Great Oregon Racers

The Brewer and Maki Anglia ran A/G, Ken Maki either owned or managed "Scotty's Drive In", at that time, and owned the AA/FD that Ed McCulloch and Dave Hawkins drove. I have movies of the Anglia when it was green with orange windows, it was a hard runner!

 

I'm a little color blind Marty, so what I remember as yellow may have been some light yellowish green color! I saw it run at Woodburn with great wheels up launches!

 

Back to Portland Speedway, 1st photo is the "one and only" Hershel McGriff, I have never seen a "Hardtop" with hubcaps, let alone 50 Olds standards. 2nd shot W6 is Dan Graves out of Washington, along with the #1L of Bobby Etchison, out of the Eugene area. I met Bobby and his son Kevin at Cottage Grove over 20 years ago, Kevin was racing 360 Sprint Cars at that time, he along with Bobby, are/were some of the best oval track drivers in our state. Photo #3 is Dick Pace, shown here after winning a 200 lap race in 1956. Photo #4 is a shot of the pits, note the "Stock Cars" in the background and the white circles on the ground, they are the receptacles for the speakers, for the drive in movie theater.

 

Photo #1 (P2) belonged to Bob White and Harvey Zagit, driven by Donnie Nelson, it was a rare one, as it was powered by a Chevy V/8. I used to work with Bob White, he went on to build and race some "fast" Supermodifieds, with drivers including Donnie Nelson, Palmer Crowell, and I believe his last driver was Mac McTaggart out of Washington. Donnie and Palmer came out of "race retirement" to play with us on the vintage race circuit. 2nd photo shows #27 Ernie Koch in Rolla Vollstedt's car, #8 is Dick Pace, and Ed Starks in the lead car. 3rd shot looks like a "Trophy Dash" with Don Guth up front and Cecil Hunt in the yellow #7. And another infield shot to round it out.

 

Anyone recall a Dolan, who raced a Willy's in the 60's and early 70's? It was a friend of mines Dad, and she'd love to see pics.

 

Jerry Ruth

 

Looking for information on this Oregon dragster. Dubbed "the street sweeper". Says "butler machine shop" and grants pass on the sides.

 

...and sorry again for the sideways pics.

 

The car is at the Silverton high school.

 

I also remember if there were other cars in their class, the Von Homeyers would pull the front sheetmetal off the willys and run altered class.

 

I attended the "Vancouver Bolt" swap meet on Saturday, I stopped at Gordy Rivenberg's stall, to visit and thank him for supplying many of the Portland Speedway "Hardtop" pics I have been posting lately. Gordy surprised me with this batch of color shots that he took in 1960, at "White City Dragstrip",near Medford. # 1 and 2, are of J.L. Skeans A/MR, J.L.'s son Dave did the driving (they won the "Nationals" that year) I believe. This is the first chassis they ran, known as the "Slagmaster". Also note the Pontiac push car they used. #3 is fellow Slo-Pok member and chassis builder Jim Wasson's Fiat.#4 certainly looks like Jack Coonrod's 27 tub, but the Oregon license plates cancel that theory. #5 is interesting, as it is the same 30-31 roadster in an earlier post, that was on the scales, and the guy standing next to it, looked like "Toad" in American Graffiti. My buddy Bobby Mead, (one of the sharpest historians) I know, took one look, and said it was Brewer from the "Chariots" of Portland. Hot Rod, did a feature on the car in the early 60's, injected Olds powered. #6 is Chuck Blanchard of Beaverton, Chuck was in the upholstery business, custom and commercial. Chuck taught my old friend, and and long time "trimmer" Jim Enger the ropes! BTW this is my 1000th post.

 

Mystery solved, it is Lloyd Hamilton, A/D.

 

This is the one from the "Chariots".

 

My brother (wearing sunglasses) was in the Wheelers and Strip Saints thought(a 72 yr. old memory) it was a California car. Where were the Chariots based out of?

 

Ruth is from Washington.

 

The "Chariots" are a Portland club, did you notice the Oregon license plate? They must have "flat towed" it with a tow bar, the license plate made it legal to do so.

 

Bill had that T-bolt at the Madras dragway [Madras airport allowed drags on the strip on Sundays] in '65 and I watched that car snap the left rear wheel studs on launch! Kept it under control and didn't crash it.

 

I was at Madras when Bill debuted the T-Bolt in early 64, he said "I will race any car with fenders"!

 

More from "White City" 1960, #1 "Custom Auto Glass", no info on this one. #2 is possibly Ed Smith's Henry J. Hopefully someone will identify some of the other shots.

 

And the rest.

 

What memories,,,,, I was only 12 when the White City strip was in it's hey day,,, but I can still smell the burning rubber !!! thanks for the pics,,, they are priceless to me !

 

Thanks for posting.

 

Great pics as always Marty! Had to look up White City, as I've never been to the track there. Nice to see there's still a strip in use there.

 

I got a call this morning from my old friend Pat Mcphail, he told me that Al Reamer had passed away, in an earlier post I talked about Al, and that he was one of the "Track Roadster" pioneers in the Portland area. Al was a flathead specialist, and knew plenty about oval race cars, the roadster he campaigned in 1947 was a thing of beauty and had lots of horsepower. I met Al at the Old Timers Picnic in '96, along with his driver in the early years, Don Moore. Al was always friendly, and had a "dry" sense of humor, he was a fun guy. On Wed nights, at the "Beaches" cruise at PIR, you could always spot him in his lawn chair, sitting next to his wife Joanie, and heckling us guys as we drove past him on the way in, we will miss him, he was 85. These are a couple pics of his #57, with Don at the wheel, and Al along side, and a clipping out of the paper. R.I.P. old friend.

 

I too had the good fortune of spending time with Al Reamer. He was quite a character and really enjoyed telling stories of the early days of NW racing. I had hoped to get together with he and Joanie to record the stories and history of early roadster racing but his sickness was too much.

To all who are reading this take the time and seek out the "old timers" no matter where they are. Buy them a cup of coffee and listen to all that they have to say. Our history is slipping away a legend at a time.

R.I.P. Al Reamer

 

The "Custom Auto Glass" car was known as the "Shoehorn" and was from east of Reno (Fernley?) by a pair of brothers, and at one time also ran a flathead.

 

Jalopy, Thanks for the good info, it was a well constructed car for that time.

 

Yesterday,I got a call from Paul Smith in Eugene, in an earlier post I had mentioned that a magazine, "Traditional Rod and Kulture", did a photo shoot on Lowell Wells Hemi powered 34 coupe. The coupe was a regular at northwest dragsrtips in the 60's, Paul owns it now and is pleased with the 6 page article, in the current issue. Just a heads up for those of you interested in Oregon history!

 

I didn't realize he had that! I spoke with Paul a few times about some Willys stuff, although I've never met him. A friend of mine is friends with him and says I need to make it down there to check out his stuff some time.

 

Some more cars from White City,from the Wheelers Car Club, Zombies 1 and 3, the Alley Oop "A" sedan with Studebaker power, and the "T" for Two with a flatmotor, , , ,