Lions dragstrip, 50 year anniversary party and museum.

[ltbaney1]

Saturday was the 50th anniversary of the last drag race at Lions Dragstrip. There is a museum built by and owned by guy in long beach and he decided to have a big dinner party for the anniversary. My grandfather has a case inside displaying some trophies and awards along with a few others like Mickey Thompson, Isky, Edelbrock Sr. we were asked to put the yeakel car inside the museum on the "starting line" for the event and start our other car out front along side the Kuhl & Olson car (Carl Olson was also inducted into the Lions hall of fame that night) for the event. we were honored and enjoyed the experience. everything inside the museum runs and drives, the movie theater and the rubys diner are fully functional, the owner employees a full crew to restore and maintain everything. the only clue to the museums existence from the outside is the lions head on the door. the owner owns a LARGE shipping company and the building is lodged between a bunch of container yards. the place is open a few saturdays a month and if you have not been i highly recommend it, they are also working a hall for marine stadium and bonnevile. i grabbed a few pictures and thought i would share.

Lions Automobilia Foundation

To Honor The Legacy of Drag Racers of The Southern California Car Culture and Preserve it for Future Generations

lionsautomobilia.org

 

[daytona man]

Cool looking place !

 

[bonesfab]

I have heard about it and seen pics but have not made it there. Pretty bad ass place.

 

[SoCalDave]

WOW!

 

[coolchange]

50 years shit

 

[old rigger]

Cool pics, thanks for posting. I've been to that transfer station a few times for swap meets and cruise in's and the little diner was always open to visit. Haven't been there in probably 6 years though.

Ya, hard to believe Lions has been gone 50 years, I was 16. 2 brothers directly across the street from where I grew up, The Woorley Bros, raced a gasser round body falcon. I can remember them rolling the car out of the garage, warming it up and making a few passes on the street before loading up and had to the strip. At the other end of our neighborhood was the Butters family who ran a AA fuel rail, the Butters and Gerard team. I never met Gerard that I can remember but the Butters had an alley behind their house and would make passes out there before heading to the strip. One of my friends, friends since '61, lived right down the street from the Butters and would go to Lions with them all the time, riding in their push car station wagon.
In '73 in high school I met Billy Henderson who's dad campaigned a series of drag jet boats, Rated X, and found out that his dad before he got into boats raced a AA Fuel Altered, Fantasia. They weren't too far from where we lived but I never knew them before the boat days. Bill Sr owned a shop in Paramount, Mr. Canvas, and built beautiful boat covers.

I can remember on overcast days/nights if we weren't at Lions, or Marine Stadium, we could hear the AA cars run all the way from Wilmington to our house in Lakewood. The sound would just rumble through the entire basin.

Never been able to find a pic of that Falcon, but here's Butters and Gerard and Henderson.

 

[dave29]

I ran the "Brackets" there in 1969. 69 SS Nova. The first track that I saw a Top Fuel Car. The stands were insanely close to the start line.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Once again, I was born too late! I'm glad those people are still out preserving the times that were.

 

[rivermobster]

Thanks for telling us AFTER the fact fucker!

Where is the schedule for when this place is open? I'd love to go see this!

 

[Not So Fast]

I only ran at San Gabriel Drag strip but made it to Lions a few times back in the day, a long, long time ago. I ran a 63 Plymouth Fury but was put up against guys like Dandy Dick Landy who sort of ruled that place. Dont remember it too well thou, but it was a hot spot of drag racing for sure.
NSF

 

[ltbaney1]

Thanks for telling us AFTER the fact fucker!

Where is the schedule for when this place is open? I'd love to go see this!

would of posted up, but it was a invite / $200 plate deal. we paid nothing for putting 1 of our cars inside 2 weeks ago and firing the other. i believe they are open saturdays from 9-2 or something like that to the public.

 

[coolchange]

I think it was the last time I was there, got busted for jumping the fence sneaking in. Told the guy that caught us I wanted to go tell our buddy we got busted, we only had enough money to pay entry for him to run his 390 4 speed Fairlane.
He let us go.

 

[monkeyswrench]

would of posted up, but it was a invite / $200 plate deal. we paid nothing for putting 1 of our cars inside 2 weeks ago and firing the other. i believe they are open saturdays from 9-2 or something like that to the public.

At the cost of fuel...may have been a wash

 

[ltbaney1]

At the cost of fuel...may have been a wash

not far off, Nitro north of $25 per gallon and alky sitting around $6-7 per gallon, the cost of 8 qts of Nitro 50 oil. car burns a gallon of fuel a minute at idle if i dont whack the throttle, which never happens unless we are setting something. we cut the nitro percentage from 97% out of the drum to between 85-89% with the alky, and we ran for 3.5 minutes and changed the oil sunday morning. its pretty close to an even deal.

 

[rivermobster]

would of posted up, but it was a invite / $200 plate deal. we paid nothing for putting 1 of our cars inside 2 weeks ago and firing the other. i believe they are open saturdays from 9-2 or something like that to the public.

Thanks for the pics.

 

[4Waters]

Once again, I was born too late! I'm glad those people are still out preserving the times that were.

That's my story as well

 

[LBsuperJET]

Cool pics, thanks for posting. I've been to that transfer station a few times for swap meets and cruise in's and the little diner was always open to visit. Haven't been there in probably 6 years though.

Ya, hard to believe Lions has been gone 50 years, I was 16. 2 brothers directly across the street from where I grew up, The Woorley Bros, raced a gasser round body falcon. I can remember them rolling the car out of the garage, warming it up and making a few passes on the street before loading up and had to the strip. At the other end of our neighborhood was the Butters family who ran a AA fuel rail, the Butters and Gerard team. I never met Gerard that I can remember but the Butters had an alley behind their house and would make passes out there before heading to the strip. One of my friends, friends since '61, lived right down the street from the Butters and would go to Lions with them all the time, riding in their push car station wagon.
In '73 in high school I met Billy Henderson who's dad campaigned a series of drag jet boats, Rated X, and found out that his dad before he got into boats raced a AA Fuel Altered, Fantasia. They weren't too far from where we lived but I never knew them before the boat days. Bill Sr owned a shop in Paramount, Mr. Canvas, and built beautiful boat covers.

I can remember on overcast days/nights if we weren't at Lions, or Marine Stadium, we could hear the AA cars run all the way from Wilmington to our house in Lakewood. The sound would just rumble through the entire basin.

Never been able to find a pic of that Falcon, but here's Butters and Gerard and Henderson.

View attachment 1178270

View attachment 1178272

Awesome memories Rich, just another reason why I wish I grew up here back then.

Reid

 

[Boat Potato]

A friend of mine Justin Arias was there with his mom. It is great to see him so deep into trying to preserve nostalgia drag racing and pass it on. His family puts on Nitro Revival.

 

[HNL2LHC]

Heard about the track while my FIL was alive. Here are two of his favorite signs. The one that he talked about most was the poster from the last day the track was opened. He had to work and could not make it so his friends grabbed the poster. He later framed it and now it is hanging in my garage.

 

[old rigger]

Heard about the track while my FIL was alive. Here are two of his favorite signs. The one that he talked about most was the poster from the last day the track was opened. He had to work and could not make it so his friends grabbed the poster. He later framed it and now it is hanging in my garage.

View attachment 1178391


View attachment 1178392

Be cool to have anything from Lions today.
I wonder where this sign ended up?

I think I've posted this before, my uncle behind the wheel of Bill Golden's Little Red Wagon at Lions, Golden standing. My other uncle worked with Golden before and after he got the LRW (It was originally built by someone else). I also have 2 reels of 8mm home movies of Golden working the bugs out of the LRW at Lions and footage of him giving my uncle a ride down the 1/4 mile. My uncle laid on the floor and shot through the grill opening, which is how Golden drove the thing too.

 

[rivermobster]

Be cool to have anything from Lions today.
I wonder where this sign ended up?

View attachment 1178443


I think I've posted this before, my uncle behind the wheel of Bill Golden's Little Red Wagon at Lions, Golden standing. My other uncle worked with Golden before and after he got the LRW (It was originally built by someone else). I also have 2 reels of 8mm home movies of Golden working the bugs out of the LRW at Lions and footage of him giving my uncle a ride down the 1/4 mile. My uncle laid on the floor and shot through the grill opening, which is how Golden drove the thing too.

View attachment 1178446

Man that would be awesome to have those films digitized.

 

[dave29]

Someone gave me this many years

ago.

 

[ltbaney1]

A friend of mine Justin Arias was there with his mom. It is great to see him so deep into trying to preserve nostalgia drag racing and pass it on. His family puts on Nitro Revival.

yes he was there, i talked to him for a bit. his mom, him and his grandpa are great people. we have done every nitro revival with them, and before that we did the reunion in bakersfield when Steve was still running it.

 

[bonesfab]

Cool pics, thanks for posting. I've been to that transfer station a few times for swap meets and cruise in's and the little diner was always open to visit. Haven't been there in probably 6 years though.

Ya, hard to believe Lions has been gone 50 years, I was 16. 2 brothers directly across the street from where I grew up, The Woorley Bros, raced a gasser round body falcon. I can remember them rolling the car out of the garage, warming it up and making a few passes on the street before loading up and had to the strip. At the other end of our neighborhood was the Butters family who ran a AA fuel rail, the Butters and Gerard team. I never met Gerard that I can remember but the Butters had an alley behind their house and would make passes out there before heading to the strip. One of my friends, friends since '61, lived right down the street from the Butters and would go to Lions with them all the time, riding in their push car station wagon.
In '73 in high school I met Billy Henderson who's dad campaigned a series of drag jet boats, Rated X, and found out that his dad before he got into boats raced a AA Fuel Altered, Fantasia. They weren't too far from where we lived but I never knew them before the boat days. Bill Sr owned a shop in Paramount, Mr. Canvas, and built beautiful boat covers.

I can remember on overcast days/nights if we weren't at Lions, or Marine Stadium, we could hear the AA cars run all the way from Wilmington to our house in Lakewood. The sound would just rumble through the entire basin.

Never been able to find a pic of that Falcon, but here's Butters and Gerard and Henderson.

View attachment 1178270

View attachment 1178272

I remember the Rated X boat. Long time ago.

 

[Skyskier]

""Wheels up Wednesday, ......The First Wheelie Bar "........Okay, I know I'm gonna start a shit storm here so I'm telling you right now, I'm just telling you the story as I heard it from the man himself, Mr. Doug Thorley.




So,..............I've got a couple threads here in your group on Doug Thorley. Doug and his wife Dorothy came into my picture framing shop in Hemet CA back in 2009 to have some of her old family photo's copied and restored. At the time, Dorothy was having dialysis treatments down the street at the clinic and while she was there, sometimes 3 to 4 hours, Doug would come hang out an we'd shoot the shit about "stuff", a LOT of which was about his glory day's in the drag racing world, and believe me when I tell you, I had to PULL all the stories out of him !! he is NOT one that likes to talk about himself,........HE started bringing in his personal photo albums and I restored & copied pretty much all what he had.




Back in the '90's I was a major player in the limited edition print market, namely camouflage art by artist's like Judy Larson, Julie Kramer Cole and Bev Doolittle. I sold prints on the secondary print market, I had clients in every state in the lower 48 and Alaska, so I KNEW the " collectable print market" inside out AND sideway's. I tried my damndest to convince Doug that he IS a walking, talking "LEGEND", told him we could do limited edition prints of 1,000 pieces, autographed by him, 1,000 prints at $100 each, do one of the Nova, one of the Corvair, one of his old Buick,.......you get the idea,.......... we COULD'a made some big BUCK$ !!..........but Doug really didn't wanna have anything to do with it, he would much rather have been sitting on the porch at his ranch in Utah with Dorothy or out in the outback on one of his horses. I had him sit at my desk and sign a few pieces, told him I'd do a few of this poster and throw them up on ebay , just to "test" the market, told him a picture of him actually signing them would really be a plus. You can see by the look on his face, hed'a much rather been doing ANYTHING else !




ANYWAYS,.........I'm getting off track here about "the 1st Wheelie Bar". So, we're working on the print of the Nova, and Doug say's he could take just about anybody in that Nova for the 1st 700 , maybe 800 feet but then he'd have to get off it to bring the front end back down. So one night back at the shop, him an the guy's came up with an idea to build some kind of a contraption to put on the back end of the frame so as to KEEP the front end down. What they came up with is essentially a "wheelie bar" but without wheels, basically just the frame work if you will, they put some kind of "skid plate" or pads on it .........said the 1st time he used it was at Lions, said it worked GREAT an that it was NOW gonna be "part" on the car. It MIGHT have been the next week, the next event, whatever, the track manager pulled Doug aside an told him, " you guy's gotta come up with SOME THING to put on that contraption, you're tearing the hell outta the track surface " , so they put a set of small, steel wheels on it and so was born the first wheelie bar !........I asked Doug if he put a "patent" on it ? , he said , naw, I didn't have time for that kinda stuff man, I just wanted win more races" !..................




Well, that's it, that's MY story an I'm sticking to it !!.........

 

[rivermobster]

""Wheels up Wednesday, ......The First Wheelie Bar "........Okay, I know I'm gonna start a shit storm here so I'm telling you right now, I'm just telling you the story as I heard it from the man himself, Mr. Doug Thorley.




So,..............I've got a couple threads here in your group on Doug Thorley. Doug and his wife Dorothy came into my picture framing shop in Hemet CA back in 2009 to have some of her old family photo's copied and restored. At the time, Dorothy was having dialysis treatments down the street at the clinic and while she was there, sometimes 3 to 4 hours, Doug would come hang out an we'd shoot the shit about "stuff", a LOT of which was about his glory day's in the drag racing world, and believe me when I tell you, I had to PULL all the stories out of him !! he is NOT one that likes to talk about himself,........HE started bringing in his personal photo albums and I restored & copied pretty much all what he had.




Back in the '90's I was a major player in the limited edition print market, namely camouflage art by artist's like Judy Larson, Julie Kramer Cole and Bev Doolittle. I sold prints on the secondary print market, I had clients in every state in the lower 48 and Alaska, so I KNEW the " collectable print market" inside out AND sideway's. I tried my damndest to convince Doug that he IS a walking, talking "LEGEND", told him we could do limited edition prints of 1,000 pieces, autographed by him, 1,000 prints at $100 each, do one of the Nova, one of the Corvair, one of his old Buick,.......you get the idea,.......... we COULD'a made some big BUCK$ !!..........but Doug really didn't wanna have anything to do with it, he would much rather have been sitting on the porch at his ranch in Utah with Dorothy or out in the outback on one of his horses. I had him sit at my desk and sign a few pieces, told him I'd do a few of this poster and throw them up on ebay , just to "test" the market, told him a picture of him actually signing them would really be a plus. You can see by the look on his face, hed'a much rather been doing ANYTHING else !




ANYWAYS,.........I'm getting off track here about "the 1st Wheelie Bar". So, we're working on the print of the Nova, and Doug say's he could take just about anybody in that Nova for the 1st 700 , maybe 800 feet but then he'd have to get off it to bring the front end back down. So one night back at the shop, him an the guy's came up with an idea to build some kind of a contraption to put on the back end of the frame so as to KEEP the front end down. What they came up with is essentially a "wheelie bar" but without wheels, basically just the frame work if you will, they put some kind of "skid plate" or pads on it .........said the 1st time he used it was at Lions, said it worked GREAT an that it was NOW gonna be "part" on the car. It MIGHT have been the next week, the next event, whatever, the track manager pulled Doug aside an told him, " you guy's gotta come up with SOME THING to put on that contraption, you're tearing the hell outta the track surface " , so they put a set of small, steel wheels on it and so was born the first wheelie bar !........I asked Doug if he put a "patent" on it ? , he said , naw, I didn't have time for that kinda stuff man, I just wanted win more races" !..................




Well, that's it, that's MY story an I'm sticking to it !!.........

Good to see you around Denny. Hope all is well with you and your clan.

 

[RitcheyRch]

I have heard about it and seen pics but have not made it there. Pretty bad ass place.

Same and my mom raced there almost every weekend.

 

[warpt71]

Someone gave me this many years View attachment 1178447 View attachment 1178448 ago.

My dad has or had that same piece. Ill have to check his house to see it its still hanging somewhere. I know I grew up seeing it

 

[timstoy]

A friend of mine Justin Arias was there with his mom. It is great to see him so deep into trying to preserve nostalgia drag racing and pass it on. His family puts on Nitro RevivAl

I worked with Justin before he transferred to a different department. Justin is a great guy and of coarse the Arias family has deep roots in drag racing. We had a car show at work and Justin’s now father in law Steve Gibbs brought a cool old Ford with a flat head motor with a bunch of hot rod parts on it to the show.Steve worked for NHRA for years and was head of the NHRA museum for years and a wealth of knowledge of the people and history of drag racing. Steve now does the Nitro Revival. Justin has a Arias head conversion small block in his El Camino he has had for years. Even tho Justin was a generation or so late to the glory days of drag racing he keeps the dreams alive for us old guys who were lucky enough to be a part of it.

 

[monkeyswrench]

""Wheels up Wednesday, ......The First Wheelie Bar "........Okay, I know I'm gonna start a shit storm here so I'm telling you right now, I'm just telling you the story as I heard it from the man himself, Mr. Doug Thorley.




So,..............I've got a couple threads here in your group on Doug Thorley. Doug and his wife Dorothy came into my picture framing shop in Hemet CA back in 2009 to have some of her old family photo's copied and restored. At the time, Dorothy was having dialysis treatments down the street at the clinic and while she was there, sometimes 3 to 4 hours, Doug would come hang out an we'd shoot the shit about "stuff", a LOT of which was about his glory day's in the drag racing world, and believe me when I tell you, I had to PULL all the stories out of him !! he is NOT one that likes to talk about himself,........HE started bringing in his personal photo albums and I restored & copied pretty much all what he had.




Back in the '90's I was a major player in the limited edition print market, namely camouflage art by artist's like Judy Larson, Julie Kramer Cole and Bev Doolittle. I sold prints on the secondary print market, I had clients in every state in the lower 48 and Alaska, so I KNEW the " collectable print market" inside out AND sideway's. I tried my damndest to convince Doug that he IS a walking, talking "LEGEND", told him we could do limited edition prints of 1,000 pieces, autographed by him, 1,000 prints at $100 each, do one of the Nova, one of the Corvair, one of his old Buick,.......you get the idea,.......... we COULD'a made some big BUCK$ !!..........but Doug really didn't wanna have anything to do with it, he would much rather have been sitting on the porch at his ranch in Utah with Dorothy or out in the outback on one of his horses. I had him sit at my desk and sign a few pieces, told him I'd do a few of this poster and throw them up on ebay , just to "test" the market, told him a picture of him actually signing them would really be a plus. You can see by the look on his face, hed'a much rather been doing ANYTHING else !




ANYWAYS,.........I'm getting off track here about "the 1st Wheelie Bar". So, we're working on the print of the Nova, and Doug say's he could take just about anybody in that Nova for the 1st 700 , maybe 800 feet but then he'd have to get off it to bring the front end back down. So one night back at the shop, him an the guy's came up with an idea to build some kind of a contraption to put on the back end of the frame so as to KEEP the front end down. What they came up with is essentially a "wheelie bar" but without wheels, basically just the frame work if you will, they put some kind of "skid plate" or pads on it .........said the 1st time he used it was at Lions, said it worked GREAT an that it was NOW gonna be "part" on the car. It MIGHT have been the next week, the next event, whatever, the track manager pulled Doug aside an told him, " you guy's gotta come up with SOME THING to put on that contraption, you're tearing the hell outta the track surface " , so they put a set of small, steel wheels on it and so was born the first wheelie bar !........I asked Doug if he put a "patent" on it ? , he said , naw, I didn't have time for that kinda stuff man, I just wanted win more races" !..................




Well, that's it, that's MY story an I'm sticking to it !!.........

The legends will always be legends, but talking to them, to a hot rodder, is epic!

 

[timstoy]

""Wheels up Wednesday, ......The First Wheelie Bar "........Okay, I know I'm gonna start a shit storm here so I'm telling you right now, I'm just telling you the story as I heard it from the man himself, Mr. Doug Thorley.




So,..............I've got a couple threads here in your group on Doug Thorley. Doug and his wife Dorothy came into my picture framing shop in Hemet CA back in 2009 to have some of her old family photo's copied and restored. At the time, Dorothy was having dialysis treatments down the street at the clinic and while she was there, sometimes 3 to 4 hours, Doug would come hang out an we'd shoot the shit about "stuff", a LOT of which was about his glory day's in the drag racing world, and believe me when I tell you, I had to PULL all the stories out of him !! he is NOT one that likes to talk about himself,........HE started bringing in his personal photo albums and I restored & copied pretty much all what he had.




Back in the '90's I was a major player in the limited edition print market, namely camouflage art by artist's like Judy Larson, Julie Kramer Cole and Bev Doolittle. I sold prints on the secondary print market, I had clients in every state in the lower 48 and Alaska, so I KNEW the " collectable print market" inside out AND sideway's. I tried my damndest to convince Doug that he IS a walking, talking "LEGEND", told him we could do limited edition prints of 1,000 pieces, autographed by him, 1,000 prints at $100 each, do one of the Nova, one of the Corvair, one of his old Buick,.......you get the idea,.......... we COULD'a made some big BUCK$ !!..........but Doug really didn't wanna have anything to do with it, he would much rather have been sitting on the porch at his ranch in Utah with Dorothy or out in the outback on one of his horses. I had him sit at my desk and sign a few pieces, told him I'd do a few of this poster and throw them up on ebay , just to "test" the market, told him a picture of him actually signing them would really be a plus. You can see by the look on his face, hed'a much rather been doing ANYTHING else !




ANYWAYS,.........I'm getting off track here about "the 1st Wheelie Bar". So, we're working on the print of the Nova, and Doug say's he could take just about anybody in that Nova for the 1st 700 , maybe 800 feet but then he'd have to get off it to bring the front end back down. So one night back at the shop, him an the guy's came up with an idea to build some kind of a contraption to put on the back end of the frame so as to KEEP the front end down. What they came up with is essentially a "wheelie bar" but without wheels, basically just the frame work if you will, they put some kind of "skid plate" or pads on it .........said the 1st time he used it was at Lions, said it worked GREAT an that it was NOW gonna be "part" on the car. It MIGHT have been the next week, the next event, whatever, the track manager pulled Doug aside an told him, " you guy's gotta come up with SOME THING to put on that contraption, you're tearing the hell outta the track surface " , so they put a set of small, steel wheels on it and so was born the first wheelie bar !........I asked Doug if he put a "patent" on it ? , he said , naw, I didn't have time for that kinda stuff man, I just wanted win more races" !..................




Well, that's it, that's MY story an I'm sticking to it !!.........

Great stories about Doug Thorley! My son worked on Jim Dunn’s Funny Car for many years and we got to know the Dunn’s well. When the racing is done Jim could tell stories for days! It’s would be great if somehow we could get these legends to share some of their stories before their gone. Nice to see you posting also Denny, always enjoy your stories.

 

[old rigger]

I remember the Rated X boat. Long time ago.

Legendary boat as were all the blown jets back in the day. Bill Sr started out with v bottom hulls, all Rated X I believe. This was the fastest and last, his son Billy driving. First time in his dads boat but he raced (I think) Going Places and a few of the other fast ones back in the day. And he continued to race, I remember he went to Japan and raced in an arena. They'd bet on drivers and all boats were identical. Circle racing I believe. Long time ago now.

Billy Jr. He suffered pretty serious injuries. Virtually no safety clothing except for a helmet and life jacket. Vans tennis shoe bouncing along, ripped the steering wheel out after the first bounce and other debris in the pic.

He tripped the lights at some ungodly speed, just him. No boat. I use to know how fast but can't remember. Anything I say would be a pure guess.

 

[dave29]

Legendary boat as were all the blown jets back in the day. Bill Sr started out with v bottom hulls, all Rated X I believe. This was the fastest and last, his son Billy driving. First time in his dads boat but he raced (I think) Going Places and a few of the other fast ones back in the day. And he continued to race, I remember he went to Japan and raced in an arena. They'd bet on drivers and all boats were identical. Circle racing I believe. Long time ago now.

Billy Jr. He suffered pretty serious injuries. Virtually no safety clothing except for a helmet and life jacket. Vans tennis shoe bouncing along, ripped the steering wheel out after the first bounce and other debris in the pic.

He tripped the lights at some ungodly speed, just him. No boat. I use to know how fast but can't remember. Anything I say would be a pure guess.

View attachment 1178483

I've got a video somewhere that I took of Rated X crashing at Marine Stadium. Also have a video of Billy The Kid crashing at Castaic.

 

[warpt71]

Someone gave me this many years View attachment 1178447 View attachment 1178448 ago.

Stopped by my dad's tonight and sure enough, he still has his lol

 

[boatnam2]

Went a few times as a kid, even seen evil jump 14 cars or something, sometimes an old memory can almost seem as a dream. My mom quite a few years ago gave me some albums and stuff and every drawing I did was a funny car at lions, so maybe it wasn't a dream.

 

[dave29]

Stopped by my dad's tonight and sure enough, he still has his lol View attachment 1179033

There's 498 still out there!!

 

[Wheeler]

""Wheels up Wednesday, ......The First Wheelie Bar "........Okay, I know I'm gonna start a shit storm here so I'm telling you right now, I'm just telling you the story as I heard it from the man himself, Mr. Doug Thorley.




So,..............I've got a couple threads here in your group on Doug Thorley. Doug and his wife Dorothy came into my picture framing shop in Hemet CA back in 2009 to have some of her old family photo's copied and restored. At the time, Dorothy was having dialysis treatments down the street at the clinic and while she was there, sometimes 3 to 4 hours, Doug would come hang out an we'd shoot the shit about "stuff", a LOT of which was about his glory day's in the drag racing world, and believe me when I tell you, I had to PULL all the stories out of him !! he is NOT one that likes to talk about himself,........HE started bringing in his personal photo albums and I restored & copied pretty much all what he had.




Back in the '90's I was a major player in the limited edition print market, namely camouflage art by artist's like Judy Larson, Julie Kramer Cole and Bev Doolittle. I sold prints on the secondary print market, I had clients in every state in the lower 48 and Alaska, so I KNEW the " collectable print market" inside out AND sideway's. I tried my damndest to convince Doug that he IS a walking, talking "LEGEND", told him we could do limited edition prints of 1,000 pieces, autographed by him, 1,000 prints at $100 each, do one of the Nova, one of the Corvair, one of his old Buick,.......you get the idea,.......... we COULD'a made some big BUCK$ !!..........but Doug really didn't wanna have anything to do with it, he would much rather have been sitting on the porch at his ranch in Utah with Dorothy or out in the outback on one of his horses. I had him sit at my desk and sign a few pieces, told him I'd do a few of this poster and throw them up on ebay , just to "test" the market, told him a picture of him actually signing them would really be a plus. You can see by the look on his face, hed'a much rather been doing ANYTHING else !




ANYWAYS,.........I'm getting off track here about "the 1st Wheelie Bar". So, we're working on the print of the Nova, and Doug say's he could take just about anybody in that Nova for the 1st 700 , maybe 800 feet but then he'd have to get off it to bring the front end back down. So one night back at the shop, him an the guy's came up with an idea to build some kind of a contraption to put on the back end of the frame so as to KEEP the front end down. What they came up with is essentially a "wheelie bar" but without wheels, basically just the frame work if you will, they put some kind of "skid plate" or pads on it .........said the 1st time he used it was at Lions, said it worked GREAT an that it was NOW gonna be "part" on the car. It MIGHT have been the next week, the next event, whatever, the track manager pulled Doug aside an told him, " you guy's gotta come up with SOME THING to put on that contraption, you're tearing the hell outta the track surface " , so they put a set of small, steel wheels on it and so was born the first wheelie bar !........I asked Doug if he put a "patent" on it ? , he said , naw, I didn't have time for that kinda stuff man, I just wanted win more races" !..................




Well, that's it, that's MY story an I'm sticking to it !!.........

Great story Denny! tell us another!

Merry Christmas!

 

[ELCHINGONROGERS]

my dad 55 chevy back in the late 60s at lions drag strip