OK Portland Drag Race History Friday Night PIR

[dondanno]

This Friday the gates open at 4 and racing begins at 7. For the first time in 20 YEARS!!!! Front engine dragsters running 1/4 mile at PIR Friday Night!!!!! We need as many of you guys that can make it there with our kickass HOT RODS AND KUSTOMS to put on a good showing for support. If this goes over well it could become a regular again. A friend of mine as been working with the mayor of Portland to put on a Hot Rod reunion show at PIR this will be the first step. So come on out. Oh ya thye will be 3 FED one of them ours and from what I understand a funny can and a blown rearend engine car. Our FED and one of the others are blown and injected on ALCOHOL and the in injected on ALCOHOL. We will be making lots O noise. SO YOU BETTER BE THERE..... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Rocky]

Wish I could be there. I remember whan they first opened P.I.R.....I usta go cheer on my buddy, George in his 302 chevy [DZ] powered maroon 54 hudson jet sedan.... Before P.I.R. was there, we'd cruise Broadway and pick and choose a race. Both cars and a small entourage of well-wishers and buddies would venture out to I-5 to bust 'em off. If the freeway was busy, Marine Drive would work. Ahhhhhhhhhh, those were the days. Open headers on Broadway were common..now it's only open to foot traffic..

[flyin'eye]

Danny, How come this hasn't been advertised???? I'll be there, but my car won't....

[dondanno]

Not sure why, but I am trying to tell everybody I can....

[old beet]

We raced at Terminal 4 (Swan Island) and Vanport(before it was PIR), The Fill(North Portland by the race track) and later the NEW Banfield Freeway after usin up Sandy Blvd.....OLDBEET history???

[flyin'eye]

BTTT

[dondanno]

Come on Zapato Spooky......BTTT

[Iceberg]

Count me in, hope this wet shit moves inland!

[dondanno]

Cool Berg ya the news says this will stop tomorow and about 75 by friday.....

[Dirty Dug]

Boy, would I love to see that, heard we missed you guys at P.R. a couple of weeks ago too. What a shame----

[Iceberg]

What kind of mill are you running? Blown 392 Hemi? Yea, I know..... wrong income bracket for that bad ass mother. See ya Friday.

[dondanno]

Doug the weekend of the Unfinished Nats we went racing we broke the 7.50 mark, 7.45 @ 176.9 qualified #4 then lost in the first round , but we still had fun. On Sunday Tyson cut a .656 light and the car shook so hard it went into neutral and reved up to 10,200 rpms and held together, put it into 2nd and still did 176 mph. That made us feel good cuz we didnt break anything....

[flyin'eye]

Danny,Are the pit areas at PIR open like they are at Woodburn? I'm thinkin' about bringing my son, I'd like to take him down and check out the cars. Also, do you know what their cooler policy is? Is bringing in a short case a no-no? (it IS Friday night after all)What's the admission and parking situation like? Sorry to treat you like a track employee, just trying to get my shit together so I know whats up.

[flyin'eye]

BTTT again. (page three already?)

[dondanno]

From what I understand it should all be open.Bring that would be very cool....

[candyman]

Keeping this up...

[dondanno]

Ya Tony this gonna be a big deal...

[The_Monster]

How many do you expect to show? is it advertised in drive, or cruzin or anywhere else?

[dondanno]

No advertizing because the city counsel is doing with out asking the neighbors in the area to see if they can maybe make it a regular event. They would rather say Sorry for the niose, then to just have them say no before anything happens. My friend has been working on this for a year and a half, he hopes to get PIR in the NHRA westcoast swing and maybe have 4 events a year. There will be 2 blown and injected FED 1 injected FED and maybe a Funny Car. They want to take baby steps at first....Danny

[Zapato]

[ QUOTE ]
Come on Zapato Spooky......BTTT

[/ QUOTE ]

Planning on being there, lets see if wife is not wiped out. we'll have grand daughter in tow. she's 2 1/2 and I've hauled to the roadster show,several swap meets including portland, few cruises [including the infamous Seaside run], unfinished nats, guess its time she sees and hears some drag racing. Real drags and not some of those ricer events, I hope. any idea what the admission price is? And how will we recognize you dondanno. love that handle good friend of mine always calls me "Don Alonso". And please tell me its not a "Beat the Heat" event. good to see that the weather is breaking and should be dry tomorrow.

looking forward to real drags at PIR, brings back memories of Bill Ireland kicking ass there in the 60s. Hope some of you guys remember that name. legend in my old neighborhood. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[dondanno]

Z what I know is what I have posted. I am sure that there will be ricers there but we will over shadow them with some blown alky cars. The entrance fee should 10 bucks or less. I have been making a bunch of calls also.
Just look for this guy.. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[dondanno]

bttt If any of you guys going can bring a digital camera that would be great my batteries are pretty low and no time to charge them...Thanks Danny

[old beet]

Zap, we hung out at Bill Ireland's GAS/FIRE station on Lombard after he moved fron Interstate when I was in school. He let me drive that black Cobra around the block, while loadin it up for the drags. He started with a 56 F-100, rarely got beat. Remember the "ADIOS" cars? 1961 Ford?....OLDBEET....(Jefferson 1959)

[flyin'eye]

I'll bring my P.O.S. digi camera. Stay tuned, grainy, poor quality pictures to follow.......

[flyin'eye]

I just got back from PIR, it was cool to see the F.E.D's running there. Drank some beers, met some HAMBers. Ran into Iceberg, Zapato, The Monster, and of course Dondanno. I gotta buy a camera. mine is SHIT. Here's the best picture I took all night. This is The Monster taking pictures with a GOOD camera.

[Zapato]

Just got in myself, been some time for me at the drags. that tire fry smell is incredibly addictive. Great evenings entertainment for $7. Dondanno's buddy ran a 7.59/169 quarter. If I'm wrong on those numbers someone will correct me. The heir apparent even seemed to have a good time, not too bad for a 2 !/2 year old sweetie. Time to crawl in the sack. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[dondanno]

Heres some trick photography from Flyingeye as the power of our car knocked him to the ground.Thanks all you guys for coming out. Monster will have some more pics for us also....Danny

[The_Monster]

I tell ya, this HAMB is too much fun! I had a great night at PIR, it was fast, big and loud! I met some new friends from HAMB and visited with the TIE-RODS bunch. Good company, fun had by all and perfect weather! a little crisp chill in the night air, so "baby was runnin hot!" Im about to dig into the photos i took and see if theres one decent one of the bunch (kinda hard to snap a shot, plug your ears, hold your breath and do a cartwheel all at once!)
I'll be posting soon!! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[The_Monster]

Alright, Flyin'eye jumped the gun and said I had a GOOD camera! Unfortunatly we started draggin after sunset so the shots are kinda dark. My cameras flash is as bright as a spark from a lighter. I think I would of got better results if I sketched the cars on paper as they went by. But out of 3 full floppy discs, I managed to find 13 "okay" shots. Hope these show a bit of the fun! Enjoy

[The_Monster]

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[Iceberg]

Danny it was great! My ears are still ringing & I'm pumped for some more nitro at night. I'll pm you later next week about those gears you want for your roadster pu.

[purple]

<font color="purple"> I didn't know Germ was there. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif And why is he driving a late model? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif </font>

[flyin'eye]

Danny, I'm glad I shot some pictures you could use http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif There goes my life long dream of being a photographer for Penthouse......

[dondanno]

Scot thats too damm funny. Hey guys thanks for the support. The track was using us for a test of DB levels so they said let it all hang out. So we did. They have 3 dates for next year tentative on the DB results. Atleast one will be a Nostalgia event. Lets keep our finger crossed. Also when I find it there should be a # and web page to voice our support. We will try to find a date not to clash with any big hot rod events..Tahnks Again and Monster great pics....Danny

[flyin'eye]

Danny, let us know what the DB results were, I would be interested to find out.

[dondanno]

I will do that. I found out that the web page PIR is www.portlandraceway.com (http://www.portlandraceway.com) it maybe on there soon. The report should be done by Tuesday....Danny

[Zapato]

[ QUOTE ]
Zap, we hung out at Bill Ireland's GAS/FIRE station on Lombard after he moved fron Interstate when I was in school. He let me drive that black Cobra around the block, while loadin it up for the drags. He started with a 56 F-100, rarely got beat. Remember the "ADIOS" cars? 1961 Ford?....OLDBEET....(Jefferson 1959)

[/ QUOTE ]


So he moved from Interstate to Lombard? My history in that neighborhood starts around 64, and at that time he was wrenchin' out of the Atlantic Richfield station on Interstate and Killingsworth. across the street from George's Corner tavern. there were 3 gas stations at that corner only the Arco survives still. But shortly after that he established himself 3 blocks east on Killingswoth at the corner of Minnesota Ave fronting what was to become known locally as the Minnesota Freeway and later known as I5. I used to drool at the cars that came thru his shop, many of the racers on trailers who came to be fine tuned by Bill and his staff. At that time we lived on Maryland Avenue across from Patton Park just 3 blocks away. My freshman year at Benson for Automotive class we were told to go to a shop in our neighborhood and ask for parts [we had a specific list] that we could use for class projects. Ireland's was my first stop and to this day will remember Bill pulling new parts of his shelves and donating them. he did give me a junk old ford "haystack" carburetor and remarking that they were junk when new and that it should be a good one to practice on. I kept that carb on my shelf at home for years cleaner and smoother than new ,got tossed in a house cleaning when I was enslaved in the US Navy. couple years later I swung by with my ford with a question and he graciosly came out and showed me the error of my own making and told me how to correct it, no charge. Returned the next day to rethank him with a much smoother running car and he went back in shop and gave me an Ireland's Auto Electric decal for my back window. I'd kill for one of those decals today and have kept my out for one at swap meets for years. There is a shop on North Interstate up by where Denver Ave runs into it called Ireland's, don't believe its in any way related to Bill's or if the name was acquired later, have meant to stop there and inquire for years. not sure if Bill is still alive or not, believe he must be gone as I have not heard anything about him in years. Oldbeet you mentioned a 56 F100 that Bill drove, don't remember any of Bill's personal street vehicles do remember his wife's incredible 59/60 black on black T-bird. loved that car from the moment I first saw it. A schoolclass mate of my ended up with that car and it would screw your back into the seats like nothing else anyone in our group had access to. sadly it deteriorated over the next couple years as could be expected under the heavy foot of a 16 year old without the skills to properly maintain a killer ride. Well enough of memory lane for today. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Old Beet you were Jeff class of '59, Do you remember or knew then a Steve Kaiser class of "61 ? And where abouts did you live in those days? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[old beet]

Zap, 6335 N. Montana Ave, by Interstate and Portland Blvd. Don't know that name. Ya, class of '59. Bill was on Lombard for a while, next door to the fire station. He also worked part time drivin the fire truck. Was at the station several times when they had a fire call, Bill would give the keys to anyone hangin around and go on the fire call. Was there the day Ford Factory car hauler delivered a Cobra, Thunderbolt and a lite weight drag pack Galaxy. Along with about 10 crate motors...OLDBEET

[Zapato]

Beet, it looks like were neighbors, you must have gone to Ockley Green. I remember the T-bolt and then a slew of stangs and a particularly nasty 66 fairlane which was upgraded to 67 status with a grille and taillight switch. Neat thing I remember about his shop is how often the work overflowed into the street and at times lots of those things happened right on Killingsworth. Around '69 the city started objecting and he acquired the next door place and some of the activity shifted to the yard/driveway out for us kids to take in. Amazing how often the work was done outside specially in a city known for its abundance of rain.

Its been good thinkin' about this last couple days, funny it gotstarted by a HAMBer all point callout to the drags. Thanks Dondanno and others........been a good weekend. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif