Great Oregon Racers

From Don Montgomery's "supercharged Gas Coupes" book, a MUST have.
Note the old Woodburn tower.

 

Haven't received my copy yet, but just got Don Montgomery's book free from Amazon! Can't beat that price for a great hard bound new book!

 

I heard on the news that Oregon auto dealer Ron Tonkin died on Sunday. He was one of the reputable car dealer around here, and sponsored some memorable drag cars. Richard Schroeder, Robin Whitcomb and others. I always heard about him and his brother Marv, a (Lincoln and Mercury dealer) started racing at Scapoose with a 56 Merc. RIP Mr. Tonkin.

 

Heard more than once the movie "Used Cars" was loosely based on the relationship between Marv and Ron. May have to watch it again to try to pick up on it.

 

Interesting; may have to watch that one also! I've heard so many stories about how Ron and Marv started out with their father dividing up his dealership and monies after he passed. If I remember correctly, the old Chevy dealership on Barbur Blvd. was their father's before Ron got it.
Marv pretty much disappeared form this area after his son died in the parasailing accident.

 

Well, the movie isn't exactly a documentary about the Tonkin boys but good for a giggle. Heard more than one story about the two. Dad was a zone rep for Chevrolet here in Portland

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Is everbody in Oregon alseep?
Come on guys!

 

Hunkered down for the latest cold snap! I'm deep into body work on the '63 Falcon, and then a rod started knocking in the 327 in my '46 Austin. Now I've got plenty to keep me busy for awhile!

 

Here's a shot I took of Danny and his Healey back in the early 80's or so.

 

Delray,
Thanks man. That healy was a masterpiece. If someone had engine shots it should be in the 6 cylinder racing thread. Someone will take offense at this but Danny and Smokey were cut from the same bolt of cloth.

 

Nyles Klampe put duel exhaust and glasspaks on my '60 Chev pickup in 1970 or '71 when I was in South Salem High School. He welded the most perfect beads I have ever seen. He ran a D/MP Corvette in primer, a built 327 with tunnel ram duel quads. Super nice guy, he got me into Balboa drag strip one sunny Sunday on a borrowed pit pass so I could see him race close up. I loved that Corvette and studied it from every angle. I ran him to the local BiMart for spark plugs in my pickup when his plugs fouled out. I also kept going to the snack bar for ice to refill the fuel line cooler tank. Man I thought I was hot stuff 'working' in a real pit crew. He lost in his second to last run to a strange rail dragster running a Pontiac Tempest inline four. Great days.

 

Spring is in sight webfoots!
I hope we can get some more input on this thread soon!
Meanwhile....BUMP!

 

You wouldn't happen to have any pictures of either of the Von Homeyer cars by chance, would you?

 

Sorry Shooter, I don't have any pics of the Von Homeyer cars. I have and 8mm movie of Erwin's Anglia at McMinnville.

 

That's amazing! Has Robbie seen it that you know of? If not, I'd sure love to figure out a way to get a copy of it for him. Also, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you just yet, but I look forward to the opportunity some time soon.


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I had a couple of visitors today, my old friend Ron Urback ( who raced a B/SR with a Boss 302 Ford), brought along Bernie Tumlinson. Bernie raced a AA/D with a blown BBC. He was partnered with a guy name Dick Hand, the car was orange and named "Rat Now". It sported a Dixon chassis built in Spokane, they raced it all around the northwest in the early 70's. These shots were taken at Portland, Seattle, Yakima, and Spokane. The last one is a rare shot of Bernie racing against Jim Livingston (Woodburn Dragstrip owner) in the far lane. Jim was teamed up with Dan Amundson from Prineville, who owned the injected Cammer Ford engine. Jim's dragster started life as a pile of tubing on Ernie Hall's floor. This was the car Ernie raced from around 64 to 68, and Ernie set a National Record with it when it was Desoto powered. I was unable to scan Bernie's pictures as they were in frames, so I photographed them, sorry for the poor quality.

 

Cool stuff Marty, as usual.
With spring here I'm hoping to get this thread going again!
SO BUMPOLA!

 

Great to see photos of Killcup. I grew up in the Milwaukie ? Oak Grove area got to Know Jim Hoxit who did some of his work at Danny's garage. Danny's shop was on Vaughan street, and had a long drive up to the second floor of the building. It was fairly dark and your first time there you got to walk up the ramp. Danny had a photo eye set up that would blast a ferry boat horn that would darn near break your ear drums not to say anything about the skid mark in your shorts. The shop was known to many as the Vaughan street ferry. Working in Danny's shop was a test. You had to pass Danny's test .. If he liked you .. you could use the good tools ... if Not you got the worn out stuff, and Danny had lots of worn out stuff for you to try. I'll pass on some good stories later.

 

Welcome Larry, There are so many great stories about Danny helping out the young guys. If you look further back in this thread, you will see that Jim Hoxit's "Goofin Off" 34 coupe is alive and well, living in Vancouver.

 

Thank you! Actually that is how I found this site. Went to the Portland Roadster show and was going down the first isle and when I saw that red '34 I told my friend "I worked on a 34 back in the day" and low and behold it was the Goofen noff. I called the owner and had a great talk. I told him that I was sure that Jim held the national record for a very long run. So I went about trying to find that fact on the net. No Luck but found this site and have had a great time reading all the input. Once I figure out how to load a couple of photos I can give some info on Scotty's drive in AA/FD. What fun it is to remember all those great days!

 

Scotty's Drive In AA/FD


This the way the digger was painted for the 1969 season.
The players: owner Ken Makki Crew chief : Dennis Malone Driver: Dave Hawkins. Others Larry Williams, Doug Hawkins, Steve (I think not sure) I am pretty sure these photos were taken at Balboa (Eugene) late summer 69. Ken and Dennis were starting to play with slipper clutches, two speeds, and reversers. Clutches and reverser went reasonably well and two speed not so much, later the starter was added and was first used at PIR which became Scotty's home base,
Driver: Dave Hawkins worked for F.E.Bennett Co. Was the EX. manager of McMinnville Track. Was the OLDEST licensed AA/FD driver in the country. He would never forget a name, and was a very easy going person. I believe that Dave was very instrumental in convincing the city of Portland to open Delta park and pave a drag strip. He also convinced Blitz beer to get on board (Dave passed several years ago)
Ken Makki : graduated from Benson HS. early '60s. another calm cool guy. I can say I saw him work on the race car all night and seemed like he never got dirty. Another really nice guy.
Dennis Malone : Hard worker, Also from Benson Worked at Scotty's during high school This guy had a nature ability to keep the gang focused.
Me: A friend of Dave and a love for fast cars. My job, keeping the alum. shinny, mixing fuel and towards the end helping assemble end of the season motors.
There were others involved .. but for the life of me cannot remember names Happens at 70 plus.
Scotty's drive in did not sponsor this or any other car. Ken and Dennis liked the owner and decided that name sounded better than theirs.

The car in the photo, is the one that was sold to Ernie Hall (Western States) he was going to use it as a AA blown gas car. (do not think that happened)

The car in the photos was retired (as noted) and a new car was put together with a torsion front end that had a wider frame. The reason for that was the old car did not like clutches was very unpredictable at about half track. The new car was not a lot better. Duing the national at Puyallup Don Gartlets (sp) came by gave a few quick suggestions and that car started to perform.

 

Larry, I used to buy caster wheels and other hardware at F.E. Bennett, I always would visit with Dave. Me and a friend had purchased John Mitchell's JR Fuel car to do some nostalgia racing, and I went in to tell him about it. When I noticed that he wasn't in, they informed me that had suffered a major medical problem. He was never able to return to work and sadly passed on. Didn't he own the gold Avanti that was always parked next to the tower at the McMinnville strip. Thanks for the pics.

 

Yes, Dave did have an Avanti, it was the R lll (the rare blown version) that was a 289 (I think) and he took the motor out and had It bored out. I was over at his house and he showed me a bucket full of shavings. That was one fast car. I am hoping to connect with Doug, his son. Think Doug is in his 60s . I was working back in Illinois for a while and lost touch with a lot of folks, I two called F.E. Bennett and found out he had a stroke. I have to say that because of Dave .. I decided to get into Sales .. never had his ability to remember names but had a great career working with Ford, GM, and Dodge.

 

Wow! Really interesting info Larry! The Scotty's dragster was one of my favorites! Do you happen to know who owned the Scotty's Drive In Anglia too?

 

I will try this again, think I timed out before it posted.
I never saw or heard about the Anglia. Would guess that it belonged to either Ken or Dennis Or maybe both. The digger seemed to be all Ken's Dennis however was the guy that did all the research and kept up on the ever changing world of Top Fuel. And be it that Scotty's never gave anyone any sponsor money .. my guess is probably right. I have to say, that this group was mostly business, easy going answer any question for any body at any time. Never heard a cross word or a display of open hostility , well maybe once in a while Doug might get a little crazy after a 200 mph oil bath, but just a great group. Makki was the most reserved of all. Quietly come around go about his business. I always thought he was more like surgeon than a mechanic.

So a story from back then. The race car was kept in a small two bay garage about a 1/4 mile to the North of the I-5 exit SB to Tigard. The garage had one swing up (all one piece Alum. door. If work was going on the door was open (but not after dark or bad weather)
There was a close connection between Wipple and his funny car and Scottys, Whipple was based on Multnomah Blvd. in Garden Home the We shared champion plugs, Valvoline, M&H and who ever shared score on parts shared. So one day Ken shows up with all the stuff to install a starter on the blower drive belt, we all set about getting it on. As we neared completion we heard off in the distance a loud sound of a fueler motor and Ken paused and said darn Whipple beat us. So we put a heavy load of fuel in Dave suited up and we pushed the car out so Dave was under the door .. Dennis sprayed the engine hit the starter and the engine came to life .. they let it warm up a little then gave a couple of hard cracks of the throttle . Well the headers being pointed up it blew the door off it came down and hit Dave on the helmet, not knowing what was going on he released the throttle and jumped clear up the street. he hit the kill button, by that time every porch light in the area was on and folks were running out of their homes. We ran up got the car and Dave pushed the car back into the shop when Portland finest showed up. We promised to never do it again. What a night.

 

GREAT STUFF LARRY!
This is exactly what I'm hoping for with this thread! Thanks to Marty as well, as usual.
These stories and photos really need to be recorded as Oregon racing history before all us old guys move on!
I'm hoping some of the younger guys will get some of the feel of "back in the day" !
And keep the spirit alive!

 

Gary, so you know about the 1/4 mile stripes on Oatfield. Probably by that old Gas Station and garage. Not sure how they got there, but that sure was a great place to get ready for Woodburn if you were running a stock class. I ran F stock for a while but some guy with a Dart would edge my 63 Ford XL 500 with a 390. No mater what I did he did it to his car and I just gave up and decided to move on. My good friend Dick McCartney lived just up the street from that old station Dick was best friends with Hoxit. Dick ran A stock with a 64 Chevelle that had a special order 350 HP 327 CID.. That was a fun car. And speaking of late night street races Two not mentioned are 82nd extension to the air port. and most of all in 63-67 it was not uncommon to pick a good one on Broadway or sixth and head down to then I-80 N set up just below Union Ave. At the on ramp .. then hold up any cars (never many) get a chick to wave or drop the hanky. That happened a lot on Sat Night. Gotta remember though there was little or no traffic and maybe 1-2 cops that late.

 

The A/G green Anglia with orange plexi windows was Brewer and Maki. I would bet is was Jerry Brewer who was co-owner of this great Olds powered roadster out of the Chariots club.

 

I've got a picture of the Scotty's Drive In yellow Anglia from the 60's around here somewhere. Just need to figure out where it is and I'll post it.

 

The new Hot Rod Deluxe has a good feature on the Homeyers Willys and roadster!
Check it out, it's good to see some Oregon cars getting their due!
Keep up the postings guys, let's see some more pics as well!