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Is nostalgia getting old?
Courtesy of:
Hawaii Motorbeat Monthly
By
Paul Maddox
No, I dont think so. Maybe the
younger generation of drag racers with their rice rockets may think
its just a bunch of old futs trying to re-live their fading past,
but the current passion for photos and stories about hot roddings
beginnings is more than that ~ its the history of Americas racing
roots.
This shot says a lot...the great Don
Prudhomme in the Greer, Black and Prudhomme dragster at Pomona back
before the famous raceway was packed with VIP suites and grandstands
for 50,000. Racing was fairly simple. You scrounged junk yards for
an old 392 Chrysler Hemi block, rebuilt a truck supercharger and
chose from a handfull of fledgling high performance parts makers for
the pieces you thought would make your engine both powerful and
strong. With luck you could get a semi-pro built chassis and tin guy
to cover the rails with a slick body and you went racing.
Twenty year old driver Prudhomme was
still painting cars for a living, but used this ride as the
launching pad for a brilliant career that continues today as a
multi-million dollar championship team owner. The GBP 'team' also
produced one of the premiere engine builders, Keith Black, who went
on to make a highly successful business out of their weekend hobby.
Back in Hawaii in July 1964 when Jimmy
Pflueger opened Hawaii Raceway Park, a teenaged Roland Leong was
getting his thrills in his Dragmaster gas digger when Jimmy brought
in the GBP team to make exhibition runs. Roland got the nitro bug
and went on to hire Black to build engines for his new car being
built in California. After realizing he had no future as a driver,
Black suggested Prudhomme take over in the cockpit (for
the full story read Phil Burgess' column) and
the rest, as they say, is history. Leong's "Hawaiian" dragster went
on to win back-to-back Winternationals and US Nationals titles in
1965 and '66 and professional drag racing was truly launched.
One of my favorite web sites for
endless photos of great old front-engined dragsters and early Funny
Cars is, "We
did it for Love". It's packed with shots from the good old days
of 64 car Top Fuel shows and the transition from factory
experimental super stockers to the often awkward and dangerous early
Funny Cars.
And, of course, our monthly
installments of Hawaii Raceway Park's heroes of the late '60's have
been the most popular features of the past few months - proving that
nostalgia ain't getting old. Just me.
Also in this August 2009 issue you'll
find plenty more photos from Hawaii Raceway Park back in the 60s,
including the cars of Jan Wakayama, Rodney 'China' Chung, Ikeda
brothers C/MP 'vette, David Nitta, 'Gentleman Jack' Cambra, the
Kamanu family digger, and more shots of Al Kubo's 'King Rat' with
Stu Copp at the controls versus Elmer 'Unsprung' Snyder. There's
even pix of Lee Dougherty, Ralph Ries, Kent Kami, Ron Uemura and
Randy Cadiz on the 2nd page of oldies.
For some contemporary racin' photos
from the Big Island, check out Jim Riddiford's lastest and greatest
~ and pictorial coverage of the "BuildTheTrack' motorsport show at
Aloha Tower Marketplace last June by Michael J. Kitchens.
All for fun, and all for free. How can
you beat that?
Enjoy! ~ Paul Maddox,
Hawaii Motorbeat Monthly
More from Paul Maddox at:
www.hawaiimotorbeat.com
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