Very cool post, thanks for sharing! It brings back lots of great memories for me, we had some friends in common it seems so long ago. I had made the flat tow down from Canada to race at the Winternationals in 1970, I was just 24 and it was magic to come over the fabled grapevine hill and down into LA. We somehow met Ron Zoelle and his family, and hung out with them at Irwindale, Orange County, and of course at Pomona. They helped us out with meeting Tony Rossi, Val Hedworth, Richard Salcido, Pepe Estrada, Gene Oly and others of the day I'm struggling now to recall.
We won class in A/S that year and got as far as the quarter finals before a pushrod broke through a rocker as we tried to chase down Keith Berg, who had a six second head start in that lumbering '52? Olds! After three more trips to Pomona, and lots of fun with and help from those guys on our trips down, we hung it up for over 25 years finally returning to drag racing in the last ten years.
If anybody reading this knows how to contact Ron Zoelle, I'd love to give him a call and bs about the "good old days". If you could PM me, or post contact info here it would be great to get back in touch. Hope hes still around. My last contact with Ron was at his parents place at 525 S. Citrus in West Covina. Be great to talk to his brothers Ken or Larry too. If you would prefer to give him my number, it's 604-644-8485, or email
grant4060@yahoo.com. Thanks!
P.S. If anyone has a copy of the National Dragster with the Winternationals results from 1970, I'd sure appreciate getting my hands on one. We were just kids, never thought we'd get old and want to look back at this stuff...lol I do still have the Wally, though, what a rush for a kid from Canada!