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

Here's one you could call in slow motion.

 

Chris Karamesines [ Cordova] Don Maynard ? by engine.....Too bad this picture lacks a sound track /nitro fume atomizer

 

Chizler below Oswego starting line..a fav ""atmosphere""picture of the era .The little girl in her Mothers arms should be eligible for S/S in a few years . the track [ex W.W. 2 practice runway?] was great for spectator viewing

 

""The Animal"" F/C/C....Bill Traylor /Dave Stucky from Kansas City...[.Cordova] in Kodachrome Color

 

George Montgomery 33 Willys [Cordova] ...back in the 80,s ? I was stuck waiting for a flight at S.F.O..... saw a guy with ""Ohio George ""on his jacket...introduced myself, thanked him for appearing at Cordova, ""a few years ago""& complemented him on the immaculate appearance of his light blue Willys..at the time George was involved in a Buick v6 engine program for Indy type cars

 

'' Ohio George""near Cordova tower...chromed Caddy, front suspension,& cement spare tire for traction..straw hat in evidence..George favored railroad caps

 

Bird's eye view...

 

Just spotted these in a February 1994 Street Rodder Magazine.....

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Rakers Car Club, possibly using Joe Reath's Chrysler with the down-draft aircraft carbs.


Soto Brothers Bantam-bodied coupe (apparently running Open Gas, which was normally for gas dragsters)


Weekly, Rivero, Fox and Holding...these guys got a lot out of a 354" Chrysler, raced on a real budget, sometimes bounced their nitro checks, but we always covered them...


Unknown T coupe at Paradise Mesa, near San Diego....no trace of it now, under houses.


Jess Sturgeon


Gary Southern, Steve Gibbs photo, at San Gabriel. Gary had one style of driving, all in...he briefly drove Panic for Don Wilson....


Al Williams, aluminum chassis...I wonder if he also built Bill Traylor's "Animal" competition coupe? I think that Al was from Kansas.

 

Dave, Gary also drove the Stinger for Roger Hardcastle. You're right. All in was all Gary knew. Gary hung out at Bud's Muffler in West Covina. He was a show, in or out of a race car.

 

Hey Dave,
Sorry, I had a hard time seeing that different color photo of the Rakers race car. So, it is now a black and white. Your old photo reminded me of my "shortest movie of any race car" that I took from 1959 at Lions Dragstrip. It was the dark blue, Rakers Club Race Car making a nice run down the strip, with the late, Bruce Woodcock driving.

Thanks,
Junji
Now, I have a B/W photo to go along with the short movie.

Thanks for the actual sound...Troy C @FuelRoadster

 

More in motion.

 

Packard power

 

"Weekly, Rivero, Fox and Holding...these guys got a lot out of a 354" Chrysler, raced on a real budget, sometimes bounced their nitro checks, but we always covered them..."

I saw Jim and Dennis a couple of weekends back at the Nitro Revival event (Laguna Seca).

Roo

 

Connie Kalitta converses with Gordon Collett ?, Cordova 1962....Connie before he bought a Cessna 310 in 67 & started an air freight business [19 747,s today] Note Cordova,s world renowned ,finely textured sandy soil

 

Connie Kalitta/ Cordova 1962....""Weed Sweeper" pipes

 

Connie Kalitta,s Bounty Hunter has just rolled off the trailer [fall 1964] the tower was playing the current English Invasion hit ""Do Wa Diddy"", as the crew was adding oil, & the sun was bouncing off the brilliant gold paint..... a memorable fan moment............My first & last drag race for 3 years. took the bus from Ft. Eustis to Richmond Va., then, took the city bus to end of the line,walked to the strip,took a nap in forested area[background] until the place opened on Sunday morning...retraced my route to return...Today, i,m not sure I would go to those lengths

 

Connie pushing car/speaking to a fan. He was here for a match race with Tom Ivo [the Barnstormer]

 

Louis Senter built this car for his nephew Leonard Harris to drive, but sadly Leonard died at Lions before he could drive it

 

Richmond Va..1964.........."" Hay! there goes Tom Ivo in his signature Pendleton shirt.""............Toms [ ""Barnstormer ""matching] Candy Apple red Riviera/camper background...""Bounty Hunter""foreground

 

I have never seen these photos of the first version of Norm Grabowski's famous roadster, which has just come out of long-term hibernation. This is at Santa Ana, maybe '55, and it appears that Norm was actually racing the roadster, as it has a number on the windshield. That's Norm in the top picture, nearest to the car. Norm raced Ivo's T roadster at Santa Ana in '57 (lost to Ivo), but I never knew that Norm apparently raced this version of the car earlier. He has cycle fenders on the rears, apparently to meet California's fender laws, though they did not reappear when Norm modified the car into the famous "Kookie car."


This is the first picture that I have seen showing Gene Mooneyham racing the 554 at a dragstrip. Gene built the coupe for lakes racing, but apparently tried it out at Santa Ana, with a flathead. Later he would partner with Carl Johnson, who chopped the top, and the car got fenders to run as a fuel coupe. Later Gene partnered with Al Sharp to create the famous version that we all remember. No i.d. on who took the photo.

 

Called "Weed Burners" back in the day.

 

Connie just bought some more 747's and now has over 30 in the fleet.

Roo

 

January 1959 Version one

Thanks, Standard 1320

Hello,

Back in 1959 we were busy racing at Lions Dragstrip near our Long Beach house, so we did not go to the other local So Cal dragstrips in a rotation, weekly. But, the other drag racers went in search of setting records in their classes went to most other dragstrips.

We just happen to see them at Lions when they came around in the circuit of race car competitions. Many changes in the racing version of the chassis and coupe were made to make sure the best format was going to be put out for the general racing public.

Bill Colburn had one of the first Chassis Research frames specifically altered from the FED uses to modified coupes and roadster classes. The first 1959 Drag News AD tells of the research and development by Chassis Research Co. in getting this new frame tested and presented to the drag race audience.

Version 2
The 1959 “Colburn Wax and Glaze Competition Coupe” was the official listing during the races. It was easier just to type Colburn Glaze instead of the long original correct version of the entry. Actually, an abbreviation would have been Colburn/Glaze.

Jnaki

At Lions, the Colburn/Glaze Coupe had a strong run, but something happened at the end…

comp coupe explosion


Riverside Raceway December 1959, Version three
The newest Colburn/Glaze version was late 1959 and they were running well all day…But, nothing was going to stop the Cyr and Hopper FED on this race. Power, dirt, smoking tires all made for an exciting race.
1959




Cyr and Hopper VS. Colburn/Glaze

 

Roll cage was not doing much good on the Cyr & Hopper car.

 

Some early drag race events....

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No, and a similar cage failed at San Gabriel in 1958, failing to protect Paul Dome, who was driving the Chassis Research shop car, crashed when an exploding flywheel cut the car in half, and Paul died from head injuries...

 

Great pictures...top is one of the first "Tennessee Boll Weevil" modified roadsters run by Raymond Godwin, the '34 street roadster was from Washington DC (I think?!), the Bantam-bodied altered is very early Gabby Bleeker, the Fiat altered was from Maryland and ran a Cad (later blown), though I have forgotten the owner's names...and of course Big at the bottom.....thanks for posting.

 

Garlits at right...the car would get lower in front, and a new body before he towed it to California in '59.


Before the Smoker's ran at Famoso, they used Minter Field, another former WWII training base, near Shafter (it is still there today). The lineup here included a blown Chrysler (Hashim), several fuel unblown Chryslers (Chrisman, Duncan, Worobieff), and a fuel Ardun (Armstrong and Williams), but top eliminator was Aubry Hilton, who won with a fuel flathead over Fritz Voigt, running a gas Chrysler.



Eddie Bosio's '37 altered at Fremont. Eddie formerly owned Vic Edelbrock's roadster that won the America's Most Beautiful Roadster trophy at the Oakland Roadster Show, and also ran the former Waters & Murray flathead powered roadster.