Folks Of Interest Airoso Brothers Willys gasser - brother Joe encounter

There is a typo here, the Airoso Brothers Willys was a 41

 

Airoso Brothers early on, they later painted it blue. The back of the picture says Low ET 10.95 top time 127:65

 

The guy that helped Joe very early on was Red Truitt. Joe's dad would let him borrow the almost new 55 ford pickup that was used on the dairy and by his dad. Joe would unbolt the hay hook from the bed and race it at the local dragstrip then put everything back the way that it was and go home. His dad was not a fan of racing and a few years later he told them when they were showing off their racing trophys you would have been better off to just buy yourself some trophys instead of spending all of that money on speed parts. Eventually the quest for more speed took over and Joe started buying speed parts for the y block and couldn't get it to run right after racing and couldn't take it back home that way. He went to the local Chevy dealership to get a tuneup and they couldn't get it to run right. They said that if anyone in town could fix it it would be Red Truitt. Red had a mechanic shop and drove a hot roadster that he had built and he street raced it sometimes. Joe asked Red if he knew where a man could get a good tuneup in this town and Red helped Joe. Red took Joe under his wing and would tell him how to do things to hop up his motor. Joe eventually got his own car, I believe he started with a 50 Ford coupe and then a 58 Pontiac but no matter what he did he could never beat a guy named Chapo at the dragstrip. He drove a fuel injected white 57 Chevy Belair 2 door hardtop. Joe had seen the Al Dal Porto Willys Pickup clean house at Bakersfield and knew that if he could find a Willys and hop it up he could beat Chapo. Eventually a farmer came into Red's shop wanting to trade an old 41 Willys pickup in on some mechanic work. They went to pick it up and a ring was welded in the bed and a goat was tied to the ring so that he could graze in the pasture. They went in partners on the pickup. It was Red's and Joe supplied the motor and transmission. After getting it running good he went to the dragstrip looking for his rival. Joe beat him by a couple of car lengths and dried goat manure was flying out of the bed as he went by. They raced the pickup together for a while and Joe eventually found a 41 Willys coupe and put the running gear in it because they were the hot ticket. He paid $45 for the stock coupe and drove it home. The top speed was 42 mph. The motor was worn out but the owner came and got the running gear to put in a jeep and Joe built the coupe to gasser rules. This is how the Airoso brothers got their start. Joe was the driver and turned wrenches and his brother Leonel helped him and was the pit crew.

 

Wow, thats a great story.

 

With Joe, there are so many more!!

elgringo - Jason Price tells that story so well, because he listens so well and has such respect for guys like Joe, who lived that story and still have the ability to convey such vivid memories.

Another thing that makes me happy about this thread, is that we finally get to give some credit to Red Truitt. Joe always has.

 

I am Lucky to be able to have spent some time with Joe and to be able to call him a friend. I soaked up all of the story's that I could about the golden age of drag racing and the life and times of a Willys gasser racer that made his own way on a shoestring budget. This was before big sponsorship got involved and the little guy had a chance if he had enough heart, skill and ambition.



Here is a picture of the Panella Brothers Willys Pickup early on. These guys raced each other but had a lot of respect for each other and are still friends today.

 

I met Joe at Bakersfield this year, a real nice friendly guy. He told some good stories, one about taking the car to B&M to have a Hydro installed, he said they weren't very impressed with the heavy duty trans crossmember he had made ( big half inch thick angle iron I think he said).

 

Joe sold the Coupe after seeing Ohio George Montgomery run the Mustang and he realized that the Willys gassers were outdated and couldn't compete with the new breed.

 

Nice pictures Kev, I will have to share the for sale ads with Joe. I don't know why the car is listed as a 40 Willys when the windshield wipers are below the windshield. I will have to ask about that. This is an early picture taken in 1961 when it still had the steel front end.

 

Yes that's right. Joe's brother was the welder and they made the crossmember out of angle iron. When the guys from B&M saw it they showed him how to tell if a race car part is too heavy. You throw it in the air and if it comes back down its too heavy. They made him a new crossmember support and set up and installed the B&M transmission for him. The first time out KS Pittman drove the car for Joe to feel it out and tell Joe how to drive it. KS was the main gasser driver sponsored by them but they also sponsored Joe after he bought his first B&M Hydrostick transmission. He had to sell a couple of dairy cows to buy the transmission. They weren't cheap but you needed one to be competitive. He started out with a hydro built by Lou Sales that had worked for B&M and had quit to go on his own. His sales pitch was that another fast gasser driver had one of his transmissions. When Joe asked the driver about it he said that he had it but it never ran right so he pulled it and ran a B&M. I think he said that the Lou Sales Hydro was $125 and the B&M was $500. Before this Joe ran a Lasalle 3 speed and a Desoto Hemi.

 

Here is another picture of the Airoso Brothers coupe

 

Hello,
Is this the same yellow pickup at Bakersfield in 1960?
Jnaki
If it is, here he is against So Cal favorite, Al Hirshfield.

 

Hello,
In 1964, I went back to Lions (after a 3 year hiatus)to film the debut of Atts Ono's immaculate 40 Willys at an All Gassers Meet. (HAMB thread by Ryan) It just happened that one of his races was against the early version of the Airoso Bros coupe when it was painted purple. I am sorry for the hiccup in the movie clip. I was below the tower and all ready shooting when some guy yelled at me just as they were taking off of the line. He yelled at me to get off of the track and back to the pits. I kept shooting as i was walking to where that guy wanted me to go. (stands/pits). I forgot who won and what the ET/speed time slip was for the race. That guy was mean and got me flustered.
Jnaki

 

Jnaki, yes that is that is the same yellow Willys pickup. I think that it was still owned and raced by Al Dal Porto at that time. This was the one that became the Panella Brothers.

 

Thanks for getting this footage for us. Very little footage of these early gassers survives. That is the Airoso Brothers coupe but it was never purple it was painted several times and ranged from a bronze color to what sometimes looked like a Rootbeer Brown and didn't photograph well because the color changed based on the lighting. He later panted it Blue and it photographed a lot better. It looked closer to the Rootbeer color in your video. Look at these pictures that are close to the color.



Here is a screenshot from your 1964 Gasser meet video for comparison

 

Kevin that's some great pictures you added , I enjoy listening to Joe's stories too he's a class act

 

It's been a long dry spell but the Airoso Brothers Willys got ink in February 2017 of Hot Rod Magazine.

 

it also appears to have a chevy motor in it.

 

Ok, so I don't get the deal with what it means "Eat More Raisins" And to keep the thread moving forward here's a pic of Joe 2015 at CHRR and The Pickup from 2016 CHRR

 

Here are some pictures of the Willys Pickup that Red Truhitte and Joe Airoso partnered up on. Joe supplied the motor and transmission and Red supplied the pickup. It was first run by them in 1959 and Red continued to race it after Joe got the Willys Coupe and started racing it with his brother in 1960.



Red top and center, unfortunately he is no longer with us.

 

CHRR 2017 in the grove opposite the Big End. Wow, were them diggers turning some 'R's! Got hard to talk, Joe's always a blast to talk to and get some details of them early days of the Gassers

 

Wonderful!!!!! Lippy