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

And Scotty's first Chevy dragster . . .

 

. . . and his earlier Ardun Roadster at Colton, too.

 

Yes, this is the Henslee and Cook fuel modified roadster, sponsored by Jerauld Automotive of San Diego. It started out as Paul Shieffer's lakes roadster, first front-engined then later rear-engined. Paul (of Shieffer Clutch fame) then sold the car to Red Henslee and Emory Cook, who put a 354" Chrysler in it...reportedly the first car with direct drive. Both Emory and Red drove it...that is Emory holding the trophy and Red in the driver's seat in the next photo (both drove). The roadster was one of the first drag cars to reach 150. Red would later die in an industrial accident, and Emory went on to partner with Cliff Bedwell in the record-setting Cook & Bedwell fuel dragster. Here are some more pictures of the roadster:


When Paul ran it as a front-engined roadster,


now rear engined, Red Henslee driving, still sponsored by Jeraulds


Emory driving


Emory driving.

Hope this helps answer your question.

 

Jarvis Earl's fuel Buick, Tom Dyer driving, would later get a full body and red paint

 

Ratican, Jackson, & Stearns, in the Fiat, racing Charles "Boogie" Scott in the Bantam, California vs. Louisiana, Howard Cam vs. Engle Cam, both running blown Olds. Ron Stearns won the race, think that this was '61 NHRA Nationals.

 

GBP on the Lions fire-up road


Can't see enough to identify: Herrera &Sons?


Maybe John Weibe




Bruce Norman's "Bald Iggle" from Texas, blown Olds on gas


Another view of Jerry Baltes, as shown above...this car was recreated, and then the original was found and restored.


No ID on this '34


Pete Robinson, not sure where this is...the electrical lines suggest Lions, where Pete ran when he was on the West Coast, but I'm not sure. (C.J. Hart, when he managed Lions, demanded that Pete run a 'chute, which he did not want to do because of the added weight, but C.J. insisted, so Pete found the smallest chute he could buy, C.J. was not amused...)


Two Texas cars, not sure where this is...Bobby Knighton was well known in Texas and beyond, this car was a runner (from blackrat40, probably Caddo Mills, classic Texas drag strip now closed...though the runways are still there, see below.) (From TexasHardcore: This is Six-Flags Dragway in Victoria, Texas)


J.E. Riley Construction car with Doug Hartlett's blown Chrysler at Lions, Calvin Rice driving


Paradise Mesa...Ed "axle" Stewart was an early builder of dropped front axles, thus the name, and because Ed was from San Diego, his dropped axles were called "Dago" axles...and later when you dropped the front of your car, you "dago'ed" it....I never forgot asking Lefty Mudersbach what one of his dragster frames would cost, and his question was "torsion bar or San Diego?" in the early '60s, so the term stuck.


Paradise Mesa, don't know who the "draggin Mates" were.

 

View attachment 3208952
Two Texas cars, not sure where this is...Bobby Knighton was well known in Texas and beyond, this car was a runner

This is almost for sure Caddo Mills. It was a huge concrete WWII training airport about 40 mi.
east of Dallas at Caddo Mills, Texas that was closed. I used to practice landings there.
I think it's still there. It was the site of some of the first NHRA sanctioned drags in about 1958.
We used to see Bobby Langley in his "Scorpion" dragster usually in top eliminator against Bob
Sullivan in the "Pandemonium". Both were Chrysler A/D (gas at the time I think).
Tremendous traction on the concrete but it literally "ate" the early slicks!

 

I think you are right, Caddo Mills was a classic early Texas drag strip, part of a triangle of airport runways...you are right, it is still there, this from Google Earth:

 

Yep you're right...that's it. The starting line was at the bottom right corner in the Google pic.
The bottom skinny runway served as the pits.There were no grandstands. We parked our cars
nosed in to a barbed wire fence along the runway edge(to keep the cows off the runway)and sat
on our hoods and front fenders to watch the races. Flag starter(no Christmas trees yet).