1961 Pomona Winternationals Hello, We must have lived in a different world during this time period. We were recovering from our 40 Willys Coupe accident and by 1961, rounding the corner to recovery and on to the next phase. Since we already had 3 straight years of weekends of drag racing and two hot rod builds, we were slowly thinking of our next adventures. Drag racing was not going to be a heavy part of our itinerary. But, there was a glimmer of hope. High school was prominent in my life with sports and now my brother had recovered enough to start venturing outside, again. In January, he actually wanted to go to the Winternationals in Pomona. So, despite the 4:56 Positraction gearing I had put back into my high school daily driver 58 Impala, we took off for Pomona. We were parked along the front row by the telephone poles separating the spectators from the action. But, he admitted, it was just not the same thing as we had experienced from 1957 to 60. We would be in the pits with one of our cars. Not down the dragstrip sitting in a parked car waiting for the race cars to whiz on by us. The Pomona Dragstrip is located far inland in the greater Los Angeles Metropolitan area. As you land in a jet heading into the huge LAX airport on the ocean, you fly over the whole valley area. Every big jet starts its decent from the eastern flat desert area through the valley created by the low mountains on the south and the huge San Bernardino Mountains to the right. The long descent flies over the majority of "greater Los Angeles" County and as the plane drops, one could see plenty of major visiting sights. My brother was in his burn recovery phase from summer of 1960 to 1961, before he could go outside to see the "sights." He decided that he wanted to go to the first Westcoast Winternationals in Pomona. We drove about 50 miles from our Westside of Long Beach home. When we arrived, we decided not to sit in the stands. He was not quite ready for being that close to other folks during the burn recovery. So, we drove down the dragstrip to get a front row seat in our 58 Impala. Only the telephone log barrier was keeping the public away from the actual dragstrip. Our mom had packed our picnic basket with all of her home cooked meal items, so we were set for the whole day. We were not the only ones with similar ideas. At first and into the day's races, we were the only ones. But, by the mid morning to lunch time line, the area along the telephone log barrier view points were all packed with other cars facing the dragstrip action. Jnaki It has been a long time since, but the dragstrip is still there and part of the L.A. Fairplex compound. By the way, if you want to see the ocean as you start your jet plane descent, sit on the left side. If you want to be impressed with the views of the huge mountain range, sit on the right side. The drag strip can be seen from the jets making their landing approach. YRMV He was in his final year of burn/injury recovery from the Willys explosion. We had only gone out in the Impala down to Huntington Beach just to see the ocean, the waves and have a nice lunch in the prior week. It was the second time out in public for him. Other than doctor’s office visits. While we talked about the speed equipment just listed and some of it sold, we still had the complete 671 SBC motor, LaSalle transmission and those custom wide steel wheels. But, we never discussed going out in public, back to the drag strip or strips to watch. We did talk about a second coming of a 671 powered Altered Roadster or another street roadster pick up to serve us in a two fold way. Fast and practical for buying/hauling parts around. But, the importance of the “big” Winternationals was a draw. So, we packed up a huge cooler full of drinks, snacks and of course our mom’s fabulous lunches. Teriyaki chicken, steak and assorted marinated vegetables. It was her way to supplement both of us for his first public venture. She knew it was important to be outside and getting back into public for him. A strong dislike for all things drag racing for her, but supportive of my brother's mixed feelings about drag racing and the future. So, at the Pomona location, the stands were packed, he directed me to drive down the parking lot to find a nice location in the front row, with views of the dragstrip. We could watch from our front row location or sit inside the Impala with privacy for our liking… It was not like sitting in the top row at Lion’s Dragstrip tower side bleachers, to view the race cars down below. It was a long line of empty space, until the other cars started filling up the spots along the edge of the dragstrip. But, during the time of empty space, we could still identify the race cars coming down the track. As the old memories were discussed inside of the Impala watching the races, we decided that something was telling us to move on and my brother was shifting his “build another one” ideas to the art drawing board and we left it at that. Speaking of shifting, on the highway leading to the direction home, the Impala was in drive of the C&O stick hydro. The shift arm was almost in the stick shift 2nd gear position. So, a car load of racers pulled up next to us and made the shift to 3rd motion as they heard the motor revving on the streets as we drove in drive. The 4:56 gears made the motor create some high rpms and those other teens thought we forgot to shift to third gear. Ha! At the next stop light, I left the selector in drive and stomped on the pedal to leave those kids behind, wondering how I did that start in 2nd gear… YRMV It was one of the last times he rode in the 58 Impala and we made a special side trip to the Cherry Avenue Drags location in Bixby Knolls as a way to say goodbye. Surfing and desert motorcycles were now crowding out the space in our backyard Willys Coupe garage spaces.
This is my truck, a WW1 military truck. This picture was taken in 1929 to stay on the vintage side. But it still has it's original Pennsylvania brand tires.
The Jalopy Journal
