Stone, Woods, & Cook

Agreed - it doesn't get much iconic than S-W-C. As for the race thing, I'm sure that's why we didn't see more pix of Stone and Woods. My pal Jamie (Dr.Lockjaw) and I are finishing up a resto of Ernie Nicholsons "Super Stude" gasser right now. Getting info on that car has been a real trip, due to Ernie being another rare early black drag racer.
Nice piece, Ryan. Thanks,
Scotty

 

SWC were true sportsmen and competitors. I never could stand Big John Mazmanian(SP) after seeing him standing in the pits screaming racial slurs at Stone and Woods. it just wasn't acceptable even in the 60's.

 

I think it's also significant-
certainly to a lesser degree-
that the car ran a 394 Olds
when it seemed everyone was running the 392 Chrysler

definitely influencing my choice in motors for more than a few cars

 

My dad told me they were black men; he saw them at Green Valley as a kid. He was surprised obviously, since you're right - it never was made "public."

And now that I think of it, I don't think I've EVER seen a photo of them. That is a damn shame.

 

I did a Google search and found no pictures of Stone or Woods. These guys were legends when I was a kid. I agree with Ryan that the fact that this was a multi-ethnic team is both cheering that race wasn't an issue and saddening that it never(couldn't) be mentioned. All we cared about was that the car was cool and FAST.

 

They switched to a Hemi in early 64. As racers they did what it took to be competitive. As a side note, I think Ohio George started with a Caddy.
Larry T

 

There's a picture of Leonard Woods in the new Rodder's Journal along with a big story on his first Willys.

 

Posted by Ryan

I’m guessing these photos feature Cook and his buddies although I am not sure who is who… Noticeably absent are Stone and Woods - both black men and both important Drag Racing pioneers

I believe it's K.S. Pitman, Wayne Arteaga, Doug Cook, and i'm not sure on the 4th guy. I think Wayne Arteaga lived in the mid-west(?) somewhere and he'd put up the west coast guys whenever they went that way to race. Gave them a place to stay AND fix their cars. I don't know the reason for Stone and Woods not getting the notoriety of Cook, but it's usually the front man (driver, lead singer of a band, etc) that gets all the fame anyway. I've got no shortage of Stone and Woods pictures in my old magazines, but like i said, it's the driver usually. A pretty good exception was Mazmanian. His name was out there no matter who drove his cars. My 2 cents. Either way, Stone Woods and Cook are in my opinion about the MOST memorable team in drag racing history, PERIOD. Great racing, great memories!

PS-i think the above car was a B/Gas car, Swindler B (the chrome reverse wheels were seldom seen on that team) driven by Doug Cook's brother. Dig the show car interior!

 

Two stories about SWC:

1) Saw them run at Lions in the early '60s. Standing at the finish line and watching the car come toward me, the loudest noise it made was the induction roar -- couldn't hear the exhaust over the mega-sucking sound until it passed me.

2) My friend Jeff Wasserman was called to do a sign painting job on a race car. He went to an address in South Central LA and found a small single-car garage standing in an otherwise vacant lot. Puzzled, he went to the house next door, and was told that he was in the right place. He opened the garage to find the S-W-C Willys! He was not permitted to move the car out of the garage, and had to letter each side in a space barely wide enough to move.

 

The black and white pictures are all from Don Montgomery's Supercharged Gas Coupes book. It's a must have for any gasser freak.
Here's another pic from the book. I believe the T on the headlight stands for trophy, meaning they won their class that day.
Larry T

 

Great article, I learned something new today. Love the old drag racing stories and history.

 

Actually, the "T" sticker means they went through tech. Wayne Aertega is from Missouri. I believe the other guy in that shot was Pittmans crewchief, who's name I forget, but he's my buddys father-in-law. I'll show him this pic and see if we can get a positive ID on this individual...

 

Thats always been one of my favorite cars since day one, and it's THE WILLYS that any others can compare up to. I'd like to see pics of all 3 guys posted, if someone out there has any?

 

theres a picture of the team when KS pittman drove for them in Larry Davis` book `gasser wars`

monkey

 

Good to know about the T, do you know what the "checker" on the other headlight is?

The guys in the group picture are K.S Pittman, Wayne Arteaga, Doug Cook and Tiny Roberts. The guy in the white t shirt in the other picture is John Hellmuth.

 

Got my Rodders Journal last nite and they have a peice on the SWC car

also our own Von Franco's car is on the cover! They did a great story on both versions of the kookie car!

 

All of those pictures were taken by either Wayne Arteaga or his brother Eldon. Both are professional photographers and have provided many pictures to Don Montgomery and the gassermadness site. They were taken in Wayne's garage in North St. Louis. He and my brother often provided pit service to all the name gassers when they were passing through the area.

 

2004

 

And on a related note:

This is Tim Woods



He's related to the Woods of Stone, Woods, & Cook but I'm not sure how. He may be his grandson.

He's been a regular in the NASCAR races at Irwindale Speedway in L.A. for the last few years and is trying to make a name for himself in the NASCAR West Division which runs similar cars to the Nextel Cup guys.

This is the car he was driving in '05:


He's a good driver and good with the media, but as usual he needs more money behind him to go any further.

But at least there's still a racer in the family.

 

I saw a picture of the team in Hot Rod or Rod & Custom back in the 90s(?). That was when I first learned they were Black. Also the book Driving Me Wild: Nitro-powered Outlaw Culture! by Leah M. Kerr discusses minorities in racing and car culture. Don't forget the Bean Bandits!

 

Is it just me, or does he bear a striking resemblance to Nads?

 

Seems like there's been alot of talk about SWC and their cars in the past few weeks. I tried to dig up photos for the last thread but never got around to it. I managed to find one today. (I didn't take this photo, Mike gets the credit for this photo)

Here is one of their cars that was shown at Jalopyrama III (2006).

I'll try and dig up some of the others if there's interest.

 

Here is a pic that I have, can't remember where I found it though.....

 

Toe, I'd like to see more or the pics.

Anybody have and video footage of the cars?

 

Tim woods is in the photo i described above....he`s maybe 9 or 10 in the shot

whenever anybody mentions the word `Gasser`...stone , woods & cook always hits the brain first....damn i need to do a drawing of one of their cars

monkey

 

I believe Hot Rod had a piece about S-W-C maybe 10 - 15 yrs ago that was written around the fact they were black.

I saw them run when I was a teen, and that Willys more than any other car symbolizes drag racing to me. Funny cars and rails may be faster, but the Willys looks like a Drag Racer, IMO.

 

I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on drag racing history, but I had never heard that Stone and Woods were black. This is even after reading Hot Rod for half my life and a few books on drag history. It&#8217;s a damn shame since I was always so proud to point out that drag racing was very acceptable of women. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
But, there have been plenty of folks that didn't care about ethnicity on the track. Some one mentioned the Bean Bandits, they were a pretty big club and successful. A local example i know of is two teams that pitted next to each other and were friends, one was called "Dirty White Boy" and the other was called "Snuff Box." &#8220;Snuff Box&#8221; was a black family that campaigned a few cars. From what I heard, they would be working on the cars and every now and then someone walking past would just stop in their steps and be plastered with a really surprised look. Next they would either laugh and walk on smiling or look pissed. Either way, the teams kept turning wrenches to make the next round. <o></o>

 

THANKS for my new screensaver/wallpaper, or whatever you call it. Great pic