History Drag cars in motion.......picture thread.

I didn't know who the heck these guys were, but I had to buy this album when it came out, just because it had a hot car on the cover!

I think I still have it in a box somewhere.

 

Same day as the other photo.......

 

getting O/T, but Skip I know you like Crosleys...all 44 inches of 'em...

 

A little Crosley HA/GR would be sweet. Thanks

 

How'd you like to strap yourself into this thing?

 

Posted for Justin B...does anyone know this roadster and or owner that is named in the photo.

 

Two things I like about this photo from the collection of Tommy Ivo.
First, thats one weird dragster. Two blown Chryslers feeding power into two quick-change rear ends and that weird bodywork is supposedly a Messerschmitt body. Its almost hard to look at.
Second thing I like is the Fontana Raceway sign, the Pepsi-Cola logo and mostly the wood frame houses in the background. Thats the way I remember Foothill Blvd in the 60's Wide open space, huge trees planted as windbreaks, hundreds of acres of grape vines, lots of wind, a pretty unruly but beautiful part of SoCal. The drag strip was located just a few blocks away from where California Speedway is now. I believe it was at the NE corner of Foothill (Route 66) and Etiwanda. You wouldn't recognize it today...

 

"Pulsator" driven by Bob Muravez. Twin chevys.
Pomona, 1965
from the Ralph Poole Collection

 

The Bob Ford Mustang and a '58 Ford, Irwindale, '66

 

[Thats the way I remember Foothill Blvd in the 60's Wide open space, huge trees planted as windbreaks, hundreds of acres of grape vines, lots of wind, a pretty unruly but beautiful part of SoCal. The drag strip was located just a few blocks away from where California Speedway is now. I believe it was at the NE corner of Foothill (Route 66) and Etiwanda. You wouldn't recognize it today...
[/quote]

I beleive it was Foothill and Eastland. In the mid 70's I was dating a girl who lived up the street in the community known as Etiwanda. I used to pass by the track, which at the time was comprised of the whole track and the tower. The Tower BTW still had the Fontana logo. The twin engined roadster I believe belonged to Coburn and Glaze. Some how I also seem to recall Roger Wolford as being involved, but I am basing the statement on shear memory recollection alone, which as you know falters with age

 

Sweeeet. Looks like a cousin of Hugh Tuckers blown Highboy

 

This car later surfaced as the Pacini Bros. Based out of Nor Cal, the car remained basically intact with the exception of a new green hued paint scheme.

 

At the time, the car represented the zenith of what a Henry J could be. Powered by a blown 427 Ford Wedge, it ran high 9's; decent times for 1966. Its owners got drafted off to Vietnam and the car resurfaced a few years later and was raced by an African American gentleman whose name escapes me at the moment. He dubbed it Soul To The Bone, and painted it red metal flake. He put a tunnel rammed 428 Cobra Jet in it and raced B/Gas class and Bracket 1 mustering low 10's.

 

Don't mean to nitpick, but I just checked the maps and it is the NE corner of Foothill and Etiwanda Ave., just a few blocks northwest of where the California Speedway is today.
I also remember when it was a derelict, abandoned track. Very sad to drive by it in the early 80's. Some folks did get some use out of it by using what was left for their radio controlled cars and airplane models...

I beleive it was Foothill and Eastland. In the mid 70's I was dating a girl who lived up the street in the community known as Etiwanda. I used to pass by the track, which at the time was comprised of the whole track and the tower. The Tower BTW still had the Fontana logo. The twin engined roadster I believe belonged to Coburn and Glaze. Some how I also seem to recall Roger Wolford as being involved, but I am basing the statement on shear memory recollection alone, which as you know falters with age[/QUOTE]

 

I tip my hat to those willing to flog the Ardun motor. BTW, the Heidelberg Speed Shop roadster was orginally based out of San Bernardino California and ran fuel. There was no actual Heidelberg Shop, it was just a joke

 

Didnt the engine building firm of Bishop & Buehl later run the car with a SBC?

 

Gil Hayward was the owner and he was instrumental in organizing the So-Cal fuel altered movement in late 64. . He ran this car as late as 1968, albeit with the 327 you see here being replaced by a 392

 

Man, you know your stuff..keep filling in the details...

 

I beleive it was Foothill and Eastland. In the mid 70's I was dating a girl who lived up the street in the community known as Etiwanda. I used to pass by the track, which at the time was comprised of the whole track and the tower. The Tower BTW still had the Fontana logo. The twin engined roadster I believe belonged to Coburn and Glaze. Some how I also seem to recall Roger Wolford as being involved, but I am basing the statement on shear memory recollection alone, which as you know falters with age[/quote]

This is a great picture. I grew up in Fontana and went to the drags there many many times. It was the first place I saw a drag race. The location was the NE corner of Foothill & East Ave. You are correct about it being a unruly place. Fontana was a steel mill town & birth place of the Hells Angels. The towns nickname appropriately was "Felony Flats". In the tracks closing days we used to ride our dirtbikes through the vineyards to the track. There was a hole in the fence on the east side we would ride through the hole in the fence & across the track (between runs) and sit on the flood conrol levee and watch the races. The place closed for good in 70 or 71. Shortly after it closed guys started staging there own bootleg races on Sundays. After a few weeks of this it really caught on and soon there were a couple hundred people racing there with lots of trailered in bracket cars etc. etc. Real basic stuff flag starter and all. Luckily nobody got hurt as it was lots of half drunk teenagers driving fast cars fast. Really regret never having taken pictures of that. It got so big the local paper ran a story and that was the end of that. Next Sunday the police shut it down. Shortly after that they put dirt & rocks over the track. Here is is picture I found of the place probably taken late 70's

 

I would go there at much at I could (65-66) a lot of good times to remember.
I raced a 55 T-bird then , never did win in the class I was in but had a lot of fun.
The last time I was there I was going to run a friends bike after Les Richey(sp) and Haden Profit(sp) ran..
Richey lost a wheel and went to the guard cable and was decapataed.
Never went back.

Fred

 

AAACCKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What happened to all Mazoomas pics??????????????????
I'm crushed!!!!!!!!!!

 

Photobucket is OK until you move the photo they are hosting or go past the amount of photos per month that you can post.

 

Couple of shots sent to me of a couple of burnouts from the U.K.

 

Forgot to mention......serious burnouts.

 

Bob Sullivan's Pandemonium VI in 1969 Isky Catalog