Re: Good and Bads at the Track :
« Reply #20 on: February 19, 2013, 09:23:58 AM »
Someone once ask me did Lions ever run 4 cars at a time and I seem to remember that I ran with 3 other cars when I ran B/S and I think I found the prof look at the lanes in this pic and you can see were there is 4 car lanes there but then again I could be wrong I only ran a stock class for one year and move on to alterd then Dragsters.
Bud – Thanks for taking the time to post all those videos! Enjoyed the fhs and Lions in Long Beach.
I have a 4-wide story for you, not mine, but Mark who lived it. Mark turns 83 this year. Around 1950 when drag racing was starting, there was a strip called Santa Ana. I think today it’s John Wayne Airport in Orange County (near Disneyland). If I remember, he said CJ Hart was the point person and organizer for the drags there. Mark lived in Altadena and his hangout back then was Bell Auto Parts, so if you wanted to know what was going on each weekend, you’d go to your local speed shop. Santa Ana was one of the first organized drag races, no Christmas Tree yet. Mark said at least 4 cars, and sometimes more would stage and drag race. Multiple cars would pull up, starter would point to each driver on track, who would nod yes “ready” and then the starter would raise the flag and drop it. We all know what that means : )
Typical of the race cars back then served double duty as their daily drivers. Mark had a 40 Ford Coupe that on race day, he would strip the interior, pull the hood, drain the gas tank. He sat on a wooden “orange crate” as did a few of the guys (for real) and he had a 5 gallon military tank with a hand pressure pump that set next to the orange crate that he would hand pump to feed fuel to the engine. He’d only keep 1.5 gallons in the tank, the other 3.5 gallon space was for needed air pressure. That tank also ran the fuel in his and Beal’s 209ci drylake lakester that they ran with the Russetta TA. Then around 1959 when Mark started building “Flathead Obsession,” a fuel fed, he used that same tank and pump with 90-100 percent. So to answer your question, Santa Ana had 4-wide drag racing…….so it could of happened at “the Beach” too. And by the way, the Beach was Obsessions home track. DF
