My Racing Partner Brad still can't sort out his E-mail.... but I let him
read some of yesterday.... and today's post.... HIS EXACT COMMENTS .... One
of you fella's needs to write a Book before all of this is lost...... what
a fabulous history lesson.... and I thank each of you for sharing.... KEEP
IT UP... wow... Keith
----------
> From: ARDUNDOUG@aol.com
> To: saltracer@awwwsome.com; land-speed@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: Pierson Coupe and other Trivia from the "Old-Days"
> Date: Wednesday, November 24, 1999 6:00 PM
>
> Tom,
> Great story. When I was a teenager in the 50's the Pierson coupe was
on
> the cutting edge and appearing in HRM and some of the "small-books" on
> performance. I met you and had the pleasure of seeing the car run at
> Bonneville in the late 80's when my LSR career was just starting. I have
a
> video of you and your wife at the starting line trying to fire a balky
SBC.
> She was really giving the effort a lot of "body-english" and was very
happy
> and excited when it finally lit.
> As a side story, 10 years or so back I bought a set of early Hilborns
for
> a Flatty from a trader in the Santa Rosa, CA area named Vern Tardel (the
guy
> who made and sold the coffee mugs shaped like a Stromberg 97 Flatty
carb).
> Sometime later a Flatty dragster racer named Tony Lloyd asked to borrow
the
> injectors for a little gas motor he wanted to install in his rail to
license
> his young son. Before running the injectors we sent them to Hilborn to be
> "freshened-up". Stu Hilborn got to checking the serial numbers against
his
> records and found that they were originally purchased by Dawson Hadley,
one
> of the early Pomona Valley Timing Assn. "PVTA Choppers" and the driver of
> their old 1950's Chrysler powered dragster that looked like it was made
from
> an old Indy-type car. Tony Lloys said that he had one helluva time
getting
> them back. Stu reportedly wanted them for his collection and was VERY
> reluctant to part with them.
> I noted with interest that Dawson Hadley was involved in your old
Pierson
> Coupe in the past. Do you have any idea of what happened to him? He,
along
> with the likes of Calvin Rice, Jazzy Nelson, and Art Chrisman is one of
the
> real icons of the roots of drag racing. Did I see his name associated
with
> early LSR racing too?
> You mentioned Bob Joehnck. He was another unsung icon of early
> performance. When I attended college in San Luis Obispo from 1955-59
Joehnck
> had a performance shop in nearby Santa Barbara and really worked some
amazing
> tricks with early OHV V8's. Patterson Ford, a dealer in Santa Maria, had
> Joehnk massage a 312 "Y" block powered 56 sedan. It had a very long
Dachund
> (sp?) painted down the entire side of the car with the words "Patterson
Ford,
> The Longest Deal In Town". It didn't take too long before the car was
dubbed
> "The Long Dog". They had the exhausts coming out of the fenders opposite
the
> exhaust ports and ran about 100-105 with the thing in "C" Gas. Needless
to
> say they had no competition in the class. To make things interesting they
> would match-race the "A" Gas and "B" Gas winners after eliminations,
usually
> winning.
> During those days, Fred Dannenfelzer(sp) was running a altered coupe
and
> I was campaigning a slingshot fuel Flatty powered dragster. At the last
El
> Mirage meet "Fast Freddy" turned 305 in his blown Chrysler lakester while
I'm
> still trying to get into the "Two-Clubs". My, how things do
> change........Ardun Doug King in CA
>
|