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That must have been difficult giving out tickets for the very thing you did in your younger years but your job was to uphold the law so you were doing your job.

It wasn't fun & yes, that topic came up quite a bit. The thing was, (at least) I didn't lie to the cops when I got stopped & as far as I could "see" we never did it around places where people could get hurt.
This past Sat. a local group did a "Cruise on Central" night with the City's approval & with all the thousands (literally!) of spectators & hundreds of cars, I think something like only a dozen tickets were issued.
I can't recall ever seeing anything like that in the 60s, although most every night was a car show, if you knew where to look. it was being "connected" to the really fast guys that got exciting & alot of guys were fast (for the time) back then.....

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Couldn't get on the site, but if yu're taling about 18oohp cars, these are the things that , sorry, IMO, ruined streetracing. Those are great, impressive cars to see--on the track. With that much hp, the car is hardly inexpensive or your "average" car. Even the most serious of streetracers had MAYBE a 1000hp, worked a 60-hour week and didn't need an engineer to tune his car. PLUS (for the most part) the guys were honest. There's no way a 19 year-old mechanic, making 20-30 dollars an hour can afford an 1800hp racecar HONESTLY. Now we weren't all "saints" back then either, and yes, many "high-end" racers made their money in "other" ways, but the AVERAGE guys worked hard, lived for the week-end and raced what they could honestly afford.
Nowadays the cars are too expensive, too high-tech, and the penalties too severe to rationalize running a 6-second streetcar the way we did our 9-second or slower cars---and you know what? I'l bet we had just as much fun with a 11 or 12-second car as these guys are having with their quicker machinery.
Sorry, a tube-chassised, carbon-fibre bodied, mountain-motor ride that looks like a ProMod doesn't impress me.......

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period. Back then 10-11 sec rides (and a few 9-sec pieces) that were street tagged and driven most of the time (to anywhere) was exciting. Think about it!
Get off work Friday afternoon/night, cash in pocket, maybe a HOT date planned, early dinner, go
out in your ride, later on look for action or try
to create some with your girlfriend/wife. Best of all, your ride is the focal point in your social scene. Can't do all that in a tube chassis, 1800 hp, ride. Roll bars were cool back then! And I really don't think your girlfriend/wife would like a fully caged tube-chassis car. Uncomfortable for her, if you know what I mean.
They DO belong on the track!! However, that PASS
the rail job did at the Connecting, I would have
PAID to see that!!

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Did any of you street race with your girl friend in the car? If so how did she respond? or or or or ????????

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i dont ever remember a rail at south ave.... but can def confirm numerous... and i mean numerous cars being trailered to south ave to run... there were nites when there were 50 or more cars in two's awaiting their run on the other side of the stop sign on the service road... who needed e-town, or national speedway... we had south ave...

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Connecting DID have a rail out one night--a friend just bought a used one & insisted on taking it out there. Truth was, it was kind of a PITA. Anyway, the trailered cars were alaways exciting but even some of them were disappointing as they simply couldn't hook very well at times. The best trailered-car race I ever saw was a by JFK involving two factory Mopar cars...still don't know how they kept the cops away on that one, but I have my suspicions ......

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FWIW, I was the official flagman at South for a few strong years going in the eighties.
I had the arm drop down to a science and some of the drivers like Drunk Mike had me timed like a clock. Pinks All out had nothing on me! LOL.

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I wasn't even aware of any bad accident happening there at all, at least when I was running the staging and start area.

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Trust me on this one, they were in the mix if you know what I mean.

I don't think it was much of a secret even back then by guys who knew what was going on. My friend's speed shop always had the latest info(it seemed) on big-block Chevy headwork & somehow always had one customer who had Pontiac RamAir engines availible to him. My guess is this guy worked for GM or had a relative who did.

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FWIW, I was the official flagman at South for a few strong years going in the eighties.
I had the arm drop down to a science and some of the drivers like Drunk Mike had me timed like a clock. Pinks All out had nothing on me! LOL.

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Umm, Lee maybe Rich C. (Pinks) "snuck" up incognito to NYC to "unsuspectecly aqiure" some of your techniques. Still not as good as
"original" NYC street action!

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Trust me on this one, they were in the mix if you know what I mean.
Many a trailer car ran on the China Rock concrete by JFK and most if all usually hooked and clawed for the heavens.
On another note, keeping a passenger for a ride down the quarter is just another way to find a ride to the slammer for another quarter century after a bad accident.
That is why the Connecting had its shine for the smarter cats. If Murphy was to rear its ugly head it would only involve the towering Walls of China, both cars, both drivers and their one word of bond.

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Back then, guys were TRUE to their word, as said
on the streets "Word is bond and a handshake seals
the deal".

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I hate to sound "high-handed", but despite Detroit being THE "motor city", and SoCal the birthplace of hotrodding, NYC was THE place to be back then. If the cars didn't draw you in, the sheer number of cars & frequency of streetracing would & the personalities involved could get strange.
Somehow though, I suspect the guys down South have some stories they don't wanna own up to. Seeing how it was the birthplace of matchracing, some their rides & races have to be interesting. BUT in true streetracer fashion they don't want to "give up" anything---which is our loss..

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Hemicop, yes as TRUE streetracers they DO NOT want to "give up" the "meat" of their stories.
They may "tease" your appettite with giving you a
couple of side dishes (good matches weekly with "slightly" modified "street" rides), but the "main course" or "meat" would be a "heavy" race with either a local (neighborhood) vs. visitor (out of towner) type run, "super street" cars, one shot deal-heads up. Or, a inter borough
rivalry of "multiple runs", in "hot" street cars, running for bragging rites. The "heavy" (no pun
intended - God bless and R.I.P. Rufus) runners,
moved off the street, went to the track and stayed
there, or passed on, or gotten away from it as they aged!! There may be a FEW still doing their thing but in incognito, due to crowds and police factors. Also the major changes in routes, highways and expressways, narrowed the chances of
having good "escape routes". All in all, TRUE streetracing HAS gone underground!!