Great Oregon Racers

Hey Marty, finally got onboard the HAMB. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get some pictures up. Found some more great old Madras and Woodburn shots

 

Welcome! Scan 'em and post 'em! we are short on drag pics!

 

Lloyd, You can bring some pics to me and we will post them here, I can help you get started anyway. I am re-posting a shot of your dragster from Madras in the 60's! Great to have you aboard.

 

Yesterday, I attended the Jack Frost remembrance held in Vancouver, there was a great turnout of his friends and fellow racers. I spent quite a bit of time visiting with Jim Livingston (owner of Woodburn Dragstrip), Gary Parham and Steve Doane, Jim Barnard and John Anderson,and many of the Slo Poks such as, Earl Floyd and Wayne Harry. Al Drake and Don Pennington were there,a lot of old racing stories told and a good friend remembered, he was clearly one of a kind. Enjoy these pics.

 

Well, Lloyd Hamilton (still doin it) one of our new members on here, was having problems loading some pics, so he sent them to me to post. Lloyd started racing "Hardtops" at the "Salem Speedway" in about 1961, and by 63, Lloyd and his brother in law Paul Boehler, and a guy named Bill Sturgess, teamed to run an A/D. Bill owned the car, Paul built the Blown Gas 327, he also built the intake manifold and used a 6-71 with the flange trimmed off. The first 3 pics are of that car and were taken at McMinnville in about 63, the one shot shows the back end of 2 slingshots, they are from Tumwater,Wa. The closest one is Earl Poage's Dragmaster, dubbed "Little Trouble", the other one is Gordie Craig's, "Old Lady Trouble". They were both powered by blown 413 Chrysler "wedge" engines on gas. Earle's ran AA/D and Gordie's ran A/D and they were top runners out of their club, "The Cogs". Lloyd outran Gordie on one of their match ups, I doubt Gordie went home happy! Lloyd is in the driver seat, Paul is by the engine, notice the "Vic's Motors" pickup and camper. More tomorrow!

 

Lloyd Hamilton part 2:

Around 1964 Bill Sturgess, who owned the Dragster chassis, left for the service, and Lloyd and Paul, decided to build a new car. The old car had a 96" wheelbase, the new one would be a 120" car. Paul built the chassis and they found a guy in Vancouver that specialized in forming aluminum aircraft parts, to built the "chute pack" body for their new project. They upgraded the engine with a Weiand intake manifold and a 2" gilmer belt drive for the blower and debuted the new car in 65. In 1966 Paul got relocated on his job and moved away. Adrian Wright, who was a "master" engine builder who ran "Custom Engines" in Aurora, stepped in and helped Lloyd as mechanic, They raced the new car from 1966 thru 69, running mid 8's at 172. Paul moved back to Willamina and specialized in building some great flathead engines until his passing a few years back. Lloyd's handle, (Still Doing It) is quite appropriate as he is currently racing a "Jerry Hill" slingshot Dragster, with a blown alcohol SBC, turning 6.80's at 198!

 

I'm diggin the heck out of these Marty! Keep it up and THANKS!

 

Just a couple of the over 800 photos in the new book Brotherhood of Speed (sorry about the promo). Skeans Automotive modified roadster (right) that was undefeated during the 1959 season. The chassis wa then run by Nick Nicholson and Jim Wasson with a blown Chrysler, has since been tagged the "Slagmaster" and is now owned by Scott Perrott . The next year they partnered with Jerry Pickering and acquired a new chassis from Eddie Smith's dad Clarence which went on to win class at the '61 US Nationals (got beat in eliminations by Mooneyes). The other picture is of the Dave Skeans driving the '37 Ford that started the Skeans deal, Ran B/G, National Record in 1960. It's in the book!
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Don, You could have mentioned Dave Skeans in the 37 Ford, was racing Jack Coonrod in his 27 Tub! Love the book, it is recommended reading for anyone who cares about NW hotrod history.

 

Oops...Dave Skeans was the driver of the '37, but the car he was racing was Vern and Gordon Goheen's T, which was very similar to Coonrod's first race car.
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Oh man! This photo brings back some great memories! This appears to be taken on Marine Drive in Portland, looking across the Colombia River towards Vancouver. My ol fishin buddy and I used to sit at the end of that dock [The sherrif's dock] drinkin Bud and fishing for sturgeon. Right above the 55's decklid is a 90 foot deep hole that's given me more than a few 5 footers..great fishing after midnight.
Uh, sorry...we now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

 

Doesn't look much different today.



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Sent from a pay phone

 

Don, it looks like you got me on that one! After I looked it up in the book, I thought about deleting my post. How unusual to have 2 cars that much alike. Coonrod did break the C/SR national record in 59 with his, the last time I saw that car was in the 70's, when Dan Donaca had it painted "candy apple red", I wonder where it is today.

 

The other day I stopped at Lonnie Gilbertson's shop, to finish the roll cage in his new 55 Chev Gassser, I noticed these Chrysler Donovan valve covers in the wash tank. They are off of a race boat from the 60's called "The Stinger", it was owned and raced by Arnie Olosson, who owned "Acme Welding". The engine was originally built by "Columbia Racing Engines", notice the two names engraved in them. Arnie built trailers and hitches for many of our famous drag and boat racers. Arnie's grandson, Dwayne now owns the boat and runs a body/paint shop out of the old Acme building. Dwayne has been painting for Lonnie for some time and putting the final paint on the 55 now. Here are some shots of both. BTW we will be running the 55 on some Wed nites at PIR this summer.

 

Lonnie's '55 is high end, like everything I've seen with his name on it! Very nice workmanship Marty! I'm a little color blind; is that a butterscotch sort of color?

 

You are right about Lonnie, he is a unique blend of racer and show car guy, winning the AMBR title twice and driving / building his own race cars, never lowering his standards along the way. The color is House Of Colors "Candy Pagan Gold", it will be blindingly bright!

 

Got a new batch of photos from Ralph Hunt, these are of Kenny Dean, the one shot was taken at the "Speedcycles" car show, in about 1953. There is some interesting reading here, along with a view taken from the Portland Speedway grandstands!

 

I posted pics of the Bob Duedall Competition Coupe earlier, this is an update, Jim Lindsay (current owner and restorer) recently took the coupe to the GNRS, he captured the Dragster class and even got his picture taken with Candy Clark and Bo Hopkins at the show. Here are some shots from 50 years ago and today.

 

More Hardtops #28 is Emmett Vining,#78 is Clarance Schmidt,and #51 (Fay Ladd) who would become the Mayor of Gervais. One of his sponsors "Case & Lauby" had one of the first dynos in the area.

 

Marty, HAMB'ers! We REALLY need some drag pics this weekend! I'm freash out. Thanks.

 

"Did you notice the guy was wearing a gun!"

Ha! This justifies my concept of "Gas Wars" in the late 50's, early 60's when I was a little boy!

- EM

 

Here is a shot of Bob Duedall from 62'. Gary, I have some drag pics that need sizing, if you PM me your regular email, I will forward them to you, and you can post them.

 

Thanks for posting these, Marty. My pal Twisty Ron Austin worked on the resto and was at the GNRS. The dragster is known as "the Doodah Car" around here. The Lindsay Bros deserve their own place on this thread (unless I missed it). Amazing scene they have going in Shedd, Oregon! What a bunch of characters...

Scotty

 

#53 is Rod Love (how appropriate on "Valentines Day"), #66 is Bob Cochran,#99 is Cecil Hunt from Eugene, also #45 is another Eugene racer, and a shot of Seattle racer, Cliff Spalding with his Hemi powered machine!

 

Marty, got the pics, I'll see what I can do. I will be out of LA for a few days, then to Bako for the MM for a week. Thanks!

 

This is a cool thread, A little bit off subject but I was serching this forum about Doc Lavinder. After his passing a few years later I had puchased a 51 ford Panel truck from a Lady in Lyons that use to belong to Doc. My question is did anyone know Doc and any information on how he got the panel or its History? All I know is it use to be a florist truck in Lebonon Or. Thanks

 

Here is some info from the papers in 1965, notice Bill Ireland was running A/MP, ran 11.31!

 

I am guessing this is Vic's Motors dragster, due to how far forward the engine is mounted, note the hydraulic throttle.

 

More of Lloyd Hamilton making the turnaround at the Woodburn starting line, around 1967. Lloyd is behind the wheel and it is probably Adrian Wright "tweaking" the barrel valve on the Enderle "Shower Head" injector. I like the trailer shot with "Scotty's Drive In" along side.

 

Scotty's Drive In was a great sponsor of several race cars years ago. I waas sad when they closed up, as it was a great cruise spot too! I remember the yellow Anglia gasser they sponsored.