Anyone have pictures taken at Madera drags put on by the Madera Clutchers? They were held at the Madera airport in the 50's and early 60's. (MADERA CA.)
Hi, Here is a link to a very old post I made asking for Pontiac advise for a car that was owned by one of the Madera Clutchers. I hope someone else posts a few pictures, I would really enjoy looking at some Madera history. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=284093&highlight=pontiac+dragster
@clutchers - Here's a few culled from the Internet: NOTE: All images are from Scott MacFarland's collection ... he has a lot more posted HERE.
Top right picture sure looks like the cotton chopper out of merced, Tracy leadford owns it now. He had it at eagle field. Wonder if it the same car
Did some Checking here on the Hamb Its the same car see this post http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89285&highlight=cotton+chopper
Brings back lots of memories. This was when you didn't have to have a bunch of money to have a ton of fun. Talked with Art Chrisman at Bakersfield. He remembered a lot about racing at Madera.
I have some somewhere--will dig them out--used to run there in 59-65. Richard Brown was the flagger before they went to the tree-and Tom Clark was the announcer for a while---saw alot of great cars run there SWC, Hayden Profitt, Shirley Shahan,the Bean Bandits and a little Thames panel with a flathead called Willy's Pie Wagon-also saw the Reath black edsel powered Willys there a few times--I ran a 57 Pontiac, then a 62 Pontiac and finally a 65 Chevy toward the end-will look for photos
The first (NHRA) California State Championship Drags were held at the Madera City Airport in 1954. The event was covered in in the December 1954 issue of HOT ROD Magazine ... in an article entitled "CAL-STATE DRAG MEET" ... ... on page 16: ... on page 17:
I'm here in Madera... My dad used to race his '56 Two-Ten sedan here in the sixties. Lots of racing history here in the Central Valley!
I'm in Chowchilla...my Dad grew up in Atwater....He was a member of the WINDJAMMERS...used to race a Poppy Red 57 Chevy Sedan Delivery called ONTOS....towed it with a Poppy Red 57 Bel Air.....later on he ran a Canary Yellow 64 Buick Skylark 4 speed car. My Grandpa ran a few times at Madera in a Pink 55 Chevy called PAPA's PET...my mom even ran it right before she got pregnant with me. Since 1991 you could have seen him running his 64 Plymouth Valiant called The Hairy Canary....it's a tribute car to the original...or the last 3 years he's been running his refridgerator white 68 Dodge Dart 2 dr post coupe. Me and my Dad have been "Nostalgia" racing since 1989...back then Dan Horan Sr. was making single car T/F runs in the high 7's....and you had your pick of seats at the March Meet.
There's some shot from Madera on here: http://gassermadness.com/norms/Coupe-Sedan/index.html and here: http://gassermadness.com/norms/Roadsters/
Lonnie whom started this thread is an original member of the Madera Clutchers from the good old days and a cool dude.....we should give him a big welcome. He is also my neighbor.
Hi Lonnie Just found this thread. As you know I was there in 1954 painting numbers on cars that had none. As I remember Art Christman did 142 I think average and that was a worlds record at the time they ran one direction east first than ran west to make it an official record. Jim Lowe
I think that there are some pictures from Madera posted on the Nitro-Geezers site...they are copyrighted so can't copy them, but they are very cool, also some from Santa Maria.
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