1950's Hartney Dragster

Lent by Jeff Goldstein / The Piston Palace, Warwick, R.I. 

Michael “Jack” Hartney, a WWII veteran was among the earliest New England hot rodders and one of the leading organizers of the Orange, MA. drag strip. During the early 1950s Jack worked tirelessly to overcome the obstacles of bureaucrats and the public by successfully organizing drag racing in Massachusetts at the Orange Airport.

Racing occurred, sometimes tragically, on the public streets and the concern for safety after many accidents was growing. Jack successfully convinced his community that a local drag strip would prevent street racing by providing local racers a sanctioned and safe place to race their rods.

After putting so much effort into establishing a dragstrip, it was time to build his own dragster. Jack’s dragster, a specially built car designed for one thing - going as fast as possible in a straight line covering a quarter mile against the clock. Jack began building his dragster in 1957 at his home garage, fabricating nearly every part himself from the steel tube frame to the aluminum skinned body. The dragster was built using a well proven flathead Ford engine, starting with a bored and stroked Mercury 276-cu.in engine with an Isky cam, Edelbrock heads a Veco magneto and backed by a two speed Mercury transmission and cut down Ford rear end.

Jack’s many trophies tell the story of a successful racer, including a runner up in his class at the 1962 National Championship. Jack’s contributions to hot rodding and drag racing are superbly detailed in the book “Cool Cars, Square Roll Bars”. Jack was inducted into the esteemed New England Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2008.