So to continue on from this mornings post of early 50s Motorama slides I thought I would post these photos of early Saugus drag strip action. Saugus was an early drag strip run by Lou Baney (Pres. of Russetta Timing Assoc.) and Lou Senter of Ansen fame, it is known as the first strip to run night drags. First up is an article from Hop Up October 1951 which describes the track nicely.
Jimmy, thanks for posting as usual! Maybe "Rockerhead" Don or Dean Lowe can identify cars and some of the individuals in your photos.
from same batch of photos At first I thought this may have been the Lloyd Baken coupe but chop is different. I believe this dragster has the engine from the 14H '32 roadster.
damn Jimmy - my heart won't stop racing after seeing this thread. Thanks for sharing these photos. Man so many ideas, and only one life-time
Thanks for a another trip down Memory Lane. Interesting history and many real cool cars shots. Thanks Jimbo
Can anyone identify the column drop in this picture. It might work better for me if I can find one. Thanks
Hashim's roadster sure got around , lakes drags and a daily driver. After Ernie sold it to Yo-Yo , it came to Vegas and went thru several owners , the last Cecil Fredi totally redid the car , more chrome , Barris candy apple, 327 chevy. I thought it was neat at the time but opinions change with age . Much cooler pumping the pressure pump !!
Jimmy, thanks so much for these photos, this is our history, this is where we came from, I have never seen most of these pictures, so thanks very much for taking the time to post! Don Montgomery was there, so he will be able to identify more than I can; Saugus was slightly before my time...but I recognize a couple: Ernie Hashim's roadster was featured a couple of times, story I heard was that he crashed it at Saugus and his wife made him promise never to drive again, but if the roadster was sold later, maybe the story is wrong or the car was repairable. No. 440 '29 roadster was Dave Marquez, who sold it to Hut Watkins to build his more famous '32 roadster with the Ardun that made the HRM cover, July '56. Hut painted it Smoker's purple and ran a Buick. There were several innovative supercharger adaptions, the one on the '32 roadster looks like a 3-71 with homemade manifolds, as does the one on the dragster. I would love to know who these pioneers were. Also interesting was the Ansen pickup, Lou Senter and Lou Baney ran the track (managed by Bob Corbett), racers all, as Don Montgomery noted in his contribution to the thread on his fuel coupe. Another story I heard was that there were only 4 oak trees for shade, and fights broke out over who got them first for a pit stall...and that a couple of them are still there, though all other traces of the track (an airport) have disappeared under homes. Can't wait for Don Montgomery to fill us in, and thanks again, Jimmy!
These are fantastic old shots. The blower stuff is very interesting. They must all be from early on at Saugus, they changed direction running east toward the hill and i recall Tony Nancy said that was after running west.
Way Cool. For us young-ins like myself. I have some idea where it was, but to be sure. Jimmy, or anyone for that matter can you put up a current day map with the exact location of where it was. Thanks ahead of time.
I have to think that Ernie Hashim or "Blower John" Gilbert may have had something to do with that blower setup . John Gilbert moved to Vegas in the 50s and worked as a machinist before opening his own deal , he did set up some blowers for some friends . I made the mistake of asking Ernie about his front drive set up being the same as Chuck Potvin's , he bristled and stated that "SOB' stole his idea .
thank you for sharing, some great photos there! i used to live minutes from there, though long after the housing developments moved in and the racing stopped.
If you check the map for Whites Canyon Road and Soledad Canyon Road it'd be just north of that intersection. All houses now.
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