Probably most of the drag cars will be identified, but the Chevy custom with the 55 Chev grille is a Car Craft magazine how-to build series that ran from May 1956 thru October 1956. Similar to the R&C Dream truck, several well known custom shops worked on it. Not sure where it went after that. Mick
I think I saw a few SoCal tracks, San Gabe, Pomona, San Fernando, maybe Bakersfield? - my favorite car is this bitchin little RPU -
@Ryan thanks for being the go-to guy for these sorts of donations and more importantly, thank you for sharing them with us! Love to see the history preserved!
Pretty awesome score. Not 100% on these, but here's what I saw... I think the heavily modified '40 Ford Tudor is the early iteration of Dave Cunningham's "Lil' Beauty." Obviously this is the LaMasa roadster up front, but in the background looks like Bob Metz's XM-105 Buick custom. Ivo's badass twin-nailhead rail I think this S.Co.T.-blown flathead dragster is John "Mr. Flathead" Bradley's sponsored by Gene's Brake Shop And this is Manuel Gonzalez's blown smallblock dragster, the "Californian"...Lefty Mudersbach chassis and Bob Sorrell body.
The real sickness is how late I'm gonna stay up tonight obsessing over the four or five cars I KNOW I've seen before but just can't place...
If it’s Ontario and we’re looking North, it’s the San Gabriel range. I live at the base of it just north of Ontario. There used to be Ontario Motor Speedway and it is now the site of the Toyota arena where I just recently saw Danzig
Hey Anthony; Look a little closer at the sedan. I'm seeing a ~'39 Stude sedan, I'm thinking 2dr(large pic is too pixilated for me to see clearly), w/cheater slicks on the rear, hood sides missing, a carb-cover for the carbs sticking thru the hood, & tow hooks on the frame horns instead of a front bumper. Am I seeing things? Marcus...[/QUOTE] Hello, The idea of a "beater" in the staging line at Bakersfield March Meet of 1960 is somewhat of a good/bad description. Bad in that it did look like a thrown together Studebaker sedan. That blurry photo is the Al Hirshfield-Howard Cam Studebaker Sedan that looked rough, but ran like a top against a lot of competition in So Cal dragstrips. Good in that it was/is one of the top B/Gas Sedans in all of So Cal drag racing circles and we were able to have some films we took at Lion’s Dragstrip and Bakersfield in 1959-60. It was one that had an unusual Howard Cam/Hilborn Single Injector as a one-of-a-kind item. Al Hirshfield Howard Cam Studebaker Sedan at Bakersfield Smokers March Meet 1960 The high powered 1941 Studebaker Sedan of Howard Cam/Doug Cook/Al Hirshfield just over powered the sports car and won the race. Drag News reporting the race...1960 Jnaki It was a few seconds off of the starting line, but the 1941 Studebaker of Al Hirshfield just blasted by the Austin Healy sports car as if was standing still. It was not a question of "Where is Waldo," but, who is Waldo... "Waldo" is a nickname given to Al Hirshfield. The “beater” Studebaker is nothing to scoff at during competition. The actual race as recorded in March of 1960: :23 in the film elimination race 1960 In speaking to Donny Johansen, many years later, the single Hilborn Injector was put on the Studebaker and also used on the Howard Cam Twin Bear at one time. That is until the dual Hilborn Injectors came into production. "A single, 3 inch Hilborn Injector, just prior to developing the two port Hilborn Injectors. Howard Cam Group…" Donny Johansen The "TWIN BEAR" at Lion’s Dragstrip single Hilborn 1960: Lion's Dragstrip 1960 Plus: from the files of @ttwomotor
Hello, The idea of a "beater" in the staging line at Bakersfield March Meet of 1960 is somewhat of a good/bad description. Bad in that it did look like a thrown together Studebaker sedan. That blurry photo is the Al Hirshfield-Howard Cam Studebaker Sedan that looked rough, but ran like a top against a lot of competition in So Cal dragstrips. Good in that it was/is one of the top B/Gas Sedans in all of So Cal drag racing circles and we were able to have some films we took at Lion’s Dragstrip and Bakersfield in 1959-60. It was one that had an unusual Howard Cam/Hilborn Single Injector as a one-of-a-kind item. View attachment 5422238 Al Hirshfield Howard Cam Studebaker Sedan at Bakersfield Smokers March Meet 1960 The high powered 1941 Studebaker Sedan of Howard Cam/Doug Cook/Al Hirshfield just over powered the sports car and won the race. View attachment 5422240 Drag News reporting the race...1960 Jnaki It was a few seconds off of the starting line, but the 1941 Studebaker of Al Hirshfield just blasted by the Austin Healy sports car as if was standing still. It was not a question of "Where is Waldo," but, who is Waldo... "Waldo" is a nickname given to Al Hirshfield. View attachment 5422242 The “beater” Studebaker is nothing to scoff at during competition. The actual race as recorded in March of 1960: :23 in the film elimination race 1960 In speaking to Donny Johansen, many years later, the single Hilborn Injector was put on the Studebaker and also used on the Howard Cam Twin Bear at one time. That is until the dual Hilborn Injectors came into production. View attachment 5422244 "A single, 3 inch Hilborn Injector, just prior to developing the two port Hilborn Injectors. Howard Cam Group…" Donny Johansen The "TWIN BEAR" at Lion’s Dragstrip single Hilborn 1960: Lion's Dragstrip 1960 Plus: View attachment 5422245 from the files of @ttwomotor [/QUOTE] @jnaki You beat me to it. I knew i'd seen that Studebaker In one of your films.
This is, in my humble opinion, the best version of Dave Cunningham's sedan, by far. This picture also shows that great cars don't necessarily have great bodywork..... I was in college at Long Beach State in 1961 and there was an older guy (I was 17) who owned a '57 210 that was more show than go. It was purple with candy gold insets, wheels, and dash. This is probably that car, but I have long since forgotten his name.
@jnaki You are correct. I first seen the pic on my small phone and thought 4 door. Thanks for the cool info. As far as beater, it’s not as polished as most of the cars featured in these photos. But looks like just as much fun.
The John Bradley shot looks like Colton. But I never remember a blower. But it is Gene's Brake Shop. You could buy Bradley's 4-carb dragster engine right outta the car for $1100. Or get a brand new one at Gene's for $1100, too. Take your chances they're the same. They probably wanted to sell the dragster one as it might be on its last legs. A friend bought a 40 Ford Fordor with 4-carb version flatty. It had run in the low 90s at Colton. Dropped axle, 4 carbs, bigs and littles, stock '40 beige paint, looked huge with a hell of a rake. Four of us in it one night, it beak a pretty fast '56 Chevy. It didn't last long, tho. Favorite Bradley snapshot (my hero back then), coming back down the strip, throwing a beer can out before turning around and winning Top Eliminator (as usual). Forward maybe 20 years and friends were building him a new car. I checked on it one day when John was there. It had an aluminum (or magnesium?) banjo which I'd never seen before. He was there. What's that? "A magnesium banjo." What ratio? "4.11" That's what you always run? "For gas, I need a 4.44 for the big tires for fuel." I've got a cherry set I'll give you. "Great!" I go home and take our old roadster's rear end apart and deliver it to the chassis shop. Weeks later I stop by and ask how John liked the gear set. "Just fine, he sold it at the swap meet." End of hero worship.
March 1960 Smokers March Meet Hello, Here is one other film clip that I took in March 1960 at the Bakersfield Smokers March Meet. It is of the Al Hirshfield vs. the Al Dal Porto Willys Pickup Truck. The history of the Al Dal Porto Willys pickup was that it won the A/Gas division in 1959 as per Drag News weekly. “Another gasser that had an early influence on Joe was the Al Dal Porto Yellow Willys Pickup that was later bought by the Panella Brothers and became their candy apple red pickup. Al was a lakes racer and built this Pickup to go drag racing. He won the A Gas Coupe Sedan class in it at the Smokers Meet (March Meet) in it in 1959. It turned 114.94 Mph with a chevy engine.” Al Hirshfield vs. Al Dal Porto Willys 1960 It was hectic trying to film along the chain link fence. There was this blonde, bubble head, lady that kept shoving against me while leaning over the fence to get a better view. What a dumb ass… we all had the same view over the top of the chain link fence. No advantage was had by leaning over the top. But, some just have no clue. Jnaki These films are several of the whole day spent at the Bakersfield Smokers March Meet in 1960. Either look up on the HAMB search or J NAKI Channel on the You Tube website. I thought they looked good on the 17 inch laptop screen, then on a 31 inch computer monitor and the surprise was the look of the historic racing on a large screen OLED TV as it does not distort being shown in a larger size. As Mikey’s friend used to say on a commercial, “Try it, you might like it…”
Phenomenal collection of photos ! You don't see many pics of the Chrisman #25 with that tail, or Mickey sitting in the twin engine Bonneville car at the drags. I believe the Corvette to be my old friend Jack Frost, who brought the car to Oregon. He painted 10,000 RPMs on the front fender, and I could hear it 7 miles from my house.
Hello, Even though there are a lot of Bakersfield 1960 photos, the other places do not look like surrounding the early Lion’s Dragstrip area. There is a giant farmer’s field and a long row of two story apartments (Gold Star Homes) usually in the background of current photos from the 60s. When we grew up in the late 50s, the same field run by the same farmer was still surrounding the Eastern side of the dragstrip. Our Junior High School Baseball Field was about the half way point at the 1/8 mile marker and the other baseball field we used quite regularly was inside of those rows of apartment/homes we always see in most Lion’s Dragstrip photos. The West side of the dragstrip were large fields and the background showed Wilmington oil refineries and San Pedro Hill. Westside background: Eastside background Jnaki So, for the other So Cal shots, it may be Pomona or??? The San Gabriel Valley was the closest to the local mountain ranges for backgrounds. Ontario Motor Speedway was not around when these old photos were taken. A great collection of photos from everywhere. Thanks...
Great photos, Ms Sanders truly did the right thing by sending them to @Ryan. Thanks for sharing them.
@jnaki Any idea on this one? It looks like this could be a Willys too. Maybe the white one that we were wondering about a while back. Too bad that more of the car can’t be seen.
Lion's Dragstrip Hey EG71, The only Willys Coupe I have in my film file is the early version of the K.S. Pittman Red Willys. The date I wrote on the film ID package was 1959. But, if it was primered in 1958, they did not have the rear wheel radius when we first saw them run at Lion’s Dragstrip. Although, the 1958 season in the Drag News shows K.S. Pittman with full fenders, just like in my films. The full fender version first and then the radius wheel cut outs for the larger M&H slicks. In one part of the film i took, from the staging area of my brother rolling up to the starting line, shows the Red K.S. Pittman Willys blasting off in the Tower Side lane. Jnaki So, the Bruce Slicks were the top choice of most racers. But, when the M&H started filtering into the local drag race scene, some big time guys did the next step. If that B&W photo were taken during the 59 season, the radius would show up with the new M&H slicks. I am certain, that they would not have painted it primer first when only the radius rear fender was the one in need of the matching red color. NOTE: The identification facts on any of those classic photos shows that they were not taken at Lion's Dragstrip as far as the background was concerned. But, since the original photographer did not keep any clues, it is all a great game to keep the brain functioning.
The Jalopy Journal
