History Irwindale Raceway, 1966 Color Slides

very Cool

 

Cool photos, but. . . .
All the pics with the hay bails lining the strip were shot at Bakersfield.

 

At 4.02 it looks like Ivo's Barnstormer, but it was being pushed by a '59 Ford ? Love the shots of E.J. Potter ! Thanks for posting.

 

@Marty Strode Being from the PNW maybe you can answer this: at about :44 sec in and again at 4:13 there's an injected Jr. Fueler (?) that sure looks like one I saw a few years ago at the now-closed World of Speed in Wilsonville. (I do have pics, somewhere...) It was called the "Stinger" and driven by Ed Allen. Was that a car from your area, or do you know anything about it? Agreed, neat video! Thanks @Lancer for posting!

 

I'm just going by the info provided to me about the images. It's very possible there is more than on location mixed in there. So, they used to have hay bails at Famoso?

 

Thanks, that was great! Lots to look at in the background too. That yellow Honda 90 with the giant rear sprocket, not much for top end but would probably climb a tree!

 

Cool photos, brings back some good memories.

 

Terry, there were 3 Allen boys, Les, Ed, and Jeb, all drove dragsters, they were from California. The Stinger, and the Wasp were 2 of the Jr Fuel cars. The Stinger wound up in the Portland area in the 90's, raced by Dave "The Frog" Fortello (sp). Here is some history on the car and the family. BTW, Jeb made history driving the Praying Mantis Top Fueler.

The Stinger was a great success, winning a reported 85 of 88 rounds in 1965, and in 1966, Ed won Jr. Fuel at the famed Bakersfield March Meet while Les set the national record at 199.10 mph.

The first Praying Mantis, fielded in 1969, was a front-engine Woody Gilmore Top Fueler driven by Les, though according to Jeb, Les only drove it about a half-dozen times before vacating the seat, which for a short time was filled by Hank Westmoreland in 1970.

Jeb, meanwhile, at the tender age of 16, had gone on tour with Steve Carbone during the summer of 1971 and had the racing bug bad.

 

The backgrounds always tell the story don't they.

 

Thanks, Marty - that is some great info and history! I certainly do remember Jeb Allen as a driver but I did not make the connection with Ed Allen or even think that they might be related. Very much appreciated!
That said, I did find one of the photos I took at World of Speed and have attached a copy. I think it sure looks like the same car. I have no idea if the dragster was on loan to the museum or was part of the museum's collection? So who knows where it is today, but in either case it's neat to know that it's still around and it's great to see photos of it in action as presented in the video. Thanks again for chiming in!

Taken November 2018 at World of Speed Motorsports Museum, Wilsonville OR:

 

Cool stuff. EJ Potter too!

 

Very cool.

 

Thanks Marty for the history lesson.

 

X2!!