Drag Racing Photography, Art, Books and Magazines (1 Viewer)

[Cliff]

OK, here we go. Pete Millar, Drag Cartoons. And some guy names James Ibusuki.....

 

[flapjack]

I wouldn't call me an official, lol.

 

[Cliff]

OK, make that an Official Cliff Morgan Thread, for whatever that's worth.

 

[junglevsbrutus]

James, did you ever see Drag Cartoons by Pete Millar? I musta read those all the time. Very funny, but he used to get in trouble w/ NHRA all the time because of comments he put in the cartoons. Heh He had a character called Temple McFlathead, who was based on a real racer, always ran Flathead dragsters. Millar actually ran a front engined dragster with a Fiat body on it, called the Chicken Coupe. Anyhoo, I had a chance to correspond with him briefly before he passed. Always was impressed by his knowledge of drag racing. That is what impressed me with your paintings, how you captured the atmosphere of the races. I really hope you can do that again in the future.—Cliff Morgan

Yes Cliff, I too loved Drag Cartoons as a kid!
I have the issue w/ the SWC and Grist Bros. '41 Willys on the cover.
Pete was such a hilarious guy. I got to know him and his family at the reunions and NHRA museum gatherings. At one of the reunions Pete handed me a flyer. If you read comic books as a kid you may recall the back cover ads showing how you could become a professional artist if you bought a projector. Well, Pete got the old ad from the '60s and changed the copy. He had Youngblood and me giving quotes how we made money using the advertised projector. It was a real hoot!

Back in the day Pete's portrait likenesses were so damn funny. He would take a famous racer's face and exaggerate them so much you didn't have to read the speech balloons to laugh!
Hey, thanks for noting the "atmosphere" in my paintings. I did tons of research to make them as accurately as possible. I also hid a few inside jokes on some of them. For instance, my Irwindale depiction of Sush and Willie had the guy inside of the Snack Bar flipping a burger while leaning to watch the AA/FA's leave the line!

 

[Cliff]

Hey James. I well remember Millar doing the Pebble-Pulp & Chef VS Big June A/GS ads for Isky. For those who are slightly younger than moi, I mean Stone-Woods & Cook VS Big John Mazmanian in the Gasser Wars of the 1960's. You would have a 16 car T/F show at Lions, with a 2 out of 3 with Maz & SWC, and the house would be packed. You could call that class the grandfather of Pro Mod. Oh, in your Irwindale depiction, that's funny with the guy flipping burgers. I wonder how many people know that it was In & Out who did the burgers. Really good burgers! Pete had his own sense of humor, and that is what made his stuff so good. Druids......

 

[Mike]

Good to see you around James, one of my best memories from CHRR in 2011 is our lunch in Valencia, Hope all is going well out your way??

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Hey James. I well remember Millar doing the Pebble-Pulp & Chef VS Big June A/GS ads for Isky. For those who are slightly younger than moi, I mean Stone-Woods & Cook VS Big John Mazmanian in the Gasser Wars of the 1960's. You would have a 16 car T/F show at Lions, with a 2 out of 3 with Maz & SWC, and the house would be packed. You could call that class the grandfather of Pro Mod. Oh, in your Irwindale depiction, that's funny with the guy flipping burgers. I wonder how many people know that it was In & Out who did the burgers. Really good burgers! Pete had his own sense of humor, and that is what made his stuff so good. Druids......

Cliff, yes, even Millar's ads were funny! What about the tiny buzzing flies in the Drag Cartoons margins making wisecracks?
The SWC vs. Maz A/GS battles were a bit before my time as my first trip to the drags was in '67, right when FCs were going from the AWB era to the Logghe flip tops. But I used to love seeing those Willys in Drag News! After doing a painting of those gassers I got to know both Big John and Cookie and they were both friendships that I still cherish.

Yes, the burgers at Irwindale was one of the few things they had over the new and glamorous OCIR.
When I first arrived at the Irvine track I thought it looked like a drag racing version of Dodger Stadium—lots of green grass, new redwood fencing, a scoreboard and that famous octagonal tower. I still think it was the best piece of architecture in the history of drag racing.
Oh, and only years later did I learn that we were enjoying In-N-Out burgers at Irwindale!

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Good to see you around James, one of my best memories from CHRR in 2011 is our lunch in Valencia, Hope all is going well out your way??

MIKE!!!
Hey, it's good to reconnect w/ you too. That was a fun meeting at the Lazy Dog, wasn't it?
I've been to hell and back but I'm doing good right now!

 

[Cliff]

My favorite Irwindale story is that I got Don Garlits ticked at me. Probably 1972 or so. I had a (gasp) Ford Pinto w/ a loud muffler & was driving up the entry way at, uh, a good clip. Then I see Garlits giving me a look that said "you better slow that thing down!" So I did. Gave Garlits a peace sign & he kinda nodded at me. Last time I did that!

 

[junglevsbrutus]

My favorite Irwindale story is that I got Don Garlits ticked at me. Probably 1972 or so. I had a (gasp) Ford Pinto w/ a loud muffler & was driving up the entry way at, uh, a good clip. Then I see Garlits giving me a look that said "you better slow that thing down!" So I did. Gave Garlits a peace sign & he kinda nodded at me. Last time I did that!

Ho, ho, that's a good one!
Could it have been the Grand Premiere in January? I ask cause Garlits didn't race at Irwindale all that often.

Here's my best Garlits story. This occurred at Indy during NHRA's 50th anniversary. Garlits made a rare US Nationals appearance in hopes of making his first 4-sec., 300 MPH run. Don had stated that fans were often disappointed to hear his best was in the 5-sec. range at 287. Gary Clapshaw offered his dragster for the attempt. But Fri. and Sat. yielded disappointing runs.

I was stuck at a booth to promote the 50th anniversary limited edition print for the NHRA museum so I couldn't sit in the stands.
On Sun. I hear a thunderous roar from the stands. You'd think Force ran 3-sec. at 400 the way they screamed. Then Eileen Daniels shouted, "He did it, he did it!" That's when I learned that Garlits ran 4.72 - 303.37.

From that moment on Big had an endless line of fans wanting his autograph or merchandise.
It was kind of funny back then. Amato, Bernstein and Force were the most popular at the time. But if Shirley showed up she had the longest lines. But when Garlits appeared AND ran his personal best, he out trumped them all!

Don was so busy I didn't have a chance to say hello and congratulate him.
But on Mon. after the finals I caught him going to his truck. This was near the oval track at IRP.
I walked up to Don and shook his hand. I said, "Big Daddy, you are the greatest entertainer to ever go down the drag strip!"
His reply? With that big familiar grin Don said, "They DO seem to love me in a top fuel dragster, don't they?"
Oh, how I wish I had that on video tape!

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Yeah, I think my Garlits story was the Grand Premiere, but maybe 1973, the year that John Stewart beat Big round one. Stewart was like 17 years old & it was a hugh upset. I have another Garlits story, but this one was scary. I was at Lions in 1970 when Garlits had the accident that cut his car in 1/2 and took off part of his right foot.That scared me bad; thought Garlits had been killed. I was in the spectator stands, top row, & it happened right in front of me. One year later, I read in Drag News that Garlits has built a "back motor" car. He came to Lions with that car & everyone thought he was nuts. Rear engined cars never went straight. Garlits slowed the steering & the car worked. He got runnerup at that meet. Oh yeah I was there! Went to Pomona & Garlits won there, then Bakersfield. A year later everyone was running rear engine cars. Tragedy to Triumph....

I just did some research:
http://www.nhra.com/news/2015/teen-terrors-70s-john-stewart
So yeah, it was the '73 Grand Premiere! I believe your '70 Garlits story is the first time I've heard it from an eyewitness.
Yes, I can imagine how such an explosion so close to the fans would be shocking. Usually that kind of thing happens beyond
half track.

My first Winternationals was the '71 race where Garlits debuted his rear eng. dragster at an NHRA national event.
I always say that it looked like a kid built a front eng. dragster model w/o the instructions—all of the necessary parts were there but
in the wrong location! To see Garlits march through the 32-car field w/ such an oddball car was amazing to see.
The final was sort of anti-climactic since Gotelli-Safford couldn't make it to the staging lanes. Garlits singled into drag racing
history, the first rear eng. dragster to win an NHRA event. The same event was memorable for Roland's unique ability to make
headlines at the Winternationals. After a pair of TF wins in the Hawaiian dragsters ('65-'66) Roland's first FC, the Hawaiian Charger,
suffered a spectacular crash in '69. But Roland more than made up for it when he and Larry Reyes returned a year later to win FC eliminator. If that wasn't enough Butch Maas won '71 Pomona in a brand new Hawaiian FC!

 

[Cliff]

I saw some footage of the Garlits accident about 10 years ago & was surprised that it looked different. I remembered that the cockpit had rolled backwards, which was what it did when it finally stopped. I had always thought that Lions starter Larry Sutton was the one who picked up Garlits from the car, but it was Mickey Thompson. Sutton always wore that cowboy hat & I think maybe Mickey had one on too, so that is why I thought it was Sutton. I remember Garlits being held in Thompson's arms so the ambulance could pick him up, & Garlits pulled off his gloves. That is how I knew he was alive. His wife Pat was there, & she got into the ambulance with Garlits. A spectator was in the pit side stands & almost lost his arm from the shrapnel from the explosion. The shrapnel also cut the overhead power line, so the last race, the funny car final, had to be flag started. The tower personnel started the clocks by hand, so the final ET's were just a bit too quick. Also remember the starting line crew picking up the front part of Garlits' chassis, still had the engine in it. They loaded it into Garlits' trailer, which had been brought to the starting line. Then they loaded the cockpit into the trailer. What a crazy scene that was!! Garlits later said that opponent Richard Tharp had red lighted, even tho Tharp was given the win. Garlits repaired the dragster & raced it some months later when he returned to driving. I think this memory of that event at Lions is the one thing that really stands out after all these years. You know who was standing behind Garlits' car? Roland Leong. Saw a photo of Garlits car being cut in half & the look on Leongs' face was shock.

 

[junglevsbrutus]

I saw some footage of the Garlits accident about 10 years ago & was surprised that it looked different. I remembered that the cockpit had rolled backwards, which was what it did when it finally stopped. I had always thought that Lions starter Larry Sutton was the one who picked up Garlits from the car, but it was Mickey Thompson. Sutton always wore that cowboy hat & I think maybe Mickey had one on too, so that is why I thought it was Sutton. I remember Garlits being held in Thompson's arms so the ambulance could pick him up, & Garlits pulled off his gloves. That is how I knew he was alive. His wife Pat was there, & she got into the ambulance with Garlits. A spectator was in the pit side stands & almost lost his arm from the shrapnel from the explosion. The shrapnel also cut the overhead power line, so the last race, the funny car final, had to be flag started. The tower personnel started the clocks by hand, so the final ET's were just a bit too quick. Also remember the starting line crew picking up the front part of Garlits' chassis, still had the engine in it. They loaded it into Garlits' trailer, which had been brought to the starting line. Then they loaded the cockpit into the trailer. What a crazy scene that was!! Garlits later said that opponent Richard Tharp had red lighted, even tho Tharp was given the win. Garlits repaired the dragster & raced it some months later when he returned to driving. I think this memory of that event at Lions is the one thing that really stands out after all these years. You know who was standing behind Garlits' car? Roland Leong. Saw a photo of Garlits car being cut in half & the look on Leongs' face was shock.

Cliff, once again, thanks for your personal perspective and insight from one of the most famous drag racing incidents.
I have Garlits' 3-book pictorial series. Vol 1. features many unpublished photos of the Lions explosion. So yes, I've seen Roland standing behind the starting line. Tom McEwen is standing right next to him. Other photos show Sutton running w/ a fire extinguisher and yes, M/T and TC Lemons helping immediately after the disaster too. The book also features 4 close up photos of the broken dragster.

 

[Cliff]

James, who would you think was the absolute baddest nitro dragster in drag racing history? I always have Garlits in there, but... Cook & Bedwell, Feb 1957, Lions, 167 MPH (on carbs, no blower). Caused the infamous nitro ban. The Speed Sport Modified Fuel Roadster (rear engined) from Tucson, which at one time was the fastest car in drag racing, regardless of class. Adams & Enriquez A/FD. No blower, but first in the 6's for injected nitro (saw that at OCIR). (You could do a whole section just on Gene Adams!) Man you could put 100 cars on this list easy. I love the history of drag racing, so much info that has been lost to time. I had a chance once to go to the museum at Indy, the home of the Indy 500. First car I saw when I went in was Ray Haroon's 1911 winner. Wow... that place has a feel to it that I've never felt at a drag strip, the sense of history. I dunno, maybe you can feel that at our Indy. Well, just my 2 cents.

 

[junglevsbrutus]

James, who would you think was the absolute baddest nitro dragster in drag racing history? I always have Garlits in there, but... Cook & Bedwell, Feb 1957, Lions, 167 MPH (on carbs, no blower). Caused the infamous nitro ban. The Speed Sport Modified Fuel Roadster (rear engined) from Tucson, which at one time was the fastest car in drag racing, regardless of class. Adams & Enriquez A/FD. No blower, but first in the 6's for injected nitro (saw that at OCIR). (You could do a whole section just on Gene Adams!) Man you could put 100 cars on this list easy. I love the history of drag racing, so much info that has been lost to time. I had a chance once to go to the museum at Indy, the home of the Indy 500. First car I saw when I went in was Ray Haroon's 1911 winner. Wow... that place has a feel to it that I've never felt at a drag strip, the sense of history. I dunno, maybe you can feel that at our Indy. Well, just my 2 cents.

I can't comment on the Cook & Bedwell because it was about a half dozen years before my earliest experiences of reading all of the drag mags and newspapers. However, your mention of them reminded me of the Drag Racing USA feature "All-Time Top Eliminator" which spanned 3 issues in early 1971. DRUSA used Cragar's giant NCR computer to determine the results of 16 great dragsters. The computer was the size of 2 washing machines!

Anyway, the 4 semi finalist included yes, the Cook & Bedwell, Greer-Black-Prudhomme, '68 Garlits Wynn's Charger and the '66 Hawaiian w/ Snively at the wheel. The computer had the Snake defeating C&B while Garlits beat the Hawaiian. The GBP then fell to Garlits in the final making him the All-Time Top Eliminator!

Its major achievements included winning the one-shot Englishtown Springnationals and a repeat win at Indy, the first US Nationals back-to-back wins. For myself I think I would settle in on Garlits' Swamp Rat 6B, his latter half 1964 dragster that he raced into early '65.
It's list of accomplishments included:
**Garlits' first Indy title (and 2nd NHRA win)
**First official NHRA 200 MPH national record
**the headlining car for the first British Drag Racing Festival
**'65 March Meet win over Marvin Schwartz in another Swamp Rat

And finally, the first modern front engine dragster model by AMT.
I think that edges out the GBP, Hawaiian or Beebe & Mulligan for me.
But all of them were great dragsters!

Ah, but one final thought. This computer-based imaginary racing was conducted just before Garlits debuted his revolutionary rear engined dragster. Big won Pomona, Bakersfield and the Springnationals that year and changed the face of drag racing forever. It makes you wonder if DRUSA's Mike Doherty would've slipped Swamp Rat 13 in to replace the '68 Wynn's Charger!

 

[Cliff]

I remember that article. Thought it was so cool. They converted the speeds & ET's of the early cars to "modern day" times, ie: Cook & Bedwell ran the equivlent of around 230, if I remember right. Their speed in Feb 1957 was 167, about 10 MPH faster than anyone had ever run. Emory Cook was the driver. He was a native American from Okla, & Cliff Bedwell was the motor man. Cook married the sister of Juaquin Arnett, one of the famed Bean Bandits from San Diego. They were kinda the Don Garlits of their day, early 1950's. That might be a car to include on an "all time" list. I think they had a Ford flathead engine on nitro and they beat everybody. Was a front engine dragster on a stock car frame, as was Garlit's car that ran at Bakersfield in 1959, with 8 carbs on nitro (and was supposed to have been the first car to run 180, in Florida).

I remember that Garlits stunned everyone in 1971 with that 6.21 run at Indy. I heard a story that said that Ed Pink wanted Garlits to run a big stroker motor like the funny cars ran, and Garlits told him no. Then Garlits came up with his own version of it and ran the 6.21. Also, Crafty Garlits had the front wheels set up so that one wheel was like 3-4 inches in front of the other side. When NHRA found out about it, they made the front end rule, so that there could only be around 2" maximum varience between the 2 sides. Bet he got .05 out of that set up. My favorite Garlits car was the 1975 car, the one that ran 5.63 - 250 at Ontario. I did see that run, & the ET lasted for like 6 years.

By the way, I have a book called High Performance by Robert Post. It is the best history book for drag racing, especially 1948 - 1990's. Learned so much from that book. I didn't go to my first race until 1961, at the late San Fernando Drag Strip, so that is kinda where I came in. I knew about the drags from around 1960, but never could get to the tracks. My dad finally took me sometime in 1961. Still love the drags after all these years.

 

[junglevsbrutus]

I remember that article. Thought it was so cool. They converted the speeds & ET's of the early cars to "modern day" times, ie: Cook & Bedwell ran the equivlent of around 230, if I remember right. Their speed in Feb 1957 was 167, about 10 MPH faster than anyone had ever run. Emory Cook was the driver. He was a native American from Okla, & Cliff Bedwell was the motor man. Cook married the sister of Juaquin Arnett, one of the famed Bean Bandits from San Diego. They were kinda the Don Garlits of their day, early 1950's. That might be a car to include on an "all time" list. I think they had a Ford flathead engine on nitro and they beat everybody. Was a front engine dragster on a stock car frame, as was Garlit's car that ran at Bakersfield in 1959, with 8 carbs on nitro (and was supposed to have been the first car to run 180, in Florida).

I remember that Garlits stunned everyone in 1971 with that 6.21 run at Indy. I heard a story that said that Ed Pink wanted Garlits to run a big stroker motor like the funny cars ran, and Garlits told him no. Then Garlits came up with his own version of it and ran the 6.21. Also, Crafty Garlits had the front wheels set up so that one wheel was like 3-4 inches in front of the other side. When NHRA found out about it, they made the front end rule, so that there could only be around 2" maximum varience between the 2 sides. Bet he got .05 out of that set up. My favorite Garlits car was the 1975 car, the one that ran 5.63 - 250 at Ontario. I did see that run, & the ET lasted for like 6 years.

By the way, I have a book called High Performance by Robert Post. It is the best history book for drag racing, especially 1948 - 1990's. Learned so much from that book. I didn't go to my first race until 1961, at the late San Fernando Drag Strip, so that is kinda where I came in. I knew about the drags from around 1960, but never could get to the tracks. My dad finally took me sometime in 1961. Still love the drags after all these years.

Yes, Garlits' great 6.21 at '71 Indy! It's kinda funny if you think about it. Garlits had his greatest achievement and biggest disappointment in the same season w/ the same car. That is, after the long successful season of Swamp Rat 13 he came to Indy w/ over a 10th on the field. He met Steve Carbone in the final. But Garlits got caught in "The Great Burndown" w/ Carbone. The extra time heated up Big's aluminum heads, he smoked the tires and Carbone got revenge for his '68 Indy loss to Don. Garlits literally gave that one away.

I was also at the '75 World Finals/OMS but only for eliminations so I missed the greatest run of all time! Still, Garlits won the race and beat Gary Beck for his first Winston title.

I have Bob Post's Hi-Performance book too. You are right, it's the best overall book written on drag racing.
I was fortunate to have it signed by Post, plus the following legends.
Don Garlits, Dyno Don, Big John, Dick Landy, Ohio George, Leon Fitzgerald, John Hogan ('68-'69 Stardust tuner), Mousie, Kenny Safford,
Bob Spar (B&M), Dave Wallace and Steve Gibbs. Sadly, too many of them are no longer with us.

 

[Cliff]

James, you could sell your copy of Hi Performance for a fortune, just cuz of the autographs. My most prized autograph is from the Greek, at Seattle in 1990. He was runner up to Gary Ormsby at that race. After the race was over, I had a chance to talk to Ormsby. He said he'd considered just not going to the line & letting the Greek have the win. But, the points were so important that he decided to race. I kinda think the Greek would have wanted to race anyway & not take a single. He did "blow it up" on that final race.

 

[The Counterfeiter]

James, not to derail this, but I'm very glad to see you here! I have a number of your lithos framed and displayed in my home including the amazing NHRA 50th anniversary poster. My favorite is the "Manufacturer's Meet" with Shoe staging against Big John. I was in the DSR pit having Don sign it when a fan appeared and asked if that was the original. Don said "No, thats in my office and he can't have it." ;-)

 

[junglevsbrutus]

James, not to derail this, but I'm very glad to see you here! I have a number of your lithos framed and displayed in my home including the amazing NHRA 50th anniversary poster. My favorite is the "Manufacturer's Meet" with Shoe staging against Big John. I was in the DSR pit having Don sign it when a fan appeared and asked if that was the original. Don said "No, thats in my office and he can't have it." ;-)

Ha, ha, thanks for that story Jim, it made my day!
And thanks for supporting my work in the past, it's means a lot to me.
But your "The Manufacturer's Final" lithograph should've already been autographed in pencil by Don Schumacher, along w/ the late "Big John" Mazmanian. Or did you just want it personalized? That '68 Mfg. Meet is still my favorite all time trip to the drags. I never saw so many colorful FCs w/ different types of bodies/motors from all over the country. Don became an instant star when he came to SoCal and blasted an unheard of 7.38 - 202.70 (the very best were in the 7.50's at the time w/ only Snow and Grove topping 200). The late John Hogan was shocked that I could remember their unofficial record and just loved hearing me recite it. I was just a wee lad of 13 at this race and Don was a seasoned FC driver at 24. What a fantastic era to experience!