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

Boy, you nailed it. I did not retire my roadster at the end of '67 because I was not enjoying racing. The rules became a moving target. I would have had to destroy the streetability of my hot rod, and spent a ton of money keeping it competitive. Sadly, I parked it. I'm sure many street roadster, and gas class competitors would tell the same story.

 

Great picture of the General Tooler Tommy, watched them two cars a lot a Martin, got any pictures on the old Ruff n Ready altered


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Kaye Trap's T touring. First built by Norm Grabowski, and later became "My Mother The car". Kaye was a good guy. Passed way too soon.

 

More from the George Klass collection, just posted...I have no clue how he does it, and where he finds these rare shots...but thanks, George!


Ted Cyr in the driving suit of the day, a helmet!. Cyr and Hopper TE-440 started out as a gas burner, they towed it back to the '58 Nationals, got beat, but won the meet anyway with the car they took back there to sell, a carbureted gas burner. They then turned this car on fuel, first painted orange then black...I remember it at the '60 Smoker's meet, ran at twilight, never forgot the header flames on the almost dark track...


Nelson and Martin Dragmaster right after they took off the Latham blower and put on this Potvin blower unit...still has the Moon discs....this car was state-of-the art for its time, torsion bar suspension, disc brakes, etc...these guys were master hot rodders.





Two pictures of Rollema & Hill blown Chevy gas-burner, one with and one without the rear wheel pants. This was a beautiful car, candy blue and pearl, with lots of chrome and polish. These guys started with a GMC-powered TE-440 on gas that was a regular at the old San Gabriel track, then had Joe Itow build them a channel frame for their GMC (which is still around, in Texas, I think), and then this car. I saw it at Lions.



Boyd Penington, far lane, racing Tony Nancy at the Winternationals, maybe '62? Boyd ran a blown Chrysler, Tony had a blower on his Buick. I don't remember who won. These two guys were Racers, plain and simple. Boyd started drag racing in the '50s, as did Tony, and they both built and raced their own stuff. Boyd would substitute a Bantam roadster body for this "A" and later went on to field a series of fuel dragsters. Tony also went on to dragsters, both gas and fuel. I think that Burke LeSage was involved with Boyd on the '29.



Sampson, Dillon, and Mudersbach, Money Olds car from Phoenix. They won the '57 NHRA nationals with a big Olds direct drive car, boxy ungainly body, but a really light frame under it that would become Lefty Mudersbach's twin-Chev car that Chet Herbert sponsored. Lefty on the left, Buddy Sampson drove, I think that Joe Dillon owned the engine. Lefty drove a number of fuel dragsters, including Dick Goss's car, which crashed fatally in February '66.


Manuel Gonzales in the "Californian," pearl white and bronze, hard-running gas burning car


Larry Shinoda partnered with lots of racers, this is his effort in the early '50s, at Pomona. This photo is a part of the Norm Grudem collection that Norm took during this time..he was a caddy at the golf course at the end of the track and couldn't help but notice what was going on at the adjacent drag strip each Sunday...fortunately his collection has survived...it was once on the Gasser Madness site, but is no longer there...

 

Neat shot of the S&S Race team at the sandwich shop. The El Camino tow car and Willys gasser are still alive and well today as seen below at the Rodder's Journal Revival held at the Pimlico Race Track (horses) in Baltimore last year.

 

Burke was definitely involved with Boyd. Burke would do the driving at the lakes, and Boyd drove at the drags. They brought the roadster to one of the SCTA half mile drag races at Riverside in '61. I had figured out the rear end gearing in my RPU to where it would ET real good on the 1/2 mile. Burke and Boyd both made a pass in the roadster in the morning. As it was primarily a lakes car, they ran a two speed LaSalle trans. Burke did better on the ET, so he drove the rest of the day. In those days anyone who could run quicker than 20 seconds could run for top eliminator. Burke and I each raced our way to the final. When that big blown Chrysler pulled up to the line beside me, I thought "what the hell am I doing here"? Tim Krausaur dropped the flag, and off I went. At the 1/4 mile no one beside me. The finish line clocks were coming up, and I thought "I got this". Then I heard that hemi comin'! Burke had pulled it into high at about the 1/4 mile, and that thing was haulin' ass! I just got to the ET clock first, and Burke blew by me like a tornado. He ran 180 and I ran 139, but I got there first. Burke and I talked about that race the last time I saw him alive.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^GREAT story and a key part of what keeps us all coming back for more!
Thanks to all for making this a great thread.
Al

 

The first SWC Mustang was a 65/66 2+2 and definitely predated Montgomery's 67.

Roo

 

This from Hot Rod Magazine:
"In 1967, the blown Hemi, Hydro transmission, and all four wheels and tires were removed from the rebuilt Swindler A Willys and transferred to Dark Horse 2 Mustang. Doug Cook was nearly killed driving this car at a race in Alton, Illinois, in September 1967 when it flipped at the top end doing about 180 mph. That crash led to Cookie's retirement from racing."

A 1967 crash, which ended Doug's driving career, certainly pre-dates 1969, when George started running the Mustang. On with the show!

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Thanks for the input. It just goes against everything I believe to be true, even after a discussion with Montgomery about this very thing. I checked with another racer who had a shop next to Doug during this time, yesterday, and he was sure it came later. If SWC built a swoopy car before George, why has Montgomery gotten the blame for changing the face of gasser racing?
I will get back to you after talking to the horse.

 

I just asked Doug's stepson, Larry Chastain, about this. His answer: "SWC! Early 67 construction of the car started in 66."

As far as George being blamed for changing the face of Gassers: the Internet is full of inaccuracies; somebody with a hard-on against George and/or Ford (SWC Mustang was Chrysler-powered), unknowledgeables spreading things in which they have no historical foothold, etc. The confusion between reality and myth is an old story that pre-dates SWC, Ohio George, the Internet and motor vehicles.

 

Huh? What are you guys talking about here?
The SWC Mustang was a fuel burning, tube chassis, stretched wheelbase funny car, NOT a gasser.
The Ohio George Mustang was on a stock Willys chassis, burned gas with at 10% engine setback, had a full interior, it met NHRA AA/Gas Supercharged rules.
Two totally different cars, classes and categories, not even remotely the same!!!
Do yer homework guys!



THIS IS THE CAR DOUG COOK ( NOTE NO "E" IN COOK), was nearly killed in, it was NOT an AA/GS car!

 

George Mongomery debuted the MALCO Gasser Mustang at the 1967 Springnationals at Bristol.
It was a "stock" Mustang body with doors on a Willys chassis, the chassis from his 33.
The caption here is WRONG, no gasser turned "7.90's", more like 8.90's!!
The Mustang was one of the first AA/GS cars in the EIGHTS!!!!!

 

Thanks Gary, Lively discussion continues this many years later.

George put together and began running a new Ford Mustang body on the Willys chasis in mid-1967. He put an Olds rear end with a torque tube he had fabricated and he made his own axles plus other custom designed items. The first time out with the car, it ran in the 9s.

http://www.jrthompson.net/ohiogeorgemontgomery.html
Great reading from Junior's site. Thanks Rhonda.

 

Montgomery WAS blamed for "ruining" the class, but that was total bull. NHRA still required "stock" chassis on gas class cars, they obsoleted the "class". Willys and Anglias started using square tube chassis, became "outlaw" gassers, even running small doses of nitro in match races.
What REALLY changed racing was the simple passage of time and the fact that drag racers want to go faster (equals more money). Most AA/GS racers switched to the new funny cars where they could actually MAKE money, not lose it!
Funny cars WERE drag racing to the paying public from 66 to 76! All other classes were "filler", even Top Fuel.All class racing collapsed in the late 60's ( on a local level), as there were too many classes and not enough entries to hold class runoffs, so they were run against dis similar cars and handicapped by ET records. Yes kids, bracket racing is the only fair racing there is when there aren't enough cars for "heads up". Cars were ALWAYS handicapped in Eliminator brackets, this whining about how bracket racing ruined drag racing is ridiculous.Bracket racing SAVED drag racing.

 

I know you are right Gary. But what killed it for me and many others was seeing a car leave several seconds before the competition.

 

That was ALWAYS the case! ALWAYS! Before the Christmas tree, car were "spotted", after the Tree they ran on ET National records. My first race was 1964, cars were hadicapped! How else do you run unequal cars in eliminations? How else do you run a AA/GS car against a c/Dragster for example? The ONLY difference was handicaps were determined by the Nation Class Record instead of dialing in your own ET. This led to sandbagging and brake light racing ( See any Super Stock race from 67 to 69!) NOTHING CHANGED except it was economically unwise to build cars for class racing. Again, the ONLY difference was handicapping by National Record vs set your own ET (brakets), the bracket system is the only fair way to do it!
Where did you see racing? How did they do stock Emininator if not by handicap? Comp Elim? How did they run H/G against A/g? D/D against C/A? ETC.

 

To keep things straight here, my Park St. source says that there was a blown Gas SWC Mustang and he is pretty sure it was class legal, but thought that it was mostly match raced. It was the car that "lifted off" with Doug in it. Was the nitro Mustang center steer?

 

Where does this one fit in? I am assuming Bones Balogh driving.

 

That is a "legal" AA/Gs car, later than the other Mustang. It was AFTER Ohio Georges Mustang. Lot's of guys suddenly switched bodies after Montgomery! He dominated AA/GS!
Yes, the 66 nitro Mustang was center steer, lot's of early funny cars weren't. This was the transistion phase, steel bodies, glass doors, fenders, hoods etc.

 

Just to clear something up that was not the frame from Georges 33 Willy's used on the first Mustang gasser. The 33 Willy's frame stayed with the Willy's and is still with it.