January 1959 first photo of a use of parachute "The first use of a parachute in a hot rodding application came in 1958 when racer Abe Carson contracted chute engineer Jim Deist to adapt a chute to the flathead powered Hartman and Carson dragster.” Hello, In my search for some drag racing history, I tried to find the first usage of parachutes in drag racing. Some of the well know racers were going fast, but most of the dragstrips were long enough to slow down and make a u-turn to the return road. But, from real life excitement, even another ½ mile seems long, but racers are slowing down from top speeds to zero. Going back as far as 1955, when drag racing results and photos started showing up weekly, I had a difficult time finding any information about parachutes. When we were racing my brother’s 58 Impala, the top time was 98 mph in the quarter mile. But if one did not let off in time and started to slow down, the end of the drag strip came up fast. In one of my early races, I had come back from behind to win the last race by a fender. I was so happy that I forgot to let off for just a second or two past the finish line lights. By the time I noticed the Willow Street cross road and the fence looming way up ahead, I jammed on the brakes. I was in a haze having won a close race and the time or lack thereof, gave me a moment to reflect. That extra moment caused the 58 Impala to move some distance closer to the end of the dragstrip and sand berm/gate. By the time I held down the brakes, the end was still looming closer. Finally, I was able to stop and turn around. It seemed to be a moment in time, but stands out as a stock car with horsepower still needs to stop. A full race car with gobs more horsepower and lighter weight is going faster, definitely needs more stopping power. So, after one racer took the parachute use to slow the car down, it was almost standard equipment for racers in most classes to use a parachute. Jnaki The time table was a first, in a long line up of single parachutes into the 60s to the modern versions of the stopping power of chutes in drag racing. Note: Jim Deist “In 1948 he went to work at Irving Air Chute where he learned the parachute manufacturing business while continuing to pursue his racing hobby.” “In 1956 Jim was introduced to Abe Carson who was running a dragster and was having trouble stopping it at the end of each run and wondered if a chute might help. The Irving Air Chute folks weren’t interested in Abe’s project but didn’t object to Jim making up one on his own time to test. Jim’s first attempt with the chute was less than a success when it got all tangled-up on the push bar but subsequent trial and error testing soon proved the chute would work.” “Carson continued to use the chute on his dragster, which he ran mostly at San Fernando Raceway. It wasn’t until one Sunday when Mickey Thompson was there as a spectator and saw Carson using the chute that things started to happen. Mickey invited Carson and the “guy that made the chute”, Jim Deist, to Long Beach to explore its use further." "It was Mickey who encouraged Jim to start making these Drag Chutes” commercially. Soon Jim installed a chute on Ed Pink’s dragster with Tom Dyer driving followed quickly by Art Chrisman. With more and more drivers wanting chutes for their cars, Jim founded Deist Safety in 1958 to fill their needs.”
1959 1st Bakersfield Smokers March Meet and winner: WDIFL Hello, In 1959, my brother and I were in the middle of our drag racing era. We were fully aware of the top racers in So Cal and our creative juices had plenty of choice ideas to incorporate into a hot rod or full drag race vehicle. But, one thing we missed was the first Bakersfield Smokers March Meet in 1959. The action was nicely depicted a week later in the local Drag News we could not wait to get our hands on, as a matter of fact, we got one each from Joe Mailliard’s Shop and one from Reath Automotive. We had business at each place, so it was the weekly thing to do back then. 1959 to morph into the yearly meet held in March, still progresses to today. The place is a meeting for all of the old timers still active in the 1320 race group from way back to the original years. But re-reading the words of the author of the article on the first March Meet is still an adventure. After reading about the first Westcoast drag race and the results, my brother vowed not to miss the next one in 1960. Check out the various film clips in the J NAKI You Tube archives for the 1960 action we filmed all day into the late afternoon, in Bakersfield, CA The after effects of the first annual March Meet started the flood of advertisements showcasing the winner, Art Chrisman with the Chrisman-Cannon “Hustler.”
Its my guess that a lot of "firsts" date back to the Brass Era, with guys with names like Ford, Winton, and Chevrolet involved.
Hello, Joe Mailliard and Joe Reath worked together at the old Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, near the airport. There was no other hot rod/drag race/speed shop in the general area. So, they opened a speed shop at 1945 E. 10th St. at Cherry Avenue location. It was really something, a first of a kind. It was in a residential area around the corner, with a small corner shop open for business. But, it was away from the downtown area and the open spaces of Cherry Avenue near the LB airport. Machining is/was second nature for them and a speed shop was perfect for the times. Then in early 1959, Joe Mailliard opened his own larger corner shop, in Downtown Long Beach, on a busy street called American Ave. It was the largest street that ran from the ocean to many miles inland into the South Gate area. Again, it was the first hot rod drag racing speed shop in a downtown location. Then the city changed the name to Long Beach Boulevard in the later years to associate it with the namesake city. This location was just a few blocks from our old high school. This shop was the only speed shop located in downtown Long Beach. A first for local hot rodders and drag racers, a great place to call home… Our history goes back to Reath Automotive as a single entity in 1958-62 (at 10th & Cherry Ave). Then also, Joe Mailliard opening a shop near our Long Beach high school on a busy corner. Joe Mailliard’s new 1959 shop was the first hot rod/drag race/speed shop to show up on a busy commercial street, right in the downtown area of Long Beach. The new business with showroom, parts and an open side door for garage mechanical work. It was 3 blocks South of our old high school, which made visiting a daily or weekly thing for the hot rod builders and racers. FEB 1959 Sidewinder Sound from Joe Mailliard's Automotive Engineering
Hello, In 1950, So Cal was one of the first “official” locations for a certified drag strip. It was in the OC,or better known as South Santa Ana. The drag strip opened in June 1950 and stayed that way until June 1959. During this time, the local hot rod guys/girls came out to play in the newly found fairly barren location. An airport runway with no one around to complain of noise and large gatherings. Various speed records were set and the “noted” locals wee just beginning their climb in the drag racing circles. Over the early years, speeds began to climb and by 1955, an unheard of top speed of 147 was recorded. Now, by the end of the year, 1955, another local dragstrip would be ready to accommodate all drag racers and hot rod guys/girls closer to the origins of So Cal speed merchants and speed shops in the greater Los Angeles area. Work had started and Lion’s Dragstrip in West Long Beach or Wilmington, CA was created and now open. For us (my brother was the first to experience the Santa Ana Drags with his age group friends) both places opened up a whole new arena to explore and have some cool adventures growing up in So Cal. Jnaki History in any field is important to all of us. We were taught that “without history, there is no today.” so, how is history of drag racing important to so many of us over time? To have local drag racers and hot rod folks stay in the know, a little know publication started in march of 1955. The Drag News was a small size weekly newspaper (compared to the full page L.A. Times or Hearld Examiner papers in So Cal) for drag racing and the automotive industry advertisements. It reported the news from the various drag strips in So Cal and as the numbers of dragstrips expanded all over the Westcoast and in the rest of the USA. The editor and reporters showcased as much news/photos and latest information from the manufacturers, weekly on the comings and goings of drag racing across the whole area. So, today we are indebted to those that saved the history of drag racing and So Cal culture as we witnessed it and participated as much as we could to enjoy hot rods. Thanks, Drag News for keeping us informed back then (the cost was minimal and copies were available at most speed shops and builders shops... every week) Thanks to those that many years later, preserved what they could “digitally” for everyone to have access to the history of drag racing as seen weekly in the whole USA.
Absolutely..... He ran a 204 mph. My brother and I were there at that meet. Actually, it was in 1960. It was interesting, because of all the races I'd watched, that one was different. The moon and stars were all lined up. The sound was incredible. The air was right. The bite was right. It was simply a fantastic run.
APRIL 1958 Hello, Despite the claim of “TOPS ‘EM ALL IN BITE AND SAFETY” out West, it was a hard sell at the So Cal dragstrips. The records were being set in all classes from Gas Coupes and Sedans to A/Gas Dragsters and Modified + Street Roadsters using the time honored Bruce’s Slicks. The claims came from Eastcoast racers and began to spread in those areas first. Wally Dallenback??? Jnaki Who knew of this historical fact: Wally Dallenbach Sr. history: "At the age of 17, a legal driving age, he switched to drag racing. In 1959-1960, he built one of the first successful rear-end dragsters. He then accomplished some 80 wins over a period of five years and, at the age of 21, he began oval racing. He promptly built another modified stock car and campaigned on the Eastern race tracks for more than four years, winning more than his share of races along the way." Then, within a year or so, the larger, wider M&H Drag Racing Slicks began to creep into some big pocket racing teams and builds on the Westcoast. Then the records started falling like hot cakes on a Saturday morning... The showcase advertising and new prospective in the drag racing circles started everywhere.
1964 Hello, We were involved in drag racing in the Gas Coupe Class since the fall of 1959. The remake over of the fairly nice old 1940 Willys Coupe had a 283 SBC motor and 6 Strombergs on top. We were told that 6 Strombergs would be better than dual 4 barrels. So we started our Gas Coupe adventure with that set up for the drags and the hopes of being a daily driver to high school. But, despite our rebuilding the 283 to a larger 292 and adding a 671 supercharger to the SBC motor, we got close to the national record for C/Gas and then something knocked us out of the whole ball game. Many years later, being invited to document an unveiling of a pristine, red 1940 Willys Coupe built by our friend Atts Ono was on the books for 1964. But it was a great event that also had some other surprises by the big name teams. That debut was pretty intense with the competition all gathered for this one time event at Lion's Dragstrip. The Stone, Woods and Cook Willys Coupe had turn overs for various reasons. The latest version had a Hemi motor and obviously the whole class was headed that way. The speeds were approaching 140 + and it was due to the progress of additional speed parts, better tires and of course, the hidden power developed from the big Hemi motor. Lion's Dragstrip 1964 In April 1964, the new lighter-weight Willys, informally referred to as Black Widow because of its black paint scheme was fitted with a fiberglass front end, as well as various other lightweight components to make the most out of the new rules. Jnaki While the year progressed, the black SWC coupe did something no one else had done in the Gas Coupe ranks. Topped 150 mph in the quarter mile. A drag racing first!!! Like all other SWC coupes, this one had something going for it and started the whole competition class wars. But, as the following years came, someone in the drag racing ranks decided to do away with all class divisions of Gas Coupes, Sedans and Street Roadsters. It was heading for the eventual AA/FD class and Factory Experimental race cars that turned into funny cars that we see in today’s version of drag racing… Booooo…
No mention was ever written or made that I could ever find but on Sunday afternoon at Lions the C&O AA/Gas Supercharged Austin Pick up with Gene Conroy driving showed a 8.95 ET. At that time no AA/GS had broken into the 8’s. I believe it was late 1965 or early 66. I was there with my C&O equiped FI Chevy II. I liked to run on Sundays.
The IHRA had a slight reversal of that trend when they introduced the Pro Mod class around 1980ish. Those cars - sometimes even Willys and Chevy coupes, '55 T-Birds and '57 Chebbies that had morphed into something more slippery - proved to be so popular with the younger generation of fans that even NHRA had to conceed and give them an arena to run in. They evoked the earlier years of the Gasser Wars with outrageous powerplants and oft times squirrely crossed-up unpredictable runs.
December 1965 Hello, We see the drags on various TV shows and the pre launch burn outs are prevalent. In the early years, no one wiped down the tires. In the late 50s, teams had a tire wiper upon arriving at the last roll to the starting line positions. We only wiped down the slicks prior to the final roll up to the starting line in the C/Gas Coupe Class. Most of the top teams did so, too. But, as the years rolled on a traction compound was used for match races and some dragstrips did not allow FED race cars to run on the treated surfaces until they were cleaned up for the next week’s regular program races. The rosin compound was used for the Gas Coupe and Sedan classes and exhibition runs. The top racers in those categories were paid well to show up and race with this new compound. The end of the Gas Coupe and Sedan was coming fast and no one had an inkling that they would disappear from competition in all levels of that class of racing. Jnaki Perhaps, this was the sign that in order to make drag racing more attractive than it already is. Match racing, or exhibition runs would draw more paying customers to watch, to make up for the weekly class racing events. So, in adding this rosin mixture to the starting line. YRMV 1965
The Jalopy Journal
