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

Bruce Wheeler.

 

Is that Mike Sorokin in the driver's seat ?

 

Correct...RIP.

 

Coffee break.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Great action shot, nice and clear...killer lace job on Super Rat, Winged Express far lane.

 

Dick Price roadster, at right, racing a the Marine Air Corps base at Tustin, early 1950. Robert Caanan photo.


Hello,

For those that are still confused, the Marine Air Corps Base is located in the city of Tustin. The new/old airbase where jets used to land was a few miles down South on the I-5 Freeway near where the old OCIR raceway used to be located. This is where the OC community got together and decided not to have an international airport located in the city of Irvine.

If the airport was voted in, then the huge jets would have come over the ocean and taken two routes. The main one was to be over the I-5 freeway from Dana Point and through Mission Viejo. But, as we all know, the safer route is down Crown Valley Parkway between the hills and land in Irvine.

When the military jets were still landing and taking off, the jets would come right over our house and our little toddler son could wave to the pilots. The airspace was varied as the Capistrano Valley area made a nice channel heading toward Irvine.

It would have been a nightmare. But, sane people made the old military base where the jets landed into a Great Park and the huge area is in development. The center of the park is a giant Orange balloon that can be seen for miles on a clear day. Even the view from the giant balloon is amazing for a 360 degree view of all of the So Cal area from the mountains to the beaches.

Jnaki

But, as the above photo shows, there was little to no drag racing weekly at those hangars. By the way, the giant hangars are historic monuments, are a cool roadside attraction and are still standing, today.

The old and the latest photo taken in 2021.

The hangars are right in the middle of a massive development of mixed use. Residential, industrial and commercial shopping areas with the hangars being the attraction, but still questionable for public visitation close up. It was fun driving over to those huge hangars when it was located on a dry dusty open field. But, progress and development is hard to keep from moving forward, to what ??? YRMV

The second hangar, old and in 2021.

Here is an odd fact from So Cal. If anyone is at the beach on PCH in North Huntington Beach and Warner Avenue, this is the start of one of the longest roads leading into inland Tustin and the old Tustin Air Base Hangars.

When people think of old drag racing in Orange County, namely Santa Ana Dragstrip, it is the first official dragstrip in California that closed in 1959. That location is about 4 miles to the South, near the current OC Airport or SA Airport on some travel tickets.

 

Tustin is also referred to as LTA (lighter than air). I stood guard duty in one of the hangars from midnight to four in the morning once when I returned from RVN. The hangar was empty and the noises produced by the creaking wood frame and the owls was a tad bit unnerving to say the least.

 

Couple more from Arlington WA.

 

Johnny, that one could be Dale Greer.

 

Thanks, Junji, this is a great story...a few more photos from the Tustin meet, taken by Robert Caanan:

Jim Nelson of Dragmaster fame.


Downey brothers.

 

Thanks Marty,

The old Arlington airport where these photos were taken is about 10 minutes away from my house. How nice that would have been to have a track close to home. Currently there is a gigantic Amazon distribution center being built across the street from that airport. So much for being "out in the sticks"!

 

56 years ago this month...check out the names!

 

Stoltz and Velasquez, Dave McClelland photo.



Karl Knecht sent me these photos of the Shinoda and Powers hot roadster (what fuel roadsters were called before they were fuel roadsters/fuel altereds. Larry ran several engines in this roadster, including a flathead and Harvey Goldberg's fuel Olds. But the the 1955 NHRA Nationals, he partnered with Dave Powers who supplied the Ardun. It was strong enough to win the class in a tough field. Dave would team up with John Riley to run a series of top fuel cars out of Iowa. Larry, who was from my hometown of Pasadena, CA, and spent time in an internment camp during WWII, went on to fame at both GM and Ford. Karl reports that his friend Paul Adams cut high school to attend the first NHRA Nationals at Great Bend, Kansas, and took these two photos. That is Larry bending over by the Lincoln.

 

Dave Stoll's deuce at San Fernando. If the name Stoll is familiar, it was Dave's Olds that once powered Hugh Tucker's Chevy street roadster. I have probably posted this photo here before, but the car is so nice that it deserves another look. Photo from George Klass's collection.


Ike at Pomona, he ran both a Chevy and GMC 6 in this fuel coupe, and it won everywhere.


"Rapid Red" Lang in the Deadend Kids fueler --- I don't know whose photo this is, please add if you know.


Glenn Ward in the Howard Cam Special, at Phoenix. Glenn was a barber who lived in Garden Grove, CA, and not only drove the Howard Cams car, but built his own twin Chevy car, which was very similar to the Howard car. He would go on to partner on several competitive top fuel cars. Glenn Ward photo, posted on FB by grandson Jason Ward.


Not in motion, except for the engine lifting out. This is the Baney/Fenn/Arnold etc. Chassis Research car, then sponsored by Yeakel Cadillac. That is Scotty Fenn in the coveralls. In a Drag News ad, Scotty denied having anything to do with the car, apparently getting into a spat with one or more of the team members. But this photo, from Hot Rod Deluxe, shows that he was clearly involved. The Yeakel team sold the chassis to Emery Cook and Cliff Bedwell, and Emery drove it at first with the Cadillac, then they dropped a 354" fuel Chrysler in the car and broke the drag racing speed record at Lions with a 166mph blast. C.J. Hart started the fuel ban the following week.


Two Joe Itow chassis cars at it at Riverside, Rollema and Hill GMC facing Ono, Lew, and Gonzales. This photo has been around and on this thread. I am posting it because the Ono, Lew, and Gonzales car has been found and perfectly restored...now in the Lions' Museum. The Rollema car was restored much earlier, so two drag racing classics are still with us. We cannot give enough credit to those who find and restore these drag cars.


The Sidebotham brothers at San Fernando. It looks like an Italmechanica (sp?) blower with a homemade (or earlyu Hilborn) injector. The Sidebothams started this car with an Ardun, and later got the Olds into it. Bob Sidebotham came by Blair's when I was working on my own Ardun, took one look at it, and said "don't be afaid to run a big load in it." So I took his advice and ran a big load (100% nitro) and it survived, even with my poor mechanical skills. He knew what he was talking about. Bob later drove a series of fuel dragsters. Larry Rose photo.


Really early Santa Ana, from the Screwdrivers of Culver City collection.


Otis Smith from Akron, at the the Indy Nationals, 1962. Steve Suhajcik

 

When I read the name Dave Powers I immediately thought of Powers & Riley, but then you answered in your post that they eventually did team up. I do still wonder though, was Powers a West coast guy known to Shinoda or did Larry find him in the Midwest somehow and run his engine for the Nationals?

 

Shinoda was also the designer of the bodywork of the Watson Indy roadsters.

 

Note the blimp hangars

 

the Oties automotive car is still around I seen it run at the out a sight drags last year the owner is a great guy he was pitted next to me shame my old age prevents me from remembering his name

 

Bob Sidebothom did some chassis building too. He took Bruce McDowel's home built Fiat altered and totally rebuilt the chassis. Bob was working out of the same shop where Demar Ray was building engines. Bob talked Demar into letting him put one of his Blown nitro Hemis in the Fiat. And the "Bad News" coupe was born. First time out he went quicker than a lot of the cars on the Middle Eliminator list.

 

Rollema and Hill, GMC near side, goes against the Ono, Lew, and Gonzales dragster with a blown Olds. Joe Itow built both chasses. Riverside, around 1960 or 1961. From @296ardun

Hello,

What a great post about drag racing history. The team of Ohno, Lew & Gonzales dragster built by Joe Itow, came after our filming time period. It is one of the showcase race cars finishing up at the current Price Transfer Automobilia Lions Museum restoration complex.

Our film capture of Ohno, Lew and Gonzalez at Lion’s Dragstrip was this modified roadster. It was powerful sounding and looked as if it was another Joe Itow chassis sitting under the highly modified roadster in the races at Lion’s Dragstrip. It was impressive and I wanted to see if I could draw what I remembered from 1960.
old Friday Art


Ohno Lew Gonzalez Lion’s Dragstrip

Drag Cars in Motion

Jnaki



Yes, the Lion’s Dragstrip Museum group of great builders is showcasing the “new-old” version of the Ohno Lew and Gonzalez FED in all of its early 60s glory.

From this:

To this:

Lion’s Dragstrip Museum construction

 

Red Lang 1965...

 

Monkey motion huh? That’s bananas! Lol

 

Ready for battle…

 

Sitting in the dragster's seat in front of his Chrysler limousine push car. I remember seeing Red Lang and the Dead End Kids at Connecticut drag-way with this car.

 

Don Johnson's "Beachcomber".