Tom,
Ain't nostalglia great? I was chatting with Don West (who almost had the
first 200 mph door-slammer on the salt) a while ago and remembering some
drag races at the old Salt Lake #2 Airport strip, mostly abandoned then but
now an active National Guard and private aviation facillity. He was going
fast in the early fifties with a '32 coupe/flathead combination. He said it
was nice to have timing reminders from those days to accommodate the "the
older I get the faster I was syndrome." With around 2500 active drag strips
around the country it will be interesting to hear the war stories in another
twenty years from this crop of new racers. Lots easier to find an active
strip today than it was in '52 in most of the country. Be nice to get that
Vandenberg AFB strip opened for land-speed racing, a la Maxton, only longer.
Wes in SLC
----------
> From: "Thomas E. Bryant" <saltracer@awwwsome.com>
> To: ARDUNDOUG@aol.com
> Subject: Re: Santa Maria Drags
> Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 12:58:52 -0800
>
>1 PM PST
>
>Doug,
> I acquired my love for auto racing in 1951 while living in Council
>Bluffs Iowa. They had an old ¼ mile dog track that was converted to
>"jalopy racing". I really got addicted to it. I came to California in
>October of 1952 and settled in La Harbra (Orange County). We were about
>25 miles north of the Orange County Airport where the Santa Drags were
>held. It took a couple of years for me to find my way there.
>
>I worked in Santa Fe Springs at the Productol Chemical Refinery where I
>became acquainted with Bob James, a chemist there that had built a ½"
>stroke by 3/8" bore flat head motor (324 cubic inch, I believe) and
>installed it in a 1936 Ford coupe. It was a real ground shaker built by
>Nelson Taylor and John Ryan in Whittier. After a ride down the street in
>this car, the racing addiction returned and it wasn't very long before I
>found myself at the Santa Ana Drags.
>
>In 1959, I quit the refinery and went to work for Emil Grissotti, owner
>of Fullerton Muffler. During the two years I worked there I went to the
>1st Bakersfield National Drags and made the Santa Maria trip. At that
>time we held the top time records in our roadster class at all the
>strips in the LA area except Long Beach. We had exceeded their record
>but had not torn down to claim it.
>
>We were running a 300 cu. in. Desoto which was giving us top times
>around 122 MPH and ET's in the high eleven second range. The first run
>at Santa Maria re raise the record from 116 MPH to somewhere in the low
>120's, I don't remember exactly. We were treated like Kings the whole
>day. It was one our more memorable outings.
>
>I am enjoying this too much and I am beginning to worry about it. It is
>said that spending too much time living in the past is a sign of old
>age! I do look forward to meeting you and spending time bench racing.
>All those names that you mentioned , Hashim (I got to meet Ernie and
>spend time talking with him at this year's Gas UP) Art Chrisman, Fritz
>Viogt, Jazzy Nelson, Glass Slipper, Nesbitts Orange special...they bring
>back memories.
>Tom, Redding CA
>
>ARDUNDOUG@aol.com wrote:
>>
>> Tom,
>> Where were you living in 1960? You must have had quite a drive to get
to
>> Santa Maria. What MPH and ET did the roadster turn? What kind of power? A
SBC?
>> In the mid to late 50's there was a guy from the Valley (Madera, I
think)
>> named Hut Watkins who ran a fuel roadster sponsored by Ed Fant Buick and
>> powered by a Nailhead. He ran ET's about the same as my fuel Flatty (10's
on
>> a good day at about 125-130). I always dreaded having to face him, but he
>> never was at SLO or Santa Maria when I ran. I see him regularly at El
Mirage,
>> Bonneville, and the Reunions. I'll introduce him to you sometime.
>> Also from Madera were a couple of guys with a DeSoto powered
slingshot
>> Modified Roadster with a shark nose made from a late 30's Willys hood.
They
>> were Milt Alley & Herb DeWitt (I think), and the thing ran pretty hard. I
>> never had to run them either.
>> Did you ever run into Harry Webster from Fresno? He had another
slingshot
>> 27 T Modified Roadster that ran 140+ at Kingdon (Lodi, CA) powered by Joe
>> Boghosian's fuel Ardun. Boghosian is still building racing engines and is
at
>> the salt regularly, turning wrenches on the Indy Cammer SB Ford powered
fuel
>> roadster of Ron Van Natta.
>> I remember once in the 50's when Webster & Boghosian took the Ardun
and
>> put it into a bone-stock 40 Ford sedan, adding only 8" slicks on the
rear.
>> The thing turned 118, phenominal for those days when George Santos
(father of
>> Rick Santos the "three-peat" Federal Mogul Dragster champ) and his Flatty
>> powered steel 5-window Deuce were dominating "A" Gas at 106 in the 13's.
>> As a side note, one of the "heavy-hitters" of the mid 50's was Ernie
>> Hashim from Bakersfield, CA who had one of the first front-mounted GMC
blown
>> Chryslers in Calif. He was sponsored by Hylton Drilling Co. and the car
was
>> driven by Bill Replogle. It was a pretty basic, very short WB slingshot
using
>> what looked like Model T Ford frame rails.It consistently ran about 150
in
>> the 1/4 mile.
>> In the mid 1980's I was at an old-time-rodders-reunion in Paso
Robles, CA
>> put on by Chic Cannon (the NHRA Safety Safari guy from the olden days).
Ernie
>> Hashim was there and I had a long talk with him. Turned out that he had
no
>> pics of his old car. I just happened to have one taken in 1955 at Minter
>> Field (near Bakersfield) at a meet put on by the Smokers. In those days
the
>> promoter always had a photo-op before eliminations with all the cars
lined up
>> at the starting line. I was there from San Luis Obispo as a spectator and
>> snapped a pic and Hashim's car was the first in a line of about 10 fuel
>> dragsters. The pic was taken with an old reflex camera using
>> 2 1/4 X 2 1/4 film, so when I enlarged it 30 years later it was really
clear.
>> Ironically, in the picture are 3 Ardun powered dragsters. The rest
include
>> the Glass Slipper (Flatty powered), Art Chrismans old #25, the
>> Nesbitts-Orange special, and a host of other then-famous cars.
>> On a final note, the next pic took was the Top Eliminator race. The
cars
>> running for the top spot were not included in the photo-op because they
>> weren't fuel dragsters. The race was between Fritz Voigt (later to be
Mickey
>> Thompson's wrench) in his Chrysler gas hemi dragster and Jim "Jazzy"
Nelson
>> in his legendary Flatty powered Fiat coupe. Jazzy got the "Flathead-Jump"
on
>> Fritz, made a little noise, Fritz smoked the tires, and we had a Flatty
Top
>> Eliminator.
>> If anybody's interested I can post the photo-op lineup of all the
fuel
>> cars.
>> .Ardun Doug in CA
>
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