Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: 1963 NHRA Car Show + Drag Racing Film Continue reading the Original Blog Post
very Cool - somewhere in my stuff I have a cassette tape recording and a photocopy of a print out of this event
That was spectacular. The Orange Crate, Bob Crespo’s ‘40, Bud Kennedy’s custom sports car! And the drags, oh boy. Interviews with Dean Moon, Bones Balogh and Big John Mazmanian. Stone Woods and Cook dusting off Jim Dunn in the Dunn, Merritt and Velasco Fiat. I’ve never seen that C&O/ Shiftmaster Willys before, bitchin. The Borgeois and Wade Willys. Too cool. My Dad used to take me to the Winternationals car show and to the Winternationals drags in the 1962-1965 time frame. He told me that if I agreed to stay in Little League baseball he would take me to those events. I hated stick and ball sports, but it was worth it to get to go to those two. I never realized how difficult it was for him financially until many years later. The Great Western Exhibit Center was a great venue. Later, I drove my ‘32 5w to the LA Roadster’s show and Swap Meet there. Thanks a bunch!
Hello, Nice video find. This is one of the most interesting of the videos saved. But, for the cost of using top notch movie camera film and equipment, the color and action shots are not as high a quality one would expect from a big time sponsored film. As 8:18 rolls around, this is the best capture of drag racing seen so far. The pre-staging, the set up, the race, the end and the tow back. One complete racecar presentation. Of course, the Corvette is the Bones Balogh and John Mazmanian famous Corvette. One of our favorites... Jnaki But, the sound is the worse ever. It sounds like my mom’s lawnmower on its last legs, after we did some porting and polishing and modified the head. Or my neighbor practicing his saxophone in the beginning… blaaat…. With the sound off, the presentation is one complete showcase of one of the historic race cars on the Westcoast. Ending with the drive off to the pits… completes the film. Thanks for finding the film. By this time line day, we were finished as drag racing participants, but were still racing late at night at the Cherry Avenue Drags. So, we still kept a sliver of our old antics. This Great Western Exhibit center was a short drive for us, but it was a good car show and others like them in our So Cal neighborhood area, still attracted teenagers to them. In 63-64, we attended as many as there were, locally, at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium and elsewhere. By 1965, that too was behind us for being participants. But, visions still dance in our heads, including driving a custom Corvette to the high school parking space in front of the school… YOWZA!!! "Where were you in 62?" Old Friday Art...
Great video. Brings back a lot of memories. My formative years. No wonder I’m a Hotrod nut. That’s a lot of fog.
Bob, interesting you mention the Orange Crate and Bud Kennedy’s sports car. I watched both of them run at the drags, and got to know the builders of those cars, and became good friends with both. Keith Randol and Don “Duck “ Collins respectively, started out building oval track cars, Hardtops and Track Roadsters, and became Indy Mechanics.
Hey Marty. Both of those cars were lessons in design and details for this young SoCal boy. There’s a helluva lot of talent up in your part of the country.
If I wasn't born 30 years too friggin' late, I would have been able to experience all the cool stuff first hand! Dammit!!!
The Jalopy Journal
