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

It is not period correct, nor in motion. But we lost Dave McClelland today. This was his "Tuna Tank," ---- he was one of the greatest drag racing announcers ever, and a great photographer. Please keep his family in your thoughts.

 

Fred Cerruti --- one of the top fuel altereds in Norther Califoria.


Was in motion...the Wilkins brothers "Valley Home Service" early Fuller car blew the flywheel in the San Fernando lights...it landed on the roof of the church next door, and the church's preacher petitions the San Fernando City Council to close San Fernando. The driver survived, but most likely with injuries...

Buddy Anderson ran out of Calvert Automotive, in Dallas...track looks like Caddo Mills.


SWC at Fremont.


Very early drag racing at Saugus.


Was in motion...Gene LeBlanc's "Black Widow" after rolling. Hard to believe, but the driver was uninjured. NHRA photo taken during the Safety Safari meet at Redding, California.


The J.E. Riley Special at Lions, Norm Grudem photo...


Pete Robinson working up the ladder to top eliminator at the '61 NHRA nationals.


Was in motion. Eddie Potter's "Sudden Death" after contact with the sand trap at Lions. No injuries.


Palmer Lazarus at Green Valley, Texas.


Mike Sorokin at the '61 NHRA Winternationals.

 

Dave was a true racer and a great ambassador of the sport. Always with a smile and very cordial to the fans. The Fiat pictured was a nice littles ride that ran well and gave him some fun. We are losing so many of the greats now but hopefully he will be a person that we can say was our role model.
Condolences to the family.

 

From 296ardun's post above. The big (LARGE) building in the back is the GM plant in Fremont CA. Now they build Tesla's there. I lived just to the left of the plant in the foothills before I moved to Missouri. Now there isn't a house under a million dollars. The house we sold 20 years ago my wife bought new, had it built, it's now 2.2 million dollars. We did good when we sold it, but 2.2 million would be nice. But you know, I'm glad I'm not in CA. any more, and I wouldn't have stayed even if I knew the house would be worth that much. I enjoyed my time in CA., but it was time to leave. I made many passes down that old track in a lot of different cars in my day.

 

Great photos and captions. Thanks.

 

Rear engine dragsters go back a long way...4-ever 4 Club.


Boyd Penington at Lions.


Kent Lenz going up at Lions, in his Chevy powered dragster.


Price brothers rear engine roadster at Pomona, Tracy Price photo.


Warren Poole's dragster at Cordova, IL, 1957. That is his wife driving. Warren was from Muscatine, Iowa, where there were not a lot of speed shops. So Warren did almost all the work on this well-built dragster himself, including the induction, fed by 5 carbs. NHRA would change the rules, banning roll bars in front of the driver, learning the hard way from Dave Gendian's fatal crash at Lions. Life Magazine photo.


Jim Boyd's "Red Turkey" at Lions. Jim's son Mike drove the reconstructed "Winged Express" until his untimely passing. I don't know who took the photo.


Me at Palmdale, in the Doug Robinson-built B/FD that I ran with Bob Keilty. Desoto powered (blew up 8 in 6 months).


Teresa and Cerenka at San Gabriel, 1956. Powered by a blown Desoto, the car had an exhaust note that could be heard for miles. Ran high 130s. I've posted this photo before, but this car was special.


Bob Muravez in Don "the Beachcomber" Johnson's fueler at Irwindale. Don was a partner in the Zeller brothers and Johnson Buick gas car that was Kent Fuller's first dragster chassis, and also raced on the lakes and at the salt. He passed away recently.


...speaking of which, Johnson and Zeller at San Fernando. This was Tom Ivo's first dragster ride, and after one pass, he knew he had to have his own dragster.

 

"DeSoto powered (blew up 8 in 6 months)."

Great to see one. Musta been a fan of Tony Waters.

 

Pete Teresa was school teacher. I was in his freshman math class. Once he found out I was working on building a roadster pick up and intended to drag race it, we talked race cars all the time. I didn't learn much math in that class! But somehow I got a B for the year.

 

One difference between me and Tony was that he knew how to build Desotos to last...I didn't

 

A question I should know the answer to, but don't, why are the engines in dragsters angled down in the front, and altered are angled up? I would say the altered are angled up for weight distribution, but don't know why the dragsters are angled down. Maybe angled down for fuel distribution because of G force.

 

Hello,

My wife and I spent many times and hours in the SF Bay area during the 66-76 time period. It was a fun place to be, but it is a large metropolitan area, similar to So Cal’s Los Angeles basin. Back then it was a cool place to visit and see the car shows, rock concerts, the SF city and beaches/coastline. But, before that 66-76 era, I went to school in San Jose in 1965-66.

It was a long way from coastal Long Beach and Orange County. But as a college kid, we needed something to spark our future lives and see clearly. It was a great place to explore new sites and the great surf was only 30 miles away in Santa Cruz. The SF Bay Area was a great place for new explorations and adventures.

The whole bay area offered stuff that was different than in So Cal, except for being in a large metropolitan area. The vibe was different. But, Fremont drags, Oakland car shows, the GM plant where my 65 El Camino was born in 1964 and the college experience in nearby San Jose was necessary to see things a little more clearly. By the fall of 1966, I was enrolled back in college in Long Beach. On with the future experiences and life long adventures.

Jnaki

When we drove to/through the SF Bay Area in 2015 and 2017, it was still similar in old San Jose. My old apartments were still there. The streets were still looking like the old days, but the atmosphere near the college was different. It is like the place stood still, but the surrounding areas just bloomed and now was a center of thick density/crowds. We could not wait to drive through to the Bayshore Freeway to the coast and go North. That drive up the Northern California coastline is still pristine and gives everyone experiencing it, some hope.

It was a great place to visit, but we would not like to live there. So Cal is a much better location for all things Westcoast, access or otherwise. Warmer, more sunny days, great surf, a drier desert climate, and the hot rod/drag race scene, all were/are plenty of adventures for us. We all learn to adapt to our environment in one way or another. YRMV
Looking South towards San Jose, just down the 880 or Nimitz Freeway.

 

Eddie Potter's Sudden Death before the crash...

 

Eddie Wilbanks Gurney/Weslake-powered digger...check out the unusual body work!

 

Houston, we have liftoff.

 

From the Andi Humenik collection...

 

Two for Thursday...