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

The Little Screamer. That was a regular racer at the Rockford drag strip. Loved that car

 

No beard, though...I don't remember Willie not having a beard....maybe it does not show up in this picture...

 

Correct, the altered picture fooled me because there was no fence at Irwindale that I remember in the early '70s, but a picture from '77 shows one -- thanks for the correction

 

Adding to the Ivo collection above, San Fernando ... notice the Ford coupe in the parking lot...

 

Wish I could find the 8mm movies dad took of this event...

 

The late Roger Gustin in the Sherbits car at the base of the tower...

 

New England Dragway South 1/8 mile Norwood, Mass 1968 Jack Doyle's AA/Gas Dragster

 

Jack Doyle's gas dragster with Bob Schneider's fuel motor Sunday May 4, 1969, I was supposed to be in Fort Lewis Washington to leave for Vietnam. But, I wasn't...I was at New England Dragway for one more race, and AWOL from the Army. Got there Tuesday a little late...

 

No ID


CKC car??


No ID ( I think these pictures are from Texas, but not sure)


No ID


No ID



ID below picture, Is Pappy Hartman the same guy whose daughter Rhonda and son Richard ran fuel cars? Answer, no, Rhonda and Richard's dad (Virgil) grew up in Indiana and then lived in California before relocating to South Carolina around the turn of the century. (info from Rooman, thanks!)

Pappy Hartman was the "Blown Pontiac" Guru, of the Northwest in the 60's. He built the engine for Tip Angel & Mike Grim's, 180 mph AA/D, his roadster ran over 150 on gas. (info from Marty Strode, thanks!)


No ID, date at the top of the picture


from the same picture collection, no ID on car or track (so where it is? Gabe Fernando thinks it might be Moffett Field in California, other votes are for Texas...unfortunately some of these pictures show up with no id so we are left to speculate....2 votes for Texas, anyone else?

(I think I found it, this from the history of Houston Freeway drag strip:
The Houston International Speedway, later known as the Houston International Raceway and then Houston International Dragway, or the "Freeway Dragstrip", as well as other various names in its lifetime, was built and opened in 1957. It was considered one of the nation's premiere drag strips during its time as a member of the NHRA's Division 4. The Dragstrip was located on the east side of Interstate 45, south of Houston, near Dickinson, Texas. The current intersection is I-45 and 16th St (also FM 646). Land for the track was donated by the Fingers Furniture family.
How the Houston Freeway Dragtrip came to be:
- Local Street Racing - The "Road Kings"
- Westbury - back of the subdivision, before homes were built - what is now Burlinghall Dr was the old drag strip, from Dunlap to Renwick
- Richmond & Post Oak - concrete slab for racing found while leaving Westbury races
- GHTA - the Greater Houston Timing Association
- The Blimp Base - Hitchcock, Texas - John Mecum family
- June 1956 - '34 Ford Race Car - blow flathead with slicks
- August 19, 1956 - Houston College of Drag Racing - learning how to properly time real drag races
- Ellington Field event - 20,000+ people
- Houston Freeway Dragstrip - Opens in Fall 1957 (I found more, John Mecum bought the base in '51, my memory says he was involved in v-8 sports cars (?), so maybe also a drag strip...the problem is that Hitchcock Naval Air Station had only one huge blimp hanger, and the above picture seems to show two...so where does that leave us??


I was never a fan of these drag racing VWs, but the guys who ran them knew how to get a lot of power out of a very few cubic inches


No ID


Finally an ID: Alan Bockla, fuel modified roadster, from Colorado, Bockla would go on to become one of Colorado's premier fuel dragster racers.



Back to no ID....sometimes I come across a set of unidentified pictures, and post them in hopes that someone will give a name to them....maybe these racers never became famous, but they were still racers and deserved to be remembered for what they did.

 

The strip you don't have an ID on could be NorCal. Bay Area. The blimp hangers in the background look like the it might be near Moffet (sic) Field, USN lighter than air base. A little south of 'Frisco'. Just a guess.