Art & Inspiration Traditional images that need no explanation.

Hello,

Here is an aerial view of Lion’s Dragstrip facing west toward the ocean. All along the east side of the dragstrip property was a farmer’s crop fields, under the high tension electrical lines supported on the m***ive metal structures seen in most photos of drag racing . those lines come from inland los angeles and are part of the coastal electrical power grid.

The north west side of the property is the Wilmington oil fields with several big refineries running day and night. At night, the methane gas pipes are high above all structures and are lit up every day and night. At night, sitting in the “pits side” bleachers, one can always see the tall flames shooting out from those pipes. From our own house a mile or so away, we could also see the flames shooting out every night.

The small down arrow shows the tiny 4 sided snack bar wooden structure. There is/was a large refreshment stand at the bas of the tall spectator’s side bleachers. 80% of the folks went there to get their food for the day/night.

The racers got their food from this small snack stand and that is where we lived almost every Saturday from 1957 to 1960. Our teenage friends from school worked there as the owner/manager was well known in Bixby Knolls. He hired the teenage surfers and hot rod kids for the job of serving the best hot dogs/chili dogs, in any area of town. Our lunches and dinners came from the food prepared at this tiny booth, despite living about a mile away.

Later on as the dragstrip improved, a second “pit” area stand was located near the bleachers of the tower side location.

Jnaki

The big red X is where we usually saved our pit location as it faced the morning sun and was close to the snack bar.

 

I noticed the Pontiac setting next to the Buick has the factory headers opened up.

 

This roadster is at the opening day of the Colton Drag Ship in 1954. The SCTA timed the first few days. I bought the roadster for $1000(!) in 1962. Here's how it looked at Bonneville in 2008. I owned it for over 50 years and was my daily driver for a few of them. It later set 7 Bonneville and El Mirage records in the C and D Street Roadster cl***es at Bonneville and El Mirage with a best of at 210 MPH.