History Redondo Beach Drifters Car Club

These photos appear to all be at the Paradise Mesa strip races run by the SDTA - San Diego Timing ***n. The '34 sedan the Drifters are racing is the Hylton Bros. from Bakersfield.

The Drifters often ran at the Santa Ana strip in the 1954 to 1955 period with the '35 coupe (23 jr). It ran in the Heavy Coupe Fuel cl*** turning speeds ranging from 113 to 120 mph. It was a strong running and nice looking coupe. My memory (however I have old timers disease) is that the car flipped and was severely damaged at Santa Ana.

Glen Stokey went on to racing and driving dragsters, including Howard's Twin Bear.
Rockerhead
www.montgomeryhotrodbooks.com

 

FYI ... The photos on the cover of the November 1954 issue of HOT ROD Magazine were also taken at the Paradise Mesa Drag Strip:

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Unfortunately, there are no more pics of the Drifters' 23Jr. '35 Coupe in this issue of HRM.

 

Very cool thread.
This is one of the reasons I love the HAMB so much.
Nostalgia is great aye..

Bring on more pics.

.

 

Thanks for posting the info about the cover. I called my sister to check out this site and see all the post. She said that she has another Hot Rod Magazine with the car on the cover by itself. She has it stored somewhere. I looked up HotRod Magazine and scan through all the covers for 1950, 1960, 1970 and didn't see it. Maybe it is just inside the magazine. Anyway, I will be bugging her to find that box. I am putting together all this information along with other things from his life in a photo book.
Thanks Tina

 

I just did a search on Paradise Mesa and found this picture of the Drifters Car posted by George Kl***. There is also a photo taken at Pomona but it is from the back so I am unsure if that is the car or not. Maybe one of you can help me out. Thanks Tina

There tons of really great photo's on the site.

Here is the link
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/01/awesome-nostalgia-drag-racing-nothing.html

 

So I googled George Kl*** after finding those photo's and came across this site where he wrote a great article called Back to the Future regarding Drag Race.
http://fastdoorslammers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3766

 

My father -in-law lived at 123 Catalina drive. Had a 63 Chevy tudor. Can't tell you how many guys tried to by that car. When he died it went to my brother-in-law in Texas.

 

Hello again everyone,
I have a few more photo's to post. Since I started this thread my mom has been searching for other photos and came across another one with some of the drifters. My dad Bill "Barney" Vornholt is the one on the bottom right in the Drifters Group Photo. I am also posting one of dad's 1940 Orange Ford. He just loved orange. The last photo is the car they were driven around after their wedding - Bill Vornholt and Inette Gordon. "Bones" was the driver and Myrna Nott is in the front p***inger seat. The car from the wedding was also one of the Drifters car and they had fixed it up for their wedding. Enjoy the photo's.
Tina - Daughter of one of the Drifters

 

Who was your father-in-law?

 

I was just talking with my friend Ethel who was in the wedding party and she said her dad had an old 28 Buick (?) that the Drifters drove through Hollywood after Bones was married. I wonder if this is the same car.

Bill

 

I can almost guarantee that this picture was taken at Mason Dixon speedway which is located near Boonsboro, Maryland. I have collected many photos from Mason Dixon and have a few that are exactly like this one.

 

Wayne Hadley

 

Love the 34 coupe!!

 

That's a great photo of the Coupe. Is this your photo or where did you find it? It looks like a newspaper photo, is there a story to go with it?
Thanks
Tina

 

Scanned it a while ago from an old magazine, sorry I don't remember which one.

 

Hi Tina,

I was in CA a couple of weeks ago and went by "Eat at Joes" on a Friday morning to meet up with some of the Drifters. There were 6 or 7 guys who showed up but none of them had made the trip to Oklahoma City with us in 1958. One of them had printed out the photo you first posted and they identified the members. Although you said your dad was in the front row with the sungl***es, they were not sure that's you dad and thought he was "Zip".

When I returned home, my computer took a dump and I lost all my E-mail messages and addresses. Can you PM me again with your address and phone number?

One of the guys there was Ron Gl*** who was the driver that wrecked their 37 Ford sedan. They said he still has the record at Santa Ana Drag Strip for the fastest time through the traps backwards.

Bill (Bullet Nose)

 

Tina,

I just looked at the list you posted and the following members were at Joes:

Albert Castillon
Ronnie Gl***
Bill Topping
Harold Topping
Lencho Gomez

Barry Hamilton and Socco Torres were also there but I think Barry was a member later on and I'm not sure about Socco.

Bill

 

Tina, the white coupe on the right photo is probably not the Drifter's car, looks like an early Studebaker racing the Grist Brothers Willys Ford powered A/g***er...

Thanks for starting this thread...I remember reading about the Drifters & the Millwinders years ago....but two weekends ago my oldest daughter found me a copy of the Hot Rod Magazine with the Drifters/Millwinders coups on it (noted in an earlier post), and I was explaining to her the compe***ion between them, and then here comes your post...coincidental but really cool.

 

I have another photo and would love if someone can identify the driver? I just got this in the mail from my sister but she doesn't know who it is. I am not sure what car he is in either.
Thanks
Tina

 

That could be my friends dad- Fred Arenz.

 

Pretty sure that a George Kl*** is on yellowbullet.com ( drag race site ) all the time

 

I was thinking about the Drifters this morning and wondered if you made it to Joe's.

 

Here are a few of the Drifters in their Navy days. These photo's are from a picnic at the US Naval Training Center in San Diego on Jan 14, 1951.

One is a photo of Chuey Hernandez, one of Artie Espinoza and one of my dad Bill Vornholt. I also included two group photo's.

 

I found more Drifters photo's. These are from what looks like a road trip, but no dates are on the photo's. They were all together bound like a photo book. I would love to know if anyone can identify who are in the photo's.

Enjoy,
Tina

 

Here are the remaining photo's of that trip of the Drifters. There were 14 photos is all but the last one was stuck to the 13th photo and it is really damaged.
Enjoy
Tina

 

Bill & Harold Topping - isn't that the same family that puts on the Long Beach Veteran's Stadium Auto Swap Meets? Might be worth looking into.

 

Tina (chattyts) ... the "Drifters Road Trip" photos are a great find! ... thanks for posting them here!

I was just thinking that thread has gotta be some kind of HAMB Newbie record ... it's your one & only thread ... and it already has over 2,000 views!

I sure hope you find some more Drifters photos ... I love these "Pictorial History" threads!

 

Thanks for the history lesson!

Any updates?

 

Hello Everyone,
Here are another four photo's of the Drifters that were sent to me by Bill Jungle. They were sent to him from RUHS Memories and here is the email that came with it. Thanks to Bill Jungle and Terrell "Rusk" Pinson. By the way my dad is the one holding a can of something, probably a beer, in the group shot. I just love all these old photo's.

Hope the guys with the old DRIFTERS car club will enjoy these photos from the past. I took them either at the Lions strip or Santa Ana. They had trouble with the motor and drove back to the shop and tore it down and found the problem. Lions was closed. Went like ----- to Santa Ana where they were nice enough to leave the lights up for just one run. Broke the record.

Terrell (Rusk) Pinson "57"

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