my buddy from work sent this to me. i think he said one of his buddies added the footage. pretty neat stuff enjoy http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1234840455871931581&q=drag -eric
I grew up in the SFV and my dad used to drag race a 57 chevy and a GTO at that strip. I could hear the cars running from my house if they ran at night. Great flix. Thank you.
yeah that big rig is AWESOME!! wish it had some audio to go with it. i'd love to hear what all those cars sounded like. glad you guys like it -eric
Awesome footage! That's Tex Collins's White with Allison power, now owned by Squeak Bell in Bakersfield less engine. The black C cab was also owned by Tex Collins. I used to work with his son Frank, I bet he's the kid on the bed of the C cab. Not sure but I think the Smokey funny car run is Tex in his Allison powered Mustang. Tex Collins was the owner of Cal Automotive amongst other things.
has anyone else found any footage like this online??? i wanted to buy some of the old dragster films at the GNRS but i forgot to go back and buy it. i was to busy drooling over cars.
Love that clip,It musta been shot in 68. I know that SF Raceway was on Glenoaks Bl but exactly where & what's there now? When did it close & why?? Back in the 80's we used to meet @ Kevin's Burgers in Canoga Park and go over to Roxford/San Fernando Rd under the 210/5 separation and would spend hours sending off car after car because of the lack of a friday/saturday night strip. It was desolate there along the tracks and the cops would come through lights and all every now & then,everybody would just scram! Just straight up racing. no fights no drama.
The strip is still there. At least it was in 2000 or so. The aerial photo shows a swap meet that's there now. Top left of the pic is Glenoaks Blvd. The other end of the strip ran under San Fernando Rd. - which was way at the end and right before the sand trap next to the river. The start line was at the upper right of the pic. If you look close, you can see the original entrance road just left of the swap meet area. You drove in off Glenoaks - or San Fernando Rd. - and either took an immediate left into the pits or went straight into the open area where there was parking to the left. The eastern side of the old entrance road was the border to the strip and there was a general aviation airport to the left of the fence. All the big roof buildings you see were not there and there was either bare land around the airport area or inside the dragstrip area. The dragstrip's bare area ran from the parking above the pits all the way to San Fernando Rd. If you follow the strip proper - still paved and to the upper right sideof the pic you'll see a light brown area which is where the "hot pits" were. These were for dragsters, altereds and other competition only cars. Saw a lot of famous cars, big names and the like there, but the best was racing every Sunday. San Fernando had an open header curfew and only allowed open headers between 12 noon and 3 PM. It was well organized and they put on a heckuva show in three short hours....
Thats so awesome. I grew up going to that swapmeet and had always heard about the racing that use to happen there. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, great video. It jostles brain cells I forgot I had. I grew up with the sounds of the hydros from Hansen Dam on Saturday morning and the open pipes from SF Drags on Sunday afternoon. They used to do a few dry runs Sunday morning in TV Tommy Ivos Buick rail down the street from the gas station that I worked at (Joes Chevron). A bunch of us hung out at Ford Duplicators (Tex Collins place) and we actually got to drive the C-cab and his Touring to school every once in a while (I never got to drive it). I remember the stack of Allison engines he had. I also remember a multi door touring body that sat in front of his place for quite some time. It wound up down the road at Barriss and eventually became the Munster Koach. I left the Valley in 67 (Uncle Sugar called) and when I got back in 71 SF Drags was gone soon followed by Lions and then Irwindale. Oh well ..
Heres a fairly up to date satellite pic. Says 2007, but that may be the listing date. The greenish area lower left is about where the pits were. The white X over the barely seen runway is where the main runway to the airport was. Saw a lot of interesting things happen there. One crash - both occupants survived with no injuries - due to landing long and running off the runway and hitting a power pole. Plane caught fire and burned up. We were hanging on the pit fence watching across the strip entrance road and seeing what we thought was a disaster in the making. Another time, we were sitting in the pit stands waiting for C/G to be called and saw a T28 - big radial engine military trainer - land on the strip . . . and take off again. He landed toward the starting line/staging area, turned around, taxied almost to the bridge, turned around, made a takeoff right over the staged cars. A little spooky, but cool. Probably good that he did, once the FAA got you, the plane would be towed to the airport and the pilot would have gotten in a lot of trouble by mistaking the strip for the runway. To top it off, there was a Junior Fueler on the start line ready to make a single. The starter shut that down when he took that last look down the strip before letting the Jr Fueler go. If you left the strip via Foothill, you turned left and went down Foothill blvd. to the Chevron station on the corner. The cops were pretty cool and left the open header racers alone . . . including one Fiat altered with weed-burners that was gassing up. He'd driven from the strip to the station and then back again. Staging area/lanes were just to the left of the pit area. Shown in the pic as dull green. That long very straight looks like a road is the wash that was adacent to the strip. Not sure when it was cemented over. If you got there early enough you could park on the bank inside the dragstrip property overlooking the strip at about the 1000' mark and watch the races from the comfort of your car - and talk to the fuel drivers et al over the back fence at the hot pits. Fun place, fun times....
well i've been itching to see some more footage and i came across this one pretty rad... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8v-oX2_iGA and this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuHxs6uG6iY
Yeah, it's a White with an Allison v-12. I remember seeing that thing being built, probably late '60s, in a machine shop on Lankershim Bl in NoHo. It was SOOOOO cool.
I ran across a couple of reels of 8mm film I took at San Fernando in 1968. I raced my 390 AMX (anybody remember American Motors). Raced brackets for the first time and broke out of my bracket on the third round. Never raced brackets again. Yeah I really enjoyed the video also and if I can figure out how to do it I will post my San Fernando footage.
Awesome footage thanks for posting it up.Like you said would have been even better with some audio just to hear em wind up at launch.
I've always been a fan of Lions Drag Strip even though at 41, I'm much too young to have ever been there but I've also heard & read so many great stories about San Fernando that it must've been a pretty special place also. I've heard that San Fern's tower foundation is still even there. Somebody please take one of these satellite photos in this thread and mark where exactly the paved strip, starting line and tower actually was. I've never been to SoCal before but when I do finally make it out West someday, I'm gonna visit the sites of the old Lions and San Fernando. Although they've been gone for something like 40 years now, these places are hallowed ground.
The southern portion of the strip still exists, but more of the strip and the adjacent general aviation airport has been taken by a new High School. The Swap Meet still operates on the southern portion.
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