Driver Steve Cregut, left, and crew chief Randy Cree stand with the 1948 Austin that Cregut drove to victory at two recent Geezer Gasser events. The events feature old-time cars - Drag

They grew up drag racing in Lawrence in the 1970s, but didn’t even know each other.

Now, 30 years later, Steve Cregut and Randy Cree are fast friends, and they have taken the Geezer Gasser drag racing circuit by storm.

June was a banner month for Cregut, who drives a 1948 Austin at nostalgia drag competitions, and his crew chief Cree.

The duo won the Geezer Gasser class – for old-time cars that don’t use modern equipment or technology – at the Goodguys Hot Rod Nationals on June 10 in Indianapolis and the National Hot Rod Reunion on June 17 in Columbus, Ohio.

Cregut, 63, said the national nostalgia events feature drivers – some in their 20s and 30s – and old drag-racing cars from all over the country.

“You don’t have to be real old, you have to run the old-style car,” Cregut said of the Geezer Gasser format. “Basically, it’s drag racing the way it used to be.”

That means going a quarter of a mile as fast as possible. At Indy, Cregut’s Austin traveled the distance in 9.5 seconds at 142 mph.

“It’s quite an adrenaline rush, but it doesn’t last long,” Cregut said of the feeling he gets behind the wheel during a drag race. But he doesn’t recommend it for an untrained driver off the street.

“To go down the track the first time, it would just scare the hell out of them,” he said.

In order to qualify for the national races, Cregut had to obtain an NHRA driver’s license. That involved getting a physical and doing five runs witnessed by qualified drivers at Heartland Park Topeka.

Long before his recent racing resurgence, Cregut drove a 1948 Anglia in local drag races in the 60s and 70s before he put the dragster in a barn and gave up racing. Then, about 10 years ago, nostalgia racing started to grow in popularity, and Cregut, with Cree’s assistance, decided to get back behind the wheel.

Although the two are close friends now, Cregut and Cree didn’t really know each other when they were active drag racers 30-some years ago. Cree, 51, said he first knew of Cregut when he saw him race his Anglia 37 years ago.

“I knew who he was,” Cree recalled. “I didn’t know him as an acquaintance or anything.”

Cree, who now lives in Big Springs, said it must have been fate that brought the pair together 15 to 20 years ago.

“I think he wandered into my shop to get some work done on his truck,” Cree said of the day the duo finally met.

Sharing a common racing background, they hit it off immediately. Eventually, they decided to get into nostalgia racing and pulled the old Anglia out of the barn. But the hot rod wasn’t looking so hot.

“Mice had gotten into it and worked it over some,” Cregut said of the old dragster’s condition. “The paint was a little rough.”

Cregut and Cree got to work and made all the necessary changes – aesthetically and mechanically – and started entering the Anglia in nostalgia races.

The team raced it for a while, but safety issues forced them to find another vehicle – the Austin, which the two fixed to meet current Geezer Gasser racing standards. They got their first taste of success when they won the Goodguys Nationals at Indianapolis in 2003.

Even though Cregut is always behind the wheel when his Austin wins at the track, he said it is a genuine team effort with him and Cree.

“The driver needs a crew chief – a guy to work with him on the car and make sure everything’s right so he can concentrate on driving,” Cregut said. “We couldn’t do it without him.”

Nevertheless, Cree said Cregut was more crucial to the outcome of a race when asked if the driver or crew chief was more important.

“The driver,” he responded. “He’s got the last call. He’s holding the wheel.”

It is that unselfish relationship that had made Cree and Cregut a winning combination.

“We just get along great,” Cree said. “We really do.”

The team doesn’t have any plans to race for the remainder of the year, but when they get together to work on the Austin in a building on Cregut’s land in Tecmuseh, they have some big trophies from Indianapolis and Ohio to remind them of how far they have come.

“Two guys from the old Lawrence drag strip went back East and thumped ’em,” Cree said with a laugh.