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

Malcolm Durham, affectionately known as, "The D.C. Lip," travelled the country to give the factory boys a run for their money. He passed away in 2006, I believe, although his shop is still active being run by his son.

 

Starting from a very blurred picture from Drag News, September 21, 1957...



This is significant because one of these guys, Pete Teresa, I think, was Dean Lowe's math teacher (Dean, help me out here), and second, only Don Montgomery and Don Yates ran Gilmer belts to drive their blowers before this. The first commercial Gilmer drives came from Weiand in 1959, so this is two years earlier...these guys were real innovators.


Ivo on tour (is there any drag strip Ivo missed on his tours?)...this is Sanford, ME

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Westerburg (?) and Bill...for several years this car ran a carbureted flathead, later got this sbc, Reath sponsored (this from George Klass)


Not sure on this, I thought it was Adams & Stewart, but since Gene worked for Hilborn, doubt that they would have run an Ederle (!)...anyone?


Texas guys, IDs?

 

If you hung out at San Gabriel in the early '60s, you knew this roadster, Cirino & Groves, sponsored by Durfee Motors. It started in primer with an injected Olds, when they went to the blower, they just built a manifold and mounted the port injectors on top...no chrome or paint until they ran one of the early Smoker's meets, then they shelled out for chrome and paint. Still v-belt drive, probably by Tom Beatty. I saw this car on the Ridge Route on the way back from Bakersfield, and didn't recognize it with paint until I stopped and realized it was the old Durfee Motors car.


Another from George Klass...no Id on either car, but this is REALLY EARLY...I think it might be at Saugus, but don't remember the hills in the background being so steep...I have no idea where George finds these pictures but we all owe him for locating and posting them.


I am more sure that this is at Saugus. It opened in either '51 or '52 (who kept records then?) by Lou Baney, gave racers coming back from the lakes another shot at going fast. Like most lakes roadsters and early drag roadsters, these most likely ran on the streets as hot rods until their owners traded for a family sedan, and they got stripped even more into race cars. Don Montgomery was a frequent winner at Saugus, Don Yates raced here, and, of course, Lou Baney. There is no trace of the track today, which was built on the site of an airport, the Sky Ranch or something like that...the racers had to clear the track in case a plane wanted to land.


Also from George Klass. I am pretty sure that this is Colton. Notice the SCTA lettered on the side, the SCTA actually sponsored several drag racing meets, at least one if not more at Colton. They brought their clocks, their timing stand, and their crew...but for some reason they stopped running drag racing and returned to the lakes and Bonneville.


I may have posted this before...Fred Waterworth in the Waterworth & Morris Bantam bodied competition coupe, originally a 296" flathead, but here with a 371" Olds, ran in the 130 range, pretty good for 1957.



Lots of pictures of the Harell and Borsch roadster, but this is the first T, with a Cal Automotive body, and before the wing. Some were not familiar with the origins of this car...it evolved slowly, and raced for years until Willy crashed it on tour...the Logghe chassis-ed car followed.


Ratican, Jackson, and Stearns, from the same set as the Harrell car above, probably the '61 Bakersfield meet. Blown Olds on gas...these guys were competitive anywhere they ran...but if my dim memory is right, they got beat at this meet by Raymond Austin from Hurst, Texas, in a Chrysler powered Fiat. Raymond had his door come open at speed (these were steel originals), but unfazed, he just wired the bent remains of the door shut and went back racing.

 

296ardun; I love this shot. Thanks Professor

 

Yes, Pete Teresa was my freshman math teacher. Loved Pete's class. Used to stay after and talk drag racing. Talk about a cool teacher!!

About the Durfee Auto roadster, did a lot of screw machine work for Nick Cirino in the early 90's when he started his street rod accessory business, "Big Al's Carponents". Nick told me the reason they ran the port injection on top of the blower was because they couldn't afford a two holer for it.

 

Watched Malcolm Durham race many times during the mid 60's and he always put on a first class show for the fans.

Guy was a legend on the east coast for years.
Jimbo

 

Thanks "Old Raceer" and hope you are doing well and keeping busy.
Jimbo

 

The picture above of the later named..."Winged Express" (post 45393) brought back a memory.
Back in about 1965/66, at Fontana Raceway, while watching some friends racing a new car, the Harell and Borsch roadster was there also.
I recall with a fairly vivid recollection of three runs the car made, of which I hope I never forget.
1. Run one, "no" wing. After a small wheelstand, the car started bouncing...hard, side to side from about 60' out. Willie got out of the throttle and coasted to the end of the track
2. Run two, "giant wing" mounted. The car ran hard but only to about half track (as I recall). "looked" like the handling was MUCH better.
3. Run three, "giant wing" mounted. Hard full pass with small wheelstand, and what sounded like full power the full 1320.

Great day in SoCal.

Mike

P.s. - I was about 15 at the time.

 

This one had the very ''bendy'' bumper option!

 

I think that's called smoked in!!

 

Jim Nelson & Dode Martin?

 

Dick,
I'd put $ on the fact that the photo was a mistake that turned out "OK".
I'd narrow my answer to his pan not equaling the speed of the cars.
I say that due to the fact that the far east grandstands look fairly sharp. Had the photographer been panning at the rate of travel of the dragsters the grandstands would have been blurred.
Night shooting is tough and back in the 60's and most all drag photogs were still using flashbulbs instead of strobes.
Flashbulbs have a much slower "burn time". When a flashbulb goes off it's a rather slow flash compared to the bright-fast light of a strobe. That could also contribute to this blurry shot. Those old flashbulbs stayed "lit" too long allowing motion to expose itself on film for too long.
Back in the 60's using a flashbulb at a sprint car race at Ascot was a good way to get your ass beat by a driver.
The slow flash of a flashbulb would be very distracting to a driver compared to a super-fast flash from the more modern strobes. More than once I'd see a photographer getting reamed by a driver for making him get distracted.

 

Al, ever the showman, took a page out of Dick Jesse's hymnal and had large tubes built in to the car to direct the tire smoke from the rear up to the front of the car. There was a cutaway drawing of this car in one of the magazines back in '66 that shows the tubes but I can't find it now.

 

Find that drawing if you can, that would be COOL. Gary