The place: Alton Dragway in Alton, Illinois, just across the Missouri river from St. Louis
The date: April 16, 1960
The speed: 204.54
On that date at that dragstrip Chris Karamesines and his tuner Don Maynard recorded the first speed over 200 mph in drag racing history. It was the speed heard ‘round the racing world.
Some drag racing experts then and some historians still today dispute the 204.54 timing at Alton, citing the archaic timing equipment at the track. However, a quick check of Chris Martin’s “The Top Fuel Handbook” shows that there were plenty of 200-mph passes at tracks other than those on the West Coast. Don Garlits recorded a 200-mph clocking that year at Alton Dragway as well as a 204.54 at Brunswick, Georgia. Lyle Fisher had a 204.54 speed at Cordova, Illinois, and K. Chatagnier made laps on the same day of 201.78 and 197.36 in the Kent’s Speed Shop dragster at Houston that same year.
Drag racing’s first superstars like Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney, Don Prudhomme, and Chris Karamesines just to name a few literally drove the sport of drag racing into the racing public’s consciousness by barnstorming around the country from the late 1950’s to the early 1970’s and are in a large part responsible for getting drag racing where it is today.
Karamesines likes to tell the story about when he and Garlits raced on a dirt track.
“ I got booked into a track in Springfield, New York. The promoter not only had a dragstrip but also a clay oval track. He asked me if I would take my car out on the dirt oval and do a burnout. I agreed. I think that Garlits may have agreed to do it too. I pulled out on the backstretch and did the burnout.
The car went up the track towards the fence and got into the dirt” marbles”. I couldn’t stop it. It ( the car) hit the “berm”, flipped up over a 20ft fence and ended up in the parking lot.”
Today, all but one those hero drivers have swapped their firesuits for business suits and have given up the driving spotlight passing the mantle of fame onto the likes of John Force, Tony Schumacher, and Brandon Bernstein. And match racing has all but disappeared.
But there is one of the pioneers still racing. Chris” The Greek” Karamesines is the sole member of that elite group of pioneers from the golden age of drag racing who can still be found between the tubes of a competitive Top Fuel car racing all over the U.S. throughout the summer.
While many of his peers are drinking Metamucil shots, driving Mercedes-Benz land yachts equipped with lumbar support and butt warmers or cackling their old cars at nostalgia events the Greek’s still races a Top Fuel car competitively. On many weekends you can find him strapping his backside into the hard aluminum, driver’s seat of a nitro burning four-second, 300 mph race car.
The Greek, who reluctantly admits to being seventy-something but in fact will turn 80 in November, doesn’t ask nor offer any quarter because of his age. He is a trim, fit near octogenarian who can still outwork and outdrive men and women half his age.
Amazingly unlike some old drivers Chris Karamesines remains a threat to win. Thanks to his crew chief Tim Finley, the help of his fellow racers, friends and peers like Connie Kalitta and Strange Engineering owner Bob Stange, and his own burning desire to keep racing. Unlike some of the old drivers who in their seventies are still driving but are not competitive Chris Karamesines is and proud of it. According to Karamesines the U.S. government also is one of his sponsors. “I run this car on my social security benefits,” he says laughing.
