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

Looks like M/T dumped some "Tire Black" on his hair....
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Thanks Mutt...you done good...damn fine photos!

 

cool pix today muttley! Thanks

 

Bahawhawahhahaawaaa

 

Wow, great photo of Paradise Mesa. It had been a Navy OLF (practice landing field) during WW2. Covered in houses now.

 

Mike;you always find the BEST photos!!!! ROY.

 

double post

 

Nice shot of Skip Hess' "Revell Kit" Mustang. This car was a fiberglass body and the body was obviously pulled from a real Mustang since the door jambs and such have spot-weld divots as the steel ones do. It also has Mustang door handles and the inner door panels look exactly like production parts, grain and all. The car was bracket-raced in the late-70's and early '80's in the Sacto-area with a BB Chevy and painted yellow, but otherwise it was untouched and very original, right down to the gold-anodized tinwork (Hannah, I think). It was bought around '82 by Frank Hizer in Fortuna who sold it to Jackie Allen around '84 for $1800 as a rolling chassis. Jackie pretty much cut it up, installing a 351C/C6, cutting the chassis in half for a Mustang II suspension and more recently a funny car cage, plus painting it purple with flames. He still races it with his daughter driving it to mid-10's but you'd never guess it was the same car.

 

some scans from an NHRA program from the CHRR #2 in 1993



my "home" track as a kid..San Gabriel Drag Strip (below) just east of where the Irwindale oval is today and was just east of the 605 Freeway which was in not yet built back in the "Golden Years"...

Lefty Mudersbach in the twin-engined cat up against Bill Alexander in the Ernies Camera Shop "Shutter Bug" in 1961. Tommy Ivo also took the wheel on occasion.
In 1961, my folks were dropping me off at the strip as I was till in elementary school, but in 1962, I was in the 7th grade and they let me ride my bike...I was a "big kid" then...all of 11 !!!!



San Gabriel was a rough and tumble strip, bare-bones just as a drag strip should be....splintery bleachers, crummy hot dogs and lots of good racing. Man, for a kid it was paradise....(still would be...but....it's all long gone...all of it, not just San Gabriel...any "nostalgia" drag racing today doesn't even hold a candle to the real days of drag racing )

Chris Karamesines, on the right, up against Jerry Ellis...the flag man is Don Garlits....really



The first jet I ever saw was this one right here at San Gabriel...in fact this was probably photographed that very day...."The Untouchable" ...a few months later the jet would go on to have the famous match race right here against Tommy Ivo. Thats when TV Tom showed up to the starting line with the hot dogs and marshmallows on his roll bar...always "the Showman", Ivo...
Old Westinghouse J-47 jet engines powered many early jets...like this one



Jim Ward, another San Gabriel favorite.........



..and the first time I saw this great racer was at San Gabriel and it was there where this photo was taken. Dye-Hampton's twin coupe driven by Don Hampton.

 

Nice shot!! ^^^^^ simple but effective!

 

That was a place where many of us cut our teeth. I preferred it to Lions for many reasons and, while Irwindale was great and I wish we had it back, San Gabriel will always be home. I drove by there earlier this week and took a little mind-trip, gazing out at the Edison sub-station that sprawls across the area today.

Speaking of "rough and tumble" the "Topless" road house bar on Rivergrade Road right around the corner was worth a glance if you had any loose change in your pocket after a night at the track.