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

You sure that's not '62 ('62 Dodge's in the photo & flag start)?

 

Yeah, Pomona got the tree in '63.

 

Southern California Dodge Dealers would bring thier latest models out to Pomona every year as a Promotional deal, they would let the Press crews have a go at the quarter mile and since those are '62 models....

 

The way it was. Flag starts, the ambulance waiting in the background, the indian performing the ceremonial anti-rain dance and the citrus packing houses. The Winternationals.

 

Pomona

These, as well as the previous Pomona pictures, courtesy of National Dragster/NHRA

 

Fontana Drag City
1955 - 1972

Ran across this on the net, a then and now type of thing...

 

Fontana...

One of the first southern California dragstrips to install lights and start night racing, Saturday night "Run what ya brung".

 

In '75, I dated a girl who lived up the street in what was called Etiwanda. In driving past the remains of this great track, she commented how they used to have car races a few years before. You could hear the cars race she said. She described some of the cars as "funny looking with big engines. Kind of like a dune buggy." "Oh really I said, I never knew." While noise might have killed the track, Irwindale really offered the death blow as racers didnt have to travell so far.

 

I remember standing in line at the Tickettron office in the Pomona Sears. The tickets were festival seating; first come first serve. We would arrive at 4:AM and still find the lines forming. A blanket protected us from the heavy wet fog. By 8:00 you could hear engine noises in the pits and the announcer saying "testing, testing "over the intercom. You knew the games were about to begin. Great memories.

 

Great photos, sad to see almost all of it gone (though I think that Fontana opened in '61, though there was an earlier drag strip that ran briefly in the early 50's).

Things I remember: it was often dusty, the wind would blow sand from the grape fields nearby, sometimes making the track pretty slippery. The other thing was how dark the top end was, compared to Lions or San Gabriel...really hard to see, especially if the engine was fogging your goggles with oil...that's what happened to the late Art Malone, couldn't see the broken '34 sedan that got stuck on the track and crashed into it, lucky he even survived.....but overall it was a great track, treated the racers and spectators well, sorry it's gone...

 

You could very well be right about the dates. Had a lot of great times there in '64/'65.

 

Yeah, they had lights but each light along the strip as run by a generator on a trailer....the hard wired parts for electricity were just the tower and some assorted lights on the staging line.
The strip was all generators.

 

A while back, someone asked if anyone knew of a street legal dragster. Here is one I just built, which probably comes as close as you will get. Radiator and fan under louvres, battery, transcooler, etc. all under trunk area. Drive on the street all the time with Hilborn 4 port injectors, specially built barrel valve and dial a jet, and pump (mechanical, no electronics). Here is a link to a short video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4aalGNrpjU

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKDGioYTy3M This is the video that was supposed to go with my post. Damn computers. Don't know what went wrong!

 

Frank, falcongeorge created a thread on this site for modern nostalgia cars:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=601216

your pictures would fit its theme well...

 

Haven't had time to check all 1700+ pages in this thread. Has anyone posted pics from Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green Kentucky or the two strips in the Nashville, Tn area (Union Hill Dragstrip & Riverside Raceway) ? Used to race at all three back in the day.

 

sorry, i put this on the wrong site....... Mc

 

Lord, that was a pretty car! Wasn't it origionally black?

 

This is a shot that I took at Indy in 1967

 

That didn't take long!!

 

some people crack me up

 

Bob, You are on top of everything!!

 

Roadster leaving Famosa starting line, 1958, photo by Eric Rickman, from Hot Rod website...no ID on car, note high-tech tower in background, old International van:

 

Also from HRM website, Dennis Coker's E/G class winner, at Riverside...

 

Probably been posted before, but worth a second look if so, particulary given who Garlits beat in the final, Pomona, 8-car invitational, Feb '63, first NHRA national event to run nitro since '56, Garlits beat the late Art Malone for the win...photo by Eric Rickman (a legend in himself)), from the NHRA website:

 

You need to have "ET Auto Parts" gold leafed somehwere.

 

fremont - Arley Langlo's Zip Code AA/FD at the start of his burnout

Larry Dixon Sr.

Keeling and Clayton's California Charger AA/FD Fremont

Kenny Safford warming up "Terrible" Ted Gotelli's AA/FD Fremont

Sumner,Bert Mewes 'Business Coupe' goes up against the Champion Speed Shop fuel dragster in 62 Fremont

Steve San Paolo on a wheels up launch in the Spaghetti Benders alcohol dragster

Russell James Liberman who first started racing Stock eliminator at Fremont in 1964, strikes a pose next to his first funny car, the injected nitro burning "Hercules" in 1965. The injector scoops were reportedly made from "borrowed" mail boxes. — at Fremont Dragstrip (Baylands Raceway).

The Hall of Fame photographer has an interesting story behind one of his most famous shots....."One of my all-time favorite classes of drag racers: the AA/FA. This is Fred Sorenson's awesome Warlock at Fremont, 1967, with Herb Pickney at the controls. Because I was young and dumb, I was on my knees shooting. The manager of Fremont, Ron Lawrence, was pretty cool about where I could go to shoot pix. His only advice: 'Don't get run over!' The Warlock slowly creeps into the staging beams. The light goes green, the rear tires explode into billows of white smoke, and the front end heads for the moon. I thought for sure I was dead meat. Up goes my beat-up Pentax 35mm. Click. The Warlock crashed down to the track in front of me. I felt the earth move, but, hey, I got the photo!"
Steve Reyes

Have you seen this car? Big Daddy had a wing over the engine when he drove Swamp Rat V to victory at the '63 NHRA Winternationals. It later was loaned out on a tour of Dodge dealerships across the country but was never seen again. Big thinks it's probably collecting dust in the back of a dealership some where....who knows?