San Fernando Drags (1 Viewer)

Great stuff Cliff. Remember when a fueler lofted some parts of the car and it went thru the churches roof?

San Fernando was so cool.


TopFuel@Lions
 
That I don't remember. Probably was in Air Force at that time. I got out of the Air Force in July 1968 and was at Fernando pretty much until it closed in 1969. I don't remember seeing any crashes there, altho out of shape wasn't unusual. Once saw a Gasser get loose & head toward the hot pit area, & boy did people scatter!
 
History may say that the largest crowd ever to be on hand at San Fernando was when Tommy Ivo brought that 4-engime monster with the Snake driving that brought in 10,000 plus fans who if I recall correct paid a whopping for the day, $2.00 to get in. It was either the first or second time that behemoth was going to run in front of fans.


TopFuel@Lions
 
I had always wanted to see Ivo run the 4 motored car. Well, in the early 80's, when Ivo "retired", he had converted that car to a funny car. He brought it to the old Tucson Dragway and I was there. Not many people showed up, but I finally got to see the car in person. It still had the original chassis. I thought it was so cool to finally see that car. Ivo was the first "name" driver I ever saw, at Fernando, about 500 years ago.... heh
 
I had always wanted to see Ivo run the 4 motored car. Well, in the early 80's, when Ivo "retired", he had converted that car to a funny car. He brought it to the old Tucson Dragway and I was there. Not many people showed up, but I finally got to see the car in person. It still had the original chassis. I thought it was so cool to finally see that car. Ivo was the first "name" driver I ever saw, at Fernando, about 500 years ago.... heh
Wasn't it, Tom McCurry converted and toured the wagonmaster I believe was the name
 
Yep.

Hey Cliff, since you are the resident chief of staff at San Fernando,lol, who holds the all time Top Fuel record and what is the ET and Speed, enquiring minds want to know.


TopFuel@Lions
 
When I saw the Wagonmaster at Tucson, Ivo drove it. I remember Tom McCurry driving the car.

OK, San Fernando.... I think the best ET there ever was 7.0 something. I know 230 was run many times, don't know what the record would have been. 232, 233??? Everyone smoked the tires off the line cuz of the track surface. I think a few make smokeless runs w/ slipper clutches, but normally T/F was smoke city and that was a good show. I don't think Garlits ever ran there, but lots of big name SoCal racers did. Snake, Ivo, McEwen, Tony Nancy, on & on. BTW, anyone ever remember Cliff Roa in a front motor T/F car at Fernando? Oh, once I did see a T/F car run like a 6.98, but the announcer said the car broke the beams w/ the rear tires, so run was tossed. I'd go to Lions or OCIR & the same guys running at Fernando were 1/2 second quicker cuz tracks were so much better.
 
Here's a shot of Phil Tadlock. Forgive me as I don't remember all the details, but Phil was my mentor and taught me a lot of fuel injection. One thing I do remember Phil saying was that record run was right before he left for Vietnam. Unfortunately, Phil was expose too much to agent orange and he suffered the effects before passing away awhile back.
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Wow Gino, that is such a great photo! It was a big deal for a JR/F car to run 200. Sorry Phil passed away from Agent Orange. My friend at church died from the same thing. Lot of Nam Vets exposed to that crap. My younger brother was in the Nam and I used to worry about him even coming back. He was a medic and for hazard duty pay, he would fly as a door gunner in a Huey (helicopter). argh
 
Phil Tadlock from Burbank wheeled the Tadlock & Vann Chevy to the first unblown pass over 200 at San Fernando in March of 67, dad and I were there that day.


TopFuel@Lions
 
How about this guy? How many of you remember Larry Fullerton and his "Trojan Horse" F/C. All Ford with a Cammer for power.

i still keep up with Larry Fullerton Jr. who went on to crew for many big show teams after his dad was killed in a car crash.


History 13.jpg
 
David, that car looks so short in that photo. :) Well, they were long back then.
Gino, was the Trojan Horse a blower car? It almost looks injected in the photo. I remember later versions of this car.
 
Larry was part of Team Ford at the first Manufacturers Meet at Orange County in 67.

For a very short time I went to school with Larry's daughter Cindy. My o my was she a "fox." Gotta be old to use that!


TopFuel@Lions
 
David, that car looks so short in that photo. :) Well, they were long back then.
Gino, was the Trojan Horse a blower car? It almost looks injected in the photo. I remember later versions of this car.

No, it was blown and injected with an inline 4 hole injector. Somehow I I lost one of my flash drives that had a bunch of old photos on it and there was a shot with the body up. That's how I knew it was a Cammer.
 
There were lots of "Name" drivers that ran at San Frenando. James Warren ran there quite a bit - believe me I know what the Back of the "Rain for Rent" car looked like.😁 I think it was in 69 that there was 16 entries for the Winternationals that ran there the week before. Jimmie Nix from Oklahoma was there - Prudhome - Warren - Jim Davis - Brisette/Alexander - Dunn - Pedregon - Rance McDaniel - Gary Ormsby & Joe Winters are some of the names I remember. The first 200 MPH run at SF was in June of 1961(Marshall & Vermelia) - I was the first to run 200 MPH on Gas & Tadlock in an injected car (Small block 310 inches). There was someone killed there. A guy from Boston (Mert) was driving Paul Gomie's (the old Mr. Ed Car) and the throttle stuck. He went under the bridge into the rocks and it took us over an hour to get everything picked up. I was next to go down on the push down road at the lights and he never got the Chute out or the Fuel shut off because it was backwards and the chute cable was on the Harness. Everything was wrong and it was his first run in the car. He drove it because Gomi was sick.
 
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