When he isn’t racing you can often find him at his shop on Claremont St. in Chicago working on his race car or some other project. The shop itself is a testament to the Greek’s 50-plus years of racing. It is a working machine shop and Karamesines does some job work for local companies.
Just a few years the Greek qualified for one of the quickest if not the quickest eight-car fields in IHRA history with a 4.77/298 clocking and went a couple of rounds. In 2006 he went to the final round of Top Fuel Eliminator at the IHRA national event at Epping, New Hampshire’s New England Dragway. That was almost fifty years since he and Don Maynard were winning National Events against the best in the sport.
For example In 1959 during the infamous NHRA “fuel ban” era Karamesines won the AHRA Nationals in Top Fuel at Grand Bend, KS. He and tuner Don Maynard, in successive rounds, beat Garlits in the Top Fuel Final and then Eddie Hill’s blown, gas-burning, Pontiac powered dragster for the Top Eliminator title took out title. Karamesines tells a great story about that race.
“After I beat Garlits and Hill they had to take the trophy back and change the name on it to mine because they had already inscribed Garlits’ name on it before the race was over”
The Greek, as all his friends and fellow racers refer to him, is like a fine red wine (or more appropriately, Scotch) and just gets better with age.
The rest of us should be so lucky. After more than five decades of racing and driving nitro cars Chris Karamesines shows few signs of slowing down. He still goes to his shop each day and works on his race car. He still wants to win. He still loves the sport. He is truly a living legend and a treasure of American auto racing and just a guy who likes to drag race.
If you go to just one more race this year go to the next IHRA race where Karamesines is racing. It’s too late to see Mantle or Kofax play baseball or see Petty or Ginther drive but you can still see Chris Karamesines drive a Top Fuel car. Don’t miss the chance.