Great Oregon Racers

Finally put on my glasses! The first pic is Ken Martin vs Steve Bovan in the Mr T Camaro.
third one is Schroeders AMX wheelstander.

 

I now own this car, was purchased from Gene Rigert in the early 80's by my good friend Terry Taylor (traded his "Vitamin"C" '62 vette for it") I grew up with this car and am finally geting it back on the strip! Hilborn injected BBC now days. Would Love to get some more early pics of it, I plan on going to see Larry soon.
Don Burgoyne

 

That's great the car is still around, my Brother and I helped with the building of it. Larry has some small construction photos when he built it. Gene's Brother John, raced it for a time, I would bet he has some pics as well. My pal Gerry Grossen, ended up with the "Vitamin C", and restored it back to stock. BTW, I am sure I have an 8mm movie of it at Woodburn in 1975, just have to get it converted to DVD.

 

I would LOVE to have a copy of that video! We have just finished updating the Chassi and waiting to get it re-certified, I have many pics of the updates done by my friend John Terry in Vancouver @ "Big Johns Butchershop" Its nice to find out more of the history of the car, Have great memories of going to PIR in the 70's with Terry and his corvette.

 

Haven't seen John since he retired. We both retired from the same company!

 

This may have already been covered and if so, I apologize.
Both the Wayne Mahafey Phaeton, and the Wusz family roadster were "unrestored" by the late Eric Sanders from Eugene.
Eric was a gentle soul who researched projects before he commited to the actual build (or in these two cases, unbuilt).
To not give him credit is paramount to not giving Edison credit for the light bulb.
I was proud to release his ashes at Speedweek at 225 mph a few years back.
Eric died being owed one hell of a lot of favors by most every one he met.
Bob Drury

 

Yesterday, I finally made the trip down to Newberg to visit my old friend Larry Hill. Larry is the twin Brother of the late Jerry Hill, one of Oregon's best "Drag Racers", along with being the place to go for aluminum and chassis fabrication. Larry and I have been talking for some time about the photo collection he has, of many of the cars Jerry built and raced. When I arrived I was greeted by Mike Guyot, my old partner in a Chrysler powered, Kent Fuller slingshot dragster, we both drove back in the 80's. Mike had sold the car around 20 years ago, but he had kept some parts of the car, including the valve covers. The 336" Hemi was built by Keith Black in the late 60's. Mike decided that I should have one cover, and he would keep the other one. This means a lot to me, to have a part of the car I once raced, especially one I viewed from the rear, at over 190mph. Here are some pics of the valve cover, then and now. I will follow this, with the "Jerry Hill Story", the best way I can, through pictures and recollections from Larry and Dave Wedlake, one of Jerry's race partners.

 

That was a very nice thing for Mike to do! Sure do miss seeing Jerry Hill running down the 1/4 mile!

 

Marty you still look the same.

 

Couverkid, You are a kind young man!

I found this in Jerry's collection, it is both sides of an invite to Jim Livingston's 65th birthday party, 9 years ago. Jim has owned the Woodburn Dragstrip for over 40 years. The other shot is Jim (on the left),giving Jerry Hill an award, they were the best of friends.

 

It was owned by Don Britt until I bought it about 1995. The time ticket I found in another post was sponsored by him (D & K Automotive). The track pic was at McMinnville, and was taken by Pete Sukalac. The third pic is how it looked when I bought it. Still wearing slicks and 4.88s. The last pic was in 1996. It is currently in primer. I'm looking for any pics of it.

Cord
Waldport, Oregon

 

I'd love to see some pictures of Newberg-based Marvin Walker's national record holding 53 Hudson Hornet. He also ran a 62 Chevy Brookwood station wagon (called; "Behemoth") that I believe was also a national record holder. He did some very innovative stuff and always had great performing cars. The 62 wagon would loft the driver's side front tire (not bad for a 283 station wagon!). As a kid, Marvin asked me on a few occasions to "shuttle" his cars to the track when he was running both cars. Great memories.

- EM

 

I'm sure he'd love it if we found some pics he hasn't seen before.

 

I believe Marv's Hudson was originally built and raced by Jack Clifford, and raced by Ed Weir (who bought it in early '64),and painted it black. Marv raced a few Corvairs as well!

 

A couple of other names I remember are Robbie Robinson and Matt Barnett. Anyone have pictures of them and their cars? Kind of funny too in that my young neighbor is a Harley guy and is friends with Dan Baisley's son. I remember Dan's drag bikes were always strong. I believe he had the 2-engine Harley where the front engine was "Heckel" and the rear was "Jeckel" (the 2 magpie cartoon characters).

- EM

 

Found a pic of Len Sutton...

 

I saw that Hornet run in 66 @ PIR, arm drop starts, flagger @ the 1/8" mile indicating first to the line. I was driving a 57 Chevy, got by a 65 Falcon sprint 4sp, that set the hook.

 

Vitamin C

 

The other day I dropped a 35 year old scrapbook that my father loaned me some of the photos fell out so I scaned them. I thought a few of the ones that came unstuck would fit in here, a couple of local cars that you have been talking about

 

It's great to see that old pic of Terry Taylors Corvette, brings back quite a few memories, I wonder where Bill Jawayed's Anglia is now days, always loved that car too!

 

I use to work with bill's neighbor and bill gave him permission to snap a few photos for me in 2005, bill still had the car then, I hope he still does, it was my favorite when I was a kid

 

This is the start of the "Jerry Hill Story", I hope can do justice to his long career as a builder and racer of drag cars! The first shot was taken in San Diego in 1960, while on a trip to visit his Sister. L-R, Jerry, Jerry's Brother in-law, Larry(Jerry's twin Brother), and their younger Brother Jeff. They are looking over this Hemi-powered roadster, must have been some inspiration, as he would have plenty of experience with Hemis later on. #2, In 1962, Jerry and Larry buy this 'A' coupe, built by fellow Newberg resident, Art Johnson. With a 322" Buick mill, Larry told me that Jerry and him "street raced" it for a couple of years, winning most of the races, until they sold it when Jerry got drafted in '64. It currently belongs to Doug Martell of Tigard.#3-6 are of Jerry's first real race car. It was a AA/C that was built by veteran car builder/racer Ken Beebe and was co-owned by Gary Meyer. Gary was part of the Meyer Bros Chrysler/Plymouth dealership in Newberg, and Ken sold his half to Jerry for around $1700. This car gave Jerry his early lessons in sheet metal fab, along with chassis work. It had to be quite a car to start a driving career in, and to his credit, I am told Jerry never competed in any car without a blower!!! The car required a "push start" as was standard practice back then. Not sure how many times they raced it, however they took the car to Walla Walla, and one of Gary's employees had a new Plymouth for a push car. They had fashioned a frame with a plywood insert, to serve as a push board. The Bantam had a roller-ball on the push bar. On the initial fireup, the ball punctured the plywood, and locked the two together, the Plymouth driver swerved in an attempt to unlock the two, and rolled Jerry and the Bantam over. It sheared the blower, injector and mag off of the engine, along with destroying the rest of the car. In the next segment, good things happen, Gary buys a top flight AA/D for Jerry to drive.

 

More pics of the Bantam without the body.

 

<P>Jerry Hill did all the aluminum work on my roadster, Marty, was this done when Larry and you guys originally built the car or when the Rigert's rebuilt it? AWSOME work Jerry did, still looks brand new!</P>

 

2005

 

Jerry did all of the tin work on that car for Larry in '74. Does it still have the "hand hammered" cover over the bell housing? If so, our friend Howard Bacon pounded it out! If you look at the frame rails in the mid-section (between the firewall and the rear kick-ups), notice how they angle upward toward the rear? When the car was built, they were flat, and the body was raked to the front. Larry added a wedge shaped filler panel on the side. After Larry got the car sorted out and was winning races, the NHRA tech committee, changed the rules, one week before a points race. The new rule said the body must be mounted parallel to the frame rail. Their thinking was Larry wouldn't have time to modify the car in one weeks time. Larry called me and we cut the side rails loose at the kick-up and wedge cut it at the firewall and welded it up. We didn't get it done for the weekend, however the race "rained out", and he was good and ready for the makeup race, that he handily won!

 

Here is the cover you are talking about, I'm polishing all the pieces this week, hope to get the car done in about 2 weeks. Not sure if this is the original as Larry ran a stick shift I heard. cool story Marty, Thanks!
Don Burgoyne

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Anyone know Weitzel?

 

That is not the original, the one Howard hammered out,(and Jerry did the welding), had the same shape as the Lakewood bell housing it covered.

 

The only Weitzel I can remember from the drags, is John Weitzel. John was from the St. Helens area, he ran 55/56 Chevy sedan delivery in Modified Production. Strong running small block car!