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

Might have a few over at the Texas Drags thread.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7282728#post7282728

 

Looks like one of the "Snake's" cars. I believe that's him at the front of the motor.

 

So was I, was going to drive my '40 Ford sedan (Pontiac motor) from the Market Basket in Temple City, but it would's start, found out someone swiped my volt gauge, so just wrapped the wires togother, hoped for no short, and made it to the race, yes, Ivo fixed hot dogs and marshmallows behind his seat, always the showman (they quickly blew off as he hit the throttle)....

 

All the in-line classes used to be hot. Got any shots of their altered?
Tom S.

 

Ringer and Souder werea couple of fire fighters from Oregon. In 1970, they held the MPH record at about 153 or something. It ET at 9.20's. I cant recall the CU Inch displacement. Wouldnt be hard to figure as I am sure there are articles on the motors. They flogged this thing for a couple of years before getting it right. They even ran a single engined 6 banger before venturing into the twin. I seem to recall another Oregon resident who ran a single engined Tempest 4 banger in a real nice little T Bucket for the E/A class. While not a threat for class honors, it was cool looking.

 

Helps to have grown up in the area. Oh, and to have once been obsessed with the sport.

 

Wow first in the series of Heidelberg cars. Of course there was no Heidelberg Speed Shop, it was a joke. One of the partners was stationed in Germany while performing his duty in the Army. He frequented a German inn called the Heidelberg Hofbrau.

 

Oddly enough I took a photo just three hours ago of the old San Gabe site.
I always carry a camera, so, for some reason I snapped this, just hours ago. I always keep the camera focused on "infinity" when I'm driving, so I just point in the general direction and hit the shutter.

Right where all the electrical equipment is was the spot of many great days of drag racing.....

[/QUOTE]
Not far from the old Speedway 605 1/2 mile track.

 

the oval track was just a few hundred yards south of the drag strip although they did not operate at the same time.
Last time I was at "Speedway 605" was for the "Turkey Night" annual midget race classic, in 1975.
I'll never forget that day because we had just heard that, hours before, Graham Hill was killed in an airplane crash.
Took the fun out of the midget race....

 

Wasn't the Pontiac Tempest 1/2 of a 389 V8 ?

 

Here is a link to some pictures I posted a few years back, for those who missed them.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=284736

 

In regards to the great photo from San Gabriel 1963 the twin car could be the Chet Herbert driven by Zane Shubert and in the other lane those 4 exhaust pipes shout out a 430 Lincoln with perhaps Earl Canavan driving.

 

...

 

Not sure. But I know Mickey Thompson garnared some huge HP out of them when he and Pontiac partnered up in the very early 60's. I think a guy named George Tolen or Toler rana blown fuel X/FD in '66 or so, and put one in the 8's. There was a picture of it racing Jack Chrisman for CC/FD honors at Pomona.

 

the oval track was just a few hundred yards south of the drag strip although they did not operate at the same time.
Last time I was at "Speedway 605" was for the "Turkey Night" annual midget race classic, in 1975.
I'll never forget that day because we had just heard that, hours before, Graham Hill was killed in an airplane crash.
Took the fun out of the midget race....[/QUOTE]

Graham's passing included the presence of his kids too if I recall correctly...sad. On a much lighter note, Speedway 605 ran everything. They even had their own interpretation of a pavement modified. I ventured there a few times with my dad.

 

If you want to see T.V. Tommy Ivo in action with his FED, Bikini Beach is playing on ThisTV tomorrow, Jan 17 12:30 pm EST.

http://columbus.thistv.com/schedule/sched/2012-01-17

http://columbus.thistv.com/view/movie/179/Bikini Beach

Marty
Marysville, OH

 

Lets start today with more from San Gabe. 296ardun & zooma we need to have a reunion for those survivors that were there for the wienie roast.

 

And the hits just keep coming All from the wienie roast

 

On to Pomona 1964

 

Man,they packed them in at San Gabe

Posted a pic of Cagle few pages back.One of my faves.

Super stuff,wrongway.

 

At Pomona No motion but too beautiful not to post

 

When the now long gone Lloyd's Dragstrip opened in my home town of Blairsville, GA around 1962 or '63 the first fifty or so feet was concrete (way ahead of it's time!!) and the rest was hard packed red clay. It was something to see a SS/S or a "Cheatin' 4-Barrel" take off on the concrete and transition to the dirt. It was paved for the second year.

 

I Love 62 Plymouths!! Thanks Wrongway for the Blairs Speedshop picture.

 

Questions ?? Where exactly was Old San Gabe? And when and why did it close? I'm assuming to noisy for the locals? Isn't the original timing tower still there, or at least part of it and being used as part of a local flea market? Sorry to get off topic but inquiring minds wanna know.

 

The "Peanuts 65 Galaxie" was way cool. Anyone got a good pic of the B/FX 65 Galaxie called "The Quiet One" ???

 

Here is one from Minnesota Dragways 1962. Its a little closer for you straightaxle 65 do you remember Empire Dragway in Sioux Falls. I was the announcer there.

 

opps forgot the upload step

 

The San Gabe that most people remember and the one that is featured in all of the photos was at what is now the 605 Freeway and Live Oak, just at the intersection of Rivergrade Road.
The Toyota Speedway where they have the annual Mooneyes Xmas show today would be about a quarter miles west of the old strip.
Go back one page and see the photo I took yesterday from the freeway.
No, no neighbors complaining of noise.
Edison wanted to use the property for the electrical equipment seen in my photo from yesterday.
The 605 Freeway was at the very beginning stages of being constructed which is from where I took yesterday's photo.
So, the track went away because of the utility company needing the property and because of the freeway being engineered at the time.
The 605 Freeway, once opened, dead-ended at Arrow Highway just south of where the strip was. The freeway did not continue north until after 1968.
Irwindale (1965-1977) was in the planning stages when San Gabe closed so nobody was really heartbroken as there was going to be a new strip just north and east, about three miles away.
When San Gabe closed, it was only about two years before Irwindale opened and we all had Lions (Wilmington), Fontana and San Fernando all pretty close to go to.
In late 1965, we had Irwindale, Fontana, Lions, San Fernando and Pomona all running at the same time and all were begging for our attention.
Even Riverside Raceway had a drag strip those years hosting the Hot Rod Magazine Championship races (sometimes they ran 1/2 mile drags)
Each thursday when I got home from school the new "Drag News" was in the mailbox and that's when I could read all the ads and decide where to go that weekend.
Match races, 2 out of 3 races between gassers or altered wheelbase cars, fuel altereds, or jet cars, wheelstanders, huge top fuel meets or it wasn't uncommon to have a 32 car field for T/F or Funny Cars.
At Lions there were nights that would draw more than 50 top fuel cars.

The fella that posted one photo this morning had a caption on one of the photos that said something like "they just lined up and raced, no burnouts".
No shit.
The fuelers would get push started and the crews would physically move the cars back and forth to line them up with the starting line. Then, the driver would ease the car up to the line.
No BS, no burnouts, just racin'. Everyone had the same cold tires and the cars were expected to spin the tires, anyways because there were no trick clutchess, transmissions or computers to try to keep the cars hooked up to the pavement.
Just dump the clutch and go.
A real pro could slip the clutch some he just get enough tire spin to keep the engine revs up so the motor would cough yet not spin the tires so much for the car to just sit there.

Man, if you guys missed these days, you missed everything.
Today's racing can't even come close to what we had.
It's like picking up crums off the bakery floor and trying to pile them up into something that looks like a cake.
It just doesn't have anything that resembles the mid-60's.

Cripes...they don't even run 1/4 mile anymore at NHRA meets.
What a cluster-intercourse.

I could go on all day long telling you guys stories, but you're probably already bored...

folks today have an attention span of about 45 seconds.

 

Absolutely not Mazooma......If you went on for a week I'd listen. Last month I flew from Iowa to El Lay for the Lions Last Dragrace Reunion just so I could here the stories from the horses mouths. I can't get enough of what went on in the 60s at the local dragstrip.