Art & Inspiration Traditional images that need no explanation.

"March 6, 1955: Police check licenses on hopped-up cars driven by teenagers drag racing on a paved section of the Los Angeles River bottom. Four squad cars converged on the racers. Photo taken at 6th Street Bridge. (Los Angeles Times, 1955)"

 

. . . traction looks a little iffy.

 

Rest in peace Gene.

 

Gary Cagle on left, sponsor Chet Herbert on the right. Gary later had a killer Modified Roadster with a tiny 299” hemi, probably a DeSoto?

 

Drivin Duces 40pickup Still exists, rotting away in a garage, present owner/ caretaker won' t even acknowledge it's existance

 

Sad!

 

"Give 'em Hell Wendell!" Wendell Scott did more with less than any other stock car racer!

 

Wendell Scott.

 

“We all kinda’ dabbled with C/Gas Willys and Mike drove a (C/Altered) roadster coupe with George Bacilek,” he remembers. “Anyway, all of us had messed with different classes and we finally said: ‘Classes? That sucks! Let’s build a dragster,’ but we didn’t know how to build one, you know.”

Hello,

A couple of years ago around this time in 2022, I did a Friday art project on the 33 Willys Altered Coupe.

“…in December 2022, I had finished drawing my version of an unusual Competition Coupe. It was one of the first uses of a Willys Coupe as a Modified Altered Coupe, but for some reason it was shown with a B/C label sign.”

This event shown was 1961 and was one of the early race cars that Mike Sorokin drove at Pomona in the pre-Surfers days.

Note:

From December 2022 Friday Art:


a difficult design to get the correct shape and angle of rake…

At the first Winternationals in 1961, my brother wanted to go see what the big time event was going be. Despite his injuries still on the mend, he wanted to venture out in the Impala to go to this historic event. He said we don’t have to walk around and talk to folks we knew, but we had our food supplies and drinks, so we were set. Plus, he was still a little shy about the bandages and scars from the incident. So, we were mostly incognito.

Now, we found a cool place down the dragstrip up against a horizontal telephone pole to keep everyone back from the track that was right in front of us. Soon, a lot of other cars could not find any parking in the designated area and continued down to where we were parked. Front row center, so to speak, but we could see who was coming, but they flew by like blurred images.

Mike Sorokin was a young drag racer and was getting his feet wet with his partnership in an Altered fenderless 33 Willys Competition Coupe. We could not remember the color of the car, but modern times allows us to play with a colorization photo program to see how close to reality it can conjure.

Jnaki

The resulting color photo from the only B/W photo of these early days of drag racing provided a color that looked real. Everything in the photo is a “normal” color. Black tires, blue jacket, green trees and even rust here and there.

Although, the old computer program got a little carried away with the blue on the front tire. But, it is a close enough guess of the real color. There is no one around to tell us the right color and show any verification. Even our own Levis were the same color, so the program must have worked.

Note 2:

We are all informed about Mike Sorokin’s drag racing history and the results speak for themselves…
Before he gained fame with “The Surfers,” he drove the Willys Coupe at the local So Cal dragstrips.

“Mike won the 1966 United States Fuel and Gas Championship in Bakersfield, California and the 1967 National Open Championships in Las Vegas. Sorokin had gained fame driving the “Surfers” Race Team entry”

Nice choice in “push/tow car/truck” in the pits… Was it red?


Not this time, it was silver blue, but a 1965 El Camino YRMV

 

That is GREAT. Hopefully it will be available as a poster / tribute to Gene.

 

British television crew reacting to car rolling by (out of picture) during their shoot at Fontana about 1962. I was told to drive the roadster up and stop, answer question about "hot rod" parts like engine, transmission, etc.