Santa Ana Drags 1957

Dipping back into the LIFE magazine archives, I find Allan Grant’s images of the Santa Ana NHRA Drags for 1957. Some great cars in these shots, including TV Tommy Ivo’s super-clean T bucket. For a bit of history, Santa Ana was the first real drag strip in the US, using an auxiliary runway at the Orange County Airport and in operation from 1950 to 1959. It was started by C.J. “Pappy” Hart and his partners, allowing many young racers cut their competition teeth including Art Chrisman, Dick Kraft and Joaquin Arnett. This is also the strip that set the standards of modern drag racing as we know it, such as the quarter mile distance, standing starts, electronic timing systems and eliminator categories.