Detroit Dragway closed back in 1998, but every year at nearby Milan Dragway, area racers gather to remember the Motor City’s beloved downriver drag strip.
The Dirty D, it was called. The old dragstrip at SIbley and DIx in Brownstown Township was a perfect reflection of the Motor City’s gritty gearhead character. Bulldozed years ago, today the former Detroit Dragway is home, among other things, to the plant where batteries for the Chevy Volt are produced.
Around 20 miles southwest at Milan Dragway, the Detroit area’s remaining drag strip, every year they throw a little party to remember the track known as the Ditch. Activities at the Detroit Dragway Reunion include racing, a car show, vendors and swap meet. This year’s event also shared the facility with the annual Billetproof traditional rod show over on the spectator side of the strip (which MCG has covered in a separate piece).
We stopped by the Reunion for a few hours, and while a few on-track incidents kept the track idle for much of our visit, we cruised the pit area, meeting old friends and making some new ones. Here’s a little of what we found:
+ Pete Gentile’s ’55 Chevy gasser, Injecticide, which he raced every week at Detroit in the ’60s and still owns today, now immaculately restored.
+ Rusty Sampsel’s time capsule ’55 Chevy Bel AIr, the Bad Banana, which his dad raced in nearly identical configuration 50 years ago.
+ Dave Dimitri’s hard-launching Model A Coupe (above) with 427 CID Chevy power. Now there’s a real hot rod.
+ A gaggle of vintage funny cars, a traveling nostalgia gasser circuit called the Greal Lakes Gassers, and two cars from the stable of the ageless Arnie Beswick, his Tameless Tiger II and Mrs. B’s Grocery Getter match racers.
…And many more. Unfortunately, we were unable to identify all the car owners and drivers during our visit. If you see your car here and would like to see your name with it, drop us a line and we’ll put it right. Gallery below.
The copper ’65 Dodge is amazing. The Engine Joe gasser made me look twice. The rear is ’56 Chevy but the front is ’55.
I was there with my pop up tent selling the http://www.JoeStevensPhotos.com photos. They started the reunion the year after I went on exhibit with my fathers Detroit Dragway photos that I had archived. I had met some of the race car drivers while working with my father some years ago as he photographed them racing & it was great to be able to get these 50 yr old photographs back out to the fans & the drivers to see but I sure wish I could’v done this while my Dad, Joe Stevens, was still alive. I found all of these thousands of 1960’s negatives of Drag Racing & Car Shows in a big box. I’ve had the website for over 2 years now & you will see me every year at the DD Reunion.