2018 Hello, I thought this photo looked familiar. It was a precursor to the Beardon-Hoffman-Tapia Brothers race car from So Cal. It was an early version. My brother and I saw and filmed the 1959-60 version of the Tapia Brothers FED at Lion's Dragstrip during our time there. From an earlier post: Bobby Tapia from the Tapia Bros injected Chevy B/Dragster class. These little sleek FED cars were thought of later as the precursor to the popular Jr. Fuel FED class in the later 60-70s time period. They were fast, challenged some of the “big boys” and made a name for themselves in the lower dragster classes. An SBC was usually no match for a big blown Hemi, but sometimes the tables were turned. My brother and I always thought of these guys as they ran almost the same small SBC motor as we started with in our 40 Willys. They were at Lions almost weekly constantly running hard and winning their class. Several comments that always popped up when discussing this FED… what kind of roll protection did that chassis roll bar have? And where were his legs, over the axle or under? There is that kid with the red Pendleton standing around doing nothing but enjoying the drags. Talk about a ring side seat for the activities. It was up close and personal... Film taken by James Nak. I was on my daily lunch break and in the “wandering around” stage, that afternoon. Previously posted: Late 59 Early 1960 Injectors Thanks for the photo...Dave, @296ardun We liked all sorts of drag racing from the top gas racers with their big blown Hemi motors all the way down to the smoky 4 bangers and 6 cylinder motors. But, one racer had the look of a top gas FED, but his lightweight chassis and small SBC motor allowed him to race in the lower FED class competitions. “Just a little background on Bobby but not too in depth: In 1957, he had a 57 Chevy 2-door that won 13 weeks in a row at Lions. That’s 13 weeks in a row, folks. In 1958, in his second stint in dragsters, he won 50 out of 52 middle eliminator races at Lions. He made the “Standard 1320" list of record holders three times in 1958. In 1961 thru 1963, he served his country.” This little swoopy dragster had much success in the lower divisions of the FED classes. The success was due to quick reaction times at the starting line. Bob Tapia made believers out of many drag race fans with his quick little FED injected SBC race car. Since he was always at Lions in those early days when we were racing there, I filmed several runs of this slick race car. A pure bred race car with a lay down and steer situation. also, check out: "Bobby slays the Green Monster" https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/early-drag-racing-photos.1222399/page-90#post-14782860
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