Great Oregon Racers

Marty, you asked about this car a few days ago. Got this from the HAMB and Dick Page of Tacoma, WA...................................

Dick Page.......... Gold Crosly from Tacoma WA . Don & Mike Medley's United Auto Wrecking

Mike

Hosted on Fotki

 

Marty,
Looks like Pat Pattee drove his Chevy pretty hard from that picture!

 

Here's a good color shot of Bill Irelands MP Mustang.

 

Gary, The D/A is Wayne Mahaffey, set the record around 1963, I have a movie from McMinnville of Bill Ireland in his "Thunderbolt" racing the Dodge, I always thought the guys name was John Casti.

 

All these photo's are by Russ Griffith.
I think you are correct Marty, it was Casti.

 

Great photos by Russ Griffith ! The Dragster with the 348 puzzles me, back on page 16, post 302, Mac Bowman's 32 Coupe with a blown 348 is pictured, That engine was installed in Svela's "light weight" Chevy Dragster for a short time, the car had solid front wheels (with holes) instead if wires, look closely and notice the front wheels. A lot of similarities to the "Svela - Bowman" car. Also the Oregon Coast connection of Sonny Erickson's Dragster from Seaside shown here.

 

I was there for the photo shoot on the 34 coupe, it was VERY cool. here is a teaser pic from the shoot location.

 

GREAT. Have not seen the 34 in years. Which Mag? Thanx!!

 

Marty, just a short note on the FAC Scotty Fenn car, when Jack recreated the car about ten years ago he managed to track down the original chain blower drive amongst other pieces.
Jim Albrich who as many of you know is suffering from cancer and a few strokes, still works two days a week in Jack's shop trying to teach "the Bear" how to do what Jim has learned over the years.
When the car was finally ready to fire, Jack (being both cheap and cautious) had it ready for Jim to fire it up and liberally oiled the chain drive.
When they lit it off, Jack smiled but Jim couldn't as he was striped from head to toe with 50W oil off of the chain!
One more quickey, they asked Jack and Earl to bring the car down to Woodburn for a push start down the strip as the National Anthem played.
I was a Go-fer riding with Jack and when Earl got suited up we helped him up on the rear slick and he stepped into the cockpit backward's, and we had to turn him around to sit down!
God, those were fun times, even if it was only yesterday.
After Coonrod passes I will tell you some great stories, some of which are personal memories, some of which he told me in strict confidence and I dare not tell because He might sue me and win a quarter or two (which he would put in the bank).
Pay attention folk's, we had and still have some real racing Hero's right here in the PDX/Vancouver area...................... Bob
Oh yeah, I almost forgot that Jack claims I cost him over fifty grand for showing him some old photo's of the famous Albrich and McCullough AA/FD in my driveway and causing him to track down the original car and restore it.
The funiest part is that Jack had driven to my house to show off his newly restored 55 Chrysler 300 and give me the FIRST of the limited edition Coonrod and Harry AG/S large (and highly accurate) models.
While I was showing him the dragster pictures I was trying to shoot pictures of his Chrysler and the Willy's model sitting on its roof with my new digital camera.
Not being one to read instructions, I started swearing because the damn camera wouldn't click. Those of you who know me realize that I am one of the top ten cursers in the state of Oregon, and as I kept trying to snap pictures, Jack was in the background saying over and over: :Wow, I gotta find that car".
Unbeknowst to me, I had the camera set on "video", and a few months later My cousin downloaded what I thought were pictures, but turned out to be me shooting the Chrysler, the Willy's model, my feet, the Chrysler, the Willy's, my feet over and over as my angst deepened and the swearing got more intense.
From start to finish of the "unintended video" in the background can be heard Jack saying over and over, "Wow, I gotta find this car".
Folk's, I will only show this video to big buck donor's (and maybe Marty) as it is a all time classic which is best watched while drunk or stoned (not that I would know...........) but suffice to say it is why Jack Coonrod still claims that I cost him fifty grand..........
"One Run Bob" Drury

 

Bob, Thanks again for your input and stories, I am sure those of us who know Coonrod, will really get a kick out of the video !

 

Now back to "Track Roadsters", one of my favorite subjects. I have posted pics and mentioned Salem's Don Waters and his driver Max Humm. This is a Roadster he built around 1948, it had to be one of the first northwest cars with a "live axle" quick-change, and a well built car for it's time. These are more of Jack Greiner's photos as Don and Jack were both from Salem have been friends since the 40's. 1st pic is Don with Max Humm at the wheel, 2nd pic is Len Sutton (in car) with Jack Greiner, then Don and Rolla Vollstedt on the far right, taken at Carrell Speedway (Gardena California) in Oct, 1948.

 

Back in 1975 I built an "Altered style" 25 'T' roadster for bracket racing, it had a Ford "Boss 302" and 4 speed. To my knowledge it was the first of it's type in the Northwest, it was a copy of a Jack Slawick Funny Car chassis, with the exception a coil over/ ladder bar rear suspension. It weighed 1515 lbs 'wet' and had 5.43 gears in the rear, leaving the line at 7500 rpms, it kept me busy shifting it. At that time the fast bracket was 12.00 seconds and faster. My third pass in it netted a 10.09 @138mph, and it didn't take me long to figure out that "handicap" racing with a light car and a 4 speed, I would lack the consistency to be competitive. After 14 runs I pulled the engine, trans, and third member and sold it to a fellow racer named Vern from Forest Grove, for $1650. He had it painted by Dan Donaca and installed his "Boss 302" and ran it only a few times and sold it minus engine and trans. It surfaced a few times with small and big block Chevy engines with a few more owners from St.Helens,Or and Vancouver, Wa. Last winter at the high performance swap meet at the Clark County Fairgrounds, I ran into Larry Karnoski who had bought it from Vern and installed the small block Chevy and automatic, he presented me with 2 pictures of him racing it at PIR. 1st pic, during construction, 2nd is me in car, Bill Donaca and his racing partner Blaine Thomas looking on. 3rd is one of my early runs at PIR, note the lack of wheelie bars (I would pay for that on the next run) with a 5' wheelstand! 4th is also at Portland. 5 and 6 were taken at PIR in 1977 with Larry Karnoski at the wheel, he traveled as far as LA to race in some "Quick 32" Eliminators. Building that car was a big breakthrough for me, it was my first scratch built drag car, it took 5 months, I owned a 150amp tig welder, borrowed a table to build it on, from Jerry Hill (who also schooled me on tin work), and "hand laid" the fiberglass body myself in Hugh Rosenberg's mold out in Banks. Bill Donaca built the headers, and my old friend Jim Enger stitched up the tarp and roll cage padding. Sometime in the 80's it was sold to someone in Wisconsin.

 

In some earlier posts I used pictures from Bob Jenson's collection, here are some shots of some of Bob's trophies and his Fuel Dragster. The trophies go back to the mid-50's. Bob is going to ride along with me to the Billetproof Drags at Toutle,Wa. this Sunday.

 

If you remember Albany racer Bob Duedall, the first are pictures from 62-63, the others I took today at the Unveiling of the same car 50 years later. And it is Bob Duedall as well, behind the wheel, the original body and many parts were bought by Jim Lindsay several years ago, with the idea of restoring it. Ron Austin reproduced the Chassis Research K88 chassis to perfection. Congrats to all involved in this restoration. In the group shot it L-R ,Bob Duedall, Jim Lindsay, Ron Austin.

 

Very cool Marty! Is Jim planning on making any passes with the car at some time?

 

I should have asked Jim about that, maybe someplace like Riverdale, he was here yesterday dropping off his Bonneville car for some changes to the roll cage and seat. He is planning to go back to the salt in October. The Comp car will be in some shows this winter, BTW this is his salt car, blown Dodge flathead four powered. I will do a post on the Lindsay Bros, Jim and Bob as they are good racers with some unique iron.

 

My good friend Wayne Miller loaned me his photo album to scan and post some pics, Wayne lives in Vancouver and has some of the coolest cars. He was raised in Oregon and the pics go back to the early 50's. He also furnished 2 pics of this flathead dragster, It was built and raced by Gordon Anderson, taken at Aurora in Sept. 1960. The engine is a 276 incher, and now resides under the hood of Wayne's 32 highboy. Gordon is from Salem and is a "master machinist" his specialty is casting and machining his own line of "Anderson" V/8 60 heads, flywheels and other parts, some of the best available. The other shot is one I took at the "NW Oldtimers" picnic a few weeks ago.Left to right, Mike Foster, Gordon, Glen Volz (Salem Speed Shop), Stan Ochs.

 

My good friend Wayne Miller loaned me his photo album to scan and post some pics, Wayne lives in Vancouver and has some of the coolest cars. He was raised in Oregon and the pics go back to the early 50's. He also furnished 2 pics of this flathead dragster, It was built and raced by Gordon Anderson, taken at Aurora in Sept. 1960. The engine is a 276 incher, and now resides under the hood of Wayne's 32 highboy. Gordon is from Salem and is a "master machinist" his specialty is casting and machining his own line of "Anderson" V/8 60 heads, flywheels and other parts, some of the best available. The other shot is one I took at the "NW Oldtimers" picnic a few weeks ago.Left to right, Mike Foster, Gordon, Glen Volz (Salem Speed Shop), Stan Ochs.

 

Here are the pics. Sorry about the double post!

 

Very cool. Wayne is a great guy. Bet there are a lot of neat pictures in that album.

 

In my last post I mentioned that Wayne Miller graciously loaned me his photo album to scan and post. I had heard of Wayne about 40 years ago, would see his cars from time to time. Around 6 years ago, I met him through a friend at the Puyallup Swap Meet, he was looking for someone to do a chassis for his "stocker" 32 sedan. We hit it off and shortly after, we got started and when we got done, he had The "B" engine and the rest of the running gear. He had wanted to build a "Lakes Modified" out of the unused parts. We built him a 27 on A rails. He is a great friend and had done some racing through the years, starting in the early 50's. I will start with some pics of what I call "Baby Face Miller" and his 32 sedan along with the Modified. BTW the "Sub Thompson" isn't real.

 

Here are some of Wayne's shots from Portland Speedway, Rolla Vollstedt owned both the #27 (Len Sutton) driver, and the #1 (Ernie Koch) drove at this time. The "Al Cooper Speed Shop" entry was driven by Washington's Bob Donker, that car was done as a cutaway drawing by Rex Burnett in Hot Rod Magazine! The pickup was one of Rolla's sponsors.

 

More from Wayne's pics,at Portland Speedway in March of 1954, the promoter allowed some of the local "Hotroders" to bring their cars out for some "Drag Races" in the front straight stretch of the big 1/2 mi paved track. The idea was to promote the drags at Scapoose. Some of the cars present, Wayne's channeled 34 (3w) , Clair Heaton's 33 (3w) with "Debbie 1" painted on rear quarters,John Schewee's 32 (3w) "720B" on the doors,Bud Sopp's 33 roadster (Cad flathead mill),Jerry Scheede's 39 coupe (minus front sheet metal) Dick Jenkins 49 Ford (mild custom) and others. Wayne managed to wax Bud Sopp's Cad powered 33 with his Flathead Merc !

 

More from the same day, notice the movie screen in the background? The race cars pitted in the infield, amongst the humps needed to angle the the cars to make it possible to view the screen on movie nites.

 

Cant forget those shoebox Fords!

 

Marty thanks for the pictures. One day john schewee stopped by my dads shop years ago to show a few pictures his ex wife found. A stock 32 5 window then next picture the body is off laying in its side in the backyard and a 29 roadster body is going on the 32 chassis. He said I don't remember what I did with the 32 body. Great pictures. Keep them coming please.

 

Steve, This one is for you! This is Wayne in 1951, taking one apart in the front yard in St. Johns I believe. Priceless

 

Marty,that's perfect. Preparing for roadster body?