The View from Here in 1969
On the other side of the drag strip fence
To set the scene, check out this image of the Tollstam, Trybula & Morrone fuel injected Mustang funny car sitting in the staging lanes at the late, great Windsor Dragway, located just east of the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario. This long-closed drag strip was just 20 minutes from the Ambassador Bridge linking Ontario and Detroit, Michigan. The event that day included more than 12 of these cars at a booked-in UDRA funny car show, back on August 17, 1969. As with most photographs, there is usually more to see that initially meets the eye.
Back when cameras were using rolls of color film, having an exposure problem with a single frame was quite common. Perhaps it was a case of trying to get as many pictures out of a roll of film as possible, leaving a flaw on the negative, which was probably what happened with this capture. Regardless, after trimming out the image flaw, the viewer can still enjoy the fact that this car was at the track that day, which is the reason I used this picture on page 142 in my book. (Windsor Dragway, The Best in the Midwest)
What I didn’t point out in the book was that if you have a close look at the whole picture, you will see a situation that was a common problem at this and other tracks during this era. Despite the huge crowds that filled the grandstands for the show, there were always the spectators that figured out other ways to watch the races without paying.
In the case of Windsor Dragway, there was a tall fence that ran parallel with Baseline Road. This fence had two functions at the time. One was to act as a sound barrier for the number of farm houses and buildings across from the track on Baseline. The other function was to block spectators from watching from outside the facility. For the most part, the fence did a fairly good job. However, there was a section of Baseline Road where the fence ended that you could see some of the action on the strip, as long as you were positioned high enough to look over the cars waiting in the staging lanes.
Creative spectators often parked along this stretch of the road and either sat on the roof or stood up on the fender of their cars. In this detail from the same picture, you can clearly see at lease five spectators outside the track sitting and standing on their cars along Baseline, watching the action.
Because of this repeated action by some spectators, traffic issues along Baseline Road became an ever growing concern for people driving near the drag strip. Police patrols began to increase, moving these people out of the area, only to have them return a short while later.
Town council soon passed a bylaw that banned parking anywhere along Baseline Road or similarly on Manning Road, as a way to discourage this activity.
We sure had lots of fun and games, more than 50 years ago.
…Tim
*Mustang funny car photograph at Windsor Dragway courtesy of Allan Ball.
