Chris Karamesines
One of the most famous drag racers ever is Chris Karamesines “The Golden Greek”. Detroit Dragway was lucky enough to have Chris as one of the many top racers to have raced there.
There is so much information on the net about “The Greek” that we share some good links. We are trying to keep Detroit Dragway’s memory alive, and by letting people know some of the racers that made Detroit one of the top places to race, back in the day.
From Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Karamesines
Chris Karamesines (born November 11, 1931) is an American drag racer and one of NHRA‘s early pioneers and nicknamed “The Golden Greek” or just simply “Greek”. In 2009, he became the first driver in NHRA history to compete and become the fastest driver at over 78 years old at the final event of the 2009 season at Pomona driving in the Top Fuel category. But he would lose in the first round against Brandon Bernstein. The following year, he made an attempt at Firebird International Raceway in Arizona and made the field, but again lost in the first round. Karamesines would break his own record in 2018 at Brainerd Raceway, running a 305 mile per hour pass at 86 years old.
From Competition Plus: https://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/karamesines-calls-it-a-career-so-how-old-is-he
George Blanda was 48 years old when he played in his last NFL game.
Baseball legend Satchel Paige was just shy of 60 when he threw his final pitch.
Gary Player was 73 in his farewell pro golf tournament.
Stock car racer Hershel McGriff was 90 when he competed on a 3/8ths-mile Tucson Speedway in 2018.
Then there’s Chris Karamesines, the Top Fuel owner/driver who just hung up his helmet Nov. 1, 2020, at age …
From Hagerty: https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/there-will-never-be-another-racer-like-the-nhras-chris-the-greek-karamesines/
There will never be another racer like the NHRA’s Chris “The Greek” Karamesines.
Here is one of the mail outs from Detroit Dragway & a couple of our photos Of “The Greek” at Detroit.
If you have nay photos you would like to share please email them to us.
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