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

Gene Cromer and the Moonlighter from back in the day. For those that don't know he is racing it again and it runs very strong.

 

Hirshfield Automotive sponsored killer D/G '57 of Shig Shimizu, Jack Norton, and Bill Peach. Known as Shig, Norton, and Peach, you can see their record numbers enshrined on the walls of the drag racing museum better known as the Half Moon Bay Bakery.

 

Bad ass

 

That vet is over the top cool.

 

Be neater if it was chopped a little.

 

Just posted on the George Klass site:



Don Ewald has traced the history of this dragster, owned by Gordon Tatum when the picture was taken...Ewald can tell the story (from his WDIFL site)

In a nutshell - this is the so-called "Surfers II" car. It was built at RCS by Frank Huszar, Tom Jobe, Bob Skinner and Mike Sorokin. It was going to replace the fabled "Surfers" car that set drag racing on its ear in the mid 1960's. For reasons that don't matter anymore, the car was sold to the Bandel Bros. before it was ever painted ... let alone raced. The "Surfers" disbanded and their individual fates are well known to this day.
By all accounts it was (and maybe still is) one of the finest, trickiest most detailed dragsters ever built. It was sold by the Bandel's to Gordon Tatum around 1968. He repainted it this green and ran the car with some success in 1968 including a tie (with John Mulligan) for the #2 spot in the Div. 1 points. To this day it's in Tatum's possession (in the same condition as the photo) and he's chosen to keep it hidden from the world. Damn shame too.

Here are another couple of shots of the car from Don's site:




This picture was taken right after Tatum bought the car from the Bandel Brothers, who used it mostly to promote their rock & roll band....

Where is it now??

and speaking of the Surfers, here is another shot from George's site, Surfers waiting to push off down the push road -- this could be the Smoker's meet in '66 when the Surfer's won the final round after James Warren red-lit. I don't know who they are racing, looks like Kenny Safford's push car, but don't know the car. Looks like Tom Jobe with the helmet.

 

Great post!!!!!^^^^^^^^