History Hot Rodder Mob Battles Police in San Diego Riot

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Hot Rodder Mob Battles Police in San Diego Riot

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This.

I was never able to find any real news of the time from the riots, but the Library of Congress finally opened up a bit for my membership and I was able to snag this article. To me, it's fascinating for some many reasons.

 

One person's hoodlum is another's hero...

Yes. And thank you for refraining. Not necessary to say more or drag it out to hell... nor would it be productive in any way, shape, or form.

Some of the names arrested that day are held in very high regard today. I'll refrain from naming them cuz who am I to do that? Again, not really necessary.

The point is though, people fear what they don't understand... and the general public didn't really understand hot rodding - even as late as the 1960s.

 

Well yeah... that much is obvious. These were all kids really. The drag strip was ripped from their hands and they were seething, a righteous fury that boiled over in the streets. There's no gray area here, no muddled miscommunication. The story is simple, straight as an arrow shot from the bow of juvenile rage. No room for the bureaucratic bullshit of interpretation. Most of those hauled in by the cops didn’t even bother with a fight—they pled guilty and wore it like a badge of defiance. Some still do. Some are in the hot rodding hall of fame... and one or two are/were members here.

Street racing is immature, dangerous, and irresponsible. It's also where hot rodding started. This isn’t just about hopped up old Fords - it’s about a legacy of rebellion. And it's super interesting.

I love this kind of shit, because I know some of these old farts now.

EDIT: And for the record, if I were alive back then... and in San Diego, I probably would have been one of the dumb kids rioting. Cuz I was a dumb kid too...

 

I think anyone that has studied hot rodding in any depth will reasonably conclude that hot rodding was born from rebellion. The original hot rods were, after all, dual purpose roadsters - for street and dry lakes. You think these guys kept a feathered foot on the throttle until they were on the dry lakes?

Also, do this - Go to newspapers.com and search the term "hot rod" between the years of 1948 and 1965 and you’ll find a whopping 74.67% of the articles dripping with disdain and finger-wagging negativity. I know this as I'm helping with a book on the matter.

I've interviewed guys in the past as well... Guys like Wally Parks, Dean Bachelor, Alex Xydias, Barney Navarro, and many, many others about this very thing because it's so fascinating to meet these older esteemed gentlemen and realize they were once dumb kids too... These men, now venerated figures, were once kids hell-bent on speed, on the rush, on the sheer joy of tearing up the rulebook. They weren’t all chasing dreams of fame on the racetrack; many were just born hot rodders, nothing more, nothing less.

Take Mal Hooper, for instance—he was a punk rocker masquerading as a car guy... a misfit icon. Bill Burke, who had his license stripped post-war for racing his roadster, only to wrangle it back with sheer determination and some inside help. And who could forget Ed Roth? The man’s escapades with the law are the stuff of legend to a chosen few. And Tommy Ivo? He danced with the devil of street racing pretty regularly.

The list is endless, a veritable roll call of our hoodlum forefathers. I coined this site’s tagline after Barney Navarro let slip, “I was just a hoodlum at the time... dreaming of being a race car driver.”

And in my eyes, this rebellion is what makes hot rodding so special... and it's most certainly the reason why this site exists. In the 1990's when old farts were sitting in lawn chairs at car shows with their cars that looked like suppositories, I was put off... sort of grossed out... That bullshit isn't hot rodding. To me anyway...

 

Which brings to mind the first real hot rod movie... Hot Rod in 1950:



Basically the story of a rebellious teen that bought a hot rod despite the disapproval of his hard ass dad... who was also a judge. Of course, the teen gets wrongly accused of a hit and run accident and he's got to prove to his old man that it wasn't him...

 

Ah, very much indeed. But don't let the historical revisionists fool you with their "one night stand" fairy tales. This wasn't just a flash in the pan, not by a long shot. The riot erupted late on a Sunday, but the fallout resonated through the week like the aftershocks...

Like mentioned, the chaos ignited on a Sunday... Come Monday night, the boys in blue were back at it, swinging their riot sticks and letting the tear gas fly. Fifty-seven were carted off to the clink that night. But the fever didn't break. By Tuesday, the protests swelled again. This time, the local rags labeled the unrest as "non-violent," yet 63 juveniles still found themselves in handcuffs. The police reports had a dark poetry to them: "More than 200 cars cruised up and down El Cajon Boulevard. Arrests were made on charges of disorderly conduct, failure to obey lawful orders, and operating vehicles with loud exhaust."

By Friday, the tally of arrests climbed over 300. Most of these poor souls paid a $200 fine and were sent on their way, but a few unlucky bastards found themselves tangled in the web of serious legal trouble. I haven't gotten through all of em, but there are a handful that ended with a prison sentence.

Then, a spark of sanity flickered... Enter Gary Pangburn, a 19-year-old junior college student who decided it was time to inject some logic into the madness. He marched into the lair of the El Cajon Police Chief and demanded a sit-down. To everyone's surprise, the chief obliged. They hashed out a plan: Gary would rally the leaders of the 15 local hot rod clubs to form a council and present the case for a public drag strip to the city. A nice easy way of getting these kids off the street by making them think they had a voice, right?

But Gary wasn't just another dim-witted dreamer. He had the foresight to enlist a heavyweight - Wally Parks. Wally brought in the cavalry. This act of guerrilla diplomacy paid off big time. The end result? Two shiny new drag strips: San Diego Raceway and Carlsbad Raceway.

And that, my friend, is how a riot birthed a Southern California Drag Race Revolution.

 

I first heard the story around 2005 or so from Wally. I was absolutely obsessed with it and researched like a mad man. I even got copies of the minutes from the City Council meeting. Over 300 arrests, something like 70 cars impounded, and all kinds of other shenanigans punished and not... And yet in the 75 page minutes recorded that day, this was the only thing mentioned about Gary:



A few months later, Wally spoke to them... and I think his threats of more upheaval and broken laws is what did it. But again, the meeting notes are a one liner.

I tracked Gary for years hoping to get an interview, but I never could find him. I believe he passed in 2015. But in 1971, a man with the same name was arrested for armed robbery in San Diego. He and another man (Jess Boykin) robbed a convenience store... Gary fought like hell in court saying he wasn't armed, but he was eventually convicted and did time. I am almost certain this is the same Gary, but I can't be sure...

People are complicated beasts....

 

Modern day tracks keep closing more and more so it's back to the streets.
History repeating itself.