Great Oregon Racers

Here is a couple of shots of my Dad's first two car. First is a 55 Ford that my Dad partnered with another guy at Medford Speedway in the late 60's.

Second was is 57 Chevy that he raced at Jantzen Beach, Portland Speedway and Centralia/Chahalis Fairgrounds also in the 60s.

 

Thank you for posting, we need more "Stock Car" pics, there has to be plenty of them out there.

 

These are of another old friend of mine named Lloyd Hamilton, the first shot was taken by Bobby Mead at Madras in 68. Lloyd and his brother in law Paul Boehler, built the car in 1965. It ran A/D with a 327 on gas. Lloyd's friend Adrian Wright also crewed on the car in the later 60's, they raced it until 69. The other shot is Lloyd's current ride on the nostalgia circuit. That car was built by our friend and "master" dragster builder, the late Jerry Hill. It runs in the 6's at over 200. Lloyd took time between dragsters to campaign a "K" Boat with a Blown alcohol BBC, with Ron Eby tuning and George Nordling as pilot.

 

We have a new member here on the HAMB. He is Mel Bryson, he is from down around Eugene and happens to be a Great Oregon Racer. Mel raced A/GS Willys coupes and other classes, maybe he will have pictures and stories to tell. It is good to have you on here Mel!

 

This is George Churchill aka "Goofy George", one of the funniest and best men I ever knew. George was a logger and raced "Hardtops" at Hillsboro, St. Helens, Carlton, Dallas, Lebanon and Salem. He raced cars from 56 to 63, somewhere along the line he was a boat racer and hung around the shop of Salem's Harry Eyerly, who was a master with Crosley race engines. When I quit racing "Dwarf Cars" I sold my championship 34 Ford coupe to George for his son David to race, and they won their share. They were a fun bunch of guys from Tillamook, and had "Tillamook Cheese" as one of their sponsors. The helmet in the picture was George's, he gave it to me. He has been gone for over ten years now and I look at it almost every day, I sure do miss him!

 

Marty that other car is one of the rear drive BLUE CROWNS that Bob Christe brought out here and then sold it to Malcom "MINIE" Miller and "DUCK" Collins took the independent front suspension off as the car didn't work. Bob Gregg drove it most of the time. I don't know when he sold it or who to. Must have been some time in the early '50's as he bought Jimmy Champbells OFFIE sprint car t6hat I bought from him in 66 and Gregg drove it until 68 when he got the new upright offset that I built for Gregg & By Wandler and Palmer Crowell drove the old car. The old BLUE CROWN is now owned by Del McClure and is being restored by somebody in Indianapolis. I don't know where Del found the chassie but a lot of the parts like the double draglink steering we found at "DUCKS" place after he died.

 

Thanks Bob, it's about time you got on this thread to help us out with your knowledge of open wheel Oregon history. You know that my back-ground was primarily drag racing, until I started hanging around with you guys. I try to pickup pieces of history and relay them the best way I can. Now if we can pry some of those wonderful photos off of your shop wall and post them here it would be great. Talk to you soon!

 

Attn Gary Reynolds, here are the pics of Svela and Sons "Super Ford" taken in 1966. Note the engine bay shot with the Damaged fuel tank, leftover from the Dragster crash from the prior season.

 

"That car was built by our friend and "master" dragster builder, the late Jerry Hill."

This is a long thread and for the occasional visitor, difficult to read everything just due to the shear length of it. I' don't know how much has been mentioned about Jerry Hill within this thread but just wanted to comment. My brothers and I grew up with the Hill brothers so were often involved with them and or their cars. Jerry was a great guy and incredibly talented. He of course spent quite a bit of time in the driver's seat. When he moved into a new sub-division in Dundee in the 70's (at a time he still had and drove a rail) he would occasionally ask permission from neighbors if he could "test" his car in the sub-division. This meant more than just firing the car. It meant launches and blasts of a couple of blocks to test a set-up. Just incredible to think about that today. He is sorely missed as a fabricator and a friend of anyone who ever crossed paths with him.

- EM (Newberg)

 

I have not seen anything about Dick Bown or his son Chuck,, not to mention Hershel McGriff. I'm sure there are a few stories about these Great Racers.

 

I learned a lot of what I know from Jerry, my plan is to meet with his twin brother Larry and get some great photos of Jerry's racing career and do an expanded post on Jerry. It is going on 5 years since we lost him, I walk by his louver press and his old kick punch with the Dzus setter every day and think of him. He clearly touched a bunch of lives while here on earth!

 

Marty, you da man!! I've not looked for a couple days and there you go!
Many thanks!

 

I would like to connect with someone with "Stock Car" photos. A lot of history at Portland Speedway, Jantzen Beach and Salem Speedway to name a few. Hershel and his boys, Doug and Jr, Dick and his boys, Chuck and Jimmy along with Freddy Connet, Carl Joyner, Jack Knight, Butch Johnson,Jack McCoy,Larry Bell,Johnny Keiper,Jerry Draper, Les Swayze,Harold Hardisty, Ab Spain, Art Roth and Bud Hickey had some spirited battles back then. Those are names I just pulled out of my head, there are plenty more that need to be remembered. Post their names and what they raced if you would, even without pictures. We have over 32,000 views now, thanks for starting this thread Gary!

 

Some pics I took of the framed Pictures that Dick Martin has hanging in his office. I don't know how to post them bigger, just as an attachment. Sorry.

 

Thanks for posting the pics Don! That is first picture of the 36 coupe I have seen. Nick Wehling told me he started working for Dick in 58 or 59 and the coupe was still sitting in the corner of the shop with the carnage of the exploded Dyna-Flow trans, that took off Dick's lower leg. The "thumbnails" are all I can post as well, I guess you need, Facebook or Photobucket to post them big.

 

This is Frankie McGowan, he was an ace in Midgets and Track Roadsters, he was Oregon's first Track Roadster Champion in 1946. He won the title driving a 27 roadster pickup for George "Pop" Koch, who was only about 16 years old at the time, built the car, it had a Lincoln V12 for power. In early 47, George sold the car to Dick Compton, who owned a restaurant and Rolla Vollstedt worked for him. Frankie continued to drive and Rolla started working on the race car for Dick, and making improvements. Towards the end of the 47 season, Compton's wife was complaining about him owning a race car, and one Saturday nite he sold it to Rolla. The following day Rolla towed it to the speedway to race knowing Frankie would drive, got a surprise when he found out Frankie took over driving a car for a team that had just fired Len Sutton. Rolla hired Len on the spot, and the rest is history! I never got to meet Frankie, but I have a piece of his Handywork hanging on my wall. He cut down the 32 grille and insert for my pal Jack Greiner for his 27 Track Roadster that Frankie raced as well. It looks bad, but 60 plus years and a major fire will do that.

 

I am sure I posted this pic before, but this is the V12 powered roadster mentioned in the above post.

 

Were these pictures taken at Madras about 8-10 years ago?? I watched you run these cars one year. That was great entertainment!!

 

We took the red #7 and the yellow #5 up to Madras about 10 years ago, we ran 6 different cars at Banks, Lebanon,Cottage Grove and Elma Wa.over the next few years. It was a lot of fun, even if it was just "gentleman racing".

 

I have long admired those gorgeous T's you build Marty....ever since that Rodder's Journal piece a few moons ago...

 

Marty those T's are gorgeous. I love cars like that and even more i admire the skill and craftsmanship you put into them. Truly magnificent!

 

If you see a lot of Track Roadsters from the 40's and 50's in my posts, the men who raced them and built them are my friends, although we have lost many of them in the past 15 plus years, they have been my inspiration. Thanks for the kind words.

 

Thanks for the picture of my grandfather (Max Humm) I have his old photo album and trophies and such. I grew up listening to the stories of all these great racers.

 

Are you going to share them?

 

I will have to scan some of the photos a little later as they are all in a scrapbook I have been redoing for some time. I tried to upload one of him in a sprint he ran but it failed. I will try again.

 

Marty,,, I can remember "A1" Jack Mc Coy running in the jalopy races at the old Ashland, Ore track,,,,on a 4th of July meet (still have that fireworks display deep in my brain!) I was probably 8 or 9 then,,,,Thanks for the memories !

 

This body shell (Altered Swinger) has just recently traded hands, originally ran by Eugene, Oregon racer Stan Wilson in the late 60's into the early 70's before changing over to a blown early Chrysler in a T bodied altered. Sadly Wilson lost his life at Mission drag strip in 1977 in the T altered. Any information or photos of this early car in action would be appreciated. PM off line and will forward info to current owner Josh Higgins.

 

That is quite a find, maybe Rick Finch will spot this and have some info, he was close friends with Stan.

 

I was in Ashland in August 1957, I was almost 9 and walked all around that city, looking for old cars and found quite a few. There must have been a 1/4 Midget track around the area, as I spotted a beautiful blue one sitting out in front of a gas station, looked it over for a long time hoping the attendant would let me sit in it, to no avail. The racing / hot-rod bug bit me real early in life!

 

Marty, Ashland had quite a bit of "Jalopy" activity back in the 50's. Also re -read your post and saw Harold Hardesty's name,,,,can remember sitting in his Jalopy one time. He was a good friend of my Grandpa', (Floyd Sutton) and my step dad ( Jim Rose) ,,,both flathead fans. Again, Thanks for the good memories !