STILL RUFF'N REDDY

When I was 14 my Dad took me and my brothers to the new dragstrip located just south of our home in Grand Rapids, MI. US131 Dragway was featuring a match race between Big Daddy Don Darlits and his "Swamp Rat" top fuel dragster and Chris "The Greek" Karamesines and his "Chizler". These were the days of "run what ya brung" drag racing and there were all kinds of wild combinations. One car that really got my attention that night was a little yellow C/Altered coupe named "RUFF'N REDDY". It had a really loud hi-reving small block Chey engine with Hilborn injection and a 4 speed trans. It would launch from the starting line with the front wheels way up in the air and would pop them off the ground with every shift. The car's name, RUFF'N REDDY, was taken from a Saturday morning cartoon show and was a name that everyone was familiar with back then. Anyone who ever attended a race at US131 in the '60s would surely remember this car. It was a real crowd pleaser! After that first race I was hooked and every chance I got I was at the track on Saturday nights armed with my trusty Kodak Brownie 8mm wind-up movie camera and my Instamatic or Polariod cameras.
A few years later I got into drag racing myself and after a couple years helping my brother with his race cars I built a '65 Mercury Comet with a 427FE for power and raced at US131 from the late '70s through the '80s. In the '90s I decided to get out of racing to raise my family. One day I received an invitation from an old friend to a reunion of all the guys who I used to go to the races with. I got an Idea to get all my old racing photos and movies together and make a DVD to give to my friends. Everybody loved it so I decided to post clips from the DVD on youtube. The Drag Racing In The '60s videos are from that DVD that I made a few years ago. I am close to a million views on my channel now and the response to the '60s Drag Racing videos has been amazing. I have met many nice people who are in my videos as drivers, car owners, crew members, track workers and fans who remember those days. A few weeks ago I got a very special comment on my Drag Racing In The '60s Part 3 video. It was the daughter of the owner and driver of the RUFF'N REDDY C/Altered coupe! She said that she showed the video to her Dad and he said that he had never seen his car go down the track before! I immediately sent her a copy of the DVD. I later found out that we had mutual friends as a friend of mine used to hang out at the gas station owned by Ron Vochaska, the owner of RUFF'N REDDY. He currently owns a Gas Ronda Tribute Thunderbolt Fairlane that he runs at nostalgia events. He invited me to come to US131 Dragway on Oct 16th on a test and tune day to meet Ron Vochaska and his daughter Vicki. He also offered his Thunderbolt Fairlane for both me and Ron to drive. I hadn't driven a real race car in over 20 years and when I asked Ron when the last time he made a pass down the quarter mile was he said 40 years! The Thunderbolt is a mid-11 sec car and it is a 4 speed so it is a challenge to drive if you're not used to it. Ron had no problem clicking off an easy 12:06 at 115 mph.
Thanks to my friend John for a great day at the track and introducing me to one of my all time favorite drag racers, Ron Vochaska, who is still RUFF'N REDDY!

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

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• and
• Reddy
• drag
• racing
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• Deuce
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• US131
• Dragway
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• 32
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• Chevy
• Hilborn
• Injection
• 1964
• Fairlane
• Thunderbolt
• 427FE
• motor sports
• extreme driving
• vehicle
• tuning

[jdgimpa]

I was about 14 when I first went to Martin. The person that took me was John Kuhn's Dad. He introduced me to Ron Vochaska. I spent quite a bit of time Hanging out with John and was with him when we went to Ron's gas station several times. Thanks for the videos they bring back many good memories. My Grandson has ridden in John;s T Bolt and has a photo of him standing by it for his profile photo on Facebook. Keep on posting the videos.

[jrsn2cars]

@jdgimpa Sure appreciate you taking time to watch the video and leave a nice comment. Thanks!

John

[nipsterstang]

Great job, John!! Great video of some great times at the drag strip back then and now!! Yes, RUFF"N"REDDY was a real crowd pleaser and one of my favorites too! It's wonderful how this whole experience has evolved! Thanks for putting this great piece of history together!

Jim

[jrsn2cars]

@nipsterstang Thanks a lot Jim! That was a fun Saturday for sure! Thanks for checking out the video!

John

[bigblockmustang]

Sweet!

Les

[jrsn2cars]

@bigblockmustang Thanks for stopping by Les!

John

[superprojoe]

Jus' plain AWESOME!!!

[84Bronco351]

I love Thunderbolts

[84Bronco351]

2:55 reminds me of American Graffiti

[bc11666]

Very cool indeed!

Thanks for sharing