Hot Rods Lewistown, Montana... Drag Racing in 1959.

[Ryan]

I've been through Lewistown, Montana before. It's a tiny little town with a tiny population and if not for the well cared-for buildings that spec the streets, it could easily be mistaken for a ghost town. There just doesn't seem to be a ton going ...

To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.

[Tman]

My dad met with this guy

http://erlandsonengineering.com/index.html

He was there in the beginning and has lots of stories to tell.

[Stutz]

That is the worst cover of johnny B good. Being that Lewistown is fairly close to Sheridan wyo, I bet there was members of the Conquistadors there.

[dirt t]

I was at those races. Those were the days. And saterday night on main street was wild!

[hotroddub]

Thats pretty cool! Wonder if any of those cars are still up in that area.

[STEPHEN FIELDS]

Man, that silver or light lavender model A coupe looked like he was blowing everyone's doors off until that 57 pontiac with no hub caps came along....must of had a good mill under the hood.

[Rolleiflex]

Here's a link to the drag strip: http://www.lewistowndragracing.com/pages/?page_id=28

There's a pretty good article on the history of racing at Lewiston Raceway when you open the link.

[8flat]

I live about 100miles West of Lewistown. (Great fly-fishing there) Went snowmobiling with Erlandson once, really sharp guy. At the time he was all pissed because Polaris stole his invention for a better centrifugal clutch....that Cat is into all sorts of things.

For a while, the Lewistown track was the only 1/4 mile track in Montana. Lots of history out there.

[Tman]

Originally Posted by 8flat

I live about 100miles West of Lewistown. (Great fly-fishing there) Went snowmobiling with Erlandson once, really sharp guy. At the time he was all pissed because Polaris stole his invention for a better centrifugal clutch....that Cat is into all sorts of things.

For a while, the Lewistown track was the only 1/4 mile track in Montana. Lots of history out there.

I am spoiled, my first Flies came from Dan Bailys fly shop!@ I made a pilgrimmage there on a business trip with my dad about 25 years ago.

He said Erlandson was up to a ton of things, they shot the shit as two old drag racers would for quite some time. All our company trucks have his intake cones and such.

[8flat]

Originally Posted by Tman

I am spoiled, my first Flies came from Dan Bailys fly shop!@ I made a pilgrimmage there on a business trip with my dad about 25 years ago.

He said Erlandson was up to a ton of things, they shot the shit as two old drag racers would for quite some time. All our company trucks have his intake cones and such.

Cool, if you ever get up here, go through Lewistown and I'll tell you exactly where to go fly-fishing on Spring Creek. Beautiful country.

SO, those intake/exhaust cones really work?

[Barn Find T]

Great Videos, I like the Channeled Blue 32 Coupe with the Olds motor!

[Tman]

Originally Posted by 8flat

Cool, if you ever get up here, go through Lewistown and I'll tell you exactly where to go fly-fishing on Spring Creek. Beautiful country.

SO, those intake/exhaust cones really work?

They see a difference in the pickups they are in.

[Tman]

That first video is pretty cool. The ADHD Camera work on the others made me dizzy.

[HEMI32]

My father grew up in Beach, North Dakota (a Montana border town) ... and ran the Coupe at both the Lewistown & Bozeman (Belgrade) Air/Drag Strips (circa 1958).

I don't have any photos of our Coupe @ Lewistown ... but here's a few historical Drag Racing images culled from the Lewistown Raceway website:




images from the Phil Woodford (portage) collection

[JeffreyJames]

My god this is a sweet coupe!!! 1:37 into the 1959 video!!!

[oldskoolflyer13]

sad part is that im from Montana (Hamilton)...spent 20 years growin up there and never new the track history. Yup, i grew up under a rock...i do remember the no speed limit of "reasonable and prudent" though

[Pigiron]

Originally Posted by 8flat

I live about 100miles West of Lewistown. (Great fly-fishing there) Went snowmobiling with Erlandson once, really sharp guy. At the time he was all pissed because Polaris stole his invention for a better centrifugal clutch....that Cat is into all sorts of things.

For a while, the Lewistown track was the only 1/4 mile track in Montana. Lots of history out there.

Lewistown was not the only 1/4 mile track in Montana in the late 50' early 60's. I raced at Lewistown then and at Glendive, Red Lodge, Belgrade, Fort Benton, Billings, and Greybull, Wyo.

[deucemanab]

If you guys are interested,lewiston was right in the middle of a minuteman
missle base.i helped install some of it.

[8flat]

Originally Posted by HEMI32

My father grew up in Beach, North Dakota (a Montana border town) ... and ran the Coupe at both the Lewistown & Bozeman (Belgrade) Air/Drag Strips (circa 1958).

I don't have any photos of our Coupe @ Lewistown ... but here's a few historical Drag Racing images culled from the Lewistown Raceway website:
]

Cool pics.. BTW, my wife is from Beach. What a small world, considering the population is about what..800?

Originally Posted by Pigiron

Lewistown was not the only 1/4 mile track in Montana in the late 50' early 60's. I raced at Lewistown then and at Glendive, Red Lodge, Belgrade, Fort Benton, Billings, and Greybull, Wyo.

That's cool, do you have any pics? I went to high school in Glendive, we used to go out to the old racetrack by the fairgrounds for burnout contests. By then it was already chopped up in half. Now it's completely gone. By the late '80s, all the tracks in Montana had closed except Lewistown's 1/4 mile, and there was an 1/8th mile track that was in Anaconda if I remember right. That was it for the whole state. Now there's a couple new 1/4 mile tracks that have opened, Billings, Malta, etc.

Originally Posted by deucemanab

If you guys are interested,lewiston was right in the middle of a minuteman
missle base.i helped install some of it.

That was a cool project. We had 250 missiles until last year, they decommisioned 50 of them, now we have the same amount as ND and WY IIRC. Each one is topped with 3 warheads nowadays, so we're literally surrounded by 600 nuclear bombs in Central MT. We'd be a world nuclear power if we succeeded..haha..

[earl schieb]

Originally Posted by deucemanab

If you guys are interested,lewiston was right in the middle of a minuteman
missle base.i helped install some of it.

And don't ride your motorcycle up the gravel road leading to said missile locations---even out of curiosity---one (or more) of those black Suburbans will come down to greet you Don't ask me how I know

I've been to Lewistown 3 times, and never had a clue about the strip Last time out, I went to the Game & Fish office with my friend Al to renew his hunting license. I was literally standing on hallowed hot-rod ground

And here all this time I thought the Empire Cafe was the local hot spot......