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

Gabe, all -

Yes, Pomona did at least one year of four-wide racing at that time. I know I remember at least one year.

Mike

 

It looks like a large letter A in the sign, but I don't figure where county would work in with Pomona ?

It must have been fun down in the lights being that close together

 

I have never seen a 55 with the back window divided like this one.

 

I don't think it's divided as much as it just has straps on it.....probably someone worried about pressure build up from the inside...

 

Might be Lexan and the Straps are at split lines that make installation easier.

 

Anyone know where this shot was taken?

 

It must also have been fun being the flag starter with the cars that close. And that probably rules out Pomona because they had a tree well before the era of the cars in the photo. Second thoughts--L A County Raceway, aka Palmdale?. The track opened in 1964 which fits the era of the cars and maybe they did not have a tree to begin with (or had to take it down to get four cars across the strip).

Roo

 

At So. Glens Falls dragstrip.

 

That is Pomona in the 4 wide shot. My first time ever down a drag strip was at Pomona. I was driving Dad's '60 4speed tri power 348 El Camino. I had no idea the super stockers were running 4 wide. I was given the outside, left lane. At least I only had a car on my right door handle. I have no idea what the other cars were, but I remember I ran 95 mph, and was second of the four cars. I just about pissed myself during my first drag race!

 

Hold the phone.....I'm pretty sure that's not Pomona....
The lettering in the shot with Landy sort of "leaps" forward, is a different font and it doesn't match the style that Pomona had.
I, too, don't recall any racing four wide at Pomona. I'm guessing that this is at a track that also included the word "county" in it's name. Plus the last letter in the previous word doesn't look like it would have anything to do with the Pomona nomenclature and is not an "S" like at the end of "Los Angeles". It looks more like an "M".
There....now we've solved all the important issues facing the world.
So, now that the world is at peace and everyone has clean drinking water, I going to sign off.

 

The T-Bird is Dave Snyders from Hillsboro, Or. He bought and ran Western Sandblasting from Marty Strode. I drove that car in 1981. Not sure who is in the Bantam. That is Woodburn circa 1978-79 by the lettering on the T-Bird.

 

Doug, you might not recall any 4 wide racing at Pomona, but that don't mean there wasn't any. My first run, which was 4 wide at Pomona, was in 1960. That tower, and the sign was not there then. The 4 wide photo may not be Pomona, too many big time guys in that shot. In the early 60's there were so many stockers showing up on Sunday afternoons, they had to double us up until the final class runoffs to get the show over!

 

Ron, My Brother Jerry ran that shop as a welding shop from '69 to '74. Dave started Western Sandblasting in the later 70's in the same building. The T-Bird was built and raced by Leo Gorowski (Master Transmission) in the late '60s, with a 426 Hemi, dubbed the "Hemi Bird". Leo passed it to Dave, who ran a 460 Ford in it. Lee Stafford was racing it at Woodburn, and stuck it in reverse at the finish line and rolled it ! Dave rebuilt it and passed it back to Leo, who still has it, as far as I know. At one time, there were 3 "early birds" running around here, Larry Kalsch had a "Cammer" in his, Leo's "Hemi Bird", and one with a BBC, called "Thunder Chev". Here is Larry, racing Chuck Tiller's Willys at Portland.

 

When this photo was posted (back in 2102) in the "Comets, old drag cars" thread here on the HAMB it said that it was from "Bakersville" and that fits with the distance that the sign is back from the cars but if that is the case the first letter that shows should be an N and it definitely looks like a squared off A or an H. Mutley was the source then so maybe he could chime in here.

Roo

 

Maybe that 4 wide stuff was at ' Romona in San Diego county ' as the letters kind of work together, at least the A and county fit

 

Charlie did all the lead body work and the black laquer paint on Carl's Willys truck. It was flawless. Carl also had Roger build an engine one time. He was quite a character.

 

personally, the only four-wide races I ever saw was stockers at Lions and the jets at Fontana.
The question was "what track is it?".
That photo, above, must be just a few months or a year away from the altered wheelbase revolution that would introduce the term "funny car" to the world.

 

Didn't Blackie Gejeian run 4 wide races at "Raisin City", @ Fresno ?

 

I was thinking L.A. County. Then again, that doesn't look right either.

 

Yes Marty it was one of those nor-cal tracks that ran 4 fuelers at a time, it was tire smoke city

 

That's a neat coupe. Looks like these guy's took every advantage they could in the Altered class. Well thought out car.

 

I didn't realize Bourgeious and Wade raced Mopar's. And, Bite (recaps) by Casler were tires used prior to M&H coming into favor & NHRA acceptance. Casler used a tread pattern that made them street legal and could be used in early stock classes.

 

Yes, but I was just referring to races that I saw. I'm sure many tracks raced stockers four wide across the Country.
There used to be hundreds of strips.....many out in the boonies......not many left...
Pretty hard to beat four jets at a time at Fontana.
That's like the guy that stole an Army tank and lead police on a smashing pursuit many years ago.
Some "things" just can't be "topped".

 

Kind'a looks like him.

 

When I was running my 37' in B/Gas the Bourgeious & Wade red Willys was the car to beat here in so-cal, did not know they raced Mopar's either

This thread is great for learning things you did not know !!!

 

I believe the scoop is a Creitz, don't really know what kind of 4 port injector.

From what I understand, Eddie cut and rewelded his rims, and cut his own spokes. A friend of mine ended up with this car that Eddie built and I relaced some 19" rims for it, because Pete couldn't find any new tires to fit the rims. We figured out they were probably Mustang motorcycle tires. I think he still has the original rims and spokes in his dad's attic.

 

Mystery solved. This IS the same car that Prudhomme is restoring. I just got off the phone with Don Long and he said when it came out west in 2012 for Bakersfield the engine had simply been dropped in the car for the event. Long told me that when he built the car originally they narrowed the back of the block to get it to fit into the frame as the Ford is much wider than a hemi in that area. As seen in this photo the driveline is misaligned and the mag sitting high because this block was not cut. The braces on the roll bar are a bit the same story. Evidently at one point a six point cage was added to comply with the later rules. The initial "restoration" did not put them back as seen here.

Roo