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

Sidewinder One and Two were pretty much the same. They were successful on gas in the early days of drag racing. Drag racing had changed dramatically when the mag winder was built. Maybe if it was longer it could have used more power and been more successful.

 

The Rat Trap was a Watson chassis.
I'm not sure who built the new chassis.

 

A few guys from Amarillo.

 

Elmer "Unsprung" Snyder is definitely still running his flathead rail. He runs at Eagle Field every time there is a meet there. 80+ and still gettin' after it!

 

I had a chance to meet Elmer at the Eagle field drags last month. He can make that little rail job scoot with the 2 speed in it quicker than the most of the cars with automatics.

 

This might be Jerry Baltes in the Crozier & Baltes car...not sure


Bobby Vodnik driving, not sure whose car it is, maybe Dick Belfatti's "Shadow"?




Half Moon Bay, Gotelli vs. Shrank Brothers...Chrysler vs Desoto




Jack Moss Dodge-powered car in the background...near car is really familiar but the name escapes me

 

Mickey Brown drove this blown Olds gas burner, I think that Nye Frank and Dick Harryman were involved in it...Mickey would lose his life at Lion's in the Scrima & Adams dragster.

This and the rest of these shots are from the George Klass collection, he does the hard work in posting them, I just supply captions, and sometimes I get them right....


This looks like Jack Moss from Texas, was one of the finalists at the '55 NHRA nationals, pretty good for a small Dodge.



Before he drove for the Surfers, Mike Sorokin drove this B/C Willys coupe...not sure why it is classed as a competition coupe instead of an altered (looks like maybe NHRA changed the altered classification because it didn't meet altered rules, note the taped-on "B/C"). This car set a 1320 record for its class, and, like lots of Santa Monica racers, had sponsorship by Quincy Automotive.


Early train, John Peters at right


Posed shot at Airline Auto Sales (Pomona, I think)...my SWAG at the cars, from left to right: Porter & Ries, unknown injected Chev, Danylo & Penington, Starlight (Chuck Griffith), Weekly, Rivero, Fox, and Holding, Orange County Metal Processing, can't make out the last one, looks like maybe a blown Olds...you Pomona guys, Dean Lowe, PVTA Jay, etc...help wanted here...



Jim Busby's twin Indy Ford powered car, maybe Hank Westmoreland driving...Busby got the engines for a song (well, cheap considering what they originally cost), and then sold them again and, if my memory is correct, made money on them when he sold them. Lots of engineering went into this car.


Prudhomme in the Torkmaster, B&M's attempt to replace the traditional clutch drive. Dave Zeuchel posing as though he is tuning the engine. Zeuchel got into restoring and flying jets, losing his life in an F-86 crash.



The caption pretty well says it all. After many west coasters questioned Garlits' competitiveness after his first west coast trip in '59, he came back with Malone driving in '60. This time he had a chance to race the toughest California cars, beating Chrisman in Hustler I in the semis. Chris Karamesines came out also, and beat Ted Cyr in the other semi race. Garlits then beat the Greek in the final. The headline in the next Drag News: "Well, Shut My Mouth, The Rat Took the Cheese." The meet was insane, lots of cars and no crowd control; you could stand right next to the asphalt -- the Greek almost ran over my feet...pretty stupid, but there were literally hundreds of dummies just like me standing trackside...no guard rails, no fence, no cop to tell you to back away...it's a wonder we survived!


Prudhomme and Garlits at Half Moon Bay...Prudhomme and Garlits were already rivals by this point, so Half Moon Bay paid them both to come up to "the Pebble Beach of Drag Racing" to match race. Prudhommes car was so new it had no lettering. I think that Garlits won the match race.


Colorado's Art Ward in his MG modified sports car, Winternationals. Art would later partner with Roger Guzman in a series of funny cars of the same name (first a Corvair, then a really nice John Buterra Camaro). This car was sold to Peggy Pierce, who kept the blown Chev but painted it orange. The car got away from her at Denver International and she stuffed the nose into the guard rail...unhurt but the car had seen better days (note that it is classified as an altered, not sure why not a modified sports car?)

 

thanks for posting 296

 

Great history lesson, thank you very much.

 

Many of these old cars must have really been a handful to drive not to mention the balls it took to drive one.

Jimbo

 

The picture of Airline Auto Sales was indeed Pomona, taken ' pre zoomie ' days of '63 '64 time frame. I can't remember who else had an Olds fueler at that time in Pomona area. There was a car driven by Montgomery (?) but I thought his was Hemi powered. Also no idea on the injected chevy car.

 

The only other Olds fueler from Pomona that I remember was Ed Taylors Car, but it was an A/comp roadster that Merek Chertkow drove. Safford, Ratican nad Gaide ran a fuel Olds, but were not from the Pomona area.

 

I really like the Airline Auto Sales pic. There's a dragster for every day of the week.


Dustin

 

I believe Dave Zeuchel died in Shafter, Ca. (just outside Bakersfield) I was at that air show when the F-86 had a compressor stall. It was an extremely violent.