I consider myself extremely fortunate to have lived in Southern California in the 60s - I lived in Bellflower and worked for Ray Standoff at Bellflower Auto Center. One afternoon I was at my house on Walnut Street and heard the unmistakable sound of a blown motor being tuned up, not far away. I walked down to Lakewood Blvd and crossed over into a small compound of shops, and there was the SWC car with Doug messing with the injectors - he let me hang around and watch - even when he was trimming 3" off the bottom of the front fenders (maybe a little less drag, who knows?) I was at Lions with Ray and Richard Degonia's AA/FMR when the Watts riots started, we could see the smoke from the strip, and I believe SWC were there at Lions - several teams offered to let them keep their Willys at their shop until things cooled off.
Another friend, Ted Radoumis and his partner Mike Moore, were building a Willys pickup next door to Doug on Park Street. Doug and Chuck Finders helped these guys a lot. One day, Doug needs Ted's help to go get another body (after a crash or something). They go to a house, open the gate, and Ted sees what must have been like a small wrecking yard of nothing but Willys coupes. They load one up and bring it back to Doug's shop. Fit that one in your brain. (Here is a pic of Ted's restored P/U, as it was this weekend at GNRS.)
I think the man in the hat is fred Stone. I think this picture was also in a Hot Rod magazine article.
I always found it odd that Joe Mondello ported heads for countless race cars, built engines and sold parts for all Olds engines but if you check some of his old ads from the 80's they say EXCEPT 394.
Very cool shop photos. I love the laid back attitude...." just toss that super charger over there on the floor." LOL!
I seen it at the 2014 Meltdown Drags too but I don't think it ran because I don't think it runs very well anymore.
Taken with my Willys at the Hot Rod Magazine 65th Anniversary event at Pomona - a once in a lifetime photo op! Pic in blue car was at Pomona, CA and lt. blue car at Beaver Springs, PA. Sadly I just found out that Mike Wales (owner of lt. blue car) passed away past week.
This thread needs a lil reading for those that haven't seen it... My only time seeing it was at beaver springs at are Gasser reunion maybe 2011 when I got to tow it up to the line for it's exhibition run, An ran down the track with a couple photographs in the bed of my truck...
I don't like a party, never liked being the center of attention I guess, so when I turned 50 my wife bought tickets for me and a good friend to fly out to Bakersfield for the 1999 CHRR. We're sitting in the stands watching NT/F qualifying when two black gentlemen come up and sit next to us. As soon as I saw one of them I knew I had to ask- Excuse me, are you Tim Woods son? Why yes, I am! How did you know? I saw your father a number of times at US 30 Drag Strip outside of Gary, IN and you walk like your dad did. We reminisced about the '60's when SWC and a host of others kept their cars in the Midwest because it was a hotbed of match racing ($$$) and Leonard explained that he was a student at Purdue at the time and remembered US 30 very well. He came to the Reunion that year because KS Pittman, one of SWC's former drivers was an Honoree that year. My buddy was floored that I could pick him out like that but I think Lenny was even more surprised. I had never seen this thread before but BITD I had seen numerous photos of Woods Sr. and even Fred Stone a few times, and it never seemed like they stayed behind the scenes to me. IIRC Tim Woods owned a construction company. I guess the pressure was too much for Leonard after the economy tanked in '08 and his Ford dealership was underwater financially. Sadly he took his own life in 2010
A lot of people don't know that the '33 Willys Dark Horse ended up as the Altizer Finders Kibler monster. Chuck Finders seemed to have had his hand in building chassis for almost every gasser and as I understand he was the driving force behind the SWC '33. He gets billing on the door of the car. The '33 was promising but broke while racing the '42 and for some reason SW lost interest and Chuck converted it into the red Traveler.
I think Dark Horse was built by Finders using an Olds engine left over from the Willys cars early days. It debuted about the same time as the SWC ‘67 Mustang did with the Mustang running a 392 on gas and later fuel. With muscle car bodies getting most, if not all of the match race money by then the decision was made to let Finders have the car. The ‘67 car, Dark Horse II, ran many times at US 30 and I can still picture the T-bird style sequential taillights blinking as it backed up after the burnout. Wednesday nights at 30 were the best, lots of good memories from that era.
Doug Cook Hello, The Stone, Woods and Cook team was inspiring to my brother and me because of Doug Cook. First it was K.S. Pittman, then when Doug Cook started driving and wrenching, it became almost unstoppable. We saw the black 40 Willys coupe at Lions in the early 1964 all Gas Coupe/Sedan drag meet. That was the first time back at Lions since August 1960 for us. As all home built drag racing cars go, this SWC coupe was one that could be considered high end of the scale. But, the quick reaction time of Doug Cook, his early 37 Chevy Coupe exploits, and his mechanical knowledge, made the wins come easy. DOUG COOK 37 CHEVY SWC’s exploits have been noted in a million articles, more, when the fans started identifying themselves with the team. The Drag News played a big part with the “Cam Wars” and “Gas Coupe Wars” for advertisements. This is where we continued to watch the drag racing information for the next several years. That was in the early part of the 60s. Here is a short clip from 1964 in the black Willys coupe at the All Gas Coupe and Sedan meet held at Lions Dragstrip. Black SWC Willys Jnaki Much to my surprise, when in discussions with the staff managers at the Price Transfer Automobilia Museum (APRIL OF 2017) took place about my drag racing films being included in the Lions Museum Grand Opening, I was floored. They asked how to present those historic films for the people that would be in the museum on opening night. Here was my suggestion for the display of my films: They went on about the display cars lined up and gave me a surprise announcement: The historic Stone, Woods and Cook Willys coupes would be in attendance. COUPES? They told me that the silver blue 41 SWC coupe was going to be on permanent display at the newly created Lions Dragstrip Museum in the huge wing of the sprawling trucking/container complex. (That got my blood flowing.) Seeing the actual SWC Olds powered coupe up close and personal…I could not wait. museum set up days June 24, 2017 opening night OPENING NIGHT JUNE 24, 2017 A SURPRISE AT THE END... A crazy pixel art form from the winter holidays 2018.
The Jalopy Journal
