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

Fremont was always a fast track!

 

On a side note...Whats the deal with this Cragar manifold I bought? I figured it would be aluminum, but it's cast iron? Late 50s early 60s Pontiac.

 

Whats up with the zoomies? They almost look like they have silencers.

 

Cool sbf.

 

Spark plug tubes, notice that the plugs are out, no wires on them...long before someone developed a wooden tray with holes for the plug/plug tubes that sat on the scoop, the Greek just put them in the headers so he would know what plug came from what cylinder...

 

Those

Those are not "Zoomies" This car has "Zoomies". They were originally made to blow the tire smoke away from the driver

 

Wow! We have grammer AND zoomie police now!

 

It wont hurt you to know what Zoomies are.

 

Great pictures! The bottom dragster is Jere Wilson from Denver, ran a blown Olds on fuel, later switched to a Chrysler...he was a member of the no-lift club....watched him drive a wounded fueler through the lights at Denver International, death smoke pouring out, finally the engine grenaded in the lights, shrapnel hit a spectator in the leg (nothing serious)...there was almost nothing left below the heads, but Jere kept his foot in it until it disintegrated...One story is that when he switched to a Chrysler, this Olds went into a '36 Ford for street use (on gas, I'm guessing)

 

Kind of like the difference between Coke and Pepsi? Yankin" your chain a little. Honestly never had that pointed out to me. Good to know.

 

I'm sure this has been posted already but......

 

Hansell and Sherwin

 

Big and the Snake, Fremont


Ramona, I think that this is the Cope Brothers and Cook, near lane (corrections welcome!), maybe Ivo in the far lane??


No ID, maybe at Corpus Christi??


Greek at San Gabriel, maybe '62...this photo might have been taken at the same time that the above pit photo was taken ... The Greek and other guys from outside California would bring their new cars to San Gabriel in early spring to test for the coming March meet at Bakersfield...this was the first outing of his new Stuckey car


Some southern drag racing, from Lassiter Mountain, AL


Arizona, I think, Ewell Barnes sbc far lane, getting way too much bite...probably Fisher and Greth near lane (there is that fabled Speed Sport scoop again...I wish they still made them, neat story from Dean Lowe about how Red Greth made one for him!


Overhead shot of Santa Ana...might be one of the Life Magazine shots taken in '57...Notice how short the shutoff is, very little paved area until the driver got into the dirt...Lloyd Scott had a throttle stick on the back engine in the Bustle Bomb and would up in on the main runway, seen at right...the airport manager came over and yelled at him for being there!


Tommy Larkin is remembered more for his gas and fuel dragsters, but he also ran this Chev gasser, here seen at Pomona. Here it is lettered with shoe polish, but, maybe taking after Johnny Loper's "Lil Hoss," this gasser became "Galloping Horse..."


And speaking of the Bustle Bomb...looks like Santa Ana

 

Earlier version of the Brasher and Cummings NoCal gasser, before the blower (and probably before M&Hs, notice they are running Bruce's Tires (made in nearby Oakland)


The later version, now AA/GS, this looks like Bakersfield...both this and the above photo from the George Klass collection, updated almost daily....


Also from the George Klass collection....Not a lot of racers ran Packards, but Tom DeLon did. This A/MR, from Portland, OR, ran a big 422" '56 Packard with a home-fabricated U-Fab 6-carb manifold and a Howard cam. Ran over 136 on gas, not bad for 1960. Rich Fox, this picture is for you....


Thorkleson and DelNero, Bakersfield, late '50s...twin 296" flatmotors


Found this at Pinnit...don't know where or when..but judging from the crowd size, I think this must be a Nationals event.



Salt Lake City, early '50s...I think this was taken when HRM's "Safety Safari" was in town


I'm pretty sure that this is a collection of Texas cars...IDs welcome

 

Red still has the mold. If you catch him in the right mood, he'll make one for you. It'll be quite a bit more that 25 bucks though!

 

BC car also shows the name of Terry Rose, a major player in the early years of nostalgia gasser racing.

 

His name was Rod Stuckey, based in Kansas City. Not sure if this is his or the Greek's car, But Rod did build a chassis for Karamesines around this time. Rod Stuckey appears as second person from the left in this shot. Rod flew a small plane as a hobby. I was at MoKan Raceway one time.....they stopped the races so Rod could land his plane on the strip. As a driver, Rod suffered extensive burns as the result of a bad fire right before the time when firesuits were required in TF. He recovered, but then died in a motorcycle accident in KC the early seventies.

Bruce Meyer, who owns and restored the Greer Black Prudhomme car, stated in Hot Rod Magazine's coverage of the car that Rod had indeed built the GBP chassis before Greer acquired it. Rod personally told me the same thing in '64. That has been disputed on the HAMB in the past, but I consider Bruce Meyer to be a pretty good source. Rod's cars were a bit unique in that the cowls were very low and he always used the "windup key" for the push bar. He built cars for Tom Hoover, Bob Sullivan and many others who were competitive.

 

I was gonna say the same thing, man. Zoomies are zoomies and those weed sweepers on the "Greek's car are just that, not "zoomies"! But your grammar seemed OK!

 

That could be San Gabe, but I think the earlier shot of the Stuckey was taken in the Midwest, possibly Kansas City. Too flat and "farmey" to be San Gabe.

 

I believe this is the same Karamesines Chizler as in post #38193, but with nosepiece and newer Hilborn added. I shot this in the pits at Lions, in '66 if the date on the photo is correct (may have been reprinted later). The pink Ford Wagon was Rod Stuckey's tow/push car. One bad car.

 

Tom, I had always heard that Rod Stuckey died in an airplane crash in Kansas City, in 1967. My Dad new him well.

 

I heard the same thing, that he died in a plane that he was flying.

Stuckey did build this car specifically for the Greek...the story of him building the GBP car is on the 1320 site, comments by Kent Fuller....Fuller has some pretty strong opinions about who actually built the car...it is an interesting read...here is the link:

http://www.standard1320.com/Stories/1320Stories.html
I agree on Bruce Meyer, he is a straight-up guy...and yes, the first picture might not be San Gabriel, though it did have a little grass as seen in the background, but it was mostly gravel....