History Vic Hubbard Speed & Marine-Head Hunters Hayward CC/

That explains it. I lived in Centerville; rarely went to Irvington.

 

Hello,

When I moved to Northern California to go to college at San Jose State College, I was so far removed from So Cal and Lion’s Dragstrip influences. My brother kept in touch from his college in Los Angeles and we tried to keep our drag racing adventures in the forefront. From that point of separation, every time we got together back in Long Beach, we sat around for hours talking about drag racing, motorcycle desert racing, hot rods and of course, surfing.

The winter months anywhere is usually not as cheerful as the spring and summer. So, I was having some So Cal flashbacks in my artwork and I decided to go up to the General Motors Factory where my El Camino was born and at the same time, visit Fremont Dragstrip for some action.

The factory was just a few miles up the freeway and the drags were close by. It was nice to see everything that was new and gave me hints about our time at Lion’s Dragstrip. After a while, the whole exciting drag strip scene took on a different attitude about being in the stands instead of being on the dragstrip racing.

Jnaki

Several weeks later, I had borrowed my roommate’s Triumph Bonneville TT motorcycle. He told me that if I put on some TT pipes on his bike, that I could take it for a test ride over the weekend. He was driving back to Los Angeles to attend a family function.

So, I got to work doing the exchange. I was ready for the test drive on Friday night, but I did not want to ride around in the dark. So, Saturday morning, bright and early, I started off on my giant, modified, circular, San Francisco Bay Area cruise. (test drive)

The SF Bay Area is rather large and I started with the San Mateo Bridge crossing. Around the North Eastern area of the bay, another bridge and back into the Berkeley Hilltops for some 360 views of the bay. I had lunch and decided to go to Hayward on the way back to San Jose. The stopover/ side trip to see the famous Vic Hubbard’s Speed Shop had always been on my Northern California itinerary.


The staff was extremely friendly, the parts were outstanding and the shop gave me the chills, as if I was standing in our own Reath Automotive Speed Shop in Long Beach. That definitely made the moment stand out. I was not disappointed as it reminded me of our So Cal’s Reath Automotive shop the multiple times we went there to get some machining done, but parts or just have a conversation with Joe Reath. The conversations, just exactly alike... the counter folks were very knowledgeable, too.

I was unaware, but by the time I got home from San Jose, Reath Automotive had moved into a huge corner lot near the Bixby Knolls area and the Cherry Avenue Drags location. It was now one of the largest complete speed shops/machine shop/manufacturing area anywhere. The corner shop on 10th and Cherry was history and the new one took its position as "the" place to go.

But, for anywhere else, Vic Hubbard Speed Shop was the Northern California equivalent. It was all racer oriented and the atmosphere was “Drag Race Central.” As central as Northern California could be in 1965. Friendly staff, plenty of speed parts and an atmosphere similar to our own Reath Automotive in So Cal.
Thanks, Denny...