History Early drag racing photos

Sneaky Pete Robinson’s second Dragmaster car, a Dragmaster Dart. It’s a very early photo, he’s running one of his blower drives but the car doesn’t have one of his pruned blower cases.

 

Hello,

I was fortunate to be in the pits at the 1959 Riverside Raceway Drag Race Event in late December. The event was listed as a huge east vs. west drag race with some of the best drag racers from all over the USA attending the big event. This is the first cross country traveling event for all drag racers to step outside of their own area and race in the wide open dragstrip in So Cal.

Riverside Raceway was located in a barren, wide open area far away from any neighborhood. it was well known as a road racing course laid out for sporty car events. But within the large location, was a certified ¼ mile dragstrip with a long shut off area. After this big time event, the course was used to run the only ½ mile drag racing events.

From our Westside of Long Beach, back then, no freeways we could use, so it was a long drive in the dark, cold morning. After a couple of hours, the gate was packed and the drag strip was full within minutes. The racing was some of the best ever seen.

The area was so wide open that many drag racing spectators watched the rces from the tall cliffsides. Each side gave a view of the racers from start to finish and zipped by in an instant, with the exhausts echoing in the deep canyon.

Jnaki

Here is one of the best film captures of the drag racing during the day: