Lions Dragstrip....Who was there??

I'm to young to have ever witnessed it in person, but have heard many great stories from my dad.Brings back alot of memories just sitting down and talking to him about the good ol' days.miss you and love you dad....

 

HEY I'M YOUNG TOOOOOOO!!!!

Just my body got real old

It is very hard to explain what The Beach meant to all of us. It was close, like having the best Baseball park in the world in your backyard.......With Vegas showgirls dancing every nite.............just the best

Like's been said the fog and sea air..... mixed with nitro and rubber all ......next door

Like if your High School has a class in launchin' and hookin' up

Long Beach was a quiet little beach town With the best Circus you ever went to that was Lion's

It was there that I really discovered the ''Noise Real Power makes''
and that adrenaline was my drug of choice!

 

readin some of these posts makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. how come with all this hot rodder racer ingenuity we aint made a time machine yet. dam i wish i was old enough to hav been there

 

Thanks for all the stories! Keep them coming!

After reading all of the last 2 pages it confirms that all the day dreams I have had about Lions are not just fantasy but true FACT.

Lions is another chapter in why America is the Greatest country on earth.........IMHO................I just wish we could keep it that way..

 

I moved to Long Beach in 1966 after school and worked at Douglas Aircraft. I can remember laying on the beach in Belmont Shores and hear the first fuelers making a pass at the Beach around 3-4 in the afternoon. That was time to make it to the real "Beach" I loved Lions because they originated Junior Fuel, 310 inches , 98% and if it weighed over 900 pounds it was a pig. I was there when the Magic Muffler AAF/A kicked out the crank, clutch, flywheel and 7 rods and pistons, I was there when Big cut his car in two, I was there when Leroy Chatterton went the first 7 (7.99) in the Magnicificent 7 fuel altered, I was there when "Sneaky Pete" Robinson first ran his "jack" car, I saw Doug Nash's all aluminum Ford Bronco funny car, I was there when the Surfers lost a cylinder,big hole in the side of the block!, took out the piston and rod, stuck match sticks in the oil hole in the crank, covered the match sticks with electrical tape, poured in the "can" and lead the race to the 1000 foot mark before the motor finally really grenaded! The best races were the PDA (Professional Dragracers Association, I think) meets usually at least 32 cars for top fuel and 50+ trying to qualify. I saw Tommy Ivos 4 motor car make its first runs there around 61 when I was visiting So. Cal. There was no place like the "Beach"!

In the 60s you could go to Lions, Irwindale, San Fernando and Fontant on about any weekend and later Orange County. I can remember going to the Beach in the afternoon to watch the Junior Fuelers and Blown Fuel Altereds then going to Irwindale to watch Top Fuel!! It was the best place you could be if you were a drag racing junkie. It will never happen again so these are all special memories.

Rex

 

Went to "the Beach" many times when I lived in California in 1962-63.
Had a good friend that worked at Moon's, so would sometimes go with the "Mooneyes" dragster crew, Dante Duce was the driver back then as I recall.
Made several more trips to Lions after moving back to Utah.

There was something magic about Lions, we would go to San Gabe (Irwindale), Fontana, Pomona etc. but they just didn't have the same feel.

Like Gary, I'm a packrat..err collecter too and I saved some stuff from Lions as well, some tickets and pit passes from '62, some decals from '65 & '68, a flyer and sticker from the 1967 PDA championships.
The class winner jacket is an eBay purchase however.

Mick

 

1970, when I was 10, my Uncle took me to watch our friends run their 55 Chevy. I have been hooked since.

 

There was a dirt oval track in the parking lot where they ran 1/4 midgets, in the early years. Mickey Thompson's son, Danny, used to race there when Mickey was the manager at Lions. Mickey later went on to run Fontana Drag City (now there was a renegade track! Where else could you see four jet dragsters run four abreast!)

 

Damn Rex, You are the man! I only wish I could have seen what have at Lions!
Like I have said earlier.....My image of Lions is only reality that, unfortunaitly, I have never seen! Or never will!!

 

Anybody remember when they tried LeMans starts at Lions? Two passenger cars would parallel park on the spectator side, at about 45° to the track, with the keys on the hoods of the cars. The drivers would start on the tower side, footrace across to the cars, start 'em up, turn right and leave!

Hilarious. I think they only did it for a few months, but it was very entertaining.

 

Was the flathead called the Antiue Doll? There was one by that name that raced at Lions quite a lot in the time period. One of the United Flathead racer circuit guys I think

 

The BB/GS circuit was great: Bud Fentres, Don Montgomery, Gerry Steiner, Steve Holt, Pittman Bros. et al. Very entertaining as they sustianed the real traditional approach to what consistuted a blown gasser. As you may recall the AA/GS guys had by then morphed into basically funnycars

 

My older brother used to take me there every race,from '67 to '72. Including the last race. I remember the Alterds,Gassers,Freight Train,red and white wheelie car,Little Red Wagon,Back-up Pick-up,Pirahna,King Kong,Ramchargers,the bike with the two Harley engines,the shitty hamburgers,but most of all.....the Top Fuelers push starting in front of the stands!!!! Also remember my brother getting into fights,usually over some girl. It's hard to believe i'm still alive,cause he would get drunk and drive me home in my other brothers slammed,'58 Impala(painted by Watson). It had no seatbelts!!!!!! Miss that place ALOT!!!!!! Nothing today comes even close.....

 

WCD: No, I was with Ed Houghton's team out of Simi Valley. My old man was the local Ford Dealer, and part of the sponsorship deal was that I got to be on the crew. After a training period, I was almost helpful..... We did race in the United Flathead Racer's Assn. (or whatever it was called....)

I think I remember the "Antique Doll." Wasn't it a K-88 style chassis?

 

I was there, standing by the bleach box. a long time ago.

 

My friends stepmom married Dwayne Lidke who ran a Top Fuel dragster back when we were kids. One was the Lidke/Zeller TF car. And also the Lidke/Sharoma TF car too. He had just bought a Funnycar and was gonna start racing it,but died of cancer. He bought Jeb Allens old house with the machine shop in the back,that was in Bellflower. Seems like we were at the drags ALL the time!

 

food for thought. Bellflower Blvd. Or Atlantic Ave in North Town.

 

It was over off of Woodruff,by the 91 Frwy.

 

My time at Lion's is a little different! It started for me in 1968 I did alot of Wednesday Nigh Grudge Racing, I had a '53 F100 that I put a 401 nailhead in and ran it down the track a few times. I had just returned from the Army and had a new '68 Plymouth Satellite that was my wife's car but I'd run it just for fun every now and then. I have pictures of the cars I ran but no pictures of them at Lions......Bummer!
I did however make it to The Last Drag Race because I just knew it was the end of an area and I did not want to miss that. Any memorabilia that I might have saved would still be with my first wife if she didn't dump it like she did with allot of the stuff I left there.
After Lion's closed we all went to OCIR on Wednesday nights. I lived in Midway City during those years.

 

1964..visiting SoCal from Texas..just had to check out Lions...was kinda chilly
the night I was there..just remember one guy everyone was talking about..
Eddie Potter...anyone remember him?????

 

Eddie or E.J. Potter? Don't know of an Eddie...

 

Must have been E J but I remembered someone called him Eddie..I was there
with Pete Millar...remember him???Had a flathead digger

 

Yep, it was a K-88 style. And I recall Houghton too. It was blue and featured a sort enclosed tail section, no? Mike McCloskey, Bill Brodeck, Tony Migillizi were the more prominent names.

 

Ed-parachute-Potter? He raced modified fuel roadsters. He later ventured off and became an accomplished golf pro

 

Raisin City south of Fresno...

 

Sorry about the Fresno deal I was replying to the guy who talked about four fuelers abreast. About LIONS not topping it. It was the best. Near tears to think of it as gone...

 

Man, I wish I could remember the guys name, like don hale or something. He was there all through the early years and took a crap load of really famous pictures, I got one but can't find it. He was at a show, just getting passed by. They stuck him in a corner with a guy that used to draw for Ed Roth, both really cool guys, I talked to them for an hour or so, and learned a lot. Anyway, Don had a million stories about the place, and even more photos to back it up.

 

I can remember 1970, I had flat towed my Porsche powered Fiat 600 to the Beach. The lines were long and when I got to the starting line I was up agenst 55 Chev gasser. We left and I got him really bad off of the line, when I hit second gear I broke a half shaft and shot streight across the lane at 90 degrees in front of the Chev. If I hadn't been out on him so far, he would have T boned me as I shot across. I was able to stop before I hit the rail. I didn't get home till 2AM as I had to follow a stranger home and barrow his trailer, and then go back and get my car. Thats the kind of people you rubbed arms with back then. What a place.--TV

 

Wife and I used to go to Lions back in 1970 and 71. We lived in Costa Mesa so we were only a short drive to Lions or OC.
I remember going to the CocaCola meet at Lions when Clayton Harris won TF. We eventually moved to North Alabama and one day drove by a little speed shop in Moulton, it was long closed but said Clayton Harris speed shop on the sign. I couldn't beleive it was the same guy. Ineed to drive over there and take a pic if its still there.

 

I meant that Pete Millar had a flathead dragster