So a gentleman contacted me to have me make a car club plaque from an original pattern I have for the Valve Lifters of So. Everett (Washington). But then when he saw that it had "S.C.T.A." on it he started wondering if it was the right plaque. His father died recently and he wants the plaque to put on his rod. He can't find anyone with a plaque or any old timers who knew of any link between the SCTA and the Valve Lifters. Doing a quick search revealed that I had two more patterns from Seattle with S.C.T.A. on them: Mill Masters Seattle S.C.T.A. and Torquers Seattle S.C.T.A. I couldn't find a So. Everett or Seattle in California and no reference to an SCTA in Washington. So there's the mystery. Did three clubs back in the 50/60's join the SCTA so they could race on the dry lakes? Was there a different SCTA in Washington? I contacted Jack Underwood through Nita and she says that he nor any of his buddies had a clue. So here I am on the doorstep of the storeroom of traditional rodding history looking for help and confident that the HAMB will come through as it always does. Ready, Set, GO! Thanks! Dennis
I posted it on a PNW hot rod & Custom history group. The guys I knew personally who might know have passed away though.
The SCTA office is more for up to date information. The reference to Jack Underwood was right on. He has every results as well a Jim Miller. I have looked at hundreds of results from the the start in the late 30’s going forward at Jack’s and do not remember any clubs from anywhere other than Southern California because the clubs had duties and needed to have representatives at all of the meetings. There were associate members in a lot of the SCTA member Clubs but as I have seen written no full club. With the reading of the plaques and all from the same area I would think it stood for something else. Old drag races were called timing events under the direction of Timing Associations. The Pomona Valley Timing Association has been referenced in older articles and a neighbor was a member when he was a teenager.
Thank you Mr48 and Jimmy. There is a Spokane Country drag strip (SC TA) but that's on the other side of Washington. Maybe someone out there remembers another racing venue in the Seattle, area like a South County TA,. or something.
It may have referred to a Snohomish County Timing Association, or possibly Skagit county. Everett is located in Snohomish county, Skagit county is adjacent just north of it. Both are just north of Seattle/King county and were/are much more rural than King county where Seattle is. That still doesn't prove anything, there were a lot of clubs around who had big plans that never materialized. There was also a Whatcom County Timing association (Whatcom was just north of Skagit and borders Canada) that ironically enough organized races in Snohomish county. Everett is the largest city in Snohomish county, Mount Vernon in Skagit, and Bellingham in Whatcom.
Dennis, Al Drake is a member here, a great guy and an encyclopedia on northwest rodding. Start a conversation with him, he goes by Al Drake (Go figure) Mick
I'm wondering if they may have been race teams who at the time needed to be in a club with SCTA ties to race at the dry lakes or Bonneville. I know that about 40 years ago there was a one man club down about 40 miles from me. The Skagit county timing association sounds plausible though .
SCTA, in Washington stood for Snohomish county timing association. The valve lifters started it because they were trying to start a drag strip in the Snohomish area, which was more central than the Arlington drag strip. Most of the other local clubs displayed WWTA which stood for western Washington timing association. Tom Nielsen wrote a story about the Everett area clubs earlier this year. Sadly, Tom passed away in August. http://originalcolbycruisers.com/?a=./albums/ecc1950-1960 Dave
Well Dave that sounds like you win the prize for solving the puzzle! I know that someone on the HAMB would have the answer! Thank you Sir!
Meaning that all things SCTA are not created equal. I'd say that a good number of have done a search for SCTA more than once and found everything except the Southern California Timing Association listed. I think I stopped at that Herfy burger with my family on the way to my step father's folks place in either Lake Stevens or Gold Bar depending on the year. A rare place my step father would stop that didn't serve beer.
BTW Dave - I forwarded the info you gave us to Jack & Nita Underwood, Al Drake, Bill Junge and Greg Sharp so they'll all know about the "other" (car related) SCTA. I really enjoyed Tom's article. Thanks again, Dennis
I'd say that solves the problem. As a note The Southern California Timing Association back in the day would not let a complete club from an area as far away as Washington join. The club members from each club were needed to perform duties thru out the years especially at racing events. There were members in each club who may not live close and each club had rules for their members and what duties they were to perform
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