Don Gay Raced At DD - Detro Dragway®

Contents:

• THE DAY FUNNY CAR’S DON GAY, JR. NEARLY DIED AT DENVER 30 YEARS AGO
• DON GAY JR VS. ED MCCULLOCH
• DON GAY RACED AT DD
• DON GAY JR RACG
• DON GAY
• DON GAY

THE DAY FUNNY CAR’S DON GAY, JR. NEARLY DIED AT DENVER 30 YEARS AGO

Among those the p area was a young Don Gay, Jr., whose father, Don, Sr.

The send-generatn Gay had peted prevly Competn Elimator and Top Alhol Funny Car, where he’d won three tim before steppg up to the nro ranks 1989. The then-20-year-old Gay, Jr.

Wh mimal experience a vehicle of this liber unr his belt, Gay, Jr. The Safety Safari, unaware that Gay, Jr. In a still-ighteng scene all the years later, the fire bottl the nose of the chassis, which were never released by Gay, Jr., me unr creasg prsure om the heat of the fire and epted like a pair of bombs — thankfully dog so before the Safety Safari uld return to the scene.

DON GAY JR VS. ED MCCULLOCH

In a heroic move, Pdhomme, still clad his fire su and helmet, climbed om his mache and dove to what remaed of the burng Pontiac, assistg the Safety Safari removg Gay, Jr.

The footage ptured at the scene went far closer to the panmonium than what was shown on the Diamond P verage, pturg great tail the Safety Safari’s race agast time to brg Gay, Jr. Gay, Jr. His brother, Shane Gay, later raced Super Comp and Top Alhol Dragster.

’s reer-endg accint, the Gay fay had teamed wh the Angel brothers to found the Hoton Raceway Park, another of the new super-tracks of the sport along wh the all-new Bandimere facily. The Gay fay remaed volved at the Hoton track until the early 2000s. Don Gay, Jr.

DON GAY RACED AT DD

The day Don Gay, Jr.

Longtime drag racg fans know well the story of Meyer, how the Texas lad began racg nro Funny Cars as a teen and went on to bee a huge succs and today owns the fabled Texas Motorplex, but before we get to his story and the stori of the others the lumns ahead, let’s take a step back a earlier to another Texas teenage terror, Don Gay, who wowed fans Funny Car and, cintally, also beme a racetrack owner. He passed away June 30, 2007, at age 60, but his legacy liv ’s parents, Carl and Marie, owned the succsful Gay Pontiac alership Dickson, Texas, on the Gulf Highway halfway between Galvton and Hoton.

DON GAY JR RACG

As Detro began focg on high-performance rs, the Gays echoed their support by purchasg nearby Freeway Drag Strip, which they rechristened Hoton Drag Raceway (and later beme known as Hoton Int’l Speedway, then Hoton Int’l Raceway; check out a tribute to the track here) Don had been a fe athlete junr high, playg both baseball and basketball, but his terts changed the day that his father booked Hayn Profft and his Mickey Thompson-owned, 421-powered alumum Pontiac Catala factory experimental at the Hoton track 1961. (Above) The Gay Pontiac fleet nsisted first of a tr of rs, an A/Stock Pontiac Catala sedan, an A/Modified Productn Catala statn wagon, and a B/Stock GTO.

(Below) Don Gay won A/S class honors Indy Dickson High School stunt stunned everyone by wng A/S class Indy 1964, back when wng class was as big as (and, for some people, bigger than) wng the natnal event might well have stayed the Stock ranks had his father not changed his life aga by bookg Pontiac powerhoe Arnie Bwick and his blown GTO to the track 1964.

” (Gay later admted that his first choice for the r’s name was Satan’s Chart. A lot of those same veterans would n at the Hoton track, wh full hospaly om the Gay fay.

DON GAY

"For the 1966 season, the Gays ntracted famed chassis builr and racer Jay Howell to provi a new full tube-chassis r wh a fiberglass body (aga a GTO), and Roy got the hand-me-down origal r. Bee NHRA did not yet regnize Funny Car as an official tegory, Gay and other early Funny Car mpaigners had to pete Competn elimator’s Fuel Dragster class at natnal events, but that wasn’t their ma foc – playg to tens of thoands of fans at wild match rac across the untry was.

(Above) Although the Gays ran their Infy GTOs at NHRA natnal events -- petg Comp's Fuel Dragster class before the advent of Funny Car -- the real money was match racg (below).

Gay's duels wh the Mr.

DON GAY

(Above) Infy 4 was this sleek GTO, near lane, driven this Amarillo Dragway match by Roy Gay agast Nelson Carter's Super Chief Charger, wh Bryan Teal at the wheel.

(Below) The fal Gay Funny Car was Infy V, a Pontiac Firebird, 1967, Don began to share drivg duti wh Roy, who sred an imprsive nner-up fish behd “Fast Eddie” Schartman at the 1967 Manufacturers Champnships at Orange County Int’l Raceway. Roy was killed a non-racg-related motorcycle accint mentned, Don Gay Sr.

Died 2007, but not before seeg the return of the Gay fay name to the dragstrip. In 1985, his 16-year-old son, Don Gay Jr., began racg, first Comp, then progrsed to Top Alhol Funny Car (where he sred three natnal event ws) and, fally, like his dad, to the nro Funny Car ranks.

Gay’s other son, Shane, also raced succsfully for a number of years, wng both Super Gas and Top Alhol the late 1980s, the Gay fay teamed wh the Angel brothers, Greg, Gary, and Glenn, to found Hoton Raceway Park Baytown on the se of an old rice farm. This is the story of Don Gay’s awful funny r fire at the 1989 NHRA Mile High Natnals and is as tough to watch now was was 30 years ago.

As you will see, Gay Jr. The r went and hammered the wall, drivg Gay’s skull to the roll ge and knockg him out.

The heat of the enge igned the fiberglass and an unnsc Gay was at the helm of a flamg ghost ship of a r as slowly wanred across the track and h the other wall.