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

More Walt stuff for MoKan Man

 

Did either of yours have the horn blows when left turn signal turned on feature ? Made for one interesting drivers license road test.

 

Must not be potty trained its wearing a diaper

 

Dang the memories you guys bring back with your picures. X marks the spot were the Lukes Anglia hid back in 72+73 shot from my driveway

 

Wrongway, these are great shots, please keep 'em coming...I had forgotten the Finders, Caspar, and Wilson Willys pickup, even unblown it carried the front wheels for a long ways, sounds easy today but those were much harder slicks, later they went to a blown small block, another great San Gabriel memory!

 

My first Jr Fueler. 120" wheelbase chassis by Walt and Rudy Bier. Stingray bike front wheels, no radius rods, mag rear. 135 lb driver. Under 900 lbs on the track. This run was on April 9, 1966, 8.27 at 177.51. Ed Allison driving.

 

Ha Ha
Nope,that option was on neither.
I also got my license in a 57 Olds.That's great.
Funny how they were the standard size cars then and we even had to parallell park them.
Kids would freak driving those boats around nowadays.

 

Without a doubt, one of the most competetive class circuits ANYWHERE was the So-Cal jr fuel circuit. A true purist class.

 

Best seat in the house...
When I was 12 years old or so, I'd hang out here.
Behind the grandstand was the return road and right there the cars would stop to pick up their time slip.
So, from this location you had a great seat for the starting line action and the cars creeping back to the pits just behind you.
Another neat deal was that when the cars charged off of the starting line, as they passed to your left there would be no adults blocking my view.
It was just a clear view as the cars went all the way to the finish line.
The downside was photography. Late afternoon and early evening sun would be right in your lens and all the cars were lit "on the dark side". This grandstand seat faced dead west, but after dark you couldn't beat it.
Way off in the distance was an oil refinery with that huge plume of spent gas burning like a huge torch.
The whole area smelled like refineries all mixed with the smell of nitro and rubber. Between all that and the crazy-loud noise it really was an entire sensory overload.

 

Anybody have a pic of the Galli Bros "Reptile" A/FD, from Walnut Creek?

 

That would be - Winnipeg - But who cares except folks like me who live there

Cool car - Check out the Bison / Keystone site. Might stir up some memories

http://www.mts.net/~red67/reunion2.html

 

Thanks Wrong way


One of Walt's rivals in AHRA Comp was Billy Graham. Billy ran a front engine car in something like A/Econo Gas Dragster. (4 bbl carb). Walt always ran B/Dragster. I think Walt's National record was a little soft, most of them were in AHRA. So on a Thursday before an AHRA National event at Kansas City, in July of '73, Graham gets a small block Chevy out of a friends Pro Stocker and blasts the record in B/D. He then puts his normal engine back in and re enters in his regular class. Walt shows up on Friday, and I guess there were some interesting discussions with AHRA officials. Walt just turns around and leaves.

 

Many of those photos are by Richard Wood.
Here he is at Thunder Valley Dragways (Marion, SD) back in the 80's.
I believe that is his brothers car on the line.

 

no no this was win-a-peg if you won you got a peg (or was that a keg)
Please forgive my humor its as bad as my spelling.But i have an excuse all my thoughts come from inside a dented helmet.

 

Yup Walt & I talked about that even teased Billy about being afraid of Walt

 

more Beeline 1964

 

Roger Caster driving for Hayden Proffitt SS/A

 

"The Colonel" Art Malone leaves with the wheels up (check the shadow of the right front) & the hides boiling . A perfect launch for the era.

 

Wrongway you made my evening...great pics.

 

Thanks Royalshifter its -24degrees F here tonite so a good one to stay home. Just a couple to wind up Hess-Shores A/G 124 at San Gabe & Large Father at Pomona 1964

 

Don't believe that's the Shores & Hess Anglia. Looks like the Duncan & Shores Willys Pickup.

 

That would be correct.

 

The shots lately have really offered good over all examination of the San Gabe track. You can see from the above cell depciting the Willy's P/U just where the 605 was about to be. I went there once when I was what...5? I just recall that it was pizza oven hot that day. My dad had a friend whose Triumph drag bike kept breaking on the line while my uncle had a freind who was flogging a superchraged 283 Chevy rail that ran maybe B or A/Gas Dragster. My uncle attended several races there to see his pals race. Wished I had inquired of any photos, but alas both he and my dad have long since passed. Gotta seize the moment.

 

Is that a blown Offenhauser? First time I've seen one of those. Very trick

 

Sure looks so....badass

 

I've had a hard time trying to tell people these nitro cars used to could weigh 800 something #. I've seen them on cargo scales. Weight was the Chev advantage over heavier Chrysler. Tom S. in Tn.

 

" The whole area smelled like refineries all mixed with the smell of nitro and rubber. Between all that and the crazy-loud noise it really was an entire sensory overload. "

And after all these years of blaming it on sex, drugs and Molly Hatchet........ Tom S.

 

This is one of the big things that ushered in bracket, or brake-lite racing and another of the reasons I practically gave my stuff away so I could quit.

When street roadster class in modified went to econo rules in 81, I had the bittersweet opportunity to help build the car that set NHRA and IHRA A/SR class records. Somehow seeing the car with a carb and 2-speed launched with a mico switch just wasn't the same as watching it with the Nash 5-speed, even though it set records. I haven't attended a race since the owner sold the car in Indy 82.
Tom S. in Tn.