History Drag cars in motion.......picture thread.

[Dean Lowe]

Thanks for my morning laugh Doug!

Also, if you guys thought San Gabe was "rough and tumble", it was a modern mega facility compared to the original San Gabe strip of the 50's, or Colton!

[Chuck Norton]

Originally Posted by Mazooma1

"The Cherry Pit".....I'd never want to see some woman's large, perky boobs....()

You would have been safe in that joint! "Perky is not a word that comes to mind.

c

[296ardun]

Originally Posted by Mazooma1

some scans from an NHRA program from the CHRR #2 in 1993



my "home" track as a kid..San Gabriel Drag Strip (below) just east of where the Irwindale oval is today and was just east of the 605 Freeway which was in not yet built back in the "Golden Years"...

Lefty Mudersbach in the twin-engined cat up against Bill Alexander in the Ernies Camera Shop "Shutter Bug" in 1961. Tommy Ivo also took the wheel on occasion.
In 1961, my folks were dropping me off at the strip as I was till in elementary school, but in 1962, I was in the 7th grade and they let me ride my bike...I was a "big kid" then...all of 11 !!!!



San Gabriel was a rough and tumble strip, bare-bones just as a drag strip should be....splintery bleachers, crummy hot dogs and lots of good racing. Man, for a kid it was paradise....(still would be...but....it's all long gone...all of it, not just San Gabriel...any "nostalgia" drag racing today doesn't even hold a candle to the real days of drag racing )

Chris Karamesines, on the right, up against Jerry Ellis...the flag man is Don Garlits....really



The first jet I ever saw was this one right here at San Gabriel...in fact this was probably photographed that very day...."The Untouchable" ...a few months later the jet would go on to have the famous match race right here against Tommy Ivo. Thats when TV Tom showed up to the starting line with the hot dogs and marshmallows on his roll bar...always "the Showman", Ivo...
Old Westinghouse J-47 jet engines powered many early jets...like this one



Jim Ward, another San Gabriel favorite.........



..and the first time I saw this great racer was at San Gabriel and it was there where this photo was taken. Dye-Hampton's twin coupe driven by Don Hampton.

We hung out at the same place, I remember well driving to San Gabriel to see the "Untouchable," and the race between the Greek and Vance Hunt...Garlits said that the Greek did such a high wheelstand that he could have walked under the car and changed the oil upright....the car with the Speed Sport airscoop was Jim Ward, I think, with Don Yates driving....remember Don Hampton's coupe well, think it was light purple.

San Gabriel attracted a hard-core crowd of both racers and spectators...the place to go after the races was the Green Door, I was not 21 then so just had to listen to the stories...sounded like all the guys who went got laid...but when I was old enough to actually get through the front door I found out that the top fuel guys were the lucky ones, we little guys pretty much got ignored.......still, some pretty wild times, so thanks for the pictures!!!!!

[Belair409]

Apologies are in order.

A friend told me about your board and the "NHRA Junior Stocker" and "Drag cars in motion" thread. I had some old shots I thought the group would enjoy but some of them were late 60s early 70s cars. You are completely correct if you thought "another FNG who didn't read the posting rules". I did go through most of these two threads looking for directions but didn't realize the pre 65 rules until another member sent the following note.
"As much as we all appreciate photos, please be aware that this site is for true hot rodders and they do not allow photos of cars newer than 1965. We have gotten away with posting some stuff from the early 1970's, but have had the thread edited and photos removed."

The posts have been removed.
My sincere apologies.

[WCD]

Originally Posted by Zookeeper

Nice shot of Skip Hess' "Revell Kit" Mustang. This car was a fiberglass body and the body was obviously pulled from a real Mustang since the door jambs and such have spot-weld divots as the steel ones do. It also has Mustang door handles and the inner door panels look exactly like production parts, grain and all. The car was bracket-raced in the late-70's and early '80's in the Sacto-area with a BB Chevy and painted yellow, but otherwise it was untouched and very original, right down to the gold-anodized tinwork (Hannah, I think). It was bought around '82 by Frank Hizer in Fortuna who sold it to Jackie Allen around '84 for $1800 as a rolling chassis. Jackie pretty much cut it up, installing a 351C/C6, cutting the chassis in half for a Mustang II suspension and more recently a funny car cage, plus painting it purple with flames. He still races it with his daughter driving it to mid-10's but you'd never guess it was the same car.

The Revell Kit was a regular So-Cal AA/GS open circuit member. "Rules be damn, its got a door, runs gas, its a gasser." Note that in the shot of the car at Pomona, its been classified as a BB/Altered, not gasser. The NHRA werent as forgiving in overlooking obvious rule infractions. Ironically, Revell never made a kit of the car.

[Muttley]

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[296ardun]

Originally Posted by Bucksnort

Wasn't the "Glass Chariot" owned and driven by Dick LaHaie?