January 23 is important because

[JackD]

The first annual Automotive Equipment Display and Hot Rod Exhibition, presented by the Southern California Timing Association, opens at the National Guard Armory in Exposition Park, in Los Angeles, California (1948)
The SCTA also did fund raiser Drags in the off season to help reduce the costs to the racer.
Times have changed I guess.

[desotoman]

Jack,
  I would love to see the SCTA sponsored drags come back. Weren't they 1/2 mile and held at Riverside Raceway.

  Or has our sport become too specialized and no one cares about the drags anymore.

Regards,
Tom Gerardi

[JohnR]

I would bring the Honda out for that! I would love to see what it would do in the 1/4, or better yet, the 1/2 mile!

[interested bystander]

remember it well-they built a COMPLETE hot rod during the show -Eddie Miller's Pontiac lakester-probably streamliner then- was my recollection of the best entry. Went two years later to the same sho w took the PE bus to downtown and then the RED CAR to the National Guard Armory.
 
SCTA also ran drags at Colton (50s) and later (70s) Carlsbad.

The elapsed times at Riverside in the late 50s on the 1/2 mile were suspect to me.I think the clock (ET) was mechnical and unless reset properly , could be off a second (Exhume J Otto Crocker!). I do recall witnessing a 174 mph run there.

[JackD]

"If you forget your heritage, you lost your soul."
The 1/2 mile drags are proably over but when you consider we still do only 6 events or less at El Mirage and only 1 or 2 runs each, you gotta wonder do we have new problems all the time or are we spending all the time making it too big at the expence of the quality of the effort ?

[dwarner]

Shortly after my term as SCTA president in 1984 the clubs voted to disband the drags as they didn't want to support any off-season events.
Jack will remember well as he helped me to secure LA County Raceway for the last of these events.

DW

[Dynoroom]

Nice picture for an avatar Dan Dan the two club man!

[dwarner]

Thanks Mike, courtesy of fast-honda-jim.

I just remembered a 1/2 mile drag story. I was recruited along with a couple of other guys to man the timing stand at the 1/2 mile drags at riverside one December weekend. For those not in the know the 1/2 miles ran backwards on the looong back straight-away, from turn 9 towards turn 8.

We were in the timing hut with the loud speaker system announcing times and trying to somehow keep warm. Someone figured out how to keep the mike live by sliding a little ring up the mike stand to hold the activating arm in place. In this manner we could keep our hands in our pockets. I won't say who it was but someone let out an expletive relating to current weather conditions. Well, this shut down the meet as the Jim Lindsley came hauling up the race track and slide to a halt in front of us.

Jim then explained in no uncertain terms that this was a family event and that kind of language would not be tolerated. Lesson learned!

DW

[JackD]

Everything Step and a Half ever said was in no uncertain terms.

[Dynoroom]

Well if were going to tell stories this is one I got from Bruce Geisler. I was working on his car getting ready for Bonneville speed week '80 I think and I see a piece of metal sticking out of the frame. I grab some pliers to pull it out and Bruce stops me, won't let me remove it because it's a "badge of honor". Seems he was running at the Riverside 1/2 mile drags with his "Hanky Panky" studie and he related this story to me about an eventful pass there. He tells it something like this...(Bruce has a distinctive voice lets say)
I dropped the hammer at the green and the car shot off the line like never before, grabbed 2nd gear and the car moved around a bit but was ok, I shoved it into 3rd and she was really starting to hall ass now, just then I reached up to pull it into fourth and there was a loud bang. I looked over and the F*%#&ng shifter was gone. I was trying to figure out why and when I looked down the damn street was going by!!
Turns out Bruce had a clutch let go and some of it was still embedded in the frame over 10 years latter.

[JackD]

In case you forgot and I see you did, Wally Parks is 93 on the 23rd.
That is cause to celebrate and tell a few stories.

[promachine]

The SCTA also ran drags at OCIR. Around 81 & 82. I remember them
well. They ran the race a little differant than the regular Sat. night
program. All the OCIR regulars use to grumble and complain about
the way Bob H. would pull the lanes out of staging. But we were told
not to make waves with the SCTA officials because they would just
throw us out, witch pissed of the regulars, who felt like they owned the
place. We were told by Charlie Allen to show some respect to these
land speed guys and we could have our race track back the following
weekend.

[JackD]

We bailed on OCIR after a couple of meets because it was so expensive and the "Drag Racers" thought they were the "Cat's Meow."
They were not smart enough to know that the SCTA bunch represented the founders of Drag Racing and it was and off shoot of what was already done for many years.
Pro Gas was just starting up and they ran a show within the SCTA meet. It was a $50 entry fee extra and a 9.80 index with a max of 16 entries.. They took my money and then when I showed up with my street bike they laughed. When I cut a 9.8000 with it and beat their all star in the first round it was too late to say NO.
I lost in the final by .002 and got $300.
Then they made a rule "No MO Bikes"

[promachine]

I remember that race. Some of the old Pro Gas guys will still bring that up
from time to time. I don`t remember who you raced in the final, do you?

[JackD]

I am sorry I left such a lasting depression on them and don't even remember who he was. I seem to remember Chad Langdon. I spent the money and it is not likely they will ever get it back anymore than they will let me win some more.
That was over 25 years ago and my kid was drag racing a pocket bike at the all bike drags in the youth class. He was only 5 and the picture we have from that event at OCIR has Ronny Kato running the bleach box and Sean was doing a burnout below Ronny's knees with BOB as the starter. Now Ronny is building an engine for the next generation grandson in a JR dragster.
Sean won an event at LACR that year and posed with Bernie at the starting line. 25 years later Brendan (the grandson) won an event with his JR dragster and we posed Bernie again for the same exact shot. Bernie was a bit grey. HAHAHAHAHA