History Drag cars in motion.......picture thread.

Ouch at Famosa.

 

"Goose asking flight directions at LIONS.

 

The mother lode of drag racing, Goleta 1948...like the earlier picture that Gary posted...this was the first legal drag race as far as historians know...put on by the Santa Barbara Acceleration Association, helped by the Motor Monarchs of Ventura....held at the Santa Barbara airport in Goleta, '48 through '49...not regularly scheduled, and pretty primitive by even the early standards...no real rules, three classes, later more...stripped coupe, hot roadster, and fendered coupe...later they would add gas classes...these three cars are the class winners. This was the starting line and the finish line was where the bridge was...timing was done by stop watch, so no MPH clocks, the building in the background is still there....if you have Don Montgomery's "Old Hot Rods Scrapbook" (No. 8 in his great series), there is great coverage of Goleta...where Don also raced...Keep it up, Gary, this is great!!!

 

Freddy DeName at Bakersfield...the name "Fugitive" meant something --- Freddy had some interesting crime ties and later died while under witness protection...reported as a "suicide,"....Don Ewald has more of the story, he met Freddy once.

 

Back when funny cars really did look like their stock counterparts!

 

This was the first dragster I ever saw, summer of '57 at Santa Ana...kind of gold bronze paint...for a 14-old kid, seeing this thing run over 136mph was eye-opening, to say the least. Willie Borsch was there too in the red Harrell Engines gas roadster...needless to say, I was hooked!


Dean, this is for you...another Teresa and Cerneka Desoto car...this was summer of '57, how many other guys were running a top-mounted blower with a Gilmer drive then? (Other than Don Montgomery's fuel coupe)


There were a few passes that really got drag racing's attention, Garlits 176 at Brooksville FL in late '57 was one, this was the other...the Greek turned a claimed time of 204 at Alton, IL....was it the Isky cam, the rumored hydrazine (that Don Maynard always denied), or bad lights, or???..... this was 1960.