Jack Ewell / Bill Steckler Lion’s Dragstrip Class Lanes Hello, We all know that Jack Ewell had a wonderful very early life in all sorts of drag racing in the 1950s. But, our collective minds turn to the 1960 years, when he was the parts manager for Mickey Thompson Enterprises in the Westside of Long Beach, near Lion's Dragstrip and only several blocks from our house. old Friday Art His involvement from that point on goes with his co-workers and teammates from the early days, Bill Stecker and Jim Kamboor. The later 60s shows their collaboration in the top echelon of drag racing. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/moon-tank-photo-gallery.728867/page-15#post-13896733 1957 history in So Cal drag racing circles… Jnaki Back in January’s Friday Art Thread the same team of Ewell, Stecker, and Kamboor had the silver 1934 Ford Coupe shown as a drawing. That was a mainstay in the early local drag racing scene in the Modified Fuel Coupe Classes. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...friday-art-show-1-8-21.1216976/#post-13893760 Jack Ewell & Bill Stecker, blown Dodge San Pedro Muffler (Stecker-Golden-Ewell) ‘34 coupe – This coupe was run by Jack and Bill Stecker with Jack Ewell at the throttle. It had a blown Dodge hemi engine. Bill Stecker is now an active member and past president of the L.A. Roadster Club. Jack Ewell went onto many Top Fuel dragster successes. Manuel Maldonado photo
Frank "Ike" Iacano, with the GMC out of his '34 Ford. Raul "Sonny" Balcaen built the car in the early '50s, and also ran it with the GMC. He also ran Frank Startup's Fargo Ford 4. Ike bought it from Sonny, and raced it for years, then Tom Toros ran it with a Chevy V-8. Pat Ganahl restored it to the way it was in this photo. Here is Sonny's version:
The Herman brothers, at left, racing the Cirino and Groves "Durfee Motors" roadster. Doug Peterson was a San Gabriel regular, as was I, and we both remember these two blown Olds roadsters on gas. The Herman brothers ran a standard Hilborn blower injector, while the Cerino car used regular Olds port injectors with an adapter to fit on top of the blower. Both got new paint after this photo was taken, with the Herman brothers getting a metallic blue paint while the Durfee car went green:
I believe that this is the Heth and Thompson car from Denver...before they bought the Prudhomme car that Ivo had run.
Tony Nancy, at right, racing Jerry Gaskill, at Pride of the Pacific drag strip at San Luis Obispo. Nancy was running a blown Buick while Gaskill, who owned the drag strip, was running a blown Olds.
Don Tuttle's B/FD. Don, from Chatsworth, CA built this car before starting his chassis building company. I sold him those Algon injectors on the car.
Jim "Jazzy" Nelson vs Ted Cyr in the Cyr & Hopper gas burner. Greg Sharp is one of the leading hot rod historians around. Joe Itow built the chassis for Ed Pink, shown here at Fontana. Tom Dyer drove. Manuel Maldonado photo. W. D. Robertson, Lake Wales, Florida, a stop on the NHRA Safety Safari, 1955. He would lose to some guy named Don Garlits. Eric Rickman photo. Head Bean Bandit Joaquin Arnett checks out the steering in the dragster he is building. The team never rad an inline, as far as I know, so I'm thinking that this is the dragster he built for Jarvis Earl, who ran a straight 8 car. I'm not sure, though, as this car was a slingshot design, unlike Earls. Raul "Sonny" Balcaen built this dragster out of a pair of old Miller racing car rails. He usually ran a fuel GMC in the car, but here he has swapped it out for Frank Startup's Fargo-headed Ford 4. The car later went to Ike Iacano, while Sonny joined a number of professional racing teams. Tom Cobbs in the Fox and Cobbs '40 coupe with a blown flathead takes on a bike at Saugus, early '50s. The credit is cut off, but the photo is a part of the legendary collection of early Saugus photos owned by Jimmy Barter, who is also one of the great hot rod historians around. We are fortunate that Jimmy has preserved so many memories with his collection and his stories. T roadster pickup ready to make a run, at Santa Ana, probably 1950 or '51. Notice the circle below the car. It was used as a practice bombing target during World War II. The nose of the car at right is Don and Harold Nicholson's '34 coupe made into a roadster. The car clocked the fastest drag racing speed of around 120 in 1950. Charles McCandless and Jack Hart ran this radical Bantam-bodied competition coupe, with Doug Hartelt's Potvin-equipped blown Chrysler. The team had previously run both a Willys coupe and a deuce 5-window, but switched to this lighter car for the NHRA '56 Nationals. The photo was taken by legendary drag racer Glenn Ward, and posted recently by his grandson Jason Ward. Monte and Earl Rowland ran this nice '34, seen here at Scappose, Oregon. The crew went on to build and race some of the top cars in the Pacific Northwest. Photo posted by Marty Strode. Is there anyone who knows more about Northwest hot rodding than Marty? (Or can build some of the best early-style track roadsters)? Bob Sefton's "Lil miss carriage," at the '56 NHRA Nationals. He ran a 331" carbed Chrysler in this beautifully engineered roadster. Bob was based in Arizona, and ran a hotel there. Sadly he lost his life in a boating accident, and the roadster sat untouched in a garage for a long time. The engine was rescued, but the car was beyond saving. Another Glenn Ward photo.
View attachment 5327265 Charles McCandless and Jack Hart ran this radical Bantam-bodied competition coupe, with Doug Hartelt's Potvin-equipped blown Chrysler. The team had previously run both a Willys coupe and a deuce 5-window, but switched to this lighter car for the NHRA '56 Nationals. The photo was taken by legendary drag racer Glenn Ward, and posted recently by his grandson Jason Ward. >NOTE:...This photo is actually from the NHRA '58 Nationals at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Jack Hart pictured here later became the NHRA Division 7 Director in 1962. The next year he moved up to Executive Director over the Technical Department, a job he held for the next several years.
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