Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves

[bill dedman]

Hey. Bruce, you MAY have another Buick story, but you cannot....CANNOT top the original..... That was amazing...

I thought you must have been running it all the way in "Drive" from the timeslips.... Roper's car was a Super 2-door HT. I don't think he ever ran it until it had received dual exhausts and a 4-bbl, but that car ran in the seventeens with only those two mods...


Of course, he was a "tuner".... even back then.

Thanks again for the entertainment; that was so cool, that you actually beat a 4-speed Chevy V8..... Bowtie Bomber, I guess!!!

[Floyd Staggs]

Chuck, was that in July? I can't remember that close.
Yes, it was a ball back then. I only ran Lions one time. That light pole by the right lane scared the ***** out of me. I raced at old Fontana, San Fernando. Pomona and San Gabrial 3 times a week. Then during the week there were the street races that started at Henry's in Pomona. Do you remember Henry's Drive-in? We'd start out there then drive out to 16th and Haven and race till the cops ran us off. Occasionally we would go down to Chino.
Back then it was semi safe and a lot of fun. It was mostly for braggin rights.

I remember one Saturday at San Gabriel when a c-gas chevy rolled right in front of me. Nobody could see for the dirt and my dad thought it was me. He almost made me quit right then.
Floyd StaggV787
www.staggsracing.com

[Chuck Norton]

I'm reasonably positive that the end of the track came somewhere around the Fourth of July, 1963. For sure, I know that it was gone by the end of July because that marked the beginning of one of my several ill-fated marriages and when I got back into town to go back to work in September, 1963, the track was gone.

About that time I was spending a lot of my energy helping Ron Mandella run his max-wedge stationwagon in A/SA but I remember running my 406 Galaxie there at least once that summer. (That was not a good idea. In fact, the whole idea of the 406 wasn't particularly a good idea). After SG closed we ran mostly at the tracks you mention although I never went to San Fernando. Fontana got a lot of attention after they went to AHRA in early 1964.

The street racing venues I remember were based out of Henry's drive-in on Huntington Drive in Arcadia, Harvey's Broiler in Downey, and Bob's Big Boy in Colorado in Pasadena. At one point we ran a modified Corvette from the end of the on-ramp onto the Long Beach Freeway (southbound) from Firestone. When the cars weren't so fast there was always Old River School Road as well. I even remember laying in the gravel in the parking lot of the topless joint just south of the intersection of Rivergrade Road and Arrow Highway to put the driveshaft back in after we'd left SG Drag Strip at the end of the night. We arrived at the bar and there was someone who wasn't satisfied with the outcome of the track eliminations so the score was evened up on Rivergrade road after hours.

By the way, that wagon has surfaced again after being out of sight for the last forty years.

We should have assigned someone the job of taking pictures.

c

[Fred Holdorf]

Bruce, greetings from another Buick racer. Irwindale had been open a few weeks before they had their official "Opening Day Meet". We were running AHRA and had a record holding '63 Falcon and poor as we were, a '54 Buick Special 4 door tow car. We entered the Buick on a lark for a single car trophy for my pardner, and then lost first round in the Falcon on a red light. The Buick was in the back of the lanes and hadn't run yet so I came back jumped in and ran the Buick. 7 rounds later I'm running Dave Kemptons wife in the finals. I didn't win but got money, a new steering wheel, two tickets to a bar (free drinks) and a set of dual exhausts from Covina Muffler. (Remember those days!) One of the cars I had to beat was the wife of muffler shops Ranchero. The class index was 19 or 20 seconds, something like that, and I'd just leave and back into my competition. All went well until that final round, when Kempton (the tech man) found out I was running two cars. Next race, red light after I'd left the line. I still laugh about the "Opening Day of Irwindale". Thanks for the memories, Fred

[Bruce Fulper]

Man, those days. Love hearing about another winnin' old Buick. Red light AFTER you left the line? Sounds dastardly. We need to yak at the track sometime cause I'd like to hear more stories. And of course I got a ton too. Hey Chuck, where's that Wedge wagon now?

BTW: You all know the outcome - I won - but I can tell everyone is chompin' at the bit to know the final saga of the drama that day...... (Zzzzzzz) hahaha

My last run on my 21.70 dial..........

[Floyd Staggs]

Chuck,
Lying in the gravel, huh.
I remember one night out at 16th and Haven lying underneath my corvette hooking the mufflers back up while a cop was talking to my girlfriend siiting in the car. Yes, i was real skinny back then. They weren't issuing tickets for racing but if you made too much noise leaving, you would get one.
Those were the days. Too bad Bruce is so young. He missed a lot.

You know, thinking back on some of those nights out on 16th, we were pretty stupid. There would be cars lining both sides of the street for most of the quarter mile and we would race between them. I can't remember ever having an accident but that was only by the grace of God.
How did I live to be this old?

[Bruce Fulper]

Young! Why thank you...
I still got to see my share of what I consider unreal street racing around Kent, Cleveland and Akron Ohio in the '60's. In the summer I used to bike over to the local hot spot in Kent on Friday nights, The Short Stop, sometimes A&W.
One of my personal memorable moments - the guys were getting ready to gang up and head to Tallmadge, Ohio, just a few miles south to that A&W where some of the guys from Akron would come over, Tallmadge was east of Akron, so it was a decent spot to meet in the middle.

I wanted to catch a ride so bad, I'd been hanging around Ron McClusky and his double altered wheelbase '65 Hemi Coronet. He knew I REALLY wanted to tag along so he said, "Get in the back and hold on the to rollbar." Of course there was no back seat so I was sitting on the floor. I might have been 14 at the time and Ron's buddy rode up front. Ron's car was Kents baddest machine so it was a hell of an honor to be riding in the lead car. The guys were like that - the fastest car always led the pack.

"Bout halfway to Tallmadge there was a big hill and as you came down the other side, right at the bottom of the hill was a set of railroad tracks. Of course back then everyone pimped over the tracks like a snail. After the tracks there was a long straight-a-way. So each car after inching across the tracks would stop and let it happen. Remember I didn't know this the FIRST time.

So as Ron stopped after crossing the tracks he yelled, "Hang on!" and that....
ohmigod.......stood it up and slammed that Dodge against the rear bumper and I remember seeing the moon out of the windshield. No frigging kidding.

Damn....talk about being scared and knowing you were instantly "cool" at the same time.....everyone behind us had seen it. Bad ***.

As you can tell that ride was an experience of a lifetime. I wonder if Dave Sebring was there. He just got promoted to sales at TCI. Dave will tell you about McCluskys Coronet and lots of other wild Kent happenings. Like the time a guy brought a blown red 55 T-bird Pontiac powered gasser to town to pick on the guys. Unloaded it across the street from the Short Stop. I don't remember anyone taking him on. Dave will also confirm the night Ron's girlfriend or wife pushed the REVERSE pushbutton after going thru the traps at Quaker City one Saturday night. Spun it around but didn't hurt anything. This car was a true 10.80 street car in the late '60's. In Kent that was hot.

Man....and like you guys, that was just one night in what seemed like a million.
Street racing was a way of life. Glad we made it thru.