FORD, or First On Race Day. Well we tried to do that on many a weekend in the mid to late 60's. Southern California was filled with many drag strips. You could tune-up on Wednesday night and race on Saturday and Sunday. From Ramona and Carlsbad to Half Moon Bay to Vacaville and there were probably twenty more drag strips in between. My favorite was Lyons; racing at the beach. I can also remember when Orange County opened. What a beautiful facility it was, however, now it's office buildings. I remember the night I saw my first 7 second run, and I thought they would never go any faster.

I raced a 1955 ford with a 292 cubic inch engine with a single four barrel carburetor, a Pontiac rear end with 5.13 gears. This was just a normal weekend drag car until I met a gentleman by the name of Gus Davis. He knew more tricks to do to this engine than anyone I knew. He ground a custom cam, and tried goofy things like what you see here. Not all of them worked but there was lots of low-end torque for this one. The last few years of racing, the car ran in the low 13's at 110 MPH, and in 1966 it put away seven Chevys at the Winter Nationals at Irwindale.

Here are some videos I found when I was going through some old 8mm film. The first is at Lodi Drag Strip in California. The time was around the summer of 1967. It is the only film of my 1955 Ford at the race track. The second video is at Fremont drag strip (I thought it was Half Moon Bay) in Califorina. This was taken during the summer of 1960. Enjoy the old school racing.

This was an old Meter Maid vehicle that was even used as a dog catcher wagon. A body change, a little work on the engine, two new rear tires, and it drove like a champ.

Looking through some old photos I found a picture of my 63 split window Corvete. This picture was taken in 1966. The engine was a 327 with fuel injection and a 4 speed. How did I ever get insurance on that thing? Enjoy.