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

Riverside


Santa Ana, maybe Dean Moon?


No ID


Zeller Brothers, driven by Don Johnson, who would later field the "Don the Beachcomber" fuelers...this was Kent Fuller's first chassis, fiberglass body ... I first saw this car at San Fernando in '58 before it made the HRM cover, same day as Tommy Ivo debuted his first dragster (also chassis by Fuller)...I thought this was Ivo's car, but his was unpainted, right out of the shop...later the two Buicks raced each other and Ivo won...


Bruce Kaiser at Santa Maria, maybe '57 or '58...


Ontario...no ID


Terry Gall's fueler in the lights at Riverside, Billy Scott at the wheel...


Dennison, Arlansky, and Knox racing the Quality Auto at Bakersfield...there must be 10 different pictures of this race.


Art Malone in Big's car


Jack Chrisman racing Lew Arrington, maybe Riverside? I think that this was the car that Jack burned to the ground at Gainesville...


Riverside, think that this is Coburn and Warren...

 

There was a controversy over this car, I don't believe Jenkins ever owned it. He raced the car for "Doc" Burgess before he got the Chevy ll. Here's a later pic. I also read where this car no longer exists.

 

This series has some of THE BEST shots I have found. Do yourself a favor and click on them maybe a couple times until they get largest totally awesome shots.

First set from here with a story about early hemi engines : http://www.dragracermag.com/hemiolo...de-the-engine-compartment-of-a-stock-chrysler

One of the hottest dragsters in its day was the Chassis Research, Inc. slingshot of Cook and Bedwell. Emery Cook ran a blistering 9.28 166.97 February 3, 1957 on fuel, a performance that in part prompted the infamous fuel ban of April 1, 1957. Their ultimate nitro number was an 8.89 166.97.






Chuck Potvin developed the front-mounted, crank-driven blower. Unfortunately, they could only run 1:1.



In 1958, Phil Weiand created the first top-mounted manifold for the GMC 6.71 blower which Art Chrisman and Frank Cannon ran on their Hustler-1 AA/FD. They set the Drag News Standard 1320 record, 8.54/181.81, in February 1959 at Riverside, California. They also won the first U.S. Fuel & Gas Championships in March 1959. Photo courtesy of the NHRA Motorsports Museum.





By the early ’60s, Hemis were in all of the hot classes. Mooneyham & Sharp’s 390 Hemi powered their 554 Fuel Coupe. It was based on a 331 Hemi block and featured a set of trick billet Hemi cylinder heads and Sharp rocker arms. The car ran a career best of 8.98-170.00.





“Wild Willy” Borsch piloted Jim’s Auto Parts AA/HR, soon to be the Winged Express in 1960. Note the Howard’s Chain drive and cover. If one of these chains broke, they could cut the car, and anyone nearby, to pieces.





Prudhomme scored an incredible win-loss record of 236-7 running as quick as 7.77/191.48 in the Greer, Black & Prudhomme AA/FD racing Safford, Guaide and Ratican’s blown Oldsmobile.





Don Garlits’s Wynn’s Jammer AA/FD at Bakersfield in 1964 was runner-up to Connie Kalitta. The following year Garlits and his drivers Marvin Schwartz and Connie Swingle swept the meet.





With the NHRA fuel ban lifted, Tommy Ivo left Buick for Chrysler power. His Kent Fuller-chassis Hemi AA/FD ran 7.84 seconds at San Gabriel and 202.70 at Half Moon Bay. Jim Kelly photo courtesy Tom Ivo





Stone, Woods & Cook vs. “Big John” Mazmanian at the AA/GS final at the 1964 NHRA Winternationals. To remain competitive, most Gassers soon switched to Hemi power. Jim Kelly photo courtesy Match Race Madness.





If one Hemi was good, two would be even better. That was the thinking behind Frakes & Funk’s Kentucky Moonshiner AA/GD




The Hemis of Gary Burgin and K.S. Pitman face off.





When bad things happen to early Hemis. The Toler & Tolbert AA/FD catches fire at Irwindale Raceway in the late ’60s. Tom Toler escaped with minor burns. Photo by Steve Reyes






In January 1965, Chrysler turned the drag racing world on its collective ear with its new altered-wheelbase Mopars. Outlawed by the NHRA, they were a hit with the “run what ya brung” crowd.




The Knapp & Westerdale Ramchargers AA/FD was the first to use a Gen II Hemi. It ran a creditable 7.60-205.00 at Indy 1964. This is a photo of Leroy Goldstein racing their second car.




Dale Armstrong wheels the Donovan engine Foust, Menzies & Armstrong Indy-winning AA/Altered, which ran high sixes.




Gene Adams A/FD injected hemi




Part two short article on 426 later hemis

http://www.dragracermag.com/hemi-mo...ears-old-the-iconic-426-hemi-was-born-to-race


While wild altered-wheelbase Mopars were all the rage in the press, Chrysler was still interested in the legal Super Stock classes as seen with Butch Leal’s A990 Plymouth. Chrysler built specially modified lightweight A990s specifically for NHRA Super Stock and they would go on to win in the class for decades. Leal, who was one of the few to drive a four-speed, won the 1965 U.S. Nationals with this car over Dave Strickler with an 11.56 at 124.82 mph.

Note the two different color "T" stickers on the window we discussed before





After winning the NASCAR championship in 1964 with the 426 Hemi, a number of drivers, including Richard Petty and David Pearson, suddenly found themselves with nowhere to race. Petty match raced this Barracuda for a short time and actually won class at the 1965 Spring Nationals at Bristol, but an accident in Georgia that killed a young boy ended Petty’s drag racing career.




When Ford won the championship in 1964 with Gas Ronda and the intermediate-sized Thunderbolt, the 426 Hemi was facing a serious challenge. Despite more power, the Ford 427 was lighter and the smaller T-Bolt had an aerodynamic advantage. Chrysler’s response was its 426 Hemi altered-wheelbase cars in 1965. NHRA didn’t accept them, but they were a hit with the public and ran roughshod over anything the other factory teams could offer.





The Ramchargers were already household names among race fans with the 413 Max Wedge, but they went to new heights beginning in 1964 when they runner-up’d to Roger Lindamood at the U.S. Nationals with the 426 Hemi. This loose knit group would eventually go on to field cars in many different classes from Stock all the way to Top Fuel.

 

From George Klass: I lost my share of drag races, so I get to brag about the few I won...beat Mazmanian's 'vette at San Gabriel in '63....ok, I had a dragster, he had a 'vette, I was running straight nitro, he gas...but my car cost $800 total, built with '55-era parts from Blair's parts bin...Maz probably had that much in his induction...


Flathead roadster at Lions...


Riverside...(the 4 in the background is turn 4 at Riverside raceway, turn 4 emptied onto the straightaway, which was the dragstrip....nothing left today.


Unknown Dragmaster chassised-car at Pomona


No ID on these two fuelers


John Bateman's Atlas Oil Tool car at Lions


Bean Bandits...these guys were geniuses at drag racing...ran flatheads, Chryslers, Desotos, Buicks, Arduns, did not usually leave the drag strip without a trophy


Bean Bandits at Ramona, blown Chrysler


Mickey Thompson at San Fernando, right after the track opened...this was a really crude dragster when Mickey first ran it, but it later got an injected Chrysler (replacing the original Ardun), and this full body


More Ramona


Another San Diego-based modified roadster...Red Henslee in the Henslee & Cook modified roadster, fuel Chrysler..


and probably the most famous modified roadster, the Speed Sport Special out of Tucson, AZ

 

I guy in a fire suite on a skate board. All out of bunny's with a pancake on their head...sorry.

 

Must've been sniffin' the nitro!

 

This was "Lotus John" Morton, who briefly drove for the Surfers after Mike Sorokin departed, the first time. John drove, only once, I think, before Mike returned to drive the Surfer's car until they left drag racing. Lotus John went on to sports car racing, racing, I suppose, a Lotus. Bob Skinner, the tall guy in the background, getting a laugh out of John's warm-up technique.

 

Looks like "Lotus "John Morton in the new fire suit with surfers Bob Skinner on the left and photog Tim Marshal next to him with the surfers dragster as a back drop. His fire suit looks new because he only used it twice.

 

I happen to have one for you LOL.

 

"Bobby Lagana" running C/G at Dover Dragstrip

 

I have seen the Lagana's in so many different cars drag racing over the years that is hard to keep up with the many cars they have raced over the years.
Jimbo

 

Has anyone seen a himi powered front engine dragster with rainbow color coated headers. I worked for a guy named art wolfram and he raced it. He had a picture of it hanging up in his office and all I can remember was the rainbow colored exhaust. I think it was black but can't remember. He's past on but I would love to find a picture of it. Thanks. Sry if this is considered a hi jack .

 

Morton made his name in sports car racing driving factory backed small bore Datsun sedans in the underling series to TransAm and was quite prominent for a while.
The last I heard of him was a few years back when he flopped one of the original Scarabs over in a vintage sports car deal at Laguna Seca.