Oregon & NW blown gassers

I'm a big fan of late 60's supercharged gassers. I collect photos, and I'm always looking for inspiration on how to build my own car. For years now, I've been trying to track down photos of some cars that ran out of the Pacific Northwest. As of yet, I haven't had much luck. I've tried some photographers like Rich Carlson, Russ Griffith, and Murray Chambers, but they either didn't have the right stuff, or just weren't interested in looking. Does anyone know of any track photographers that shot back then in Oregon, Washington and Southwestern Canada? I'm talking from 1968-1973. Looking for pics of the following cars:

Twig Ziegler, 33 Willys
Bryson & Gibson, 33 Willys
Steve McGee, 33 Willys
Chuck Byrd, 33 Willys
Roger Orr, Anglia
Bob Gibson, Thames Panel
Jim Rockstad, Anglia
Jeff Wright, Austin
any others...

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

 

Not very good but Steve McGee from the 1972 Portland Roadster Show program .

 

Thanks Z Diddy. Steve McGee's Willys was awesome.

 

tried to scann but no luck,,,,,,,,,so this is as good as I can get

 

Meatball, that is so cool. Thank you very much. That car was badass!

 

BTTT for the Sunday crew.

 

Anybody have any photographer info?

Thanks

 

I do my father Chuck Byrd and has quite a few photos of him and others, My father was the promoter of these cars and set up all the races.

 

Feel free to shoot me an e-mail and how to get in touch
Regards,
Shawn Byrd

 

Shawn:

Sent you a PM. Thank you for the response to my thread.

 

did your dad run a funny car back in the 70s..........I worked with Nick Harmon for years

 

meatball ... cleaned it up a bit for you:

 

It appears that photographer John Leppard shot a lot of the Pacific Northwest Drag Racing scene in the '60s & '70s ...

Twig Ziegler, 33 Willys:


Bryson & Gibson, 33 Willys:


Steve McGee, 33 Willys:


Jim Rockstad, Anglia:


NOTE: All images from Byron's Gasser Madness! website (www.gassermadness.com)

 

isnt rocstad runnin Spokane for Bucky Austin????............he and Bill Doner ran PIR in Portland........anybody remember the bumper sticker??????? I'D RATHER HAVE A NOONER THAT A DONER

 

I think Twig and Mcgee both had their cars painted by the Late "Beard" Jack Ruckman.what a guy and one hell of a painter....I still miss that guy

 

Douglas Murray out of Portland Oregon?? I remember seeing his name a bit in old drag magazines from the 60's and 70's. And it appeared that most of the events he covered where in the Pacific Northwest. I'll try looking through my magazine stash to find some photos for you, then attempt to scan and load them on here.

 

He did He had A MACH 1 Mustang Sponsored by baxter auto parts then a Plymouth Arrow and finally he had a Pontiac Firebird that was sponsored by Jim Weston Pontiac and Burgerville USA, he eventually turned the driving over to Kenny Goddell. BTW the 33 willys was Bought from Twig Ziegler, before that it belonged to none other than Jack Coonrod.

 

Yeah thats what I thought,I remember going to a match race in Yakima with Nick,Your dad and Tiller......Ithink it was maybe you and your sister (Cheri?) a couple from our crew in your dads camper all the way up,when we got there we caught Tiller tippin nitro into a BB/FC car so we did the same thing.that nite the crowd got so rowdy they shut the lights off for 15 minutes to coolthem down...we were running the orange US Marine corp.arrow body then

 

Thanks to everyone for responses and keeping this thread alive.

 

I remember that race I am still in touch with Chuck Tiller jr, they are putting together his dads old car, they have enlisted the help of Rick Kikes, and Jack Slawvik. cant wait to see that finished I will keep you posted speaking of nitro, Nick himself was not above that either lol, hence Nitro Nick! BTW it was Christine not Cheri
Best Regards

 

My terrible personal pic, Twig Ziegler's '33 Willys. '70 ...............

 

well I was close after what 30 years??.yeah keep me posted I had a lotta fun back then,and tippin the can was only the small stuff we did back than.......my best to your sister family and tillers,chuck was a great guy........Slawvik,havent thought about him in years

 

Thanks guys. Great to get your insight into these guys. I've been lucky to hang around some of these characters, but so many more I haven't met. This is the next best thing...

 

brigrat:

Thanks so much for that pic. Even though it's a little blurry, it still made my day.

Mark

 

I took that pic in '70, my pic is clear but when I take a pic of a pic it's blurry. Could experiment if you need it better.....................

 

Bryson Willys 1969. Heres a picture from my dads archives of his old willys in 1969 that was later Mike Svboda's car, and then my dads car "Blown Hell" and now belongs to Brent Harris (who should of never made a modern car out of). Will send more pictures of blown hell later.

 

That is so cool. Thank you very much.

 

As stated Mel sold car to Mike and here's the result after 6+ years now running a blown 426. Sadly Mike would have an incident while backing up that resulted in heavy damage to the side and roof. Next owner was Chris who painstakingly repaired all the damage and brought out the car as the "Blown Hell" with B/B Chevy for power.

 

Tom; Sure wish we had our old cars back so we could match race agin! guess well have to build new ones Chris