History El Mirage 1946 & 1950

Most of the below images were scanned from B&W photos as small as 2 X 3 and showing wear & tear. I did find the transparencies for most of them and will have them professionally processed at a later date. I’m also guessing at the dates, but believe that most are from November
1946 unless otherwise noted. Any help in identifying the car &/or driver or correcting my misinformation in any of the shots will be greatly appreciated. Photos by my late Uncle Al Baker of Grand Junction, Co.

Bill Burke (Early 1946):


Bill Burke (Early 1946):


Stu Hilborn on the way to El Mirage:


Veda Orr:


4 Banger:


Safety Patrol:


The Starting Line:


The Starting Line:



Glen Olsen:


Ralph Schenck:


Ralph Schenck:


Unknown:


Unknown:


Howard Wilson (Car was the 23 of Bill Burke shown above):


Stu Hilborn:


Unknown Roadster. Shot of the car taken on the way home of my Dad's buddy from Burbank High School Mr. Ed Niles. They were friends until my Dad's passing 2 years ago. Ed strayed from the Hot Rod scene, but if you Google Ed Niles & Ferrari you'll find he owned, bought,& sold @135 Ferraris over the years. Ed did by a T-Bucket 3 years ago at the age of 85 but found it was too hard foe him to climb in & out of it and sold it for double what he initially paid:

From 1950 - George Castera’s Tank (?). Scanned from a small B&W photo. I’ve seen this shot somewhere before. I’m wondering if the car was staged for the many photographers who showed up at the lake bed?


From 1950 - The guy that got My Dad into Hot Rodding:

From 1950 - The guy that got My Dad into Hot Rodding:

 

Thanks so much for posting these...I have really enjoyed your previous pictures, this is great history...

 

Outstanding. Thanks for the post!

 

Sweet stuff! Thanks again for posting some darn cool history! Joe

 

The car that Ralph Schenck is shown driving, wasn't that built by Bob Arner of Culver city and called the Screwdriver?

Bob did mention that that car handled pretty badly and was eventually abandoned.

J

 

Awesome pics, thanks!

 

Doesn't get any more traditional than this...Priceless history...Thank you 15ASedan...for sharing the photos, the memories and the stories. Additional thanks to those helping out identify the unknown stuff. Will be going thru these posts over the next little while.

 

Cool - Thanks

 

thanks for taking the time with the old photo's.....we know it was some work.....thanks !

 

AMAZING. I don't know where you guys keep finding these vintage racing pix, but it's just the best thing. So good to see! Thanx, Gary

 

@15ASedan -

Thanks a ton for sharing Uncle Al's Dry Lakes photos!

Simply awesome!

 

Paging @Jimmy B!

 

more?

 

Not sure I have much more. I do know I have some photos from the California Roadster Association, but not sure if they are HAMB friendly. Getting ready for the CHRR this weekend at Famoso, so will look for more Dry Lakes photos next week. Thanks for asking. Glad people like these

 

To me as a El Mirage racer,, it was great seeing vintage images of the lake.. Change some of the clothes and it is about the same even now.

 

My opinion.......nothing is more traditional than the California Roadster Association....more....more...please

 

Take a look here ===> http://bakerracingpix.com/1946californiaroadsters.html

 

Thanks very much... appreciated the lakes history.

 

This is Ken Lindley modified post war it was run by Bill Thomas and Emil Dietrich this was the joint 1947 SCTA points champion (tie with Doug Hartelt) car still exists today.

This was owned by Dick Ford. Though it was built by the Granger bros prewar it was later owned by Johnny McCoy during the war. Dick purchased it back and later sold to Jack Detners, car is a narrowed 1927 Chev roadster.

This was later owned by Ray Brown and was one of the first record setting Hemi powered Hot Rods

@HEMI32 thanks.

 

Jimmy B:
Thank you for the great info! Next update on my site will include this

 

Although Jim Lindsey did run a race car styled streamliner in the late 1940s, the modified pictured was run by Ken Lindley in the 1946. As Jimmy noted, Emil Dietrich raced the car to a Co-championship in 1947, with Doug Hartelt as the other co-champion. For 1948 Emil' SCTA number became 1s and Doug's number became 1r. Ken Lindley went into drag racing and in 1957 set the Worlds Gas Dragster record at 159 mph.

 

I always get Jim and Ken's names mixed up for some reason, thanks for picking that up Don.

Jim Lindsey's modified/Streamliner 1949 Bonneville (two other famous cars in this pic).


1946 Ken Lindley


1949 Thomas-Dietrich, (updated Lindley modified).

 

Great stuff as usual!!!!!!

 

You've been in the archives Puff. Thank you very much. Definitely worthy of Bttt.

Thanks @15ASedan. Hope all is well with you as well.