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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. |