Great Oregon Racers

Marty,
I seem to remember an indoor wood track at Jantzen Beach that motorcycles and midgets ran at......I was very young but am sure that's where I saw them running at..?....
Any pictures of that?...Late 40s early 50s...

 

Randy, I think you are thinking of the PI building (now the site of the Expo). There was a large arena for rodeos and big events. I know they held motorcycle flat track races, unsure about about the Midgets. I will have to ask my old pals that raced back then.

 

More from Portland Speedway in 1947, #14 is Dick Martin's "Little Red Wagon" with Bob Gregg at the wheel. As mentioned earlier in this thread, Dick was a moving force in Oregon racing and founder of "Exhaust Specialties". He was also a contributor to Hot Rod magazine, covering races in the Northwest in 1948. His Roadster with Bob driving was a hard combination to beat! The 29 with the track nose in both shots is the "Tom Story Roadster" with Jimmy Martin at the controls. In the early years, roadster pickups were popular.

 

Another shot of Len Sutton out in front of Troy Ruttman at Carrell Speedway in 48. Len driving the car for Don waters out of Salem and Troy behind the wheel of Bert Letner's "Elco Twin". Troy took first and Len Second! Jack Greiner photo

 

Marty,

I was checking out your post and pictures.

This weekend i was at older fellows place giving him a hand with his hotrod, he has the shakes real bad and ask when i saw him friday at dairy queen for the car show if i could help him out.

He has all these trophys on the wall of his shop from the late 50s and 60s and showed me a picture of a rail car he use to run with a blown 392 hemi, he also broke out some old pictures from the 50s and 60s and was saying names like jack frost, orange krate and other names, the pictures were black and white, showed me some stuff from a car club he has been in called the coachmen i beleive.

I will PM you his name.

jp

 

Anybody know of any online photo albums of drag racing from the Pacific Northwest, from the 60s & 70s?

 

Stuff is few and far between! That's why I started this thread, as it stands, THIS IS the online album!

 

Well, that's why I asked. I've searched and searched on line, and can't find much of anything. I even found vintage NW sand drag pics and big album of pics from Saskatchewan of all places. Surprisingly very little on drag racing from the 60s & 70s from the Pacific NW.

 

JP, You are talking about my old pal Bob "Whitey" Jenson, I posted a picture a few pages back of his injected Chevy Dragster. He has offered me use of his photos to post here. It will be good, as he started racing at Scapoose in the 50's.

 

I would be interested in any NW sand drag pics, as my brother Jerry was the "Kingpin" of the sand drags in the northwest in the 70's and when he traveled to California, they new him well. He built all of his own cars, engines, tuned and drove. He was the first man to set the National records under 3 seconds in T/F and Funny car as well. The pics probably aren't HAMB friendly but I would like to see them myself.

 

What happened to this car?

jp

 

Casey's dad, Rod posting--In 1965 as a senior in high school in E. Oregon, I built this 58 Del Ray for drag racing with a healthy 409/4sp--car was a sleeper. At graduation time an EOC graduate by the name of Mike Gilbert wanted to go drag racing and traded his 59 Corvette for my Del Ray. I was told he set a record in B/MP at Woodburn in that summer of 1965. Anyone on this thread remember the car? I was at a race in Redding, Ca the summer of 1966 and saw my old Del Ray racing there--(no longer owned by Mike Gilbert) Also, in 1968, I built a 54 Austin Healy 100-4 with a 426 Max-wedge that went to the Portland area street scene for a time and I lost track of it. Anybody have any knowledge of that car? Any info would be appreciated---my son Casey is a MOPAR freak and would be thrilled to hear anything.-----thanks guys----Rod

 

Just happened to show up on my Nothwest Rods and Customs on Facebook. It was an early arrival and we started in February this year. Tons of pictures of nostalgic cars. Anyhow...... Chris Depuy of I think Eugene sent in the picture and it's his dads car and I believe he said it was in Hermiston.

I went to the FB site and checked and here is Chris' reply then.................
Chris Depuy....... Dad sold it to fellow Joint Venture member Jim Warter in ’83. Jim painted it white and raced it for a while. My dad found it a few years ago. Panella had it. Said he would sell it back for 30K with no motor or trans!!
Also when dad had it, it still had the stock trim, electric windows, stock seats and stock front suspension( acid dipped however)! All that was had been replaced when he found it.

Here's another picture...............

Hosted on Fotki
Mike

 

Thanks for the update, glad to hear the car is still around.

jp

 

The online magazine, Bench Racing, usually dedicates a few pages to northwest drag racing. Some great photos and information.

http://www.benchrace.com/html/Past.html

 

This one of my favorite shots of Portland Speedway in about 1947, on the pole is Don Moore in Al Reamer's #57 ,a 27 with a cool looking hand built nose. Big "Schnell equipped" flathead with 4 twos. I am doing research on the 32 on the outside front row. The Tom Story roadster is 2nd row inside. Look at the infield "pit area". The other shot is George "Pop" Koch's model A with Frankie McGowan at the wheel. V/12 Lincoln power. Update the 32 on the outside,it belonged to Randy Francis, who would go on to own "Damerow Ford" in Beaverton, that explains all of those, Boss 429's and Cobra Jet Mustangs that used to sit out front of the dealership in the late 60's & 70's!

 

Sure is a fun thread to look back on the early days of racing here in the northwest. Over the years we've featured a few gems from the early days of racing here in western Idaho, including a shot or two from the days racing took place on Gowen Field road behind the airport here in Boise - swing by our blast from the past section at firebirdonline.com - a number of pretty bitchin' images. That shot with the 32 Roadster in the foreground of Portland Speedway (47) is priceless - thanks to everyone contributing to this thread - sure does bring back the memories.

Scott New

 

Marty,

Those are some great shots.

jp

 

Carol Yenter corvette i think, do not know alot about the car.

jp

 

I would like to learn more about that Corvette! It gives "Big John's" a run for the money in the looks department. Thanks JP for posting.

 

This was taken out on the road course at "Delta Park" in 1965, before there was any dragstrip. Some real Oregon and Washington history here. Behind the wheel was Jim Barnard, Left to right, Ed McCulloch, John Mitchell,Sid Waterman,Gary Parham,Chet Thomas,Dave Jeffers,Dave Skeans,John Anderson and Leroy Peterson. Steve Alex photo. The fuel Chrysler from this dragster would find it's way under the hood of a 33 Willys 4 door sedan. I will get some pictures of the Willys ,"The Assassin", that was raced by the trio of Chet Thomas, Jim Barnard and John Anderson. It ran AA/FA and ran in the 7's at over 190 with Chet Behind the wheel!

 

Great picture. I remember the eight mile ( or less) drags at Delta Park on one of the old Vanport roads. Was the Thomas Willys painted silver? I also seem to remember John Mitchel running an injected SBC dragster. Does this sound right?

 

Yup that picture was taken in Eugene. At the airport drag strip. I believe dad lived in Scio at the time. Maybe K falls.

The later picture with "Auto Clinic" on the side is from Hermiston, where his shop was, and were I was born. (watermelon baby).

Pops lives in Tejas now and is sewing his '40 Chevy back together. 496 and powerglide. Ran 9.54 when it wrecked.

Awesome thread!!!!!

 

When I was in hi school we used to hold drags out where PIR is now every Tuesday night until the police showed up and ran everyone off. They usually left us alone for awhile, but once the crowd got large they shut things down. Eventually they just shut it all down, and then they built PIR.

 

The Willys was green, top chopped 5", windshield laid back 2", if you saw it you would never forget it! John Mitchell had a couple of JR Fuel cars with injected Chevys. The second one was a Kent Fuller car and he switched to a Keith Black 331 Chrysler. That is the same car we shortened up and ran blown alcohol with in the nostalgia drags in the 80's. Fun little car to drive.

 

From what i understand they may have been from the portland area.

jp

 

1954 Portland Meadows one mile, 100 laps, Len Sutton driving Rolla Vollstedt's Sprint Car, Rolla with the cowboy hat, flagman Pat Vidan talking to Len before the start of the race, which Len won! Those three men would go on to create history at Indy. Rolla as a builder/owner, Len as a driver and Pat served as the official Indy starter from 62 through 79. The other car could possibly be Del McClure's by the "M" in the front bumper. Del is another of Oregon's greatest racers as he competed in USAC for 50 years, winning the "Silver Crown" Championship with another famous Oregon racer Mike Bliss as his driver.

 

JP, I think that corvette was a Washington car, I have a video of the drags from the 60's, with Kenney Goodell racing against it in Don Jackson's Bantam Altered.

 

I jonesing for more pics! Somebody hep me!

 

Here is a couple more, the Weldco Offy was driven by Palmer Crowell, it was owned by Canadian Gordon Reeley, Palmer drove for Gordon off and on for many years, along with wheeling everything from Track Roadsters, Midgets, Big Cars, Sprints, Supermodifeds for himself and others. He was the CAMRA champ in 1971 I believe. The blue Midget was owned by Ralph Young, Ralph has a long association with good running road race cars. His Midget was powered by a Daimler "Hemi" V/8 and the kid driving for him was Roseburg's J.P. Standly. J.P. was only about 18 years old and kicked the ass of the USAC boys when they came north! I have known Palmer and Ralph for decades, two of the best.