History Drag cars in motion.......picture thread.

Not taken by me, but could have been! I was there at Woodburn for this show! Stood about 30 feet from the finish line as Rhonda came by.I remember it like it was yesterday.Whipple ran an 8.20!

 

Hey, I know that guy! That's me crewing with Carl Hegge's fuel altered "The Norseman". Taken at Miami-Hollywood in '72.

 

I remember this car when I was a youngster! He was at Byron Dragway in the mid 60's and was match racing TV Tommy's 4 engine Buick. What a sight!!!

 

I found some of these on a Facebook Palmdale page...Palmdale did not get as much ink as did the other SoCal tracks...but after a lot of them closed it was the only game in town...also gone, too.


Childs and Albert Addict, not sure who is driving


Yellow Fang, Bushmaster driving...


Doug Robinson, near lane, racing the Winkle & Trapp "Magicar," probably Jeep Hampshire driving...the good news is that both of these cars have been restored.


Not at Palmdale...This is Romeo Palamides Desoto powered car before the blower was added...he always ran really sharp cars


Ok, back to Palmdale, early Pure Hell racing an unknown modified roadster...given how low the modified body is mounted, it could be Tony Nancy


Ok, since it's Palmdale, here is my car, partnered with Bob Keilty, I was elsewhere serving my country (or something like that) when this picture was taken, Ted Inoe is doing the driving. Ted ran an unblown Desoto on gas and after Bob and I, as fellow Desoto'ians, got to know him, we offered him the seat when the Navy took me off to exotic places...(and yes, I have posted this before)....Doug Robinson build this car at the same time he was building the car above...he really did good work...note also the Speed Sport scoop, got it for $25 in primer from Red Greth...

 

The Magicar is now a Cackel car, and is just awsome to hear, and look at. The car is tuned by Rickey Mcdonald.

 

Most people don't realize The Northwind is a twin to the Magicar, it was a very hard runner.It's also restored, don't know where it is now.Marty should know.

 

Well THAT makes this pic all the better!

 

Steve Bovan, first blown BB Chevy, homemade manifold, etc...Mike Hoag built the car, stock Chev II with a tube front end bolted to the unibody...Bovan was a very talented engine builder, started with a silver 'vette and then went to modified production '55 Chev, then this car. Later a tube frame Camero, also with chassis by Mike, who worked at Blair's before starting M&S welding with Sherm Gunn. Mike could weld paper if he had to....

 

Sorry, left one off my Palmdale collection:


two fuelers, no idea who...it's a bad picture, but it's our history


Not Palmdale, and not in motion...but a great shot of Jim Fox in his AF/MR. This car was candy purple, and ran really hard, I remember it from Riverside and Pomona...this is in front of Jim's house. He would later partner with Dennis Holding and Bill Adair on a fueler (also painted purple) before he and Dennis joined Norm Weekly and Ron Rivero on what would become the Frantic 4 fueler....


Not a drag car and not in motion, but history...this San Fernando 3 years after it opened. There was an airport right next to it, and on more than one occasion a plane accidently landed on the drag strip, once in a crash (there is a picture of manager Harry Hibler putting out a fire on the remains of a wrecked plane). The houses nearby were a constant source of noise complaints...finally the track closed around 1970 or '71...I loved to race there, management would send you a thank-you letter for racing there, and sometimes, if you were really bucks-down, and Harry knew you were trying, he'd slip a few extra bucks in the winnings. Later the pits were moved up closer to the runway...after the airport closed.



This from the George Klass collection...I am struggling to remember who ran this A/SR, I think it was from the Washington DC area, ran Maryland tracks...anyone else know?


OK, I confess, I posted this picture here before, but it just showed up on the George Klass collection, and these guys were friends...this is the "15oz" coupe before it was the "15oz" coupe...love the number, if you knew these guys you understand...don't know who was driving, but the guy in the striped shirt, Lyle Webster, would take the wheel after it got a blower (injected in this picture) Next to Lyle is Les Hawkins, don't know the guy on the left. Les had a construction company, and built race cars on the side (he built the first "Panic" AA/FA for myself and the late Don Wilson)...This picture was taken at Colton and then the car was baby blue...later it would get a bright orange paint job, which it still has...sort of faded now, but still runs nostalgia meets...I don't know if Lyle is still around but texted Les recently, think he is in Nevada now....theses guys were drag racers!

 

I thought that the "bolt on" tube front end was a new creation. Should have known.

 

I saw the Fox, Holding and Adair fueler run at Fontana one Saturday night. It was colder than hell. We all huddled around the light generators trying to keep warm. After Jim had checked the plugs and run the valves, they pushed the car down to the far end of the pits and drained the oil right out in the sand. Jim got an acetelyene torch out of the truck and started setting cans of Valvolene up on rocks. One by one he heated the cans until the paint burned off, and Dennis dumped the hot oil in the engine. As soon as the engine was full, they pushed off to the starting line. I don't recall if they won, or lost, but that oil heating operation fascinated me.

 

North Wind was restored and cackled by Jack Coonrod and Albrich, with the help of Ed McCulloch. Albrich passed recently and, I believe Coonrod still has posession in Vancouver, WA. at his museum.

 

296 ardun...The A/Street Roadster in post #39963 was owned by Courtney Scott. He was the owner/operator of Custom Speed Shop in Washington, D.C. In 1960 with this car running B/Street Roadster he won his class and Street Eliminator at the NHRA NATIONALS in Detroit. And believe it or not, it is still sitting in his garage at his home in Northern Virginia. He never sold it!!!

 

Bill Kidd?

 

Found these here:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=vintage drag racing pictures&id=29D045E3E09E5B90FF77287F501EC82CF4018E7B&FORM=IQFRBA#view=detail&id=C6853691F596D9721BFE6EBB18F2FF7A7C0C5616&selectedIndex=995
Don't have captions for lots of them:




Orange County Metal Processing, sometimes Norm Weekly drove, not sure who is in the seat here


Lots of tracks kept flathead classes after they stopped being competitive for the top wins...this is at Lions (yes, sometimes we drained the oil on the ground in the pits!)




Not really sure here, might be Wayne King, far lane, racing Adams, maybe McEwen or Rick Stewart in the seat?


blowers really became popular after Weiand built the "Typhoon" top-mounted blower manifold in '59, but guys have tried it since drag racing started. This is a really innovative setup, front-mounted, carburetors, all of this was hand-fabricated...don't have an ID, looks like Santa Ana


Maybe Suffolk, VA?


GBP out on McEwen.

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Ok, it's a painting, not a photo...Dave Marquez with his roadster, Ardun powered, member of the Motor Monarchs club from Ventura, CA. Track looks like Santa Maria...Dave later sold this roadster to someone in Tennessee...and it apparently would up in Alabama. Where is it now?



Denny Milani in Gotelli's Fuller car, Gotelli pushing. Denny would die in a later Gotelli car at Half Moon Bay when he couldn't get the car stopped in a short shut-down area.

 

A little history on" George Rays Wildcat Dragstrip" located in the small town of Paragould Arkansas in northeast Arkansas.
The first race was in the fall of 1961. It cost $1.50 to get in. Pit passes were fifty cents.
This was probably the first dragstrip in Arkansas, there were some other tracks in Arkansas but they were old military bases. The concrete strip is 2,990 ft long and cost $14.00 a yard, with wire in 1961.
Until his passing George Rays was said to be the oldest dragstrip in the U.S. still ran by the original owner. His wife and grandson still operate the strip to this day.
George and his family lived on the property, the strip was actually in his back yard. A person could stop by and visit anytime ,George seemed to always have time to visit and talk racing, he truly loved this sport.

 

Stan Sommerfield A/Street Roadster from the Memphis area racing a George Rays in the late 60s