Questions For Roger (2 Viewers)

[Cliff]

Hi Pete. Ya know what? Even tho what I asked Roger was years ago, it doesn't seem like it. I guess there is something about drag racing that makes you remember certain things, even long ago. I remember going to San Fernando in 1962 and seeing the Freight Train twin Top Gas dragster go off aganist Dye & Hampton Two Bad, also a twin. I had never seen twins runs in person and was astonished at the power, the noise, the speed (177 was fast then), and that memory stays with me. Garlits' crash at Lions and then a year later, back to Lions with his back motor car. I dunno, maybe they made more of an impression cuz I was younger, but even as a slightly older guy (hah hah) I still remember those things. Don't ask me what I had for lunch yesterday.......

 

[Cliff]

Pete are you still active in the S/ST car? I really like that class the best of the .90 classes, cuz it'all (mostly) real cars. 1962 Chevy VS a Gremlin, etc etc. So cool to watch them.

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

Cliff, you did not see Christman and Lefty square off at Lions in those twins.

Let us not forget that Weibe's 6.17 lost to the Snakes 6.17 in a giant holeshot. Snake in the left lane, Weibe in the right. My dad was ticked!

Mrs. TopFuel@Lions says how can you remember that Beck ran that .39 at Fremont but you forget at least 2 items at the store!


TopFuel@Lions
Talladega Announcer

 

[Cliff]

Mark, I never said I saw Chrisman & Lefty at Lions in person. Did see Chrisman in his F/C at Lions. Not sure if I ever saw Lefty in person, but am well aware of his history. I liked that twin Olds F-85 car with the plywood board on it. Chrisman's Twin Bear had a board like that, & so did a car driven by Tom McEwen (Gene Adams car w/ Old engine). I was at Lions when Snake & Wiebe ran that final where they both ran 6.17, think it was the Grand Premiere in 1972. Thought the 6.17's were other worldly until Garlits ran his 6.15 243 at the Gators. I know Beck went 5.39 but thought that was OCIR at the Finals that year. I dunno, maybe he ran 5.39 at both tracks. OK, what 2 items did I forget? Remember I'm 74, white haired & sometimes can't remember stuff, unlike TOL, who still remembers when I broke the washer 15 years ago....... g r i n

 

[Ramjet]

Chrisman's Twin Bear had a board like that, & so did a car driven by Tom McEwen (Gene Adams car w/ Old engine)

Cliff - The Twin Bear was not Christman's Car. It was actually the Howard Cam Twin Bears built and owned by Howard Johansen. He had Jack Christman drive it and his oldest son Jerry tuned it. Christman was actually the third driver after Lonnie Butts & Glen Ward. They won the '61 Winternationals (First One) with Jerry tuning when he was 14 years old with that car. The car had a 100" wheel base and it scared the Hell out of Lonnie when it did a giant wheelstand on his first pass so he was done. Howard being practical as well as smart bolted a sheet of Plywood on the front and it worked. By the way Dixon Sr. won all those races in the Rattler (Danny Porsch's car) with Jerry tuning as well as Jerry tuning Jim Bucher's car remotely all over the country before Cell Phones.

 

[Cliff]

Thanks Roger. Forgot the Bear was Johansen's car. Did know that Glen Ward drove it but didn't know about Lonnie Butts. Lonnie drove an A/Competition car with a blown Chrysler, I think. He was pretty good in that class. Knew that Chrisman went on tour with the Bear & the magazines said Jerry was 19 at the time. Interesting that Jerry tuned the Howard Cam Rattler & also Jim Buchers' car. Oh, you're talking about Buchers' nitro car, right? The quickest rat motor at the time (set NHRA record at 6.09) I saw Bucher run that car at Irwindale & it broke an axle (?) & flipped not too far off the line. Scary moment....

 

[Cliff]

This 1962 drag race looks like a movie set

This 1962 drag race looks like a movie set

mashable.com

These are some color photos of 1962 Winternats. 2 photos are Lonnie Butts A/C, Twich-A-Wee - red color Fiat body on a dragster chassis. In the first photo, look at the stuff bolted on the front axle. These were added as weight, to keep the cars from doing wheelies. This was common even on T/F front engine cars & later back motor cars of early 1970's. Car was famous in A/Competition class. Scroll on down for photo of a single engine dragster VS twin. The single engined car is Gene Adams blown Olds, The Shark Car (cuz of back section of the body). I think Tom McEwen drove it. The twin is Jack Chrisman in Mickey Thompson's twin Pontiac (aluminum engines) with one blower driving both engines. Also see photo of car with the chute out. When they first started running chutes, they used same size chute that you'd use to jump out of a plane. I think a lot of those chutes were war surplus chutes, but they worked. They were so big that sometimes the back end of the car would come off the ground when the chute came out. I also love the flathead powered alterds shown.

 

[Cliff]

Drag Racing Picture of the Day - Howard's Cams Twin Bear Gas Dragster in 1961

A new drag racing picture every day!

www.draglist.com

This is a photo of the Bear after they removed the plywood board & put a body on it. Jack Chrisman in the cockpit. I think Jerry Johansen in the center and ? on the far right. I was trying to find a good photo of the Bear with the board.....

 

[Ramjet]

This 1962 drag race looks like a movie set

This 1962 drag race looks like a movie set

mashable.com

When they first started running chutes, they used same size chute that you'd use to jump out of a plane. I think a lot of those chutes were war surplus chutes, but they worked. They were so big that sometimes the back end of the car would come off the ground when the chute came out. I also love the flathead powered alterds shown.

About that chute thing. A friend of mine with me pushing him bought a car from Bobby Christensen (Salsbury & Christensen) who I worked with in a automotive machine shop which was part of an Auto Parts Chain based in Van Nuys and I put my motor in it. We needed a 'Chute so I went to a Surplus store (Arts Surplus) and bought a 16 foot Ring Slot parachute for $35. The shroud lines were about 8 ft. long. We bought some Nitro and Alcohol and went to the new strip in Palmdale. On our Virgin pass Larry ran 165 MPH into the wind with my Jr Fuel Motor on its maiden voyage. It was all smiles until he pulled the Chute and the car stopped dead in its tracks with the parachute still blossomed into the wind. The windshield snapped in half and Larry's shoulders were Black and Blue for the next 3 weeks. Fortunately this guy in a Cadillac pulls up right on the track and yells "What the Hell are you Guys doing". His name was Jim Diest. He goes into the trunk gets some stuff out and proceeds to choke the canopy down, slice up the panels with a razor and add 20 feet to the teather. When he got done he said come and see me next week for a chute. It was good that there was already an attaching piont on the car or who knows what else we could have screwed up. Found out that those chutes were for dropping Jeeps from planes and having a soft landing.

 

[robinjackson]

This 1962 drag race looks like a movie set

This 1962 drag race looks like a movie set

mashable.com

These are some color photos of 1962 Winternats.

Cliff,
These are some marvellous photos. Thank you for posting.

 

[Cliff]

God bless Jim Diest. Man he saved so many racers with his chutes and firesuits! He was out of Glendale, Calif, my home town. His first suits looked like what a fireman at an airport wore, aluminized type suit. But boy did they work.

 

[Pete]

Pete are you still active in the S/ST car? I really like that class the best of the .90 classes, cuz it'all (mostly) real cars. 1962 Chevy VS a Gremlin, etc etc. So cool to watch them.

Hi Cliff,

No. I took a break back in '08 to focus on raising the kids, etc...had a few misfires on the comeback trail since. Was ready to get everything back together for '21, then COVID hit.
I appreciate your comments. What drew me to the class was the ease to get into it. You didn't need a big MPH car like SG or SC, I mean it helps, but its not necessary to be competitive. I had one of the slowest cars in the class and was getting neck pain from looking over my shoulder all the time, so I transitioned to one of the faster cars with the race in front of me 90% of the time...I liked that more. Some of the best people I've raced with, aside from brackets at Epping, were in that class...no matter where I raced.

Also, I can remember all of those match & divisional races up in Epping back in the 80's/90's...almost every run is embedded in my memory....I can also name all NHRA champs from '75 - late 90's. BUT I strain to remember who won St. Louis a few weeks back....something about life getting faster maybe, all puns intended

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

We are some old fogies for sure.


TopFuel@Lions

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

Hey Roger, was that surplus store on Van Nuys Blvd or Sepulveda?


TopFuel@Lions
Talladega Announcer......Alabama's number 1 racetrack...on a weekly basis!

 

[camaro]

Guess it wouldn't do me any good to protest, like stand outside NHRA offices with a sign that sez "NHRA Unfair To 1/4 Milers". Naw...... Alan is right. But wait....... Unblown with nitrous, say 8 stages..... 4.60's and 320.... heh heh heh

hey if i didn't live 3000 miles away, i'd stand with you . 12 years later i still hate 1000 as much as i did when it was first implemented ! JMO

 

[Ramjet]

Hey Roger, was that surplus store on Van Nuys Blvd or Sepulveda?

Sepulveda - kind of across from the original Harbor Freight when it really was damaged freight. What they didn't have Joe Factor did. Pulde lived a few blocks from there.

 

[glofria]

I have a couple of questions for Roger.

What's the issue with Danny Crownover's Dragster? BTW, it's a nice looking car.

How are Danny and Lanny coming along with the Camaro and will it be out sometime soon? I haven't been keeping up with what's been happening.

I saw Danny in the staging lanes last month, but was working with a different car and only had time to say "hi".

 

[Ramjet]

I have a couple of questions for Roger.

What's the issue with Danny Crownover's Dragster? BTW, it's a nice looking car.

How are Danny and Lanny coming along with the Camaro and will it be out sometime soon? I haven't been keeping up with what's been happening.

I saw Danny in the staging lanes last month, but was working with a different car and only had time to say "hi".

That is a car that I built for Bobby Johansen. It was to be like his father in law’s car (Holly and Diest), but Bobby passed before he could finish it. I gave it to Danny and we put a SBC engine in it for NE1. He did a few 10,000 RPM Burn Outs and it Threw Up so we put his LS in it with a 1071 on it. The car is Short and it did a wheel stand then made a hard left on the first run. The New Goodyear’s were over an inch different so he got another pair and I built a weight box for him. Car went straight but blew the tires off and it popped the blower panel. Should be ready to go now.
The Camero had head gasket leaks when they started it up. I ORinged the heads for Lanny and he is working on the Push Rod to head clearance now. Should also be ready soon. As you know that 4 valve head of your Dad’s is still kind of in the Shake Down mode. The response is unbelievable though.

 

[mike]

Roger Is Bobby Howard still with us?

 

[Ramjet]

Roger Is Bobby Howard still with us?

No - Bobby passed a couple of years ago. There were three Johansen brothers. Jerry - Donnie & Bobby. Donnie is the only one left. Howard was their father. Jerry & Bobby were married to the Holly sisters. Bobby still grinds Cams on a one off basis. The Howard name (Cams & Rods) got sold quite a few years ago back East.