Sioux City Iowa dragstrip pics vintage 1970

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v222/gothemi/Sioux City Dragway June 1970/

when they raced at the airport ...

 

sweet link

 

nice pics....wish i could go back in time!

 

Hmm, dad should have been running there in his yello F-85? Unless there was a points meet somewhere..........

Thanks for the pics.

 

Some of those pics were taken as early as 1963 and probably at Minnesota Dragways. The green Willys 4-door gasser was Lutz and Lundberg's car and they had changed to a yellow Anglia by '64. The green '55 Chev C/Gasser was Al Tschida's car and he had moved to a green Willys coupe by '64. Both L&L and Tschida won their classes at the '64 Indy Nationals.

The green '34 coupe altered named "Superstition" was Doc Halliday's. By 1970 he was driving Top Fuel and maybe Funny cars.

 

Yeah, Chad had posted some of those previously I believe?

Wasnt the airport drags over by 70?

 

The rear window of my '29 PU.

 

....and on the side window of my Galaxie...

Thanks for the pics, Big Dad.

Malcolm

 

I'd like to find some pictures of the Pizza Man.A stovebolt 53 vette that was around Sioux City back in the day.Pretty fast,O Hove has recollection of it but I've found no photos to date.Thanks for the link.

 

There was a post of it here a ways back. It either IS being restored or they already restored it, I forget.

 

Big Dad, You rule!! Lots of us went to that track at that time. Very good races, thanx !!-Sololobo

 

After the vette there was a "Pizza Man" AMC Gremlin that ran at Thunder Valley.

 

I went to Sioux City Dragway in the late summer of 71 to see a match race between Sox & Martin and Grumpy Jenkins.

I was 8 and my parents made my 17 year old brother take me with his buddys. The sad part is..............it got rained out!

What memories that would have been! Oh well! I got a free vocabulary lesson from the older guys so it wasn't a total loss.

 

I typed a long response
but .. The pics are Sioux City june 1970 ..You can see that in scan
of pics on borders


No, Trent .. Fergen did not post these .. , They came from Jay(Justin) Lewis

 

Sam Britt ( worked at napa in canton) Earls son
The Vette is still bouncing around ..But the Gremlin is gone
if memory serves ...Last number I heard (late 90's ) on the Vette
high 60's ..so , by now .. Jesus only knows ?

 

Cool pictures! Not any that I have posted but....We/you should prob put mine with yours. The more the marrier. I would send you the link but im on vacation in NC. I think there is a few Pizza Man pics on my site? If not I know I have a few. Later

 

Not during this era, a little later, but do you guys know if the "Prime Secret" 39 Chev sedan and Rocky Fey's (sp) Anglia are still around? I thought these guys were from Sioux City or Lemars area.

 

Rocky happens to be a good friend of my Uncle's. Unfortunately, his Anglia is long gone (to Hawaii!), but he is building a killer A sedan with a blown SBC now. That guy is one hell of a builder/fabricator.

Malcolm

 

Highlight of my upbringing was going to the Labor Day Rod Run in Sioux Falls every year. These guys were always tearing it up late at night on the fairgrounds. Glad to hear Rocky is still at it.
Eric

 

Cool! I grew up in Lawton and my dad used to took us the Air Base Drags (I would have been 10 when these pics were snapped) until it closed, I think 72 or so. In high school we used to go to Thunder Valley in Marion.

Here are some more great pics of Sioux City Air Base drags from the early 60s, by Paul Hutchins

http://groups.msn.com/PhotosbyHutch/siouxcityotheroldies.msnw

 

Rod Reisdorph from Sioux City built and owned Prime Secret. In the mid to late 80s it burnt down due to a short in the wiring. He then took the body and built a nostalgia modified stock car. I don't think he owns it anymore.

An interesting story about Prime Secret. Rod built another chevy sedan drag car in the early 80s with a blown chevy motor and he took it to an early Goodguys meet in Sacramento, Calif.
The kicker is he towed it round trip from Iowa with Prime Secret pulling the car trailer! And it had a 6-71 blown, smallblock for power. And, he took the wife and his two young kids. Talk about family vacation!

 

Very cool. Thanks for posting the extra pics! I love hearing about local drag racing history and seeing the pics that go with it.

Malcolm

 

Dad and I looked at these yesterday. He was born in Sioux City and grew up in Brookings. He raced against and knew many of the folks in those pictures.......he wasnt much on taking pics back then so until this fad called the Interwebthingie came about all we had were stories. Now, thanks to the web, we can go see some of what happened then.

I wonder if anyone has pics of Minnesota Dragways back then. Dads first time there they had so many cars in the stock classes that they ran eliminations 4 abreast!

 

Back around 1966, (I would have been about 22 then) I drove up to the drags at the Sioux City airport with a couple friends and a group of "real" racers from Lincoln, NE called the "GM Team" - several of whom were also pals.

My ride at the time was my first car - the '50 Chevy fastback you see in the attached avitar. It wasn't a racer by any means (stone stock, really), but one of the guys noticed nobody was entered in its class ("O" stock) so we decided to run it just for a hoot.

Well, with no competiton, I won the class (I think my time was around 19 seconds - maybe more - LOL). I had already wiped the shoe polish number off my windshield, and tossed the two-bit trophy in the trunk, when I hear my name being called over the PA - for the stock eliminator runoffs.

This, of course, was a set-up by my pals, but since I hadn't switched my smaller diameter front tires back where they belonged yet (putting the big rear tires on the front and the smaller front wheels on the back -to effectively lower the gear ratio, and provide extra "roll out" at the starting beam - was the big "speed secret" for my little '50. Again, done just as a joke), I hopped in an pulled up to the staging area.

Anyway, they motioned me up for the first pairing, and who pulls up beside me but Don Stevensen (out of Omaha) with his national record-holding '57 Chevy!
Of course, all my "pals" are gathered on the starting line - laughing themselves sick.

I can't remember how much of a handicap they gave me, but I do recall just pulling my six-banger into second gear when I heard what sounded like an explosion going off behind me, as the Tension car blasted off the line. And, as I
shoved it into high, it roared by like a white streak and got smaller and smaller REAL quickly, as it crossed the finish line.

I think they were actually back in the pits by the time I broke the finish line
beams. (-:

Well, not a world-class story, but maybe something that will give you young guys an idea what it was like when the idea was just to have fun. We stopped along the way home and had burgers and beer with the Tension crew - laughed some more, bench-raced and bullshitted for a while - then headed home to drop off the GM Team's collection of flat-towed race cars, and headed out to catch the Sunday nite jalopy races in Lincoln.

Oh to be young again. (-:

 

Very cool story! I thought I had a pic of it. Its not great but...

 

Haha... great story, Stan!!
Thanks so much for taking the time to share it with us.

Malcolm

 

I WAS THE TRACK PHOTOG AT THUNDER VALLEY FROM '78-'90,
AND HAVE FOLLOWED THE LOCAL SCENE WITH MY CAMERA FOR MANY YEARS.

HERE ARE A COUPLE PHOTOS OF THE PRIME SECRET CHEVY

THE ONE WITH THE LARGE LETTERING WAS FROM A CAR SHOW IN SOO CITY FROM 1982

THE ONE WHERE HE IS POLISHING THE CAR IS FROM THE STREET ROD NATIONALS IN ST PAUL IN 1977, IF MEMORY SERVES ME RIGHT.

THE OTHER SHOTS ARE JUST FUN ONES I FOUND IN THE SEARCH FOR THE PRIME SECRET CAR...

ANYBODY LOOKING FOR ANYTHING FROM THUNDER VALLEY IN THAT TIME FRAME? OR FROM ANY OF THE NATIONAL EVENTS AT BRAINERD?

RE: THE PIZZA MAN CARS. I WORKED WITH SAM BRITT AT A CAR DEALERSHIP BCK IN THE EARLY 80'S. DAD EARL WAS STILL RUNNING THE PIZZA PLACE...BUT DIDNT RACE.

I FOUND THE PIZZA MAN GREMLIN IN A SHED IN CANTON, SD BACK AROUND THEN, AND TRIED TO BUY IT, BUT THE GUY SAID HE WAS GOING TO PUT IT ON THE STREET. MY BUDDY AND I GOT SOME TIME SLIPS AND DECALS FROM THE GLOVE BOX THAT DAY, JUST HAVE TO FIND THEM IN THE VAST AMOUNT OF RACING CRAP I'VE ACCUMULATED OVER THE YEARS...

ENJOY...

 

MCINK, do you recall Bruce Bommersbach from Hankinson, ND. Ran a couple rails in the 70's at Thunder Valley. Got any pictures of him?

 

MCINK, Fantastic photos, thanks for diggin them up. You'll be a great contributor to the HAMB.

Your next challenge should you choose to accept it... A family friend had a brother from near Rapid City that ran a 34 five window highboy coupe gasser style brownish in color with an injected small block chev, last name was Lee... I saw the car run once, not sure if he ran real regular or not.

 

man, growing up out here the name Lee and a coupe like that has never passed by my ears.