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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend August 20, 2005 Racing buddies are, from left, Dave Durant, Tom Peters, Mike Pollard and John Case, who met out at Hull Road Friday to recall their racing days as students at Medford Senior High School. They�re in town for their 40th reunion. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Drag race memories Four former Medford residents recall the midnight drag races of their youth By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune Back in the summer of 1964, hamburgers were still a quarter and Hull Road was a lonely stretch of country road — most nights. But on Saturdays, it was a different story, recall four Medford Senior High School grads in town this weekend for their 40th class reunion. About three dozen high school "motorheads" would stop first at Jack’s Drive-Up on South Riverside Avenue in Medford for burgers and shakes. Near midnight, they’d hop back into their cars, line up along the fence behind Jack’s and turn on their parking lights. Advertisement "The tradition was that any of the guys that wanted to race each other would meet about 11:30," recalled John Case, now of Portland. "That was an indication that you wanted to go, that it was on." A 30- to 40-car motorcade would proceed down Stewart Avenue to the intersection of Hull Road and Bellinger Lane. Two "lookouts" would be stationed at either end of Hull to watch for police, and the races would begin. Ford against Chevy. Chevy against Dodge. And a group of high school seniors against parents and cops. "That whole summer, we did midnight drag racing out on Hull Road," said Case. Back then, the soon-to-be Medford senior drove a 1956 Ford pickup truck with a 500 horsepower engine. This week he drove to Medford in a brand new Corvette. "We had some really cool cars," Case said. "They didn’t look like hot rods. Most of us didn’t have the money to make ’em look nice, but we had enough to make ’em go fast." Tom Peters, now owner of a construction company in Grand Junction, Colo., drove a souped-up 1955 Oldsmobile, which he eventually traded for a ’68 Shelby GT. "We were fun guys," said Peters. "We all had a need for speed back then — still got it. There wasn’t any sanctioned racing to speak of, so we kind of made our own happen. No one got hurt. It was just fun." Fun for the self-proclaimed racers; frustrating for local sheriff’s deputies intent on catching them in the act. "They were on to us. We’ll give them an A for effort — but they just weren’t quick enough," Peters said. Had their parents known, none would have been thrilled, say Case, Peters and their cohorts, Mike Pollard and Dave Durant. "I can’t, to this day, tell you what I drove out there," said Durant, "but there were some good cars you could buy off the shelf that didn’t need (to be) souped up." The current Eugene resident and mental health worker drove a Volkswagen in those days. Not even Mike Pollard — whose father was Rogue Valley celebrity racer Art Pollard, who died in a crash while qualifying for the 1973 Indianapolis 500 — had a clue to what his boy was up to in his ‘54 Chevy. Tickets for excessive noise from headers on his rig and spinning tires might have been an indication. Had his dad known about the racing, Pollard joked, "he probably would have shown me how to speed-shift a little sooner." His mother would have felt differently, however. "I had to spill the beans to my mom the other day before she reads it in the newspaper," Pollard admitted. "Back then, she would have had a fit. Still might." With his own kids, Pollard would probably feel the same. "To think all the crazy stuff we did back then — our cars didn’t even have seatbelts back then. I’ve got kids and grandkids, so I’d probably have a fit, too." "We learned," added Durant, "without being killed, how to keep the shiny side up. It wasn’t a reckless thing � it was more about pulling it off than it was about winning." Perhaps some of it was about winning, joked Peters and Case, who snuck out to their old stomping ground before the group got together this week. Did they come back to race? "Nah, we’re a little old for that," Case said. "I don’t think we ought to be out drag racing at midnight." Early evening, Peters pointed out with a snicker, proved another matter. "Sure, we gave it a little run. I thought it was great," said Peters. "John didn’t — because I won." Peters and Case sided with Pollard on how they’d deal with their own children acting out the antics — racing and otherwise — they once got away with. "I’d shoot ‘em!" declared Peters of his son and daughter. "My son, I’d take his license away. Take the keys away. There’s no way!" Case agreed with a laugh. "They’d be in big trouble� big trouble! That’d be the last time they drove a car. Any car!" Case noted the irony of being back on his old stomping ground — four of the former gang with cars that would smoke anything they drove that summer. "Back then, we were new and the cars were old," said Case. "The cars got new, the boys got old, but the race is back in town." Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected]. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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