I shutter to think about how much time I've spent in my life looking at old images from the Dry Lakes of Southern California. Guys like Dean Batchelor provided the captions for me and elaborated on the dusty environments of where they were taken - Ro... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Cuddeback dry lake I had never heard of before. Driving Highway 6 to Bonneville this year I was amazed at how many dry lakes there were in the desert, though probably not hard enough to race on. On the way back to Ventura we drove thru Mojave pass Edwards AFB and Rosamond I thought about all the early racing that went on there. Cal-Neva timing raced up near Reno on local dry lakes. Andy Green broke the Land Speed record at Black Rock Desert in NV. I think SCTA ran a meet at Laguna Salada, which is near Mexcali. btw Love the choice of lead photo :edit: does anyone know what the dry lake next to Red Rock Canyon is called?
I guess he was thinking of you JB The amount of dry lakes as compared to out here is amazing - no wonder there were so many cars competing - then and now Thanks Ryan for bringing us those thoughts. re the mexican SCTA venture - check out the Sadd, Bently and Teague roadster feature in TRJ for some insight into that event.
Muroc - some of the guys would drive their ride to the lake bed, either the night before or early in the morning, race it and drive it back home. Trailers, trailers....? We don't need no stinkin' trailers....!
If you do a quick search of the So. Cal area on Google Earth you will be surprised on the number of dry lakes. I raced District 37 desert races from 1970 through 1980 and have raced across Harper, Cuttyback, El Mirage, Soggy and quite a few others. Some of the dry lakes over by the 29 Palms Marine base are full of shell holes from Marine artillery practice. They get your attention when you are going 90 mph in the dust and one jumps in front of you! Always wondered why only El Mirage was used for car racing. Rex
Didnt they open Muroc up again for a short stint to land speed racers back in the 80's or 90's then shut it down again for good?
I was wondering about that... Is it shudder or shutter? When I googled it, both examples showed. Hell, what do I know...
tell me about it ! been to all the lakes out here cuddeback is awesome for photos , but as you said way too soft and beat up . Love the dry lakes theme Ryan !
couple pictures of Rosamond The Mexico thing lasted for one year, details are hazy.... but, if you look at TRJ with Sadd/Teague/Bentley's roadster it talks about it... Laguna Salada is its name I believe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_Salada_(Mexico)
I was just digging through some late sixties Rod &Custom issues the other day and came up with the articles about Laguna Salida. Sounds like it was a pretty big meet, i believe it was in '69. The surface was pretty loose, and there were problems with Mexico in general. If I can find some time today I will dig up and post the article.
RYAN, Life dont get no better than a day on the lake bed (or as of now, lake). Its hot, dusty, windy, sights and sounds of speed, and surrounded by great people and hot rod history!!! We are soo bummed our race this weekend is cancelled, hopefully May will come quick! You need to get to one at least once in your life.
I think it's pretty damned cool that El Mirage is still being used and has been for so many years! Here are some photos from when I stopped there on my way home in June, 2009: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=380599&highlight=malcolm+el+mirage&showall=1 Malcolm
We've rode dirt bikes in the SoCal deserts my whole life and there are ALOT of dry lake beds all over, most are pretty tore up and scary to ride on let alone fast. It would be interesting to do a tour of all the lake bed that were raced on?
SoCal has many wonderful places. El Mirage is hard to top. And it has some of the best views on this earth. This is one of the best views out there. [/IMG] Com'on May!!!!!!!!!
Nothing like driving your lakes roadster across it. That was the best day ever for me when i took my roadster there and raced on the back side with my friend chris and his roadster. Way cool . Billy
Remember when they used to call AL TEAGUE "SUPERMAN"??----Thats because he had the balls to stand on it over 200+ mph in a roadster!!!!--------Don
El Mirage!!!------Others were: Edwards--Muroc--Rosamond--China--Harper--Coyote--Lucerne--Searles--Koehn--Rogers--& Troy. Cuddleback was just South of Red Mtn. & East on hwy.395 ------Don
land of 10,000+lakes all with water... hurry up global warming . . of coarse none would be big and flat when empty .. although some of our lakes when frozen could work as a race venue... ,hard,slippery .. but white... holes in the race surface would mean something else entirely..
Ryan, thanks for the history lesson and particularly the map. The map is cool to look at and see the relationships of the lakes to LA.
This is the oldest program in my collection....I think it is anyway. I'd love to scan some of the pages but it is so brittle I'm afraid to handle it too much. Notables on the masthead are Tom O'Mara, Joe Hendon, Bill Hunt, Gus Maanum and Sandy Belond just to name a few. Says the time trials were to be broadcast on radio station KMYR beginning at 10am! Also some very cool early speed equipment ads and even one for Carson tops. .
A British film crew interviewed me and a couple of other HAMBers this summer at Elmo, this is what came of it.
I plan on being at GNRS. Even though its not the season for racing, I plan on visiting El Mirage. Any advice is appreciated. Slim
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