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

actionguru requested some more shots from LA's Pel State track...all I have is dragster shots, some from Don Ewald's site...don't have all the IDs so any help is appreciated:


Boyd & Griffith versus the Green Gang


No ID, maybe Culpit and Cunningham?...from Texas?
Pel State was concrete, and pretty bumpy, from the descriptions...


No ID, maybe Gene Mooneyham's 392, driver named Kerry?


Oklahoma's Benny Osborne...guys towed some distance to race at Pel State

No ID on either, anyone?...notice how wide the track was...


Damn, I should know whose full-bodied dragster this was...
Pel State was one of many drag strips, but look at the number of top fuelers it attracted...this was the golden age of drag racing (or at least one of them)...we can only look at pictures now and cherish the memories!

 

Memories for sure.
Pel State was actually Opelousas Louisiana local airstrip closed on certain Sundays for drags.
In mid sixties it was the race place to be. Folks came out of the Bayous to watch and race some of the biggest names in Drag racing. Cunningham & Cupit were always in the finals against the big guys. The folks running the races
created the first acceptable "Christmas tree" starting lights.
Thanks for the pics Dave.

 

OK, not a drag car, not in motion...still pretty cool

 

East coast guys, need some help on some of these shots, like this one. (nickthebandit again, thanks! Steve Harwood at Connecticut drag-way. Steve was at the Hot Rod Re-union at New England Drag-way with his top fuel dragster.


Bub Reese, wasn't George Van also part of this??


Just from memory, .... Don Roberts driving Tom Dawes Freedom Machine...this was a really well known car..(hope I got it right!)


Anyone?

Fortunately the ID is on the picture...

 

No, it's not a drag car but I'm glad you posted it. Very special piece of equipment. Think about it.

 

Well, a picture of a car in motion. Couple years back at Donovan Christmas party. Fred Seay and Mikio Yoshioka in Donovans mold room.

 

It's still around. This was at San Antonio in 2011.

 

Rare Chassis Research LW-106 chassis.

 

Rich Ratliff at Cordova dragstrip 1966

 

Hopefully not a repost. Credit to Fred von Sholl. A 429 powered altered had to be rare?

 

Another Fred von Sholl. It's a bit modern for the hamb, but nitro under the lights and going rounds, what is not to love. Ramchargers vs Harrell?

 

hemi under glass? credit to Fred von Sholl

 

More New England, ID welcome


ID?


Interesting, by '65 most dragsters went to zoomie headers, so guess that this is '64 or earlier...ID?


Trees in background still bare, so probably early spring, ID? looks like a Crower injector


was in motion, now not...clutch can still attached but rocker cover gone, not much of the blower left, story would be at least interesting...


ID?


A&B Speed Shop, these guys ran an injected Chevy, don't know much about this car...workmanship looks first-class.


Don's Automotive at Connecticut Dragway, that's all I know


DeLong & McGerigle AA/FD at Connecticut Dragway


Your '60s top fuel garb...gave you maybe 8 seconds of fire...maybe...many of us who wore this have scars, mine above my eyes where the rubber around the goggles burned through...many got it worse...no fault of the fire suit makers, they did the best they could...it was us who ran the explosive loads.


Everett "Hippo" Brammer's fueler, stopping at Pomona...I think that this photo is reversed, as the trees are on the wrong side...Hippo was one of partners in the Burkhardt, Brammer, and Burns fuel roadster that Mike Burns drove, later gave its body to the #76 roadster of Sadd, Teague, and Bentley. Hippo went on to run this fueler, which Bill Alexander sometimes drove, until he ran out of money, like most of us who ran fuel did. He was a great guy, passed on a few years ago, so no point in telling stories about "Ol' Double Ugly" in the front seat of his Dodge push wagon...


Big...the Giovannoni Cams story is too long to tell here, but Isky has not forgotten it...


Someone who is not Tony Nancy posing with Tony's car, looks like NHRA Nationals...remember the times when you just parked your dragster, not between two giant semi trailers with ropes around it...Tony Nancy always ran first-class cars...


I'm not sure but this might be Les Allen's "Stinger"


In the old days you could get right next to the track, of course you might dodge some shrapnel, and lose part of your hearing (we old guys are always saying "what??")


Bob Haines in the M&R car on a hard leave at Lions...these guys towed down from San Leandro often to SoCal, often drove back with Top Fuel...(Roger "Riceman" Lee has build a perfect replica of this car...it is on another thread on the HAMB, and worth checking out if you have not seen it...the workmanship and the search for exactly the right parts is incredible!)


This was a great place to race, good pits, a great track (except for the freeway at the end), decent food, but lost to developers....looks like an injected fueler going off with a top gas car?



Ontario, another place now lost...Mazooma commented earlier in this thread about its demise, worth reading again...notice the oval track in the background


Ontario again, a better view of the oval track and the stands in the background...not sure of the car, maybe Frank Rupert's "Black Plague?"

 

reversed and cropped

 

That is Kirby's Willys and he did sell it to a fella from back east. Jim tells a funny story about how when he sold it he worked a deal to tow it aback east for an extra $200 (I think that was the number). He had no idea how far it was to the east coast - thought it would just take a day or so. He and another guy take off and figure out it's a hell of a long way. The story is really funny about the tribulations along the way

 

That is the Paccini Bros. Showdown Anglia from Sacramento area. Previously that was the Kohler Bros. King Kong. That picture was after it puked it's trans at the start line at the Winternationals. Picture by Ed Justice Jr.
Unlike a lot of gassers, which get to a point in the early seventies after they're rendered obsolete, then disappear without trace for 20-odd years, this ones got a timeline
In 1976, the Pacini Brothers sell the car to Paul Thompson in Rochester, New York, who subsequently converted it into a street rod. In '77 he swaps the car with Chris O'Connor in Pomona, California for another, ready built street rod. In 1979, O'Connor sells the Anglia to Carlos and Mary Cedeno, who brought it back to Pomona from New York to fully restore it to it's 1960s glory. But wait, there's more;I
n 1984, Carlos swaps with another car to Jack Leonard, but then in 1987 Carlos gets the car back from Jack with another swap!
When Carlos bought the car, he'd relied on just a few suggestions about its heritage. At first, it didn't really matter, but then with a little detective work, the pieces began to fall into place. Eventually, after sanding through faded black exterior layers of green were discovered from its time as Showdown, then layers of tangerine. Experts such as original chassis builder George Britting, transmission builder Art Carr, supercharged gasser racer Jim Oddy and Ed Kohler himself helped diagnose and document the vehicle. The Cedenos wanted to race the historic car but quickly found that current safety specs wouldn't allow it. So, the reclamation and restoration became a compromise - a lot of history mixed in with an upgraded rollcage and other items. And, when the car was completed, they raced it, just like the Kohlers first had, with an injected small block Chevy. But when an invitation came to join other gassers at an hstoric show, a blown big block was assembled and installed.

 

Thanks for the pedigree on that Anglia. I loved that car when it was the Kohler Bros. King Kong racing Lions and Irwindale. Dick M

 

Yep I liked that car as it was a runner & looker too

 

Two injected dragsters at Atco, NJ, the one in the far lane looks like a modified TE-440


I'm guessing Pacific Northwest, no ID on cars or track...anyone? DDDenny has identified the track as Woodburn, Oregon...thanks!


I found another Pel State photo, with the truck timing tower in the background, as noted above, it is still around.


I have no idea whose car this is, and I ran Pomona then, early '60s, given the early roll cage, leather face mask, etc...of course there were lots of top fuelers running at SoCal, but this is unknown to me...anyone??


More recent than the last, still unknown. Notice that the orange shed in the background in the above photo is now gone...now the drag strip is covered in NHRA-style towers, buildings, hospitality suites, etc...a lot different than it was in '52...I am guessing that this is maybe '66 or so...


Two T/F cars at Houston, an AHRA track, but not sure who the near side car, but pretty sure it is Bobby Langley far side...


Another unknown fueler at Irwindale, brobertson2 thinks it might be Warren & Coburn, maybe '66...anyone else?


Mike Kuhl, mixing the nitro, pretty sure that is driver Carl Olson holding the funnel. These guys were a first-class act, and like most top fuel guys, mixed nitro very carefully with a hydrometer, which came in that little wooden case. The big guys used this kind of equipment, we little guys couldn't afford a hydrometer, so it was either 50% (a gallon of nitro, a gallon of methanol), or the whole can, with a whiff of methanol to kick it off...(or at least that's what John Bradley told us to do, we were pretty clueless about this fuel stuff...)


More Texas drag racing, from the legendary Green Valley...Texas had an abundance of strong top fuel cars.


Scrima and Adams, top gas car. Gene Adams put the blown Olds from his fastback '50 Olds sedan into this Ronnie Scrima-build gas car, Mort Smith was the original driver. The car was hard to drive, so they put Mickey Brown in it, but it got sideways off the line at Lions, and Mickey died in the resulting crash, his head got outside the roll cage. According to the story I heard, it was fatalities like this that inspired Kent Fuller to design the 3-point cage, which surrounded the driver's head.

 

View attachment 3034839
Another unknown fueler at Irwindale

I think this is Warren and Coburn, and, because it appears to be white, would put it in 1966.