Video Clips

During the 60s and early 70s, I spent a lot of time at various drag events with an 8mm movie camera in hand. When we were doing the racing ourselves, I sometimes handed the camera to my brother, who had some experience in film-making. The result is that I have quite a library of old drag racing films, some of which even feature the Purple Haze racing team.

I recently undertook a major project to have all of these old films converted into digital format, and have been turning them into clips suitable for the web, as well as "full-length" DVD productions. The camera views are often not the best, but then again I have many rare and interesting shots from drag racing's golden age.

Some of the videos from various NHRA meets will be posted on the We Did It For Love site, but I am also posting the ones related to the Purple Haze on this site for your viewing enjoyment. These are all high-quality videos in 640x480 resolution, so you won't have to squint at one of those tiny video play windows. For the best size efficiency, I have rendered them in WMV format, which will play on all up-to-date Windows PCs, and probably on Macs as well. But I would recommend viewing them only if you have a broadband (cable or DSL) type connection, as some are pretty large in size.

On the Rollers, 1974

In the old push-start days, it was difficult to get a car fired up in the pits so you could warm it up and check the engine, especially when the push roads were busy with other traffic. So some high-end tracks installed rollers that could be used to spin up the engine. This is a shot in the pits at Indy during the 1974 Nationals.

On the Rollers at Indy, 1974 (4Mb)

Qualifying Pass, 1974

This is a nice sequence in black & white taken from my brother from inside our push-vehicle van. It was taken at the 1974 Indy Nationals This was one track that had long staging lanes where you could push and fire up well behind the starting line, so no turning or maneuvering was required.

Indy Qualifying Pass, 1974 (6Mb)

Qualifying Pass #2, 1974

Some of this looks the same as the video above, but it is a different attempt. I also included some shots from the pits showing us getting the car ready, and also the beginning of the long push to get back to the pits afterwards. Since we did not qualify for the event this year, this might have been one of the last runs ever on the front-engined car.

Indy Qualifying Pass, 1974 (2) (15Mb!)

Edgewater WCS, 1975

Color film of the rear-engine dragster at Edgewater Park Dragway in Cincinnati. We were still working out some problems and did not qualify for the Pro Comp field at this Division 3 WCS points event.

Edgewater Qualifying Pass, 1975 (7Mb)

Indy Nationals 1975

Another good black & white film that shows us in the first round of Pro Comp at the '75 Nationals. It starts with the morning warmup off the rollers and concludes with the push back to the pits after being eliminated. This was our last run in an NHRA event, but one of our best showings on a national level.

Indy Pro Comp Round, 1975 (8Mb)

Purple Haze Collage

A long video of the cars from 1974 and 1975, set to the music that inspired the name. Well worth it if you have the connection speed.

Purple Haze Video Collage  (38Mb)

Distant Thunder Introduction

Another long video, this time a collage of NHRA racing from 1966 to 1975. It is the introductory piece for a DVD that is being produced to feature all the footage from the events that these were taken from. Set to the famous Drag City song by Jan & Dean.

Distant Thunder (31Mb)

Drag Highlights

The following are some clips of drag racing in the 60s and 70s. Enjoy them if you have a broadband connection!

Paul Longenecker has one of the early blowovers of a rear-engine dragster at the 1973 Popular Hot Rod Meet.

Also at the 1973 Pop Rod Meet, a classic run by Jungle Jim Lieberman and his companion Jungle Pam.

Dragster highlights from the '66 and '69 NHRA Nationals, features the Ramchargers, Danny Ongais, Don Garlits, John Mulligan, and many others not identified.

I hope that you enjoy the videos, and please check back later for more additions.

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All material on this site Copyright 2008 by W. Douglas Gordon.

All rights reserved.