Lions Dragstrip....Who was there??

I think it was about 1956 at Lions when this guy shows up with a stock looking 1956 Ford 1/2 ton pickup with ladder rack, & paint cans in the bed.
After blowing off his competitors, in the pits he popped the hood, revealing a big Chysler, everyone was impressed, he came back many times always winning with a big smile.
Maybe some of you remember him.

 

There used to be a couple of guys with V-8 powered motorcycles there all the time. Big Willie Robinson always would announce that he would give a $100 to the first guy to make a full throttle 1/4 pass. It was a lot of fun to watch those guys try to stay on it for the full 1/4 mile. Nobody ever did that I know of but those guys had major balz of steel as they went sideways till they finally had to get out of it about 3/4 way down.

 

We ran LIONS on Saturday nights, but my most fun time there was this day in early 1962. Mike Lamb was the editor of R&C and a good friend of Mickey's. Mike was able to get the keys to the track anytime he needed it for a shoot. Mike shot the photos for the April '62 Rod Test, and we used the track for the performance data. In this shot Dad is riding with me with a stop watch recording 0-60 and 0-100 times. We had the whole place to ourselves. Just about wore out the 283 playing all day!

 

Hey Don.... that was Charlie "the Painter" Etan's yellow 54 Ford PU, Fritz Voigt did all of Charlie's Blown Hemi & push*****on Torque Flite trans work. Ol' Charlie was a industrial building painter and yes he raced with all his big air compressor in the bed, ladders, paint cans & spray painting gear hanging off the ladder racks......
IT HAULED A$$!.......Ask me how I know.....

Charlie's PU was recently restored by new owner Gary Lindsley.

 

It was crazy fun back then. We've still got the car.

 

Thanks!----He was definately a crowd pleaser!

 

We would drive over from MCAS Yuma AZ. The cars where amazing. There was a black "62" super sport that ran gold colored Halibrands and I think six carbs or maybe Hilborn. This would have been "66-67". That car would get horrendous rpm's. The "30" (?) Chevy black tudor sedan out of 10,000 rpm speed shop was always a treat.

 

Saw Evel Knievel jump his bike there. Geez took all night for him to get wound up enough to do it. First time jumping using Harley-Davidson XR-750 Had to look this didn't no this was first for him Saturday, December 12, 1970

 

I went to High School in Inglewood, late sixties, and went there all the time. My buddy had a friend with a flatty powered T-Bucket and we got to help out. I remember getting that thing on those rollers. What a thrill. Another time, Bob and I hiked down to the end to watch the Winged Express make a pass. I remember watching over the fence, and seeing Willie get all sideways as he approached. Scared me! I just remember seeing that thing sliding all over the place, and he never let up. What a memory.

 

Shot from the mid 1960's. Just trying to get the car dialed in. We had been flighting wheel stand issues and added our version of wheelie-bars.

 

Got busy in the pits near the water outlets, cooling down the cars.

 

hello,
is this the 32 coupe at lions in 1959-60? i remember this car, but forgot what motor it had. check it out...this car had cool written all over it in the pits and while racing.
thanks,
jnaki

 

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

 

hello,
that pick up with all of the stuff in the back was impressive. (weight on the rear tires...good idea for more traction) here is another modified truck (59 el camino) that always ran well and if memory serves me correctly, it had special hand controls for driving. it was fast and sounded powerful...
thanks,
jnaki

 

Got to see Cook and Bedwell break the record at 166.97 mph in 1957 at Lions. Big thrill for a high school kid.

 

I believe the El Camino was Baker Automotive. They were fans of Cadillacs at the time and had their
shop in Lakewood I think. The Baker car and painter Charlie seemed to have been paired up a lot
running at Lions. It also seems Charlies pu just ran street tires, and was over whelmed by the dual blown hemi.

 

jnaki - Thanks for sharing

 

I read about this crazy race in carcraft years ago......

 

I was there July 20th 1969 which is pretty significant day in history. They stopped all racing and played the worst sounding 45 rpm recording of the national anthem I have ever heard. Then resumed racing.

 

Hello,

There were many great racers between 1958-60 just getting their starts. One guy is someone we all know throughout drag racing history, Tommy Ivo. This guy started with stockers, but eventually built a street roadster that won many trophies. We saw him at Lions in 58 with a Buick dragster and the winning continued. He went through some changes in that single Buick that was never documented, for some reason, but, we were able to see it live.(a 671 added) In 1960, he had his famous twin that ran all over So Cal. Here is a compilation of his runs from the first time we saw him at Lions. Enjoy, we certainly were entertained each time…

Thanks,

Jnaki

 

jnaki - continue to enjoy watching your films

 

I spent several Friday nights and Saturdays there back in the early 60's.

 

I worked for Ray Standoff at Bellflower Auto Center in 64 / 65 and he had a fuel modified roadster that we ran at Lions against Gary Cagle, Frank Pedregon, Coburn, Stu Nelson, etc. The car (Standoff & Degonia) ran a 485" blown Olds - had heads by Jocko where they milled the tops off the exhaust ports and built huge ports with brass plate and lots of brazing. They had it painted by Cerny (metalflake peacock) and lettered by Kelly. I used to have a really cool picture of it in primer boiling the hides there at Lions - lost it somewhere in my moves, wish I had another copy.

 

Hello,
Is this the roadster at Lions? Although it was taken in 1960. The roadster was a fast one and very cool looking.
Jnaki

 

Hello,

There were a slew of racers that had unusual bodied dragsters in the early days. But as the speeds got higher, some form of streamlining or a smoother body shape was called for in the dragster classes. From 58-60 a smooth white bodied dragster was built and ran almost every weekend at Lions in the dragster class. There were still those that ran the chassis research open frame dragsters and some combination of both, but there was one that looked like a white rocket. The Kenny Lindley /Don Hampton “Miss Fire” dragster was a consistent winner every time it raced. I took a lot of movies of this dragster because it stood out and ran some outstanding races.

Enjoy the clips.

Jnaki

 

Hello,

For all of you MEL fans, here is a great video of the dragster sponsored by H&H Garage. It was driven by Tets Ishimaru. The car had a big Lincoln motor and it was very competitive against the big supercharged Hemi motor racers. The roll bar was always so close to his helmet, that we all commented that it would not be much fun on a roll over. But, it was always driven fast and efficiently. He not only drove this cool looking dragster weekly at Lions, but he was also a drag boat racer with drives in many different boats. In the copied photo, it shows him driving a twin 671 blown Chrysler drag boat.

He was versatile to say the least.

Jnaki

 

Hello,
As successful at Lions Dragstrip as they were, H&H had problems at Riverside Raceway in 1959. We all have those uh oh days...
Jnaki

 

Hello,

Did you ever wonder what if would feel like to be inside one of those small Fiat Altereds burning off of the line at Lions ?

1964 The Bowers and Paris 440 Fiat Altered at Lions Dragstrip in Long Beach.
Red Paris, driver.

This altered was one of the first cars to roll into the newly constructed Price Transfer, Lions Dragstrip Museum floor on the set up days. That gave an inquisitive guy a chance to thoroughly photograph the race car sitting by itself on the empty display floor.

another Joe Mailliard sponsored race car from 1960-65, Long Beach.

In this large museum display floor, it looked a little lonely, but ripe for some close up photos. Ever wonder what the inside looks like of a race car that was on the cover of the August 1964 issue of Popular Hot Rodding?

It was minimalistic, but ready for the all out****ault on the race at hand. A machine turned instrument panel, the requisite sponsor stickers, and the popular skull shift knobs. One of the skulls even has detailed “Fontanelles.” Fine details are always appreciated in quality builds.


The 440 Fiat Altered was a fan favorite and the big 671 Hemi motor was very business like. Since the big Hemi was a giant in this little Fiat coupe. It was on the center floor display, inside of the Lions Museum floor space, but it would have been rather cool to hear it outside in the humongous "Cacklefest."

Jnaki




Finally, on the floor on the Lions Dragstrip Museum on the opening night, it shared space with its famous friend, the Marcellus and Borsch Altered Roadster. “Winged Express” Both all ready to race at a moment’s notice.


The Marcellus and Borsch Altered Roadster getting prepped in the Price Automobilia Restoration Shop.


Haven’t we all wondered what is it like under that famous “Winged Express” giant aluminum airfoil? Get a ”Borsch-eye” view of the surroundings…

 

This is a great thread. Thanks for giving us a look at the vintage films and the cars to see how it really was or remember the old days for those who were there.

 

Sorry to post on such a long dead thread, and sorry if this violates any community rules, but I believe you are saying you were on the team of my Grandfather. I would like to talk to you about him in private messages, if you would be willing to.