Friends and fans of Gary Gabelich, he is being inducted into The Motorsports Hall of Fame Museum, in Daytona Beach with six other Hall of famers June 27, 2016. How cool is that? In 1964 he drove he Dean Moon Super Shaker "built by Jaco" and set a record at 285 mph at Bonneville Salt Flats. Gary set the world land speed record in the Blue Flame sponsored by Natural Gas company on October 23, 1970 622.407 at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He piloted blown fuel hydro boats and in 1969 he held the record at 200.44 mph on water and in 1970 622.407mph on land and held the record for both water and land at the same time! He was the fastest man on earth at the time. He drove funny cars, top fuel Dragsters, also help N.A.S.A. in the Apollo program. He drove in the Toyota Celebrity Races at the Long Beach Grand Prix. For all you beer drinkers he drove the "Joco built" Dean Moon "Super Shaker" for Budweiser in a commercial to promote their beer. A lot of times you could find him at the legendary Ascot Race track on a Saturday night driving the pace car for the fun of it. If it had two wheels, or four he could drive it, and drive it like he stole it. On January 26, 1984 his life was taken away on his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycle. His life was taken to short. Miss you old friend, and Congratulation Rocket Man Hall of Famer on well deserved honor.
Admired him when I was a kid in the late 60s early 70s , had several pictures of his cars on my bedroom walls and school books. Although this 4wd version wasn't very successful and nearly cost him his life.
Hey DSM, You happen to have a lot of information on Gary Gabelich. He was a Long Beach local that rose to fame in all things automotive. I need some help in do***enting my films from back when he first got started as a teenager. I remember filming this blue altered sedan many times at Lions Dragstrip. In the back of my mind, I would not have taken so many shots of that altered if it wasn't someone that we knew back then. Would you have any idea if this was his first drive as a teenager? Who owned it and what was the build? Thanks, Jnaki
I'll never forget a cartoon that came out about how he not only set a speed record using natural gas but baked several dozen cookies at the same time.
After he set the record in 1970 he and several other racers came to Vietnam to meet the troops. For me and I'm sure many others, it was the highlight of an otherwise ****ty year. I'll never forget talking to him. It was good of him and the others to give up their time to visit a bunch of guys who were otherwise feeling forgotten by most of the country.
GARY GABELICH PART 2 Hello, In 1962-63, I spent some time cruising and doing hot rod things with Gary Gabelich. I visited his house and we went to see some shops where he needed some stuff for one of his builds. I am sure we talked about his first rides at Lions, but 54 years later, the memory lacks and the mystery continues. Back then, I only had those bulky 16mm film reels and a lunky 16mm projector. It was not one of those things where we just show the films from our phones or laptops. We never got around to watching the films. He just said cool and that he would like to see them one day…that day never came. Jnaki We went our separate ways, as college beckoned and he developed so many contacts in the industry that he was on the rise. Even after the world speed record, he was still the same old guy from Long Beach. He was a fun loving guy with a smile that melted girls faces. Ha! Thanks, Gary. Here is a film clip of the same blue Crossley that I filmed at the 2nd annual Smokers’ Bakersfield March Meet in 1960. So, now I am trying to finally do***ent my digitized films for history. Either link will work:
Gary Gabelich part 3 Hello, A throrough internet search does pay off. I did not have any contact information on Rae Gabelich, so I searched many sites. As fast as the fingers type and the mouse scrolls, here is something I uncovered on a Croatian website with photos donated by Rae Gabelich. That is a Crossley in the background and Gary seems to be around 17-18. (according to the haircut, jeans and white shirt.) That shirt looks familiar… Thanks to his wife, Rae Gabelich, this early photo shows proof of that Crossley when Gary was a teenager in Long Beach. Jnaki Thanks for the old photos, Rae Gabelich. Great story about Gary by Bud Rasner. YOUNG GARY AND RAE YOUNG GARY AND SON, GUY MEMORIAL LOS CERRITOS PARK, Long Beach,CA Here is one of the best recollections of life in Bixby Knolls, including Gary Gabelich. Written by his good friend, Bud Rasner. Draglist.com http://www.draglist.com/artman2/publish/daily_stories/Gary_Gabelich_The_Early_Days.shtml
GARY GABELICH PART 4 Hello, Here is the complete article from the Draglist.com site on Gary Gabelich/Bixby Knolls as written by Bud Rasner. Jnaki Drag Racing Stories DRAGLIST.COM Dec 23, 2011 Gary Gabelich, The Early Days By Bud Rasner I can lend a little first hand knowledge about Gary Gabelich. We lived about 1/2 mile away from one another and spent time at each others house and at Lions. We were the same age (born in 1940) and went to Long Beach Poly high school together. We both lived about equidistant from Tom McEwen who was to become known as "****oose". At lot of racers in Long Beach were influenced by the great Reath Automotive and we were a**** them. As I have said before at that time in LB as we were getting our driver's licenses as Lions opened. And the street racers went to the strip to try and learn from the pioneers. Rapp, Brooks, Wood****, Gabelich, Rasner, Mushegian, McEwen, Ferguson, Evans and others generally knew each other before we knew anything about cars. Lions had a big influence on all of us. Regarding Gary Gabelich, a real friend and all around good guy. Everyone had a nick name Gary's was 'gravel scratch', it was not a pejorative term rather a play on his different last name and an endearing and friendly handle. He was of Croatian heritage and proud of it. His former wife Rae is on the city council for Long Beach and is the main person that gets staid old Long Beach to allow the yearly Cacklefest in Bixby Knolls which is where most all of us grew up (as if we ever did). There is a perception that he was a dare devil which is not totally accurate. We all knew him as simply fearless. There was a real presence of Aerospace Industry in the area and a lot of the guys worked for Douglas Aircraft including McEwen and Brooks. Gary worked for North American-Rockwell and he simply would step up and test any and all equipment that they were readying for the early astronauts. He found it fun and he got some hazard pay doing it. He appeared unafraid and got a rush out of it without being boastful. We enjoyed hearing the stories and the intrigue of his many exploits. Gary later became known as the Rocket Man and held the land speed record of the world at 622 MPH for about 12 years. He actually went a lot faster one way (up to 650 MPH) but in Bonneville, back in the day, they averaged two runs as I understand it. Someone out there will remember (and correct this) just how the timing was handled. North American gave him an ultimatum at his job of Astronaut Testing. Stop racing or they would be unable to keep training him. It was obvious that racing would win that battle. That and the fact that Gary had little formal college education (although he was extremely bright) was probably the reason he was not selected by NASA as Astronaut training material. On a personal note I have a confession. A few people know this already but Gary and I were in jail together a couple of times. Whoa slow down, Bud, you said he wasn't wild. Well we were about 17 years old and got caught drinking beer and taken 'down town'. Imagine that!, teenagers drinking beer. Probably none of you every did. We weren't on the best terms with the LB PD mainly because of street racing. They generally were going to 'show us'. They did! Gary's mother and my Dad would come down and sign us out while the cops snickered at us. One of the times that we were gathered up, I was sitting in my car (50 Olds) at night with some other guys down in the area of the Harbor known as Naples, and Gary drove up and walked over to my window and asked if he could have a swallow of my beer (I think in the day we drank some swill called Country Club), I handed the stubby can to him and he put it to his lips. Just then we got 'lit up' by the police and Gary had not even had a swallow. We both tried to reason with the police, I told them that he had just walked up. Neither of us were impaired (we probably would have been later but not then) but I remember the reply 'it doesn't matter, we saw what we saw" So away we went. The other guys in the car did not have one in their hands and had stuck the others under the seat and the flashlights did not reveal them. I was not asked for a 'consensual search' so my buddy drove my car home with the beer under the seat and Gary and I got a ride down town from the "Black and White" taxi company. We stayed most of that night in the Gray Bar Hotel. We were big time criminals. Many years later in January of 1984 Gary was killed in a street accident on his motorcycle. I have seen reports that it was in Long Beach but it was in San Pedro where he was born and had many friends. When I heard the news, I cried. Bud Rasner
The Jalopy Journal
