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

Tom,
go back and read 296ardun's post again, paying attention to the punctuation. He said that this was Chris Karamesines' Stuckey car, not that Stuckey's name was Chris. And that was definitely the Greek's own car in the photo as the tow car appears in several other photos with the car. As for the timing of Rod's death the 1967 time line sounds correct as his widow sold the chassis business to Gordon "Collecting" Collett and the first Collett built frames were definitely mid/late 60's style.

Roo

 

Sorry, Ardun, I didn't read it carefully enough, you had it right!

As far as Rod's demise, I did know it as a plane crash when it happened, then decades later, I had forgotten, mixing it up in my mind with Jerry Weld's accidental death (top KC sprintcar racer, Greg's older brother), which was by motor cycle accident, not Rod....both being local racers that died prematurely off the racetrack. Thanks for clearing that up.

And, yes, I had read Fuller's account and it is very compelling and convincing.

 

Thanks...Stuckey was a good guy, sometimes cantankerous but a good guy...I once made the mistake of walking by the Greek's new car at San Gabriel -- suddenly Stuckey motions me over, points to the front end of the dragster, and indicates that he wants me and a couple of other suckers to lift it...we do, only to see the Greek crawl under it, remove the drain plug, and drain the oil! The next time I saw the car in the pits a couple of weeks later at the Smoker's meet, I gave them a wide berth!

 

Jack Chrisman in one of the several sidewinder versions at Lions




Art Malone -- looks like Half Moon Bay


George Boltoff at Pomona, T/GD before George switched to a really big Chrysler


After Garlits switched from Isky to Giovanni Cams



Hugh Tucker, still running the blown Olds at this point...he kicked my butt at San Gabriel (yes, I was driving a dragster, double embarrassing--though my plug wires did blow off during the run, any ole excuse!!)
Colton starting line...notice the roadster on the left side of the track...that's how you started at Colton, the push car pushed you down the track, you stopped, turned around, and then got a push back towards the starting line...the return road at right took you from the (very short!) shutdown area back to the pits...Is that the Stafford & Shores street roadster near the camera on the left? And the Crosley coupe run by the "Heidelberg Speed Shop" crew (no, there was no real Heidelberg Speed Shop, the guys were stationed in Heidelberg, Germany during their Army service, thus the name)....Notice at the end of the track there is a small rise...if your chute failed, or if you got it out too late, you went over the rise and into a cemetery.....(all the track is now gone, but I think the cemetery is still there)

 

Safford and Shores roadster was/is a '29. This the car today, owned by Brian Bauer, the Monrovia mailman.

 

Back in post #38227, 296 Ardun mentioned the Cope Bros. Here is their two engined Gas car in the lanes (somewhere in Washington) next to Hill and Wedlake AA/D. The young kid leaning against the Suburban is Derrick Cope, future Daytona 500 Winner.

 

In the staging lane picture of Big's car, that might be Don's brother Ed Garlits,

 

I had dinner with Isky last week when he was in town for the PRI show and he told the story about Garlits' switch to Giovannoni cams (and then back to Isky).

Roo

 

This is it for me. Cool little short wheelbase Jr fueler with a chute pack body. Might be the next project, especially with Quain Stott adding them to his travelling Gasser show. Anyone have a lead on one for a decent price ??

 

Thanks, Dean, glad it is still alive and well....I remember the S/R in the Colton picture, think it was red, but for the life of me, can't remember who ran it.

 

Isky is a classic, still going strong...I had never heard the full story, but found it on HRM's interview with Ed a few years ago...I have put the Garlits/Giovannoni (yes, I misspelled it in my post) part of the story here, the link to the full interview is below it....makes great reading!

At first, if you wanted to grind cams you couldn’t buy a machine to do it, you had to make your own attachment to a regular grinder. So Winfield showed me how to do it and I did the same thing, but then [machines] came on the market. There was a speed shop in Washington, D.C., called Giovannoni. He used to buy cams from us, but he moved down to Florida and bought a machine and was grinding cams, fooling around mostly. I guess he approached Garlits to get him to run his cam, but [Garlits] didn’t think they knew anything, and just for fun put a Giovannoni Cam sticker in the back window of his tow car. It got back to me, so I called him to ask why he’s doing that, and he said, “I did that so you’d call me. I heard those guys in California are getting more help than I am.” So I asked him if he wanted any [sponsorship] money and he said yes. So we agreed to $1,000 a year, with an option on one more year after that. The first year everything was fine and the second year we agreed that I’d pay him $250 a quarter. Halfway through the second year he calls me up and said, “I’ve been trying to get the nerve to call you for five days. There’s a $5,000 cashier’s check sitting right on my table, and I get another $5,000 six months from now from Giovannoni. He wants me to run for him.” He was under contract, but since I was paying quarterly and I couldn’t prove the association lost me any money, my lawyer said I didn’t have a case. So the lawyer settled it by getting the money back, but he kept it all. Ever since then I’ve just shaken hands on a deal.
He didn’t really change cams. [Giovannoni] put my cam in the machine and copied it. After that we were estranged for a while, but then he came back. One day he called and was running for Crower, running the 426 Hemi. And said our cam runs better than Crower’s, but he’d committed to two different cam companies now. In the meantime I had already taken out a two-page spread in HOT ROD magazine, but he went with Crower. We’re good friends now, but it hurt a little bit at the time.
The link is here, priceless reading:http://www.hotrod.com/features/celebrities/1403-ed-iskenderian-the-camfather/

 

Gabe, you might be right...I thought it was Art Malone because this guy sort of looks like him...and I don't remember Ed driving the actual Swamp Rat, which this is....but here is another picture of Ed and Don...I have to agree that this guy in the staging lane shot looks a lot like Ed:


Ed on the left....

 

Gabe Fernando believes this is Ed Garlits--I found the same picture on Don Ewald's site, Gabe is right...caption is "Ed Garlits was better known for gas dragsters than for driving the Swamp Rat." but this is Ed, thanks for the correction



Tom Davison commented on Rod Stuckey's fire at Half Moon Bay....this is a shot of a run by Rod on the day of the fire, which happened on the next run....Rod was badly burned, and HMB held a benefit race to raise money for Rod's hospital bills...at that meet, Bud Barnett, driving for Gotelli, also suffered a bad fire, burns on his face....it was after these two fires that Jim McLennan started thinking about fire suits like airport firefighters wore...


From Don Ewald's site ...(notice the same Ford wagon push car as in the above color photo)

 

Ardun, thanks for finding the shot of Rod on the line a HMB.

I have read and re-read Fuller's account of his involvement with Stuckey and it rings true.

I met Rod only once, when his fueler was next to my booth at a car show. Because I was very interested in fuel cars, we talked a lot over the course of the show. He said about the GBP car.. (50 years ago...memory fades...),... either he built it or maybe just that it was the car he was burned in. But from what I can tell about Fuller's account, he built the ZFB car and Rod's at the same time. ZFB became GBP, therefore Rod would have been burned in the twin. Wherever Bruce Meyer came up with his info, it seems he may have it wrong that Rod built GBP. I must find Fuller and/or Bruce at the GNRS and ask them.

I'd like to read more of those racers' stories like the link with Fuller's accounting of it; but on that page, there are no links to other pages on that website. Where's the best site for that sort of thing. I have a great story of my having witnessing an Ivo crash pretty close up that I would like to share with Tommy.

 

Tom, I get some of the stories from the Standard 1320 site that the Fuller story came from:

http://www.standard1320.com/Stories/1320Stories.html
But most of them come from Drag News, on CD's...Don Ewald has (or had them for sale on his site)...
Some of the best stories came from Al Caldwell's "Northern Briefs" column, he not only chronicled the NoCal cars but also the many visitors to Half Moon Bay, Fremont, etc....Al called them as he saw them...his comments on Bud Barnett's burned face "sort of like burnt steak" were direct, but seem to have an effect in getting racers to try the aluminized fire suits worn by airport fire fighters....
Don Ewald's "We Did it For Love" fuel dragster/funny car site also has lots of stories.....

and the rest I picked up from my own drag racing days, long since over.

 

Fremont, No ID




At Green Valley, No ID




Anyone know more about this Willys?


Eddie Bauman at Green Valley, nice car, but looks like it was prone to wheelstands!

 

The First Lady of Drag Racing, the late Peggy Hart, in her Cad-powered roadster. This car started out as a flathead powered street roadster, ran the dry lakes (and made the pages of one of Don Montgomery's hot rod history books), then C.J. Hart bought it, dropped the Cad in it, and gave Peggy the wheel. She won a lot of races in it, and later drove an early Willys gasser with the same engine in it. Sadly, cancer claimed her life way too early.

This sidewinder is the remains of one of Chuck Jones' - Jack Chrisman-driven Sidewinders. Ronnie Hampshire and a partner fitted it out with a blown sbc, and ran it on gas...but the usual sidewinder ill-handling problems arose, and it went to the scrap yard.


Really early fuel coupe, Pomona, early '50s. This is from the Norm Grudem collection, once posted on Gasser Madness, but now gone...Don Montgomery used some of Norm's photos in one of his hot rod books...if anyone has links to the collection (there is a Norm Grudem collection of dragster pictures on Don Ewald's site), please post the link!

Paul Schieffer, probably Paradise Mesa...I forgot much of the history of this car, but it might have started out as either the Randy Shinn or Don Waite roadster, first front engined, then later the engine went rearward...this might have later become the Henslee-Cook roadster that topped 150 with direct drive fuel Chrysler...can someone either correct me or fill in details?


Another from the Norm Grudem collection, Alex Xydias SoCal car...probably still blown flathead powered at this time, early Pomona...later it would get a blown Ardun. Alex's brother-in-law, Dave Delangton, drove, tragically losing his life from burns after the clutch blew, with fragments piercing the inboard fuel tank.


When was the last time you saw a full custom Merc run as a fuel coupe? (I guess it was classed as a coupe because it is lined up to run another fuel coupe)...or maybe it is just "Fuel"? Early Pomona, maybe mid-50s...


Babler & Cross, Ardun, once ran a blown flathead, then this motor, really well constructed.

 

Bill Coburn, Fiat-bodied coupe...he ran a converted truck hydro of some sort, this thing was really LOUD...


George Boltoff, still running sbc, later a Chrysler on gas


Early Paradise Mesa, before real slicks, some guys tried dual tires in the never-ending battle to get more traction.


Caption says it all...this may be Vacaville


Another Norm Grudem photo, early Pomona...I have completely forgotten who owned this car, think it ran a 180 degree crank, that's about all I remember...any ID??

 

Not in motion but a great shot!