I agree mr. Brown. I would love to find a set of those wire wheels. Spindle mounts are kick ass. See the hand pump too. I would really love to see the radiator cap up close.
Almost looks like an olds 3 port. Head. cool beans. Too bad that car wasn't still in your family. It would be awesome to see it in today's day.
Opps sorry for the two front shots as i'am not used to posting more than one at a time, looks like the spare tire is a bit narrower than the ones on the ground from looking at the cover width With the Fronty Head making more H.P. the crank had to be drilled for oil pressure , but it did break a crank now & then so my dad was getting tired of it always being worked on so he sold it to my Uncle Dick who took of the head and went to the stock crank and enjoyed driving it that way My Uncle Dick Nowell got a ride in the Tommy Lee speedster as this is him talking to the Offy Engine man out on the dry lake bed in the early 40's DND
Re: Veda Orr' s 1932 roadster - I looked hard to identify the neat roadster in the photo. I do not believe that it was Veda's roadster. The photo roadster has a filled radiator shell top and the stainless trim on the shell. Veda's had the radiator cap trim in place and no stainless trim. Also Veda ran with SCTA number 19 in 1946. Both Veda.s '32 and the pictured '32 were nice examples of the real traditional hot rod roadster style. Thanks for your comment Don
Another guy who helped me with photos was Tim Timmerman. Tim came down from Oregon and fell in with some hot rodders who were moving away from the Lakes and going into track roadster racing; guys like Manuel Ayulo, Jack McGrath and Don Blair. I met Tim while he was working for the Blair Bros. Speed Shop around 1950. Tim later went on to start his own business - Tim's Precision Engines in Pasadena. This first photo shows Tim bent over the engine in Manuel Ayulo's T track roadster. Ayulo graduated soon to be one of the fast group of drivers in the Indianapolis 500. I appreciated Tim,s help with these photos.
Here is another photo from Tim that I had used in one of my books but did not know anything about. At an LA Roadster Show, a few years ago, a fellow came up to my booth and told me about the sprint car and owner. The photo was taken at the Lakes on April 28, 1946. The racer was Robert Thomson (leaning on the tail) from South Pasadena. He belonged to the Revs club and later the Glendale Sidewinders. I had used the photo because I thought it was a nice sprint car even though I was not able to identify it.
Here is another of Tim's photos that I could identify. The channeled '32 roadster had a supercharged four banger engine. The photo was taken at Rosa mond dry lake on October 21, 1945. It was an SCTA meet and I think was the first after the war. Since only a small number of guys were back it was not considered as a regular points meet. I believe that this roadster was entered by Fred Lobello of the San Diego Roadster Club. Fred was a long time SCTA Lakes racer.
Here is another of Tim's photos I put aside because I was not able to identify it. However after looking at it now I think I can identify it. I believe this is the Jim Travers-Charles Beck (Centuries club) entry. Jim, on the right, went on to form the very successful Traco firm. They team won Indy 500 races and built cars and engines. Jim's neat roadster was sold to Fred Larsen (Screwdrivers club) who raced it at Russetta Timing Assn meets.
Here is a photo taken from up on the starting stand at a 1947 SCTA meet. Roadster no. 36C is Randy Shinn's record setting '32 roadster. At this same time Randy (Road Runners club) had already started racing his '27 roadster that would win the 1947 SCTA Points Championship. His best speed with this roadster was 132.74 mph in 1947. The other roadster was entered by Harold Anderson of the Gophers club. There were two lines coming up to starting line here. In 1948 the SCTA tried three starting lines but that was dropped in the future as the number of entries were reduced. This photo gives a good view of the typical "Lakes Tarps" built to smooth the air flow over the cockpit.
I did use Tim's Santa Barbara Drags photo in my books but I really liked it. Tim's photo shows the back of Tom Medley (also from Oregon) shooting a drag race at the Santa Barbara Acceleration meet located on the airport in Goleta. Note the narrow side road on the airport and the narrow bridge at the finish line. There were no clocks at these early drag races that were the first organized drag races here. The chopped Model A coupe losing the race was Lonnie Butts from Los Angeles. I do not remember the identify of the winning coupe. I was racing there also. It is a great photo to show how legal drag racing looked in the beginning ( Goleta started in 1949).
Don, Thanks for starting this thread, there is nothing like great pictures and a first rate historian to write the captions ! Here is a couple of shots of Jack and Manny, when they came to Portland in 1947. According to my old friends who were racing at the time, they did put on a clinic !
Fantastic thread Don. Really great to have you posting photos and info as there is nothing better than first hand knowledge. Those hairpin mounts on the Travers-Beck-Larsen roadster are the same as the mounts used on the Spurgin-Giovanine roadster to mount the rear radius rods. I always wondered if they were sprint car or something Eddie Miller Snr or Jnr cast.
Earlier in this thread I had put a couple of photos of Jack Calori's neat '29 roadster with the distinctive chrome, outside headers. I said that Jack had moved on to a family car next; a '36 Ford coupe. So here is a photo of that "bitchen" coupe which many years later would be honored at the Pebble Beach Concours. I got this photo from Jack Calori about 25 years ago. I thought it had a great look when I first saw it on the cover of a 1949 Hot Rod magazine and, of course, it looked great recently at Pebble Beach. Thanks to Jack for the photo.
Also previously I had used photos loaned to me by Tim Timmerman. I meant to use this photo that Tim gave me of his vacation back to Oregon. He drove his roadster "back home" and could not miss the opportunity to do a little racing. This picture shows Tim at the roadster races in Yakima. Please note that some of the photos I am putting on here are photos that I have used in my books, but I really want the guys who helped me in the past get the credit for what they did many years ago. I assume that many of the young guys have not heard of many of the guys who made up the hot rodding community over 60 years ago. So, please excuse if you have seen the photo before.
Creighton Hunter was in the Hutters club of the Russetta Timing Assn. and running at the same Lakes as I was. But I really did not know him then. But I started running at the Santa Ana Drags immediately after it opened in July of 1950. Creighton was one of the partners (C.J. Hart, Creighton Hunter and Frank Stillwell) who started the Santa Ana Drags, also know as the Orange County Drags. Creighton was a hot rodder who raced at the drags and the Lakes. His day job was as an oil distributor - Hunter Oil Co. in Santa Ana. A bunch of years ago Creighton organized the Santa Ana Drags Reunions, where we all could exchange lies about how fast we went. He was kind enough to loan me numerous photos from his album. Here is a photo of his T roadster at the lakes. This roadster has been maintained and raced by the Alcala family for many, many years. It was the first hot rod to display the famous OO Moon eyes.
More from Creighton Hunter - A view of Creighton's T roadster in the pits at a Russetta meet. I assume Creighton is trying to figure out how to go faster. The modified T roadster in the background (no. 12C) belonged to William Brown, better know as Racer Brown (GCRC club) Racer had just starting to work for Hot Rod magazine at that time.
Here again is a photo from Creighton Hunter. This shows a channeled '32 roadster with a very customized front section. The work appears to be very well done. I did not use this photo before because I could not identify it. Someone out there can probably tell us who it was. In any event, it is an interesting hot rod.
Amazing pics again Don. You don't see many side pics of this '32, people seemed captivated by the front end. The '32 belonged to Pat Leighton, he designed the car during WW2 while a POW in a Japanese Prison Camp. It ended up in the Mid-West, it was pictured in HRM when they covered one of the first Indy hot rod shows.
Creighton also gave me this photo of a '41 Mercury custom. I can tell you that this car amazed everyone that day, including me, when it turned a 129 mph speed at a Russetta lakes meet. The Mercury was run by Gil Ayala (East L.A. Vultures club), who was an avid racer, in addition to being a talented custom car builder. We did not expect to see a custom car that was that fast. The Ayala Bros. went on to become famous for their custom car work. The picture quality is poor but the subject is important (my opinion). Note the number of hot rodders near the car which looks as if it is starting a run toward the traps. Also do you see the spoke wheels on the front?
The Jalopy Journal
