this time was different, but by the time i hit fourth, i hadn't gained at all on him, we were still in the same position.

but it was clear that the first two races were mine, and the third would have at least been a draw if i had started at the same time.

didn't go for it again, even though we had the road, but met back at the paint shop parking lot. everyone was waiting to see what happened, and the guy in the chevelle was all excuses! babbling about the transmission slipping. refused to believe me when i said it was all stock except for the headers. said "man, that is the fastest mopar i've ever raced..."

now i knew the gtx was fast, but it was still stock. i was proud as hell, and was just a smug smile from ear to ear, but also was thinking that for a built car, that chevelle was pretty slow!

my best race experience ever, and [Edited by Moparts - Keep it clean] do i miss that car!