One other change that should be made in the Top Gas Performance list. The cars that ran on Prepped Tracks should be in a separate group from the cars that ran on natural tracks.
The AA/GD of the Ambassadors Car Club from Orinda, CA equipped with the highly popular Algon (Al Gonzalez) injectors.
Jim Gonsalves homebuilt DOHC FE...Tilting at windmills is always cool in my books... Hydroformed the chambers from 1/2" 6061 plate, machined them to accept aluminum-bronze seat inserts, welded his own cast aluminum ports onto the backside of the chambers.
The twin engine deal in Top Gas was an attempt to revitalize and popularize the class. The NHRA announced the demise of T/G in 1970 (?), but protests delayed the death of the class. Funny cars were THE thing then, almost monopolizing fan interest, even eclipsing Top Fuel. T/G racers went to dual motors en mass, to put on a more spectacular show. Here's Moates and Williams.
The blue car is Hill & Wedlake ( Newberg,Or) and the Cope Bros out of Spanaway,Wa. with the twin. A young Derrick Cope wearing the ball cap.
looks like Mission. I JUST missed this stuff. We lived in Maple Ridge, about 15 miles east, and my mom wouldn't let me take the bus to Mission by myself until I was 13. I wasn't really able to go to the track on a regular basis until 1973. I KNEW it was happening, and I wanted to be there SO BAD.
Many of us were in the same boat, just a little too young. I didn't get why my Dad didn;t want to go to Woodburn for every race! Same deal throughout the entire nation. Most of us LIVED for the magazines!
So true. The magazines were our lifeline. At the time the content of Marty's photo happened, I would cut my Grandmas grass(2+ acre lot) for $4. I would buy a model kit for $3.30, and a magazine for 65 cents, the nickel covered the taxes. My dad HATED hot rods and drag racing, I do remember he took me to Mission once, but only once. We always went to Westwood. To this day, I think I actually get more of a buzz when I score some vintage magazines then I do when I score some vintage part I need. MAN, I LOVE old magazines.
Kina off topic, but filmaker George Lucas was one of us. Loved drag racing and the magazines. That was the inspiration for the Milner drag strip stuff in More American Grafitti. According to him, he was a shy kid and lived through racing and the magazines. A copy of Drag Racing or Drag Strip was the Holy Grail for me, few stores carried those titles.
And Drag Racing USA. I was big into door cars, their sister mag SS/DI was my favorite. There were a LOT of VERY sharp Stock and Super Stock racers from this area, and when I was a kid, I worked part-time for Bob Crosbie, he did a lot of MP and Gas class motors, I was about as deeply immersed in that end of things as just about any teenage kid on the planet.
You know it is now the name of a street in the high end subdivision up there, right? It honestly pisses me off no end, every time I see that goddam street sign, I feel like I am being slapped in the face. Its like the developer wanted to REMIND us. "Ha, ha, 'ha, look what we took from you, and all so we could have a nice place for multi-millionarre Koreans to live and have a view of the Fraser". Its a part (or should be) of our cultural heritage. It just kills me that my daughter will never get to stand with me before Deers Leap, and hear the pack exiting turn 3. It breaks my heart. I can tell her, but she'll never really know.
The Jalopy Journal
