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

That was the word that all the racers were passing around at the time, sorry that it was wrong

 

D.N.D.
We all heard the same story and I, too, would believe anything that involved some backroom bullshit from the State of California much less the City of Irwindale. Irwindale has had some pretty shady deals over the years and some have had them plastered on the front pages of the newspapers.
So, you, like me, all wouldn't put "anything" past the power-brokers at the time.
I started to work with the city attorney for Irwindale in 1996 and we had breakfast every tuesday for eight years together. So......I had to ask 'what really happened"?
He said the whole thing fell together easily with all three parties being happy. The racers were not involved with any of this, of course.
My relationship with this attorney was limited to him also being the city attorney here in Sierra Madre where I live.
But, he laid it out to me as he said it did, and I have no reason to doubt him.
Now if you really want to hear some horror stories, ask him about the "Raiders" football stadium deal with Irwindale.
YIKES!
So, besides Irwindale and Lions properties having a "better" use than for a drag strip (or so they told us), both were weighted with noise complaints from the neighbors.
Irwindale and Lions both had tons of noise complaints and when the power-brokers "found" an excuse to stop the strips and start the business/ports it made it all the easier to just blame it all on "progress".
At the Lions Drag Strip reunion in 2012 this issue was discussed again and they whole knowledge of the noise whiners were exposed.
All of our strips from the 60's have suffered from the noise issues as the urban sprawl encroached the strips.
Pomona is under more and pressure from the homeowners on the hillside to the south.
Thank goodness for Famoso.
D.N.D., we were very lucky to have had the best days ever when we could choose from Lions, Fontana, Pomona, San Fernando and in 1965, Irwindale.
Lucky US!
I personally thought it would never end. It never crossed my mind in the 1960's that they'd all but disappear.

 

The first car was actually a red '29 roadster, first ran a carbureted Chrysler on gas...saw Willy drive it at Santa Ana in August '57...then the '29 got a blower with the carbs on top...then the first T came along, it was 'glass, with a sprint car-like frame...ran without the wing, then added the wing, and lost the QC rear end around the same time...as Roo noted, Willy crashed it on tour, (and a fan made off with the wing), so the Logghe car came along, apparently with some legal tangles...the first T had a Model A steering wheel, but, as noted above, the Logghe car had a more standard wheel....

 

And here it is--Google is your friend.

The first T also had a Ross steering box mounted down between Willie's feet with a near vertical column. After I built the current frame following the Famoso crash Mousie had me sit in the car for some photos and I decided that Willie had and Mike has waaay more sack than me. With just a main roll hoop behind him and a pretty basic seat Willie hung on to the body to keep himself centered in the car when it did its typical altered tricks. The early version of the T also had a chain driven blower prior to the addition of the wing.

Roo

 

Like it was, well told...San Fernando also fell to noise complaints...the neighbors constantly bitched about it, as they were right next to the track....so competition cars could run only between 12-3....the deacon of the local church was especially irate when the flywheel from the Valley Home Service dragster came through the roof of his church...but also there were probably too many drag strips in SoCal...Fontana, Colton, Riverside, San Fernando, Lions, San Gabriel (and later Irwindale), Palmdale at one point were all running together, along with Carlsbad and Ramona in the San Diego area (Paradise Mesa had closed by '57, I think)...inevitably some would close (the Inland Empire couldn't support three drag strips)...but all but Pomona gone?? We never thought that would happen...Mazooma is right, it was the power brokers like the Los Angeles Harbor Commission that voted to close Lions so they could build a container port area there (though the site sat vacant for years)...and the power of Miller...those were the real reasons why we lost almost all of them....

 

Thanks Mazooma for the correct Irwindale story, in the 60's when the wind was blowing in the right direction I could hear a fueler making a run at Fernando that was about 5 miles away

And that was with low HP so now days they must be heard for many more miles, I heard today that Lucas is going to run the drag boats at the Long Beach Marine stadium soon

With todays noise's that just might be a one time deal, plus breaking some windows in the condo's right along the spectator side ? Maybe not but rattling a few coffee cups for sure

We could not have lived a better time than the 60's decade for being a race fan with all the different events we could see like I have said in the past those days were ' Priceless '

 

To improvise the old saying:
"You just don't want to ever know how they make sausage, politics and land deals. It will disgust you and give you nightmares"
===
If anyone wants proof of the ridiculous world of race track real estate politics, look no further than Ontario Motor Speedway.
It survived for only 11 years and was a state-of-the-art facility that was a replica of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It had drag races, a road course, had concerts and some great oval track racing. But, after 11 years it was closed, then torn down.
THEN.......in the late 1990's later "they" build another oval track just across the freeway to the east.
WTF?

 

Just letting you guys know that I (for one) enjoy the discussion among 'those who were there', as well as the excellent pictures. It's like a garage bench session, and hearing it from the horse's mouth. Good stuff guys. Keep the pics & commentary comin'....best thread on the Hamb, & Thank you!

 

Big time race track operators should do what the smaller (local) track owners use to do....Bribe them.
I bet if the powers within the(Pomona) Motorplex mgmt. gave season passes to all the tracks neighbors on the hill, there would be less whining about the noise.
Stayed at the Lemon Tree next to Denny's a couple of times.
They probably don't like it either.

 

No clue on this one, anyone??


Lots of great Texas gassers....don't know who owned or drove it...


Just through the lights...Texas, I think, don't know car or place..


August "Hands" Hartkopf in the '56...one of Texas' most famous drag racers...don't know who he is racing


I should know who this is...anyone? I thought it was Bennie Osborne, but the name on the nose doesn't look right...


Ok, this is Bennie, Sand Springs, OK....


Not bad for '58...I think that Gene Brown later moved to California? He was from Corpus Christi and owned some transmissions shops...from TexasHardcore


This Ford usually ran Bonneville, but did a stint at the drags, Bill Burke and Mel Chastain.


Frye Brothers, dual Buick. They usually ran gas but on this day they were running nitro...

 

Thanks 296ardun
Wow, I knew nothing of Willy's early years apparently.
My comment of the cars' first iteration was in regards to the first T bodied car.

 

I've often thought Willy had to be carry'n some XXL ones down there.

 

View attachment 3017173
Ok, this is Bennie, Sand Springs, OK....

Bennie Osborn TF dragster couple weeks ago on display at Tulsa 50th Anniversary






That's "Snake" & "Mongoose" in the golf cart. They were on site too!

 

Here is another set of pictures of the Harrell & Borsch 29, from Drag News, June 15, 1957:

 

Engine from same roadster...this was the first car I ever saw go down a drag strip, at Santa Anas, needless to say, I was hooked!

(Interesting that Willie and Al "Mousie" Marcellus were childhood friends (Willie moved in with Al's family when his parents died), but Marcellus came into the team only after Harrell left (Harrell was part of a family that built engines since 1930 and at one point made flathead heads, now very rare). Marcellus raced a flathead powered street roadster since the mid-50s...

 

usted es una fuente de conocimientos

 

Like Mazooma said....we've all had our share....one of ours was Green Valley....which also had a great road course.......houses now....

 

Like Riverside out here that was our home track and was a world class road course, and a neat drag strip too and the Bonneville boys had 1/2 mile drags there also

Its Condo city now and what a shame we have had to loose all these great tracks

 

Love this pic. The calm before the storm.

 

Mazooma, that was very helpful! I had never visualized it in that juxtaposition relative to the dam. My first trip to San Gabriel as a new arrival in SoCal was sometime in the early winter of 1961 but in the fall of 1962 I moved even closer, to the area of Lower Azusa Road and El Monte Avenue. That move, plus the bonus of nitro cars made SG a strong draw. I typically pass by that area on a weekly basis these days.

c

 

Plenty of great memories and posts on this thread.

Jimbo

 

Chuck Norton
Looks familiar?
I grew up just north of the dairy

 

I think this is a pretty accurate list, although I'm willing to be wrong...

Name............................................Opened/Closed..................Comments
Santa Ana........................................1950/1959.............Now John Wayne Airport
Tustin...............................................1950/?....................Old blimp base
Saugus...............................................1951/1957.............Six-S Ranch
Pomona Raceway............................1951........................L.A. County Fair Grounds
Fontana Dragway............................1952/1969..............AKA "Drag City"
Famosa Raceway.............................1952.........................AKA "Bakersfield
Inyokern...........................................1954/2005...............Ridgecrest
San Fernando Raceway..................1955/1967...............AKA "The Pond"
Lions Drag Strip..............................1955/1972..............AKA "The Beach"
San Gabriel.......................................1956/1963
Colton...............................................1956/1960...............Morrow Field
Irwindale Raceway..........................1957/1973...............Miller Brewery site
Riverside Raceway..........................1959/1970...............1/2 mile strip
Paradise Mesa..................................1959/?......................National City
Romona (airport).............................1963/1967..............closed when runway was needed
Los Angeles Cnty. Raceway...........1964/2007...............AKA "LACR"
Carlsbad Raceway............................1964/2004...............Near San Diego
Orange County International.........1967/1983...............AKA "OCIR" in Irvine
Brotherhood Raceway.....................1974/1995...............Terminal Island
Irwindale Speedway..........................2001/2014...............1/8th mile
Auto Club Dragway.........................2001...........................Fontana
Barona................................................2003...........................1/8th mile

 

Irwindale Raceway was 1965-1977

 

What season? Only the Winters and the Finals.

 

I was running my car at San Fernando in 68', so it might have been about 72 - 74 that they closed

 

The whining season.

 

George, thanks, this is great...I think that San Fernando closed around '71, Colton was open at least in '62, when I raced there (on Google Earth, the site now seems to be a Sam Sneed Golf Course)...I think that Paradise Mesa opened earlier, around '52, closed before Santa Ana, possibly '58 (that is when it disappears from Drag News reporting)...Fontana opened around 1960 or '61. Riverside did host 1/2 mile drags in its early days (Dean Lowe ran there), but most of its history was 1/4 mile racing. I think that Tustin ran for only a year...if I remember right, Wally Parks tried to compete with C.J. Hart at Santa Ana, but lost the competition, and actually ran very few races at Tustin...now I'm doing this from memory so I could be way off...Others??

 

I had a land developer tell me once that his favorite piece of land to develop was an old racetrack property. If it was a functioning race track, drag or oval, it already had roads to it, electricity and water were already there, many times sewer and gutter, there were limited buildings to tear down, and very few people with limited political pull to displace. If you look at the above list and anywhere else in the US, most strips were closed due to community forward progress! The noise situation was merely convenient fodder. In my area Great Lakes and Bryon are out in the boonies and therefore left alone. Still, I am enternally grateful that I grew up when I did and had many racetracks to pick from, maybe not a famous as the ones in Cali but there were a lot more 'back in the day'