he addiction started in June 1966 at Minnesota Dragway. On Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! the Hurst Hairy Oldsmobile was going to put on a show for us. Other exhibition cars had been there already but the Hairy Olds was on the cover of Hot Rod magazine that spring with a four-page spread. Everything in the article about the car excited me.
This being one of the premier drag race summers of the 1960s, it was about to unfold into what would cause my addiction to nitro and smoke for the rest of my life. We had already seen Tommy Ivo’s four-engine dragster, altered wheelbase Mopars, twin-engine dragsters and dual-tire dragsters smoking the tires all the way down the track. New cars with new ideas and new innovations were at the forefront of drag racing technology in the mid ‘60s.
At last, the twin-engine terror of Hurst was going to show up at my local dragstrip next weekend! I was stoked and brought my new camera to the track. I remember looking at the car in the pits for a long time. Joe Schubeck was in his silver tailor-made tuxedo firesuit. Red (aka Bob Lathrum) and Dave Landry were tuning the engines, pouring in the nitro, checking the tires and getting the car ready for the first run.
