|
And the word went forth in the
spring of the year of Nineteen Hundred and Forty Nine. From
The 'Wich Stands in LA and in Glendale, to the Piccadilly in
Santa Monica,…to all the hangouts: Big Doin's are planned
at the airport in Goleta, north of Santa Barbara California.
Tom Cobbs and his blown flathead '29 roadster on '34 rails will
face off with Fran Hernandez and his fuel burning '32 coupe---a
grudge match. LEGALLY! Bring your hot job to Goleta Airport
on Sunday morning. Be ready to race--- to drag it out.
A
legal drag race (the first in recorded history) would be held.
Some enterprising Santa Barbara street/lakes racers got together
with the Goleta Airport and got permission to race on the access
road next to the runway. A willingness to do anything to keep
these guys and their hot cars off the street, the proprietors
of the airport agreed to give it a go.
The turnout that April Sunday
in 1949 was about what you would see a big local street race
on Sepulveda during that era; made up mostly of hardcore lakes
racers, street jobs and hangers on. In attendance were some
future names that all of hot rodding would come to know: Howard
Johanson, (Howard's Cams) Vic Edelbrock, Al Barnes, (Barnes Systems)
Greg Cunningham, (Cunningham Rods), the Peirson Brothers, Ed
Iskenderian, Lou Baney, Stu Hilborn, Jack Engle, Don Montgomery,
to name a few.
Greg Cunningham and his partner
Bill Davis had been running a track roadster on the dirt with
Howards four port Riley "banger". Cunningham borrowed
the engine from the dirt tracker and scribbled the layout of
a chassis on the garage floor. In three days he had a four banger
powered "rail job"-- the first. It was the bare essentials.
Tube chassis, (no body), engine, gearbox, rear end, steering,
seat, seat belt, and a kill switch, (one of those war surplus
jobs that was on off on). Having just finished his "special"
the night before, Greg brought it to Goleta just to show it off.
It soon came time for the match
of the day between Hernandez and Cobbs. Cobbs roadster , fully
streetable with its 371 blower started right up and moved up
toward the flagman. Hernandez was having trouble starting as
he had not made any warm up runs and his battery had run down.
With a healthy push from the gang of Edelbrock helpers, the
coupe roared to life putting out instant eye stinging exhaust
fumes. Cobbs was surprised but could not do anything now. Both
drivers experienced at clutching off at street lights, they rolled
slowly toward the flagman. As the flag was jerked skyward, both
cars lurched forward in a cloud of tire smoke.
Hernandez grabbed a slight lead as Cobbs snow tread tires spun.
Through the gears and nearing the end the coupe still had a
slight lead but the blower on Cobbs roadster was coming on.
But it came up short and the coupe won by about a car length.
The trap speed was 110 miles per hour. Hernandez collected
his side bets and looked around for any other challengers. There
were none. However the excitement caused by the match led others
to choose off one another and give it a go.
As the race fever spread that
day, Greg decided to unload the nearly finished rig and with
Jim Kavanagh at the wheel, they prepared to make a single run
just to see what she could do. Loud protests were heard from
the mostly street vehicle types about the lack of a body.
"How can it run without
a body, man? It's crazy and besides there's no place to put
the number" was the strongest complaint. After much deliberation,
a number was dabbed on the side wall of the tire and it was allowed
"one " attempt.
Driver Jim Kavanagh tells the
rest:
"With the seat belt fastened,
Greg and Bill gave me a push to start it up and it lit right
off. I let it warm up a little bit and moved toward the starting
line. While I was still rolling forward, they threw the flag.
I stomped on the gas pedal and stepped off the clutch. It pulled
harder than anything I had ever driven and when I speed shifted
into second gear, I realized that the throttle was stuck wide
open. Since I was only gonna get one run, I wasn't about to
shut it off. I pulled it into high and headed to the finish.
"When I was ready to shut
it off, I reached for the shutoff switch and realized that with
the seat belt on, I couldn't reach the switch. So I lunged at
the switch and swatted at it. I managed to reach it but when
I swatted it down it went from on through the off position and
back on. While I was lunging for the switch I pulled the steering
wheel to the left with my other hand. When I looked back at
the strip, I was sliding sideways off the asphalt and onto the
grass and down toward the ditch that ran along side. The wheel
dug in and the whole rig flipped over one time and came down
on all four wheels with a great splash in the stagnant water
that filled the ditch. I stopped dead. I was stunned and soaking
wet but other wise okay. I undid the seat belt and got out of
the seat and climbed part way up the embankment and sat down
to gather myself up. When I looked back toward the starting
line, here comes thousands of people running down to see what
happened. I'm told the splash could be seen clear back to the
start and it looked like an explosion. Most of the people ran
right by me and down to the car. As it turned out both the car
and I were alright."
Jim had just survived the first
crash at the first organized drag race. He added:
"Nothing was hurt, but I
smelled really bad from the stagnant water. My brand new levis
and tee shirt were a mess. Greg made me ride in the race car
on the trailer to a gas station where I hosed myself off. They
told me that if I didn't rinse off they weren't gonna let me
ride in the car with them back to LA."
"Oh by the way, we had fast
time".
Such as it was. |
