This priceless little clip shows semi-organized drag racing on the streets of Detroit’s West Side in 1964. This is the real deal, check it out.
We can forgive the slightly obtrusive musical track. We’re just glad someone had the foresight to save this brief 8mm home movie, and that it was eventually converted to video. Here it is: real street racing as it was done in the Motor City in 1964.
The venue is Stecker Road on the far West Side, an industrial area right against the city line between Detroit and Dearborn. You’ll see plenty of Fords racing here, including a ’64 Galaxie and a bevy of ’63 1/2 Galaxies with their trendy new fastback sports roofs. It’s not surprising to see so many Fords here, given the neighborhood. This is Ford country, with the sprawling River Rouge complex barely a mile away.
At around the 1:50 mark in the video, we find some interested spectators. A pair of Detroit Police cruisers are taking in the scene, which suggests that the racing took place with at least the knowledge of the local authorities, if not their official approval. If anyone has personal knowledge about the Sunday drag races on Stecker Road, please check in and give us a briefing. Meanwhile, enjoy the action.
Very cool.
Similar experience in the early 70’s. An Interstate bypass was being built and on Friday and Saturday night it looked like a local dragstrip. The racing took place on sections that were not yet open to use, so the police never gave anyone a hard time, and would sometimes show up in their personal vehicles. I wasn’t there when it happened, but heard that one night a State Patrol cop took his cruiser down the “strip”. There were everything from stock 4 door sedans, motorcycles(1 of the fastest there was a pink Sportster) and borderline Pro Stock cars that would run down close to 9 seconds. Most races were for bragging rights, but on many occasions money changed hands. I watched one go for $1500 between a 454 Camaro and a Hemi Challenger (Challenger won by a 1/2 car length). I had a 68 Nova, homebuilt, with a decent 427 that would run mid 11’s on slicks(if I didn’t break anything). My neighbor, who ran an Anglia in mostly B/Gas, talked me into sticking on a tunnel ram, dual quad setup he had tried on his gasser but didn’t like. For some reason I couldn’t set up a decent race that weekend with that setup.
Altho there were some wrecks, luckily there were never any fatality’s. Glad I survived and soon took my racing to sanctioned tracks.
Stecker was a real favorite for drag racing. It was always jumping on Friday and Saturday nights for many years. Stecker was a favorite for racers because of the location, on the Detroit and Dearborn City border, this was important because Stecker Street was in Detroit, while the parking lots racers parked in belonged to Dearborn. This allowed for easy escape when either Police Dept. showed up Ford may have reigned in this video but when Pontiac GTO came on the scene, especially the 389 Tri-power version, the story changed a lot. Pontiac ruled even the streets of Dearborn. Chrysler had their fast cars too, but did not rule like the GTO’s did. John Cozzo, Ron’s dad, had the fastest of all the cars racing on Stecker, a 65 GTO 389 Tri-power, 4 speed, with a 488 rear end and 12 inch Racemaster slicks and a (little0 work done on the engine. Most of you have heard of Royal Pontiac, he beat them a few times racing on Stecker. Those years are really memorable for racing. Ron was too young at the time to remember but he was there for it all.
Margaret Davis (Cozzo) Lewandowski
Any relation to Don Cozzo who had a 66 GTO? He’s a good friend of mine.
I was a Woodward Ave guy in the 60’s with my ’63 Dodge. 4:56 gears made me a winner many times in the stop light grand prix!!
Would you happen to know Glen Elswick, who ran a light weight Hemi powered Mopar – bronze in color? If my memory serves me correctly, it was a ’64. He street raced it in the Detroit area for about 4 years.
Darrell Fletcher
Kingsport, TN
No I don’t.
I’m looking for any first-hand info about the Stecker Road drags. It’s difficult to sort the facts from the stories, but it’s said that the racing ended there when a spectator was killed.
Street racing like this was taking place everywhere. In south Philly there was Sunday drag races on Darian (sp?) ave. This was a trucking/warehouse district which is now a sports complex. The local cops would watch and left us alone as long as things didn’t get out of hand.
I recall drag racing in Philly on Decatur Road during the 60s. The police sometimes opened fire hydrants to flood the “strip” and stop the racing. I had a ’65 Goat with trips and a 4-speed. Anyone else have any memories of this venue?
I recall racing in Chicago. Along I55 at Ashland exit was a ramp we used to block off for a few minutes while the cars went by to keep it safe. Those were some great days growing up. I had a 64 Impala, 409, 411 rears.
This was a lil’ earlier in the early 60’s I had a 61 Pontiac Catalina, I purchased it from Weidner Pontiac outta Mansfield, Ohio. It was a hard car to beat. I done my street racing in Lorain, Ohio.
Growing up in Metro Detroit area, Roseville, Gratiot was alive in 70s to late evening stoplight races. Was driving first my 68 Roadrunner later a 70 Cuda 340. In mid 70s at 12 mile and Gratiot there was serious machines drove in, pulled in on trailers or transport trucks….11:00pm money went down and burn outs on 696 (11 mile) then Races, back up Gratiot to Burger King….normal Summer activities….miss those days!
I used to hear about Livonia police supervised racing on Schoolcraft rd in the 60s but that was before I drove.
After I started driving in 1969 we would go watch racing on Northline rd going east from Merriman towards Middlebelt rd. The police would break that up. That section of Northline is part of metro Detroit airport now.