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Pro Dragster – Top Fuel Roots Keeping the Lineage True to Course

Sam White
Comments (18)
  1. Joey Dazier says:

    O man, that was awesome. I am so excited just to be able to read all this history and read about the men who influence my bike building and racing career I am trying my hardest to make happen. Thanks for this. I am truely amazed

  2. Dick Boxell says:

    Great read !!!!

  3. Gordon Kateley says:

    Nice job Tom. I enjoyed this story, and of course the picture of me !!! 😉

    1. Jack Zist says:

      Mr Kateley were you the tuner on Joe Smiths double ? I always see you in the pictures with him ? Also i remember once reading about the fuel carbs starving for fuel and did you not re design the float bowls making them waay larger to handle the input? I could have swore i remember reading this somewhere lon ago. Thanks

      1. Gordon Kateley says:

        Jack Zist, I wasn’t the tuner, I just helped Joe at the track. He mixed fuel and I did the clutch. I also drove the pick up for tow starts. Pretty good team, and we had lots of great memories. I did build the bowls for the S&S carbs before Ontario in 1974. It was Joe’s first 180+ runs, and 8 flat et’s

  4. Jim Milsted says:

    For all my FACEBOOK FRIENDS that have no idea what I’m talking about when I mention what was a big part of my life, yesterday and today. MOTORCYCLE DRAG RACING. It’s what got me out of Paulsboro and traveling all over the country and meeting people I still call friends today. I might not have went in style, but I went. The good is it kept me broke so I couldn’t afford to do drugs or drink. Still don’t have those bad habits (:o). Of course I always wonder what might have been. And who doesn’t. There is one person who shared the good and bad with me and never gets the credit for all she put up with. Alice Albowitz Milsted. Mother of my children. My Pit Crew. My Secretary. My Co-Pilot on road trips. Chief cook and bottle washer. She never raced or won a trophy. But deserves all of the thanks for letting me live in a dream world for awhile. We even laughed about this the other day. Thanks also to Tom McCarthy, Photojournalist from Massachusetts for writting this little bit of history of the sport I love. Good story Tom. Thanks also Thomas E Loughlin Jr for the opportunity to leave my mark in the sport.

  5. wild bill says:

    The words in this article are ” jetted properly”.
    and this from a ” guy” old enough to honestly
    say . I learned not to full power shift a nitro bike ,on the famed bike ” grandma” . Triumph single . When a 55 gallon drum of nitro cost $ 357.80.

  6. hey guys don’t forget boris murray and a few others as well as my self.a thiumph lay down dragster,a gasser back then.1963,was called little egypt,running out of tenn.

  7. clutch duster says:

    thanks tom ,that’s a great read.thanks for the hard work!

  8. clutch duster says:

    thanks tom ,that was a great read,thanks for the hard work

  9. Tom McCarthy says:

    Guys P/D is a great class in a great sport, see you all out there! Thank you all for your help.

  10. Jack Korpela says:

    Thank you

  11. TomMcCarthy says:

    Thanks

  12. Jim Milsted says:

    Sad news to report. Bill Taggart, my old friend and fellow racer mentioned is this story passed away April 1, 2013. Thanks to Bill for his help getting me started. The largest picture posted at his funeral were of me , him and Don. R.I.P. BILL

  13. Jeff west says:

    More pictures of bob spina ( northern thunder )

  14. Tom+Loughlin+Jr. says:

    You got it right, Thomas.
    Pro Dragster and Pro Street were our inventions and they live on as dynamic testimony to the inventiveness of our group.Thanks for tipping your hat to all the other parties involved, too.
    Tom Loughlin Jr.

  15. Doug says:

    Awesome to still be able to “google” my grandfather Richard “dickie” prime, and read some articles..

  16. Al Charlier says:

    First time seeing this..brought back great memories of my old racing friends. Dick Prime & Sonny Raslawski & too many others to list…Thank you

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