History Vintage Drag Racers with their Cars!

I remember you, Tony and Skipper at Green Valley back before my dragster
was stolen.
Camping overnight in the pits was special times.
Glad we all lived through it!

 

me too!

 

Love to see a color shot of this icon of the day.

 

About 1970. I'd love to know who this is. I have the car but no history.

 

hey applekrate thanks for getting me in that shot taking the pic of the old man running the valves at bakersfield.

 

thanks to everybody who posted these pics there are great! lots of memories

 

It's been posted several times on the Drag Cars in Motion thread. Google Images has a bunch as well. The Lou Baney-Don Prudhomme "Shelby" dragster:

 

Art Malone, Minnesota Dragways. Note the big crew.

 

Behind the roll cage, on the right, Tommy Ivo. Minnesota Dragways. No one bothering him for autographs.

 

Dave Daly (driver) Willie "The Welder" Feyh builder. Westhampton Drag strip circa 1963. Picture taken by yours truly at 14 years old. And the car is restored and in my hand.

Pat

 

I LOVE OLD PICS OF THE GOOD OLD DAYS

 

NET PICS THE BEST DAYS BEST JUST THE BEST

 

Can't get enough of Willie Borsch.
The "Express" before the wing.



Jeggie Sr.




Hugh Tucker


The Greek

 

The Grump hisself




Who knew?






The man knew how to row a 4 speed

 

Although she never won an NHRA national event eliminator title, Barbara Hamilton surely belongs on anyone's list. She was the first woman to receive a license to drive a supercharged car in NHRA competition, beginning in 1964 and running through 1971 with a supercharged '37 Willys coupe. She was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1992 and earlier this year was named the inaugural winner of the Pat Garlits Memorial Award, presented to female Sportsman racers whose passion for drag racing "embodies the spirit of Pat Garlits," the late wife of "Big Daddy" Don Garlits.

 

Nice Lady she is usually in Bowling Green for the Hot Rod Reunion

 

CHRR FAMOSO, CA

 

Found a bunch of driver photos some with some without cars but I think this is still the best place to post them.


Young Texan Don Gay was a teenage sensation in the early 1960s. According to family legend, at age 15 he saw opportunity when his parents were out of town one weekend and boldly drove off with the blue 1958 Bonneville that graced the showroom floor of his father's Pontiac dealership and won his first race at the now-closed Houston International Raceway in Dickinson, Texas. The “Texas Teenager” and brother Roy first raced Stockers, then went on to field a line of cars named Infinity cars in the early Funny Car class. Gay’s son, Don Jr., followed him into the sport and ultimately drove nitro Funny Cars himself. Son Shane also had a winning career in the Super classes and Top Alcohol Dragster. Don Sr. died in June 2007 at age 6




"Dyno Don" Nicholson earned his nickname as one of the first to utilize the benefits of a chassis dyno, which he operated at a Chevrolet dealership in Pasadena, Calif., in the late 1950s. By the time that NHRA announced to hold its first Winternationals at Pomona Raceway in 1961, he was ready to put his well-honed skills to use. Nicholson not only won the Stock title at the 1961 Winternationals, but he also successfully defended his title in 1962. He raced in early Funny Cars in the mid- to late 1960s before moving to Pro Stock, where his accomplishments are best known. He was the first Ford campaigner to win a national event in Pro Stock, at the 1971 Summernationals, and he earned the NHRA Winston Pro Stock championship title in 1977 at the age of 50.




"Dyno Don" Nicholson is another of Pro Stock's legendary heroes. Like Jenkins and all of the drivers in the 1960s and 1970s, the open-face helmet was a Pro Stock trademark for a long time, well into the mid-1990s. I love the big ol' Moroso tach mounted right on the dashboard as opposed to the pre-programmed shift lights used by today's drivers to signify when to change gears.




Long before Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins became a household name in Pro Stock, he was an East Coast cult figure in the Jr. Stock ranks by the mid-1960s after having helped prepare more than 30 cars that set national records. In addition, Jenkins teamed with Dave Strickler to win Little Eliminator at the 1963 Nationals with an A/FX 427 '63 Chevy. Although he won just 13 national events in Pro Stock, he’s still considered by many to be the godfather of the class.




William Tyler Jenkins — better known to all as "Grumpy" — in the business seat of his Vega Pro Stocker in 1973. Jenkins was a master of the four-speed manual transmission, but by this time, the class had already moved toward the Lenco planetary-style transmission and its one-stick-per-gear mechanism that took away some of the advantages that guys like he and Ronnie Sox had held over the competition.




Judy Lilly, drag racing’s “Miss Mighty Mopar,” was a force in Super Stock racing in the Division 5 region and, with her victory at the 1972 Winternationals, became just the third woman — behind Shirley Shahan (1966 Winternationals) and Judi Boertman (1971 Summernationals) — to win an NHRA national event eliminator. She first burst onto the scene in the mid-1969s by winning class at the Winternationals (1965 and 1966) and the U.S. Nationals (1966) in her and husband Lou’s Corvette before getting her first Mopar, a Hemi Belvedere coupe, in 1967, followed by a Hemi ‘Cuda that carried her to her first win. She also scored wins at the 1973 Springnationals and 1975 Gatornationals and Fallnationals in a Duster. She was inducted into the Colorado Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2005.





Most people remember Charlie Allen as the racetrack operator who owned Orange County Int’l Raceway in its final years and then built Firebird Int’l Raceway as its replacement, but the SoCal racer also had quite a career behind the wheel, first in Dodge Super Stock doorslammers like this one and later, while billed as “the all-American Boy,” in the nitro Funny Car ranks.





The guy they call “Mr. C,” Gary Cochran, never won an NHRA national event, but he was a solid performer in everything he raced, from Top Fuel to Top Gas, and the AA/Comp ranks, where he began his career in a Ford-powered AA/Comp roadster in 1965. He transitioned to Top Gas in 1967 then Top Fuel in 1969 and in 1984 even drove a Funny Car.





Bennie “the Wizard” Osborn became NHRA’s first two-time Top Fuel world champ when he won the World Finals back to back in 1967 and 1968 at his home track, Southwest Raceway in Tulsa, Okla., not far from his Sand Springs, Okla., home.
Osborn, who had raced and won dozens of times on the strip and was therefore familiar with the local altitude, beat Don Prudhomme in the final to win the 1967 crown and John “the Zookeeper” Mulligan to win the 1968 title.





The legendary "Golden Greek," Chris Karamesines, at he wheel of his fabled Chizler dragster, was a dashing figure in the 1960s with his suave demeanor and mustache.



Bennie "the Wizard" Osborn earned the right to flash the big No. 1 after winning the Top Fuel world championship with back-to-back wins at the NHRA World Finals in his native Oklahoma, in 1967 and 1968. He beat Don Prudhomme in the '67 final — denying "the Snake" his first championship; he'd have to wait another eight years to win his first, in Funny Car — and John "the Zookeeper" Mulligan in the '68 finale. Sadly, Mulligan would not get another shot at the championship; he died less than a year later of injuries sustained in a fire at the 1969 U.S. Nationals.




A year after car owner Roland Leong won both the Winternationals and U.S. Nationals with Don Prudhomme driving, Mike Snively (pictured) incredibly repeated the feat with the Hawaiian Top Fueler in 1966.

 

A few more.

This guy certainly needs no introduction. James Russell Liberman — "Jungle Jim" to his legions of fans — was in on the ground floor of Funny Car back in 1965 with the Hercules Nova and later the Brutus GTO before striking out on his own in 1966. Liberman, No. 17 on the Top-50 list, quickly became one of — if not the — most popular driver in the class' history. His hard work and showmanship and a torrid touring schedule made him a household name in the drag racing world from coast to coast. Even after his gone-too-soon death at age 32 in a 1977 highway accident, the spirit of "Jungle Jim" lives on in the hearts and minds of Funny Car fans and drivers.




1965 NHRA Top Fuel world champ Maynard Rupp also competed in Funny Car. Man, there's so much to love about this shot, from the vintage square roll cage to the round steering wheel that pre-dated the now ubiquitous butterfly wheel to the fuel injectors that some favored over a supercharger. Rupp, who won the 1965 SpringNationals and World Finals, only reached one final round in Funny Car, where he was runner-up to Tommy Grove at the 1967 SpringNationals.





Arnie "the Farmer" Beswick was another early adopter to the Funny Car way of life. What I find interesting about this photo is that Beswick has modified the round steering wheel, cutting off part of it (visible just above the injector) in what might have been one of the first moves toward a butterfly wheel. One of the great things about the butterfly wheel — beyond the driver's locked-in hand position — is that when turned 90 degrees, it allowed easier ingress and egress from the tight confines of the cockpit. My guess is that's what's going on here with Beswick.




Rich Siroonian made the girls swoon with his good looks and those wonderful muttonchop sideburns and, of course, he had a pretty good ride in the cars owned by his famous uncle, "Big John" Mazmanian. Siroonian drove Mazmanian's gassers first before hopping into his Funny Cars, where he became a top-flight competitor and runner-up behind Danny Ongais at the 1969 U.S. Nationals.




Butch Leal at the wheel of his four-speed Plymouth Duster Pro Stocker. "The California Flash" — the famous nickname was the idea of super promoter Ben Christ — first came to national attention in the early 1960s with a thundering aluminum Z-11 Chevy stocker followed by a Ford Thunderbolt before he became a Mopar loyalist after Hayden Proffitt switched from Plymouth to Mercury in 1965, leaving a spot open on the Plymouth roster. Leal competed in early Funny Cars but disliked the explosive nature of the blown cars and found his home in Pro Stock in the 1970s.

 

This cool photo of wheelstanding legend “Wild Bill” Shrewsberry posed with one of his early L.A. Dart entries was taken (I believe) just outside of Los Angeles International Airport, with a plane soaring into the sky much like his fabled machines would do for decades on the dragstrip.



“The Bounty Hunter,” Connie Kalitta, with his Ford-powered Top Fueler, circa 1966-67. Kalitta was one of the first to receive the vaunted SOHC Ford powerplant for use in the nitro classes.




The recently departed Kenny Safford was a West Coast Top Fuel hotshot and, like many of his peers, later moved to the Funny Car class. Safford, of Sour Sisters and Ted Gotelli Top Fuel fame, got his first ride with the legendary team of Fred Stone and Tim Woods, but this version of the famed Stone-Woods-Cook team did not include original driver Doug Cook. The team wanted to keep the name continuity for bookings sake, so they added the last name of Woods’ secretary, Abie Cooke, to theirs; you had to be sharp-eyed to catch the difference.





Long before Antron Brown, Malcolm Durham was the first African American star on the drag racing scene. The Washington, D.C.-based racer earned legions of fans in the 1960s with his line of Strip Blazer Funny Cars, including this Race Car Engineering-built Corvair. Durham was voted to NHRA’s prestigious Top 50 Drivers list (No. 48) in 2001.





Phil Bonner became a household name in the doorslammer ranks in the 1960s with his Daddy Warbucks Fords ("Daddy Warbucks” was a fictional character from the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie."). An original member of Ford’s racing efforts, Bonner piloted a line of blue oval machines, including the famous Galaxies, Thunderbolts, and SOHC Falcons and Mustangs. He later tried his hand in Funny Car. Bonner is a member of the Super Stock Hall of Fame (1995), East Coast Drag Racing Hall of Fame (2007), and Georgia Racing Hall of Fame (2007).





Raymond Godman, left, and longtime driver Preston Davis with their famed Tennessee Bo-Weevil Top Fueler. Godman was paralyzed from the waist down in 1951 after suffering spinal damage from a sniper’s bullet in the Korean War but never let his disability hold him back. He founded the Memphis Rodders hot rod club in 1953 and organized the area’s drag race at an abandoned airport in Halls, Tenn. After competing in numerous classes with drivers like James “Red” Dyer and Harrison Jacobs, Godman made the move to Top Fuel in 1968 with Davis as his driver. Davis won the Division 2 Top Fuel titles in 1968 and 1970, and after the team switched to the Funny Car ranks in 1972, Davis took the Division 2 Funny Car crown that year as well.

 

The Bill Shrewsberry photo is significant because Bill was a professional private pilot. He loved flying as much as he loved his wheel standers.

 

This thread rocks!.....

 

Paul Rossi and crew. Paul is second from right end.

 

Tommy Ivo versus the Turbonique go-kart.

 

Ronnie sox with one of the three Ford Fairlane funny car bodies. One of the others was owned, and driven by the late Jim Barillaro,

 

The late Jim Barillaro.

 

Thanks for Bumpin' this thread Dueces! A ton of cool shit in this thread!