New member here. I first met Kent when I was a High School Sophomore in 1963. At the time I worked after school at a Foreign Car Wrecking yard run by Fuller's friend Bill Leonhart. Fuller had a shop in the back of Floyd Alves' Champion Automotive in San Carlos and was preparing to move to his new Belmont shop. He was looking for a "shop kid" and I filled the bill. I helped him move his equipment and went to the new shop after school every day. I was in hog-heaven, I saw most of the fast fuel cars that ran the West Coast circuit, plus a lot of guys from back East. I shared a sandwich with the Greek, met McCullough, Leong, and many others. I helped to repair the "Hawaiian" when Roland crashed it at Long Beach. It came out of the shop with its new long-wheelbase iteration..... 150". I spent hours with a rag and lacquer thinner cleaning the new deliveries of tubing. I watched Arnie Roberts building bodies, followed by Ron Covell. Fuller helped me build my '32 Ford Three-Window street rod. I watched and learned from him every day. I helped on the "Volksrod"that made the cover of Car Craft and met most of his family. The week after I volunteered for the Air Force the Greek invited me to go on tour with him as a crew member. A missed opportunity. When I returned from Vietnam, Fuller had moved to Scotts Valley and was building some Funny Cars, plus the Galpin Ford four-engine Funny Car that used a lot of the engineering he learned when he built the Ivo four-engine dragster. He built a three-wheel turbine powered car that used a motorcycle-style single front wheel. Shortly thereafter he moved the shop to Northridge and he helped me build my first rear-engine car. It was one of only four rear engine cars he built. Mine was the twin to Don Prudhomme's "Yellow Feather" followed by two more. One for Tony Nancy and the last for Stan Stewart. I started drag racing in 1972 with the Beaver Brothers old, front-engine Top Fuel Woody car, Fuller built my first new car and I subsequently went on to build my first car in my garage, some ten years later, and the car won "Best Engineered" at the 1984 World Finals. When Fuller retired and moved to Santa Rosa he had a shop in Sonoma, for his Land Speed Record project. He built the body for my second dragster out of mag. We bent the upper panels using a steel table and a large diameter piece of tubing. I have a lot of stories from those days, and if anyone wants to hear them, let me know.
The Tom Jobe series hooked us all… we love hearing how and why guys started and their successes. I know what I did and doesn’t hold a candle to the beginning drag guys and the stories of how our suppliers started and helped us all.
I worked @ Peninsula mazda in Redwood city with my service manager Dave and he used to talk about you guys al the time.Do I have the right O'Donovan?
Welcome Derry, I used to watch you run at Seattle, and seem to remember you had young ladies on your crew. We are about the same age, you were so fortunate to have that whole connection with Fuller. I bought and raced the early Nostalgia races in a car Kent built in 68 or 69, with a Covell body. I will be looking forward to reading those stories, and if you tell them, it won't be history lost. The 3 wheeled Dragster was for my friend Marlo Treit. In closing, I think you went to school with Mike McCann who went on to build and Race Supermodifeds with the great talent in your area, another long time friend of mine.
Welcome, Derry. Stories? Kent Fuller? Bring 'em on and, just in case you don't know, We Love Pictures!! Thanks in advance, Carp.
Yes, more stories please! For the rest of us, we can build 1/25 scale models of Kent Fuller framed cars such as: Early '60s rail (pre-order): https://atlantis-models.com/preorder-keelers-kustoms-kent-fuller-dragster-1-25/ Ivo Showboat: https://www.spotlighthobbies.com/al...tommy-ivo-showboat-4-engine-buick-dragster-3/
Sounds like you ran in the same circles as my good friend Jim Keeter. I always enjoy hear the history stories from back in the day. Please keep sharing your history lessons
Can never hear too many stories! Sounds like you were in the right place at the right time! Pictures will get you bonus points here!
Here's Fullers first dragster build, at San Fernando Drag Strip around 1957 "Daddys Autobody dragster.
old artwork including custom flames… showing early So Cal dragstrip color... Hello, Back when the Tommy Ivo group was starting, it was known that the Buick motors, big and powerful with carbs or later on Hilborn Injection would end up in someone’s project. In 1957, Daddy’ Auto Body was such a recipient. The colorful yellow full streamlined FED was pretty advanced for the times. There were only a few race cars that were streamlined. Kenny Safford moved to dragsters from stock car racing. He experienced the thrill of their performance at the wheel of Don Johnson’s streamlined, Daddy’s Auto Body top gas car. That first ride in 1958 hooked Kenny on driving. (from that experience, in 1960 he teamed up with Don Gaide and then Don Ratican to run as the famous Sour Sister’s FED ) Jnaki Drag News weekly 1958 JAN 5 1958 POMONA Daddy’s Auto Body winning the A/Gas Dragster class. Look who won the A Street Roadster Class!!! It was a Road Kings outing at Pomona Dragstrip January 5, 1958. 1958 * means class record Here is a great story on Daddy's Auto Body, Buick powered dragster from 1958. They were very successful in So Cal and then ideas started flying around in the San Fernando Valley. “ After Kent Fuller of Encino completed the tubular chassis, The Daddy’s Auto Body men took charge and reconstructed the fiberglass body with the enclosed fiberglass cockpit.” https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/friday-art-show-6-5-20.1195961/#post-13614329 Up pops version two of Daddy's Auto Body dragster: This time with an Ivo stroker motor (including the famous Tommy Ivo, up swept individual header pipes...) in Daddy’s Auto Body FED, and some new colors...
jnaki 1958 * means class record Here is a great story on Daddy's Auto Body, Buick powered dragster from 1958. They were very successful in So Cal and then ideas started flying around in the San Fernando Valley. “ After Kent Fuller of Encino completed the tubular chassis, The Daddy’s Auto Body men took charge and reconstructed the fiberglass body with the enclosed fiberglass cockpit.” In 1958 I was a little kid growing up in Encino. I wish that I could have been a part of the early days of drag racing but despite being close geographically, I wasn't aware of it at all. More Kent Fuller stories, please!
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