Another thing they did at Lions Friday night, they ran the 335 h.p. '59 Chevys 4 abreast because there were so many of them. They all started at the same time, and they all got to the end at the same time. Super exciting as you can imagine.......
hello, thanks to everyone that has viewed the lions 60 movie clip. thanks again to ryan for allowing everyone access to these movies. i have edited our most of the mistakes and left overs for my own files, but it looks like an edited version. during this time in 1960, my brother and i were taking a break from racing our 58 impala in a/stock class. since we lived near lions, we still went there almost every saturday/sunday. but, we were busy in our garage building what we thought was a first...in april, we started a 1940 willys coupe build with a sbc and 6 strombergs on top. it was red primer, no insignias from sponsors, traction master bars, black wheels, etc. a pure garage build. it ran well for the first build. but, in june, it got a full rebuild and an added 671 with the same 6 strombergs on top. now, it was a full on charger...it too ran well and but it met a tragic end at night, on august 13, 1960 in the final elimination race for the c/gas class. we lost all of our photos/movies of this car and would like to know if anyone out there has contacts or photos of our car during april to august 1960 at lions. thanks, junji nakamura here is our story and search parameters: My brother and I built a 1940 Willys Coupe in the early 1960. After racing our 1958 black Chevy Impala in the A/Stock class almost every week at Lions, we thought it would be fun to build something faster. The 40 Willys was set up to run 6 Strombergs on the 283 SBC motor, Howard Cams flywheel, and LaSalle/Chevy adapter, (LaSalle trans, 4:11 Chevy rear) first and ran well at Lions. The Willys then had a full rebuild to 292 c.i. small block Chevy, Howard cam plus full kit, Jahns pistons, ported & polished heads, Joe Hunt Mag, with a 671 supercharger and 6 Strombergs on top. It was one of the first 671 kits available for SBC motors. The car was red primer, no insignias, Traction Master bars, and black rims with Bruce slicks. It ran in the C/Gas class with times in the 12:60’s et all day on August 13, 1960. We were in the finals at 9:00 pm against the class champion and my brother had a two car lead just past the tower. He was at least 3 cars ahead by the traps, when the clutch blew and exploded the Moon Tank in the cab. Later, my brother told me he tried putting out the fire with the on board extinguisher, it did not work as the fire was too strong. The car was on fire going through the traps and my brother jumped out going about 60 mph ( as told to us by the racers on the return road) The car immediately turned right and crashed into the chain link fence. We tried over 10 bottles of fire extinguishers to no avail. My brother was put into an ambulance and taken to the local hospital. He had 3 degree burns over 30% of his body and face. The car burned to a crisp, wedged into the chain link fence. (the next day, Atts Ono and I found shards of metal wedged into the dash, door, glove box, etc, The scattershield was nowhere to be found. There was a huge hole in the floor of the cab where the explosion had ripped open an escape route of flying pieces, the moon tank was melted away, the bolts were the only thing left, the glove box door was slightly melted from the heat.) We took the burned out car back to Atts Ono’s house for disassembly. Then after an all-day de-construction, we trailered the burned out car to a salvage yard near Lions dragstrip. I am trying to get together anything I can about my brother for his two sons. (He sadly passed away in 1992) He was a very quiet guy and his sons never knew of his car building, drag racing days. That was a silent period of his history that I want to show his two sons. If there are any photos or videos that you have or know of floating around your friends from back in those days, that would be extremely helpful. Digitizing our old movies made me start this search and fill in that silent period of his racing history. Sadly, we lost all photos of our 40 Willys in the zillion house moves since then. In that last race, I thought it was Tom Sturm’s C/Gas modified Chevy. But no one can remember. I have talked to Eddy Grist of the Grist Family. He was on the return road with his family after his dad had just made a run in A/Gas. He saw the whole explosion, resulting fire and crash. It was something he will never forget as quoted to me recently. There were other families and racers on this return road, but they remain a mystery. If there are any contacts you may know, photographers that were there in 1960 (April to August), racers, families, drag strip staff, etc. someone may have taken some photos or movies. Please let me know. By the way, after our clutch explosion and resulting fire, the Lions safety committee made it a rule that no aluminum, Moon gas tank(s) would be allowed inside of the cab of any vehicle. Everyone had to move it in front or to the rear of the car. Our friend, Atts Ono, (who was instrumental in helping us get our car ready, was in our pit crew, and helped in the immediate tear down after the explosion) moved his Moon tank in front of the motor, out of the cab, in his own 40 Willys build, later. (I used to be a contributing editor for Street Rodder/Chopper Magazines from inception to 1975 when I drifted away from cars until recently. I have used up all of my old contacts from back in those days, so any help is appreciated.)
I will go through my Willys pictures and see if I can find anything that matches your description. Thanks for sharing the video with us. It's some great early footage.
Very much appreciated. The black and white Lions 150 MPH club jacket was still much coveted. Two cars caught my eye, Herbert/Cagel and Garlits. To my recollection the fuel ban wasn't lifted til about 1962. These two cars seem out of place???
Wow, that is some great footage...... thank you Ryan for posting and thank you Jnaki for making this snap shot of a great period in the history of hot rods and drag racing available....
Junji, I can't think of a better place to ask for help in your quest, the HAMB is an amazing place! Good Luck and thanks for sharing your experiences.
hello, i sent don ewald a copy of the movie a while back because he is the historian of all things drag racing on his website we did it for love ( wdifl ). that was also the first version of the film straight from the 16mm reels. i wanted it to get out there fast and he accepted the film. since then, i have made other copies and ryan graciously posted them here on hamb. thanks, jnaki if you liked the lions films, you may want to stay tuned for 1958 riverside raceway and 1960 bakersfield meets later this summer. look on the "altered" thread for a preview of riverside in 58.
Stellar! If I'm not mistaken, isn't that Don Garlits brother in the Hemi dragster with the red valve covers? Just wondering.
Junji, I'm pretty sure that's Ed Garlits, Don's brother. I have seen bits of Junji's other films. Get ready for a real treat guys!
Wow, this was a blast from the past! The lack of safety barriers, and the crowd standing next to the track, between the return road, makes me cringe today, but we had the same setup in the N.W. at McMinnville & Woodburn strips. In hindsight, not much thought given to safety, back in the good ole days. But I wouldn't trade them for anything. (DEAN, is that you and your R.P.U. at the 4:00 minute mark?) Thanks, jnaki, for providing this great slice of history. Hope members are able to provide additional pieces.... And thanks, Ryan for leaving well-enough alone.
This looks like the same car at Lions. Close but no Cigar. It looks like a 41, maybe JR Thompson's ? I wonder if Rockerhead (Don Montgomery)would have a picture of your car? He is from California and was a Lakes racer then bought a Willys coupe very early on. He has written a book on the Gassers. Here is an early picture of his Willys. (Second picture is Don's)
Hello, The rear drive SBC silver dragster was unique. It was very low and unusual. It made several runs and sounded like an SBC with straight pipes. These early times had different creations of race cars. As the saying goes, "Variety is The Spice of Life..." and variety is what we got in 1960. Everyone was impressed with the build. But, after looking at the original Sidewinder, nothing compares to that original, fast, rear engine dragster from Joe Mailliard/Paul Nicolini. But, since you liked the SBC one, here is a compilation film of it at lions. Thanks, Jnaki
hello, the real sidewinder of joe malliard: 1959 lions: it was rare that i could get so close to the action. no one yelled a me to get out of the area. my pit pass was showing and the officials must have thought i was part of the crew...i wish...the camera did not have a telephoto lens, just a fixed standard lens for family movies. sorry for the odd color of this movie, we were experimenting with another brand of film, ansco. we went immediately back to kodak for those other movies. thanks, jnaki
hello, it was 16mm color film and yes, they were expensive to buy and process. but the sneaky thing that i did was to "borrow" the camera with film already in it and take my drag racing movies. so, when my dad thought the film was finished, he had it processed and bought another film reel ready to shoot. it was a cool way to get what we wanted and for my parents to pay for it. all i had to do was to take out our portion of the movies and splice my dad's movies back together. he did get the movies he wanted and he was a fanatic to have the camera ready for other "family" shots...we all know what "family" shots are and try to hide when the camera comes out. i will post others that fit into the threads...glad you liked what ryan posted...
hello, not a barn find, but thanks to rruss here on the hamb for his happenstance movie from lions. i think this clip is our 40 willys at lions. it is primered, black wheels, and if you look closely underneath, it has what looks like traction master bars. the puzzling thing is that it is too blurry to identify what is sticking out of the hood as the car goes by the camera. but, my first impression was injector tubes, but no willys at the time had injector tubes sticking out. so, is it our car? my brother was a howard cam fanatic. he liked the old style actions of howard cam cars...backyard style builders, etc. so, we had a full race cam and kit, flywheel, trans adapter,etc. i cannot remember if he put those huge stickers on the rear window...but there was no other primered willys with black wheels during our lions days racing days...so, you be the judge...this is as close to the real car as possible...thanks rruss...he had no other photos of the car, so the search is still on for more photos or movies. yea...we are getting somewhere.... thank you, thank you... jnaki
The footage is dated 1959 but who knows, memories get fuzzy over time Here is a better look it has stacks coming through the hood and stickers in the back windows and is B gas #194
hello, good eye...the b/gas must have been before we put in some steel plates to shore up the trunk and for standard ballast to get down to the c/gas ratings. i was sure we built it in early 60, rruss said that he did put together several films to make up the total film he put online. so, since both of us are in the crs stage, lets go with what he filmed and say it is the closest movie/photo of our 40 willys. thanks, jnaki
Wow, a million changes at lions over the years till 1972 but the left lane was usually the best. Grin. Nice footage. BTW the trivia question of all time was "What was the last run at lions dragstrip at the last drag race". It was an outhouse pulled by a truck well after midnight as I recall.
hello, there was actually more historic footage in rruss' 59 lions video. in another section (after and edited gap) low and behold, my brother and i are standing on the spectator side of the strip. if you have watched the video clips i took, this is a great spot to get the full coverage of the start to the finish. it is too bad we did not have a telephoto lens. but, see at the original 60's look clothes: blue nylon jacket, buzz cut hair, levis or dickeys, if you could see the shoes, clark's desert boots, etc. gee...rruss and i were standing neighbors back in 1959 on the spectator's side of lions. what a small world. thanks for the clip, bob. we were there... jnaki...
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