Just curious (Phx. hist.)

I looked and can't find the other picture. Also, as John mentioned earlier, if the address is 915 N Central, it was also Stallings Imported Cars at one point.

 

LOL!! I lived in Phoenix in '80-'82 and still remember visiting Loper's to see their funny car in the showroom. Tripp Shumake was driving for them then and I just wanted to see the car, yet the employees eyeballed me as if I was gonna steal it. I hoped that since I was driving my '30 A pickup, I might meet some of them and strike up a converstaion about cars, or whatever. Instead, they glared at me until I left, not once uttering a word and the place was empty. Wonder why? The Super Shops on Camelback wasn't much better, I stopped in for parts for the C4 trans in my pickup and was asked what year it was, I replied it was a '68 C4, yet the "Counter God" persisted, "Well...EXACTLY what kind of car is it in? I need to know".
I thought about it and replied, "It's in a 1930 Model A pickup, does that help?"
The guys at the Service Center Speed Shop on Central Ave were very freindly, and I ended up buying anything I could afford there. BTW, anyone here remember Don Marks and "Mar Fab"? He was agreat guy as well and I always wondered what happened to him.

 

Chip, is your lee lebhart the same as jim gebhart that I was asking about earlier in this thread? Jim lives over on 12th st and northern.

 

Remember Don Marks!? Hell i try to forget him!!!! He is very much alive and very well and still building here in Phoenix. My girlfriend once asked me "who is that guy that looks like a pissed off santa claus in our yard". "That would be Don Marks, dear".

 

No gassersteve, Lee spent the last forty years of his life living at aprox. 64th st. & Shea. He passed away in about 2005, and I regretfully hadn't talked to him in a few years at that point. It's kinda sad when you know that a friend is gone cause you start seeing some of his prized possesions show up at swap meets. Lee was one of those people that know one seemed to know until they saw him, then it was"ya- you ran with such and such".

 

Thanks a bunch....I just sent the author of the story a note.....

 

Thats Clint Brawner, the Dean Van Lines Indy roadster and champ cars. Clint's shop was at 7th st. and Glendale. Tom Brawner still carries the Torch.

 

Lets see........There used to be a dirt oval track at South Mountain Park. Right there at the first right hand turn as you came off of the street proper. It was on the south side of the road. My Dad raced there and I remember a guy named Orville Miggs being killed there in a race.

Rudy Evertt, a dirt contractor, bought a cotton field at 35th Ave and Broadway back in the late 40's and eventually turned it into Manzinita Speedway. I remember watching Roger McClusky, Jim Bryan, Art Bish, Bill Cheesburg, and Bobby Ball run there.

I remember Phoenix Auto Wrecking at 7th street just north of Buckeye Rd on the east side. Circa 1967, they had a Dodge 413 crossram engine sitting behind the parts counter for sale.....I really thought it looked cool as hell, but couldnt afford the $700.00 they were asking.

I used to rent the house just to the north of Clint Brawner's shop. I visited him a couple of times....He was Mario Andretti's mechanic in 1969. When Mario crashed the Lotus in practice, they dusted off the Brawner Hawk MK3 as the back up car. It won the race by a 2 lap lead.

Oh , yea...16th street and Southern, on the north/west corner was a Blakley gas station. My Mom still has a wooden tray, pitcher and 3 glasses from there.

 

I first met Don through a good freind, Ralph Clark. Don had a primered '27 T roadster pickup with ( I think) an aluminum Buick 215ci V8, and Halibrands. According to Ralph and Don, the Halibrands were obtained by purchasing a Maverick drag car just for the wheels. Oddly enough, they were the exact same style and size wheels that are on that red Maverick drag car with the "Loper's" sponsor lettering on the front fender elsewhere in this thread. I wonder if it's the same car. Don also had a bitchin' deuce highboy in his shop that he'd owned for years, but it was apart when I met him. If I remember right, he sold Mar-Fab to Dana something-or-other, who was involved somehow with Mar-Fab's line of billet aluminum chassis clamps and water necks. Dana and his wife Linda had a neat T roadster and used to hang out at Arby's on central with the rest of us, Ralph (full fendered '27 roadster), me( A pickup), Gary Rensom ( '23 T C-cab), Tim (I forget his last name, but he had a neat '30 A coupe with '29 fenders and a chassis built by Carl Dubow). I really loved the people and cars in Phoenix, but in the end just couldn't take the city itself. If anyone knows any of the people I listed, make sure to tell them "Hi" for me, if they remember me, that is. 1980 was a long time ago...

 

Don is doing well and I see him at the 2nd Saturday meet at SoCal Arizona often. Had him do some machine work for me and toured his shop a couple of years ago. Some very neat stuff hangin' on the walls and you have to be careful where you step. It's a rodders shop! He still drives his Hemi powered duece roadster and is building an A.
Mike

 

Zookeeper: Have known Don Marks since North High days '60-61. Ralph since about '82, his T was wrecked in 84? and I bought the remains and built a fenderless SBC powered car out of it. Can't think of Tim's last name either but remember the car well.

 

Hey Zookeeper, whats your name? You hit my wheelhouse man. I knew (know) Ralph Clark, worked very briefly for Don in the early eighties, have the remnants of Tims coupe in my back yard as we speak(long story). I was the teenage blonde kid that kinda hung with that group a bit. That was at a point in my life where I had just moved out of my parents, and found that I suddenly couldn't afford early Ford stuff,so I was wheeling around a neat little cal look bug instead of my old '39 deluxe. Central was a hell of a lot of fun in those days! Heck when I bought my house about eight years later , I bought about ten doors off central six blocks away. I'm still there today! Oh, a little after those days I helped out at rod factory when my friend ElPollacko (Tim's cousin) worked there.

 

I should type faster! John, I didn't know your car was Ralph's old body! I always tried to remember to ask him what happened to it!

 

Tim Dombrowski, Chip, the coupe you got from Tim was his extra and not the car in question. Tim got in a divorce and sold the car to Rick Hammrick (the Judge with the 37 Chevy) Ric repainted it and sold it without the title, which my dad still has. That was the first car Carl ever did with a Pinto front end. Even had the cable steering shaft thingie.

My recollection of the history starts a bit later but because of my father, I have been around this stuff for a while.

Carl and the Rod Factory are still around but in a limited capacity.

Anyone recall Tom Lance out in Mesa, He had a paint shop on Country Club and Main. He painted my fathers 1938 Chevy Coupe with the 302 GMC originally built by Amos Webster.

 

I've got more info about AMT. It seems they had two locations, the Washington address being the latter of the two. From what I hear the original shop seems to have been near Sky Harbor and was where the Piranha Dragster was built, which, by the way, is also to be rumored to be hiding somewhere in the valley.

 

The Pirahna?! No way(!), that would be too cool to find out if that's true!

Just stopped by Don's shop this morning....he always has some cool stuff going on. He's got this flatty powered trike that should be on the road soon, Q.C. rear, 2 inch long torq-tube, only Don could make something like this seem completely legit.

 

I didn't know your car was Ralphs old body either. The wreck was May 14, 1983. I know the date well. It was my 21st birthday and I was riding shotgun with him. What ever happend to Tim?

 

Last time I talked to Ralph, he didn't paint a happy picture of Tim. He said Tim had some drinking problems, etc. Too bad, Tim was one of the nicest guys I ever met. In fact I actually lived with Ralph and Tim in north Scotsdale. Ralph actually traveled to my home in NorCal in his roadster and me in my pickup around '81 or so. It was a great trip and we even went to a run in Grants Pass. Somewhere I have some great pics of Ralph and his car. I haven't spoken to Ralph in several years, but still consider him to be one of my best freinds, in fact I'm gonna call him this weekend. BTW Need louvers, remember Sharon, she had a dropped orange Ghia and was a real character, plus easy to be around. Man those were the days...

 

You didn't room with Ralph in the old adobe ranch house off Lincoln in Scottsdale? I didn't think that place had room for too many. And hell yes I remember Sharon! She was part of my "other car family", THE GANG VW's! Saw her not to long ago, wasn't a pretty picture. I remember following that ghia down on southside one night, hanging out with lowrider buddies having too much fun, long story short, we proved that ghias and bugs could indeed navagate sidewalks at considerable speeds!!! Maybe there was a legit reason my leagal standing with driving sucked for about the first ten years!!! You might remember my other putt putt from the lacking hot rod era, my '62 Falcon futura dropped hard on moon caps, white over red. Or then again maybe not!

 

BTW, I forgot to tell you my name, it's Jim Elliott, and yes, we lived in the one-room adobe "house". Ralph called it "hot rod city". If you see Sharon again, make sure you tell her I said hello, she's good people indeed. I also remember the bug bunch she hung with during the Mesa/Central days, they were very good guys as well. While I don't remember your Falcon offhand, post up a pic to jog my memory. There were so many cars and so mant really good people there in those days, I can barely remember names and faces. Like Tim Dombrowski, although we didn't part on the best of terms, I knew him the whole time I lived in Phoenix, yet I couldn't remember his name. What's up with that? Thanks for bringing this up and letting me hijack your thread. One more thing, when I was there I got the hood to my A (see my albums in my "about me" page) louvered by a guy in south Phoenix and I think his name was Otis something-or-other. He was a great guy and didn't charge me hardly anything ($.50 a louver) and they are the best louvers I've ever seen. Know him? Thanks again...

 

Ya Amos Webster. 16th st. & rosure.

 

Jeeeez, you guys know everyone from the old days! Yep, that was him, but I think his name was actually Amies, now that I think of it. He's a very, very nice guy and one hell of a louver guy. His shop may not have exactly been Boyd Coddington's, but he was as honest as the day is long and treated me well. If anyone knows any of the people I've rambled about, please tell them I remember them well, and think very highly of all of them. The entire time I was in Phoenix, I don't think I ever was treated badly or talked down to by established rodders. That's important to a broke 19 year old and not only is it something I remember, but something I try to repay by treating young rodders like the equals they are now that I'm an old fart of 47.

 

I'm 49 but have lived in the Phoenix area since 1962. I had a brother 12 years my senior who I worshipped. He was a major gear head. In the '72-'73 timeframe he had one of the quickest car on Central. More than one person has told me of that car doing wheelstands with it on Central. He was a major street racer and got in trouble a lot with the law.
Back to '72-'73. He had an Orange '69 GTO Judge. It had a one piece fibereglass tilt front end on it that was flat black so it wasn't all the pretty but, it was quick. Had a 428 with roller cam, TH400 with 3,500 stall conv and 4.88 12 bolt in the rear.
One time I got him to take me to Central one weekend night. He dusted a '70 Mach 1 and yelled at him "eat it Ford!". Probably not a big deal today but as the 12 year old, I was very impressionable. He was my hero.

As a kid, I lived off of 48th st between Thomas and Mc Dowell.
I remember riding my bike down to McDowell and seeing many drag cars headed to Beeline for the Winters each Jan. I know I attended at least 1973 and took 4 rolls of 8mm silent film from there. I also remember the roller starters at Beeline too.
I remember Beeline that people were running across the strip on the top end and the announcer having to call out " we can't run the race if you keep crossing the strip. I even remember a woman with a stroller crossing the track during the national event. A lot of people sat on the concrete wall on the pit side and held on the the rail. Very dangerous by todays standards. Beeline was not known for its safety but, at the time, who cared?
One year, around '73-'74 I decided to walk all the way down to the shut down area with my 126 camera. I had seen 'Funny Car Summer' with Jim Dunn att he movie theatre at Tower Plaza and remember the cool footage of seeing the fast cars coming at you in the shut down area with chutes open, etc. It was another very impressionable experience hearing the nitro cars coming at you a half mile or so away.
Young and quite dumb, I didn't realize how damgerous it was. I remember one Fueler losing its weight on the front axle. It flew by quite close. It could have killed me but, I was 12-14 years old and thought it was cool. I also remember Don Garlet making a pass and getting out of his car well before his crew goth there. I was a short distance away, He pulled his helmet and then picked up his fuel tank! Iwas loose in his chassis for some reason. I am pretty sure I have a picture of that too.

About Rundles- I see there were a few replies as to where it was. I pretty well remember it was on the northeast corner of Price and Apache in Tempe. I think they moved to Payson and started specializing in truck and off road stuff.
I also say a post about Lopers and their employees being snobish. I agree, at least they used to be. In the last 10 years or so, Lopers has seemed to turn face and they have become quite nice and accomodating. This classic speed shop should be supported as it may not be around forevcer. I think Neil is themanager at the Mesa store, very nice guy and good to deal with. Same for Steve at the Phoenix store. If you have not dealt with them in awhile, you may wish to give them a try.'

'Now back to area Dragstrips. I do not think anyone has mentioned PIR. They had a drag strip in the mid sixties. My understanding is someone was killed there and that halted the tracks operation.
I know several have died at Beeline and probably at Speedworld too.

Can anyone remember any fatalities at Phoenix area tracks?
I also have a prized photo of me that my dad took. Iwas was of a Pontiac powered dragster near the top end of the pics. I was 10 years old.

I do rmemeber Lopers Maverick ( shown earlier) lost it and was destroyed because of dust on the track. I do not thing the driver was injured.

Gas Rhonda had a terrible fire in his Mustang Funny at Beeline in '70 that ended his carreer.
There was a Top Fuel driver who was kiied at Beeline in '71. Can't remember his name at this time. Others here probably do.

Steve

Hosting- 8th annual Nostalgic Show & Go! March 27-28 Phoenix/

Make plans to attend.

 

We are very luckey to still have Speedworld Dragstrip.. It is the best vintage track around and they were cool enough to let me do a vintage fire burnout last April in my 'AA/Fuel Dragster. Good stuff. It would have never happend at SIR or Firebird.

Steve
Hosting- 8th annual Nostalgic Show & Go! March 27-28 Phoenix/

 

Thanks for all the info applekrate and If you or anyone else have any pictures, They would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

Is this where the Ala Kart once sat?



Jack Shira Tire Co., 3440 E Van Buren, Phoenix
Now Apache Awning Co.

 

When did you see Sharon?!
Funny, she sure as hell didn't care for me, later we became decent friends.


Phugg....I feel old tonight.

 

I can't believe what little history there is on our oldest operating track here in the valley. As far as I can tell it first opened as Mel Larsons Arizona Raceway on February 22 1963. It also hosted the AHRA Winter Championships the same year. Other names it went by are Phoenix Dragway?, Phoenix Raceway Park and then Speedworld Dragstrip.

These are the few older pictures from the Speedworld website.

The track being built.



Some early action.


John Boat.


Banger power.

 

A few more.

Green Monster.


Jimmy powered T, Speed & Custom magazine, December 1963.

 

LSR: A tidbit for you, the body on the John Boat car is the one that now graces my T. It was several colors with the last white,it was replaced with a glass 23-25 body.