History Fremont Dragstrip Today Oct 2009! Pics!

Thanks for the memories. We lived in Sunnyvale and San Jose, Dad worked for Lockheed Missiles. My brother and I went up in a glider at Les Arnolds gliderport in like 1960 or 61. Five bucks. I sat on my brothers lap in the front cockpit and got to pull the red knob. (release cable) He had a Piper super cub he towed with. We still have 8mm movies somewhere. I also can remember hearing the boat drags going on next door to the strip and hearing times. I heard once, "one hundred sixty mph" Ivo's showboat was there one day at Fremont, Romeo's untouchable jet car raced Masters and Richters fuel dragster, (dragster won and ran 202mph). I also saw the Dodge Charger team there.Davis and Ingram Purple fiat, Ahhhhhhhhhh. I remember. Lippy

 

In the 80's one summer I use to run Saturday testing at Fremont/Baylands. I'd get there in the morning early set up the Christmas tree and lights, sweep the track and put down the VHT. It was a blast! Terry Gness the owner said he pay me $35.00 for Saturdays, but I did it for nothing. Hell I got plenty of work for my chassis shop. So it paid more than enough!! I owned Cab-Co Race Cars at the time.

 

Keep em coming guys..Too Cool!! Thanks!!

 

Hey!! Any of you remember "Porky the Pirate". He was a one-legged welder. He used to come out to the track for the bigger meets. Man! What a piece-a-work he was. I thought he was so cool.

I used to like to stand at the fence along side the fire-up road and try to guess where the fuel guys would flip the "Mag" switch, so I could catch that shower of raw nitro when the motor lit.

WOW! I haven't told some these stories in ages! I LIKE this! The memories are just flooding in. Two-finger typing takes awhile tho'. Better go now. more stories later.

Thanks!! Have A Great Day!!! FEDs and Fuel Altereds RULE!!! Bye! Bye!

 

Sad but True..... Ran there on Wednesday nights in the "high school" bracket.=suckers! Started in 85' I know A LOT of past history has taken place there! Ran at the LAST DRAG RACE,and almost made the finals.
I miss it as it was close! I hope something happens soon around here.Eagle field perhaps?

 

Last time I was there...1988 I think...I used my GMC as tow vehicle for Mickey George's flathead rail.



Neal

 

I worked there from the day it opened until I got drafted in 1965. There was a lake for boat drags as well. There are great memories from Fremont and it still pisses me off that it's not there today. Like others have said it was politics and developers that killed it.

 

Porky was a trip, Moon recovery tank on his peg leg (full of booze or beer!) Man, if you ever had him weld on your car, the first thing you'd do after getting home was have a certified welder fix all his "goober" welds!

 

love the porn music

 

Hey so can i get your autograph.

 

Kick Ass Stories and Pics guys..I'm soakin it up..

 

I've also heard that the last race was delayed by quite a bit becasue when they showed up in the morning, the christmas tree had been "borrowed" sometime during the night & that the Baylands sign had been taken also. This is from a computer illiterate friend who was there.

 

This is great! We went there a lot in the 60s. My brother would borrow our uncle's '56 and race it almost every week. We never got caught. It was an adventure to drive my Olds powered '38 coupe through Crow Canyon to get to Vic Hubbard's in Hayward. I saw Craig Breedlove run his Rocket car at Freemont. And that drag boat that got away may have been a friend of mine. He did that at least twice! We saw a bad boat wreck there once. Great memories, Thanks to you all!

 

The sad reality of missing tracks. As a kid I watched my Father run at West Capital, Vallejo, Baylands, all removed in the name of progress. My Grandfather told me stories of Oakland Speedway, Pacheco, Vacavalley. At one point central California was a major hub for racing, now all we're left with are the memmories.

 

This one kills me... watch the timer, it's like a 30 second run! Hahahahaha

 

The people who are responsible for closing Fremont need to be kicked right square in the nuts.

I have a ton of pics... I'll have to scan them.

Sam

 

I know who has the sign. It hung in a muffler shop for many years.

Any one else know who I am talking about!!!!!!!!!!

 

Wow,I just went and read back a few to get caught up on this thread. I could not beleive that so many ran that ran this track and dont even live anywhere near it now. Not even in this state.

 

I remember going there all the time also. What a shame to close it in the "name of progress". My most vivid memory of the place is when Raymond Beatle ran a 6.99 in the Blue Max and the announcer said that was the first funny car to run under seven sec. and that record would stand for a long time!

 

I know... too funny..

 

The track was actually closed two years earlier than it was supposed to. Southern pacific wanted the land back to sell to developers, but Terry Gness had two years left on the lease. He was offered a million dollars to give up the lease. I remember like it was yesterday when he told me. He had just gotten the phone call from S.P. w/ the offer. He came by my shop to look at car I was building for him. But a million dollars is hard to pass up. Terry was a drag racer, he use to run top fuel front engine dragsters in the 60's so I'm sure it was a hard decision to make. Fremont was one of the quickest tracks in the country. On a weather station I've seen the air go 800' feet below sea level. No where in the country can you duplicate these conditions. I remember seing Gary Beck go 5.39 in top fuel. It took over two years to break that record!!!! If fremont were still around today there would have been some ungodly E.T. records set before this lame 1000' racing. They definitely would have had to lengthen the track though. I made my first pass down Fremont in '69 in a 57 Chevy J/S. It's been closed for awhile but i still miss the hell out of it!!!!

 

My dad worked with Chet Carter in Sanjose all through the 60's and 70'smy dad told me a story that Chet had a little T tub that my dad just loved and begged Chet to let him drive it and one day agreed to let my dad take it for a spin but only if he stayed in the parking lot and when my dad pulled it out on to the street like he was going
to leave Chet almost had a heart attack to this day it makes my dad smile

By the way that movie clip that shown in the previous post my dad said that they
paid Chet Carter to have his car in the movie does anybody have pics or know
anything about it

 

derelict ... great pics ... thanks for sharing.

Here's one of my father's photographs taken @ Fremont circa 1964:


Bob Walters "The Violent Vender" A Fuel Dragster (A/FD) out of Lansing, Michigan

 

My Dad ran Kingdon on friday night....Fremont on sat and Vacaville on sunday...In 1963 in his Poppy Red 57 Chevy sedan delivery called "ONTOS" that was towed by a 57 Bel Air....I'll got snag a pic of the car with trophies from all 3 strips on the hood.

 

Here's a Fremont and a Irwindale shot of back in the 77-78 period, at the NHRA points meets.

 

The vid with scenes from the 1979 TV movie "Hot Rod", looks like Robert Culp in the sports jacket, and tree hugger Ed Begley Jr in the stands. Begley's character's name was "Clay aka Rebel of The Road"... what a hoot.

BTW, here's the google maps link to the site.

 

Thanks for posting all those pics..I seen alot of those on the internet..

By the way for anyone who wants a real nice reproduction of the Fremont dragstrip Jacket, they're available through Andys T Shirts in Concord,Ca

http://www.andystees.com/Merchant2/..._Code=ATS&Product_Code=2000&Category_Code=300

 

Nice early shots!!

 

Keith's Dad At The Water Box

 

Thats me!! Nostalgia nats mid 80's