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

That is Ron Leslie on the right. That is the Kenz and Leslie Dragster. Probably 1959 at Contenental Divide Raceway

 

Another of Kenz and Leslie

 

Green Mountain Boys/Big Jim Dunn...

 

The old DiMatteo car has been on the track at least since 2001, and is still out there running. With an injected SBC and painted dark purple, owned by a fella by the name of Ray Pasch. He digs the crap out of it. It runs like, NE2 (8.60) or something like that, maybe NE3, 9.60 index.

 

I just got word from a friend of Chris'. He's something like 85 years old, just re-upped his racing license and has a new car this year!

 

That's freaking amazing Tom! May we all live that long and continue doing the things we love.

 

The "Jungle Jim" photo at Carlsbad brings back some very fond memories of that track!

 

What a great picture. Love how the light captures the crowd and the long plume behind the yellow car.

 

It is a great shot, Leroy Chatterton racing the Beaver Hunter, maybe Henry Harrison driving? (I think that John Force might have taken a ride in the Beaver Hunter (?)

 

This from George Klass, looks like Rod Stuckey's car in the foreground. Is that Gotelli's TE-440 in the background? If so, Stuckey got badly burned in his own car, then Bud Barnett, driving the Gotelli car, got badly burned at Half Moon Bay in a benefit race to help pay Stuckey's medical bills. Gotelli cut the car up after that fire.

Al Caldwell, who authored the column "Northern Briefs" in Drag News, wrote graphically about Barnett's burns, describing his face as looking like burned steak. Then he wrote "Why do I write so graphically about a good guy in a lot of pain? Because we have to do something about fire! That apparently motivated Jim McLennan to visit the San Francisco Airport fire department and borrow one of their flame-resistant suits, which he wore in his own dragster. That, if I remember this correctly, was the first drag racing use of a fire suit, which then Jim Diest began to sew up for drag racing use. If I have this story right (recalling just from memory), then these two cars made history in a painful but important way.

Do I have this right, NoCal guys?

 

^^^I don't know the history Dave, so I can't answer...

 

Joe Shubeck vs. Connie Kalitta...