The Drags at OCIR

I was exposed to drag racing in the late ‘70’s by my next door neighbor Chet and was instantly amazed at the spectacle of the sport.  Orange County International Raceway was, at the time of the photographs in the late seventies and early eighties, the only drag strip that regularly hosted races featuring fuel-burning cars in the greater Los Angeles area.  I was drawn to the colorful sights and eardrum pounding sounds of professional and sportsman racers at a track that hosted major events on a monthly basis, with a short break around the Christmas holidays.

One of the most outstanding memories from the period was the night racing.  Most of the non-NHRA sanctioned races at OCIR were held at night and featured “round-robin” racing where each car ran at least twice in two rounds, with the two quickest cars coming back for the final race and eventual “winner”.  This was in my opinion preferable to eliminations which resulted in fewer and fewer races per round.  Like the others at the track, I just wanted to see the cars run as many times as possible.  For example, at a “64 Funny Cars” event you would see two rounds of 32 races, with the two quickest cars coming back for the “final”.

Most of the night photos are time exposures that allowed the variety of existing lighting sources to “burn in” and the header flames on the fuel cars to be seen.  In the early years I used a Mamiya RB67, a fine studio camera but not the best choice for racing photography.  Like they say at the track, “you run what you brung”.  During the last couple years at the track I used the ideal medium format camera for the subject, the Pentax 6x7.

We hope you enjoy the collection.  Maybe we will spark a fond memory or two.