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WOW! Found what has to be the best drag racing nostalgia site on the web. After many requests to use some pics, hit pay dirt this time and got the nod from Don Ewald. So, Don, my sincere thanks, and, gang, feast your eyes on this small sample from Don's site. If you want to see more, theres absolutely tons of it at nitroparts. (Tip: Dont dare go there unless you pay for your surfing at flat rate!) |
Got some cool pics you'd like to share? mail me.
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"Here's one I shot at good old Julesburg, CO on the 4th of July 1959. Chassis Research with one of those screaming Packards on fuel. The Julesburg strip opened in 1958 and was the only paved track in Colorado before Continental Divide Raceway opened in 1959. The engine was one of two gifts from Packard. A lawyer in the car club I belonged to wrote to Packard (don't know what he said) and they sent two complete engines. One went into the lawyer's Hudson and this one went into a club member's digger. Those were fun days. Oh, yeah, Julesburg is still in operation as an NHRA drag strip and it hasn't changed much since it was built." 
Jack Chrisman - "Howard Cam Twin Bear" - Denver, 1959 Photo by Pete Garramone 
Bob Brissette's twin flathead - Smokers Meet, 1955 
Ground Zero - Bean Bandits - 1951 Kids, this is square 'A' - Genesis - Where it ALL started. Whatever you want to call it. If anyone has an older pic of a front engine dragster - send it. Picture courtesy of "Two To GO" 
"Cook & Bedwell" - A/D - 1958 The frame rails are Buick drive shafts, the nose was made of steel in a sheet metal brake and the body tail section started life as a pair of '40 ford rear fenders. Can you make out the stock dipstick? 
Lloyd Scott - "Bustle Bomb" - Santa Ana, 1955. This car ran 151 MPH at the 1955 World Series, that world record speed might have held up throughout 1956. One of the first dual engine cars. (from Doug King) 
T.V. Tommy Ivo - A/FD - 1958 "This car held both ends of the B/GD Standard 1320 Record from 1958 until the "Tinker Toy" broke it. 152 MPH - 9.41 ET It won 1959 Bakersfield with Ivo. It was Ivo's 1st dragster, it was Don Prudhomme's 1st dragster Prudhomme (won Bakersfield with it in 1960 with Dave Zueshel's 392). Don sold it to Heth & Thompson in Denver." - Lee Schelin Photo from Alan Crowl 
Belly tank bodied gas dragster. Cadillac engine(?). Shot in the pits at Famoso in '58 or '59. Think the roll bar, seat, and steering wheel would get by tech inspectors today? Photo by John Moore 
"Herbert Cam Special" - A/D - Bakersfield, 1959. This "Herbert Cam Spl." was owned and driven by "Doc" Todd Rawleigh. It was probably Bernie Mather who dubbed it the "The Hot Beef Special". Photo by John Moore 
No ID on this twin flathead digger from 1957. Believe me when I tell you, this was probably a killer car back then. Photo by John Moore 
Vincent-Govia-Santos - "Top Banana Two" - Haward, CA, 1958. "This is when the car was brand new. The entire car was built in our old shop ( in Hayward) except for the Jack Hageman body. The frame was made of angle aluminum boxed and welded together. I think you will agree the car was ahead of its time as its performance proved." Photo and Commentary from Skip Govia. 
Tommy Ivo - "Ivo & Zeuschel" - AA/FD - Bakersfield, 1964 There are many photos of Tommy (now Tom) Ivo on this site. The reason is simple... he has probably owned more dragsters and made more runs down a quarter mile than any man in history. As a humble peer, I believe he deserves all the recognition and credit possible. This shot shows his first wheel stand with a fueler (after switching from several gas dragsters). The late Dave Zeuschel (background) saying, "What the hell are you doing now?"
The late Don Maynard - Chris Karamesines' "ChiZler" - AA/FD - 1962 The "Greeks" one and only twice motored fueler. Couldn't afford all the tires. "Dragphotography by SLATTS" These next few are from the excellent pages showing the story of "The Surfers". 
2/20/66 Pomona, Winternationals. 
"Here's a nice shot of us doing our standard maintenance on the car after a run. Let me run you through our normal deal so you can see how simple drag racing could be in those days if you did your homework well and your luck was good. We would stop somewhere and pull the '55 Chevy alongside the dragster, open the trunk and go to work. First we would take off the valve covers and study the sparkplugs for clues of any problems. Then we would go through the valves, not so much to check the valve clearance as to find any little problems such as broken rollers, pushrods, evidence of too much heat in a cylinder, or other things. One of us would turn the motor over and the other would adjust the valves, this time I'm doing the adjusting on the far side and Skinner is coming towards you in the blue and white shirt. You can see a bar with a bicycle handle bar grip sticking off of the top blower pulley, that is what we used to turn the motor over with. If there were no problems we would put it back together and fill it up with some more 98% nitro. We changed the oil every two or three runs only because the nitro that got into the oil would cause the bearings to fail if you went too many rounds without changing it. If we hurried this would all take five minutes and sometimes we would do it down in the turn out area at the end of the drag strip while Mike and Robyn would pack the parachute. Then we would push it into line for the next round and wander off to visit or see what we could learn from the competitors. We always tried to not get dirty but sometimes that didn't work out." Tom Jobe Great Color Photo by Dave Cochrane 
3/5/66, Bakersfield Getting ready to push down for final round Saturday against Dunn & Yates. The winner of this race would sit out and wait to race Sunday's winner for the overall championship. Surfers won against Dunn & Yates with a 7.56 ET. Photo by Frans VandenBroek. The next few are from the Kent Fuller collection. 
Larry Stellings (in car) - "Stellings & Hampshire" - AA/FD - Lions, 1964 Fuller chassis, body by Arnie Roberts & Fuller, Joe Anderson paint - this was one of the top-10 nicest dragsters of all time. After a crash, Kent cut it up and trashed it. Can you say cry? 
Tommy Ivo - "Twin Buick" - Pomona, 1959 "This is the run that broke the 8 second barrier on gas with a 8.95 blast. Camera guy told Ivo to look at the car. Fuller picking up the chute." - Evelyn Fuller. (Kent was a full-service chassis builder! - Don) 
Tommy Ivo - "Twin Buick" - 1959. "The Howard Cam Twin Chevy ran at this track the week before and turned 195 and stopped with no chute. The Twin Buick ran 179 and tried to stop with a chute. Do you think the Howard Cam Twin Chevy times were correct?" - Evelyn Fuller. 
"Original Sidewinder" - A/FD - Bakersfield, 1959. "This is a layout worthy of consideration, again. Note the well-organized pit layout that has ample room for plenty of trash and the obligatory oil slicks to peacefully co-exist with the occasional hot rod. Could that be Rod Stuckey looking on?" Tom Elliott Photo There are from the Tom Hanna collection. Comments by Tom. 
Kenny Bernstein - "Anderson Bros. & Bernstein" - AA/FD - 1968 "Some folks would tell you Kenny started at the top. Here he's paying his dues in a fueler". 
Gordon Tatum - AA/FD - 1968 "This may have been the nicest car of its era. Built by The Surfers (Jobe & Skinner). Every piece of it was just detailed to perfection. I was so impressed, I offered to build the body for nothing. By the time it was finished, cash was tight; so they sold it to the Bandell Bros. in New York. I was hungry and the Surfers knew it. They paid me for the body though they didn't own me a dime. They were really wonderful guys". (Sidebar: I will go as far to say this was THE nicest fueler ever. Tatum bought it from Bandell and preserved it for years. The feds seized it last year and that could mean it could end up on the auction block some day. Hummmmm. -- Don) These are from the "Frantic Four" pages, the team of Weekly, Rivero, Fox, Holding. 
Undisputedly one of the wildest and most photographed wheelie shots was of Norm Weekly in the "Frantic 4" A/FD against Don Moody in the "Golden Thing" AA/FD at the 1963 Winternationals. This angle was caught by Bill Turney and unfortunately doesn't show Moody who is in an equally wild power wheel stand. Bill Turney Photo 
From the pages of Popular Hot Rodding, another incredible overhead shot from Fontana in 1964. 
Great head-on shot of Norm Weekly in the OCMP AA/FD. Thanks a bunch, Don, for letting me pick my favourites from your pages and reproduce them here.....Mart. |
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All contents property of Martin Holden,
Solihull, England.
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