1950's land speed racers pics

[beebo5150]

my friend just put up this web of her grandfather and friends 1950's
http://blackiebernal.webs.com/

[tomsmith]

I wondered what happened to Blackie.  The last time I saw him was in 1954.  I rode his Triumph a couple of times.

[interested bystander]

I remember reading about Blackie's exploits before I could shave- Neat stuff!

[John Noonan]

Cool pictures however please stop posting the same thing in different forums.

John

PS those guys riding like that were wild.

J

[Wester]

When it happened, 1952 or 1953, it took four hours to get the rider to the hospital in Tooele and the ambulance back to the salt so racing could continue.  A rider upped his speed on a Harley by 3 mph, from low 160's to mid 160's by doing what Rollie Free had done in 1948, strip down to a bathing suit and lay out on the bike.  A second rider on a smaller displacement bike tried it and came off at about 120.  You can imagine what the salt did to him.  The next year the rules had changed and leathers were required and you had to sit on the bike.

[tomsmith]

In 1952 there was one ambulance (with "Scotty's Muffler Shop" painted on its door).  It was thought that Wells Nevada had an emergency facility so the ambulance went there.  When it was discovered that Wells didn't, the ambulance went on to Elko.  After 110 miles we arrived.  Joe Fernandez told me that he followed us in his car with his good friend Blackie Bernal and the ambulance was going over 100mph.  During the trip, they asked me if I minded getting my bathing suit cut off so they could put bandages on.  I told them I didn't really care one way or another.  They decided that Salt Lake City was the place to go in the future, if it was ever necessary.  The leathers rule was apparently my fault.

[TouringComet]

I don't know what year, but there was another incident where a rider came off, wearing two piece leathers, and as the rider slid on his back, the leathers rolled up.  That resulted in the rule that the leathers have to be one piece, or zipped together.

I, too, enjoyed the pictures on the site mentioned above.  I think one of the pictures shows Marty Dickerson's Vincent Rapide, with the Joe Simpson Black Lightning right behind it.

[interested bystander]

That Scotty's Muffler ambulance would have probably been driven by Jack Purdy and later served as the ambulance for Colton Drags probably till the strip closed in '64.

Joe Fernandez, what a great guy- although I remember going into a bar with him back in the day and having to tell a fib about my age in order to quench my thirst!

Tom, you didn't work in the Harley shop in maybe Monterey Park or El Monte on Garvey Blvd in those days did you?

[Super Kaz]

Cool pictures however please stop posting the same thing in different forums.

John

PS those guys riding like that were wild.

J

Worlds Fastest,
Ya don't I know ! I Tried that in our little Top Speed Shootout,and I didn't go any Faster !
I talked a couple octaves higher for next couple of hour's thats for sure!:x
I think Little Jon A. took a pic,but I can't find it .
He Musta of had a package compartment built into the seat ?Cause theres no way I could have raced over a Mile with my Jewels in my throat {ouch}:|
SK...............

[tomsmith]

Yep, I worked at Motorcycle Specialties HD on Garvey Blvd in South San Gabriel, who sponsored me, off and on for about three years.  Down Garvey a mile or two was Ed Kretz's shop.  I dropped out of college in 1952 and worked there full time in exchange for discounted parts and free labor on my drag bike since I didn't have any money.  I normally rode Joe Fernandez' knucklehead at drags and dry lakes.  Since he was good friends with Blackie Bernal, he set me up with Blackie and his drag Triumph in 1952 when he had his drag bike down for upgrade to billet cylinders and bigger displacement.  Joe thought I needed something to do while waiting for him.  I also rode a K-model Harley at Carrell Speedway and my HD Hummer on scrambles & Catalina.  John Gregurich sold the shop to Bob Laidlaw right about the time that Joe Smith initially ran his drag bike out of the shop.  I loaned my gas dragster (minus motor) to Joe Smith for a while.  He used his motor in it while he was building up his first drag bike.  Bob Laidlaw did the lower end on my dragster and I did the porting and upper end.  I returned to college in 54 after recovering from Bonneville and built up my gas dragster in 57 or 58.  I finally dropped out of college and got a real job in 1959 at Edwards AFB.  By that time I was married and had a kid.  College, wife, kid and a job kind of slowed me down permanently although my wife got mad at me when I quit running drags.

[DahMurf]

Wow Tom! I've heard about that incident occuring but haven't heard much about it.
How bad were your injuries and how long was the recovery?

Deb

[John Noonan]

Yep, I worked at Motorcycle Specialties HD on Garvey Blvd in South San Gabriel, who sponsored me, off and on for about three years.  Down Garvey a mile or two was Ed Kretz's shop.  I dropped out of college in 1952 and worked there full time in exchange for discounted parts and free labor on my drag bike since I didn't have any money.  I normally rode Joe Fernandez' knucklehead at drags and dry lakes.  Since he was good friends with Blackie Bernal, he set me up with Blackie and his drag Triumph in 1952 when he had his drag bike down for upgrade to billet cylinders and bigger displacement.  Joe thought I needed something to do while waiting for him.  I also rode a K-model Harley at Carrell Speedway and my HD Hummer on scrambles & Catalina.  John Gregurich sold the shop to Bob Laidlaw right about the time that Joe Smith initially ran his drag bike out of the shop.  I loaned my gas dragster (minus motor) to Joe Smith for a while.  He used his motor in it while he was building up his first drag bike.  Bob Laidlaw did the lower end on my dragster and I did the porting and upper end.  I returned to college in 54 after recovering from Bonneville and built up my gas dragster in 57 or 58.  I finally dropped out of college and got a real job in 1959 at Edwards AFB.  By that time I was married and had a kid.  College, wife, kid and a job kind of slowed me down permanently although my wife got mad at me when I quit running drags.

Awesome information, about two months ago I went to Laidlaw's HD and was able to meet Bob Laidlaw and also Joe Smith, great times for sure..

John

[tomsmith]

I am about 25% scar tissue, more or less.  I'm missing two of my three left arm tricept muscles and part of my quadriceps on both legs.  I had skin grafts, but the doctor misjudged what shape I was in so I regressed from the operation and almost died.  I had to have intravenous feeding after this, which took 4 hrs, 45 minutes each time and was done in the back of my right hand so I couldn't move anything.  I was laid up for 16 months and could only use my right arm, my mouth and a bed pan.  After about a year my mother (who was a MD) did some research and found some primitive artificial skin.  It looked like thick Saran Wrap with a lot of perforations.  This really helped out, and reduced bandage changing from 4 hrs a day to change half my bandages to a total of about an hour.  The old-method gauze bandages would sink into my flesh and prevent scar tissue from forming.  I think I lost a gauze bandage in my left leg and never found it.  I usually was able to pull out the threads with some tweezers I kept for the purpose.  I was going about 150mph and got a time of 139mph sliding through the first trap.  Modern technology would have gotten me up many months faster.  I should have waited 50 years.

[tomsmith]

I should mention that Joe Fernandez and I both used custom JE pistons (back when JE was just North of Valley Blvd in So Pasadena or was it Alhambra).  We also always used Chet Herbert cams.  My gas dragster (see Avatar at left) had one of Chet's first high lift, short dwell gas cams.  I built up the gas dragster in 1957/58 deliberately detuned so it wouldn't scare me.  It was just as fast as Joe Fernandez' fuel knucklehead went back in 1952 so my approach was a failure and I got the gas record at several strips.  It also ran about 150mph at Avenue 5 in Pomona in 1958.  The Brute ran 172mph there a couple of weeks earlier. I got the Lions gas elapsed time record of 10.65 seconds by accident.  I was fooling around on an experimental start and actually shut off before the traps.  I had been thinking (with John Gregurich) about building up a fast dragster with custom frame, etc. and had accumulated some parts when I changed jobs and got too busy.  I was working 60-70 hours/week at my new job at JPL in Pasadena.

[DahMurf]

Wow that's amazing Tom, thanks for the reply. It's great you had your Mom by your side with her knowledge. Patient advocates are still such an intricate part of healing! How are you doing now? Did it slow you down much or did you just cope and move forward?

I really love hearing about the past of this sport first hand while we still can!

Deb