Circle City Hot Rods: Night Moves

Before I get to the meat and potatoes of this post, I need to do a brief history of me. The neighborhood that I grew up in had about 5-6 older guys that were into cars and drag racing/street racing. These guys were probably about 6-10 years older then me, but I hung out in there garages while they worked on their cars and told stories about who was fastest. The cars were all muscle cars and one had a really fast bug, I was always intrigued by these cars and wanted one when I got older. Fast forward 5-6 years and I finally got my car it was a 1965 Mustang fastback, about this same time I met two guys that would help change my life forever, Shawn Mcbee and Dave Watson. Shawn had a 69 Roadrunner and Dave and his family had a 68 Dodge truck that had hilborn injectors and ran on alcohol. It was about this same time we discovered street racing, we were in another friends 1964 Plymouth Sport Fury, when we got hit up to race by a guy with a camaro. We agreed to meet the other car at the street and race for I think $150-200 bucks. We got to the street, saw the other car and I instantly knew we lost our money! The high 12 low 13 second Sport Fury was no match for the 11 second Camaro. We continued to go to the street races, I built an engine for my Mustang, Shawn built a killer 440 for his Roadrunner and Dave bought a 68 Coronet that he started building into a fast street car. We then graduated high school Shawns car evolved into a really fast street car for the time and it was safe to say he won more then he lost. My mustang started taking shape as well I made a lot of changes, but eventually blew up the first motor that I built and I started making changes to the body and cleaning it up, getting it ready for paint etc. Dave eventually put a pretty killer nitrous small block in his car. We would go all ove rAnaheim, La puente, Compton, Beach and Imperial, atleast three nights a week we would be out there. After awhile the street racing scene started dying off, People were not really meeting up anymore. I stopped going probably around 1990-91 Shawn and I Dave kept going for a little bit longer, but Shawn ending up selling his Roadrunner and bought a boat, life in general just changed. I kind of got out of the car scene for a couple of years, then I bought a 54 Cadillac, sold my Mustang and started building my hot rod. Even though I was heavily involved in hot rods and customs I always liked fast down and dirty street cars. So now we need to fast forward to present day, through my shop and the car scene I met Groucho, Groucho is an old school street racer that converted to hot rods as well. He street raced in the 70's and up I think to about the mid to late 80's, he is also a member of the Brotherhood of Streetracers. He would always tell me about an event called Christmas in Compton, A bunch of street racers show up and try to get some races off. I was never able to make it because I am always with my family on Christmas, so a couple of years ago it rained on Christmas so they did it on Sunday. My Buddy Fernando (he builds all the engines for the cars we build at the shop) and I met up with Groucho and went to Compton. Once we got there I was amazed there was fast street cars everywhere, trailered cars, guys talking shit, it was just like it was a long time ago, We saw a few races go off, and hung out on the street until the cops ran us off. It was amazing to see this kind of stuff still happening, I thought street racing had died a long time ago! After that day I kind of started doing some research and asking around, it turns out it hasnt really died its just kind of gone more underground. I continued to go to a few races here and there as I would hear about them, So when I got a phone call Saturday night that some action was going to happen I called Shawn and Dave and told them we were going no matter what! We met up with my friend who was racing at the meeting spot, then two more cars showed up. The other two cars that showed up were a Chevy Luv truck and an El Camino. Unfortunately ten minutes later the cops showed up as well. We left there and met up at another spot and the guys with the cars decided on another street to race on. It was at this point the evening completely changed, we ended up towing the Luv truck to the next street so we got to know the owner and get some background on his car. It turns out his car is really simple and built basically by himself. He figured out how to do an E-85 EFI set up on it (soldering together his own ECU) the car was basically a low buck down and dirty street racer that relies on good old hot ingenuity to make it haul ass. So at this point we made the long trek to the other street, and the action began to happen. The Luv and the Camaro raced first, the Camaro beat the Luv. After the first race the The Luv Truck and the El Camino set up a race, The El Camino looked like a full blown race car compared to the Luv. Shawn, Dave and I were a little nervous that our hero in the Luv would be able to beat the El Camino. The two cars lined up, and the Luv Truck beat the Camaro, We were jumping up and down like little kids that just won there little league game! The backyard built car built the Baller race car! after that race it was pretty late so we ended up heading home. I think we realized we werent 21 anymore!

P.S. Keep in mind I am not condoning street racing, its something I like and its not for everyone! I know its illegal and dangerous. Real racers try to race as safely as possible on safe streets.