Sioux City Iowa dragstrip pics vintage 1970

Thanks for more great pics Dad! I bought my first new vehicle from Glen Rapp, a silver 1974 Chevy Vega Panel Express. Glenn was and still is a great guy. Thanks for giving us Thunder Valley Dragways Glenn! The late Bob Shriever's "Charlie Horse" Mustang, I knew Bob well and raced flat track bikes with his sons Jay and Tom. And the legendary late John Holland's Taboo gasser. He used to sneak it downtown in full race trim for a pass down Main Avenue and then was gone before the cops got him. He also built a bus with the front fuselage and cockpit of an airplane grafted onto it but it caught fire and burned. John was a total nut and eventually was seriously injured at Empire Speedway when he tried to jump a (Kaw 900?) bike over 15 or 16 new Chevettes from Stinson Chevrolet and landed in the back glass of the 13th Chevette. John never really recovered from that and I used to see one of the Chevettes around town that they saved by making it into a little pickup for the dealership body shop's parts runner. Empire Speedway was created by stock car and sprint car promoter Fred Buckmiller to capitalize on the popularity of drag racing that Glenn Rapp was experiencing. Trouble was it was too short and ended at Madison Avenue, but the real issue was that Sweetman's rock quarry was across the street and was over 100 feet deep! No drag racer ever had a problem with it, but after the drag strip was converted into a city street, a car load of drunken partiers missed the stop sign and went into the quarry. I think one of them, a young woman, was killed.

 

Thanks again

 

John Hollands failed motorcycle jump
http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail....and-crashes-kelos-60th-anniversary/?id=148188

 

WOW!!! I hadn't seen this before on TV when it happened. I didn't go watch it at the time either because I had gone out and looked at his ramp, a flatbed semi-trailer. I was pretty sure he wasn't going to make it and didn't want to see him die. He pulled his chute when he left the ramp and that didn't help him any either. I remember when he first tested the chute idea on I-29 south of 41st Street IN TRAFFIC, by pulling the chute while riding as a passenger on the bike at 75 mph! He slid to a stop and jumped into a waiting chase car, no worse for wear, before the cops came. He truly was nuts!

The first guy they interviewed was Tom Haight, an old motorcycle racer, who was my old boss that owned Shadco Honda, and he later opened Cycle Empire. I bought my first motorcycle from him in 1971 and then worked for him in 1976-77. I recognized some of other people in the pictures too.

John was in the hospital for almost a year and had suffered severe nerve damage to his arm and it was pretty much useless after that. Then he got involved in drug dealing, making and selling amphetamines until getting caught in a bust in 1987 that involved about 16 people, two of them who I knew. John had already served time on the hill for theft of car parts back in the 60's so he always was an outlaw. He died in 2003, not many years after getting out of prison of kidney failure, probably from the pain killer drugs, both legal and illegal. It is interesting to know that his daughter is Ranae Holland, who is the skeptical biologist on the Animal Planet show, Finding Bigfoot.

Big Dad thanks again for the memories, here's some of your fantastic pics from the Bang Shift story you contributed to awhile back.

 

I really found your posts interesting about the Crosley. Al Mahaney was my brother in law and had the stories to tell about the Crosley and the other 2 AA gas dragster that he built later . FYI, the old Crosley body is still in Sioux
City sitting in the weeds and is now owned by Jim Mehess who is also a name from the past. Wishing someone would bring the car old Crosley back as a nostalgia car. Who was your father?
I only remember Henry Niggs. Other names from the past--Bob Perrin,Jim Studley, and Leon Stulegate. Thanks for reading

 

Way back at the beginning there was a pic of a 33 Willys called Sarcastic2. Who owned/ ran that one? What happened to it?
Did see an Anglia run by Tom Grasso and team. Guess he is still doing chassis and selling wheels in Omaha, with an occasional announcing gig.

 

the car behind the Willys is the Johnson brothers"Sweet Thang" roadster out of the Fargo, North Dakota area

 

The Tension car is being restored.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/nhra-junior-stock.201085/page-350#post-10741217
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/nhra-junior-stock.201085/page-348#post-10677495
And a picture of the Good In Tension car then and now.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/nhra-junior-stock.201085/page-348#post-10677498

 

My Dad was Louie Andrews

 

I worked with Mick Hilger for 30 Years. He ran a Crosley altered, a ?392? rail, and drove a Corvette funny car for Arno Benedette around 1974-76. Mick lives about 3 miles from me, and builds hot rods/street machines.

 

This would have been around 75 or 76 when Willy ran a full size Ford in ET2, Eddie ran the orange Super Stock car, Gene ran the black 55 Super Stock car.

 

Thats Arch Beal on the right side with the red and white shirt (Our local Bud distributor )

 

Thats Arch Beal on the right side with the red and white shirt (Our local Bud distributor )

 

I vividly remember how hot and humid it was on that July day when John Holland crashed into the Frank Stinson Chevrolet's Chevette's starting the slow downward spiral to prison and his eventual death not many years later. I swear I know and recognize a lot of the people in that picture at the Sioux Empire Fairgrounds drag strip, but I sure as as hell can't remember their names now. Most of them were my customers when I worked at Don and Dick Stich's Honda/Kawasaki dealership and Tom Haight's Shadco Honda/Suzuki dealership and then Marv Wachendorf's Track n' Trail bike shop. Its also interesting that Tim Haight, Tom's son has worked for years for Archie Beal Jr. as Beal Distributing's accountant. Crazy times in Sioux Falls!
One person I recognize for sure, just to the right of John Holland, is Kevin Boxdorfer, a childhood and family friend. We both raced motorcycles and used to trail ride together.