Early Days of Hot Rodding and Racing in Santa Barbara and beyond.

[khyndart in CA]

A few years ago at a Sonoma Meet I was talking to a mechanic preparing a fleet of Porsches for racing and I showed him some old grainy photos I had taken of a 1968 Porsche 908 -008 that Jo Siffert had driven to victory in the 1968 Nürburgring 1000. I had taken these at Oran Park in 1970 as the car was trailered around behind a Chrysler VF Valiant Pacer. The mechanic then introduced me to his boss, Cameron Healy, who kindly took the time to tell me the 908 was now part of a private collection belonging to Dr. Julio Palmaz in Napa, not far from the Sonoma race track.

(Ken H photos.)

More about this 908 at this site
https://endurancenostalgia.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/from-the-collection-of-dr-julio-palmaz-the-1968-porsche-908-008-the-nurburgring-winner/

Cameron then climbed into his 1953 Cooper Porsche # 55 also known as the "Pooper" to go out and compete.

(Ken H photo.)

Cameron is also the owner of the earlier mentioned Porsche 356 Germund SL 356/02-063 and here is this YouTube clip of that story.

[video=youtube;cbkeg_Hwr4I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbkeg_Hwr4I[/video]

Ken H

[teegeefla]

Some well known drivers raced at Torrey Pines in the early days of their careers.

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For instance, Dan Gurney, whose racing exploits began with a Triumph TR2 at Torrey Pines in San Diego, 1955.

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Ken Miles driving his well known Flying Shingle.

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Carroll Shelby. # 20. 1953. Ferrari 375 MM.

( Ken H..)

That photo is not Dan Gurney in the white #129 TR2. It is actually Noble Bishop. Results of that January 15, 1956 race can be found here: http://wsrp.cz/natus1956.html
Also, Dan's TR2 was painted Poppy Red.

[khyndart in CA]

Thanks "teegeefla" for the correction.
My facts were correct but not the photo.

"Originally Posted by khyndart in CA View Post

Some well known drivers raced at Torrey Pines in the early days of their careers.
" For instance, Dan Gurney, whose racing exploits began with a Triumph TR2 ( # 129) at Torrey Pines in San Diego, 1955."

https://www.racingsportscars.com/driver ... y-USA.html



My searching will continue for a suitable photo if it is available.


(Ken H )
(

[teegeefla]

Here is a photo of Dan's #129 TR-2 from a 1959 Autosport article:

[Ray Bell]

From Motor Racing, December 1959:

Dan's first race was at Torrey Pines. He had tried to modify the car back to standard but was unable to do this, so ran in the modified category, finishing fourth in his class and ninth overall. He felt he had done "pretty well," especially on the twisty parts of the circuit. "But I hadn't learned how to heel and toe then, so I must have looked pretty funny trying to get slowed down for the corners."

FRUSTRATION

The next race was at Palm Springs. "By this time I had modified the car back to standard, and boy, it was really slow. All the production cars were grouped together for this race, over 50 of them, XKs, 300SLs, Porsches, Triumphs, Austin Healeys - and there were even a few Formula Three Coopers stuck in there for some reason. I got up to about twelfth or thirteenth, trying awfully hard, then a little Formula Three car just about stopped right in front of me on a hairpin bend, and I had to steer into the hay bales I would have run right over the top of him. This spun me out, of course, and I finished a really hot seventeenth. This race was really frustrating - I felt I was driving quite well but getting absolutely nowhere. I was going round the corners faster than most of the others, but they were just hosing me down the chute on the straightaway."

[teegeefla]

Dan at Palm Springs. Photo from Al Moss' DVD set:

[teegeefla]

A photo of Dan's Palm Springs incident from a DVD set of old race films and photos by Al Moss:

[khyndart in CA]

Good stuff teegeefla,
Al Moss was the founder of the company I work for, Moss Motors, and his films and archives are a real treasure, thanks for sharing.

Dan Gurney wore a black helmet throughout his whole racing career.
There was little regard for safety back in the fifties such as the lack of roll bars on the cars in your Palm Springs photo !

(Ken H )

[teegeefla]

Thanks Ken; those Al Moss DVDs are amazing and I also learned a lot of new info about racing in California back then. I was a fan of Dan as a kid (since he was proof that someone tall could be a race car driver) and I got to know he and his wife Evi for the last decade of his life. I have compiled a database of his entire amateur and pro career and have a collection of around 130 models of cars that he drove (with another 20 or so on my "to do" list. Some are diecasts, others are kits that I built, some are models that I modified. The collection can be seen on my facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/groups/815317719358977
Hope you enjoy it.

[khyndart in CA]

Buellton is a small town about 40 miles north of Santa Barbara and 10 miles from Los Olivos. (
(https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/los- ... california)
I saw recently that there was a race track on the edge of Buellton 70 years ago and I went to check out what I could, from looking at some old photos.
As you can see not much has changed over that period of time !
The farmer asked why did I want to take photos of the farmland and I showed him the archive photos. He was not aware of the racing and was most helpful and let me enter the property to try to match where the racing had taken place and this is the result.
He said it was a good time to wander around and take photos before the area was leased out for organic crop farming and the place is busy with people, farm equipment and irrigation pipes and watering and No Trespassers !
Where I stood to take this photo by the cut down tree is marked in the early photo of a start in 1951 of a group from the local Model T Club who organized the events at Buellton. ( I was at the white marker between the trees.)
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The property owner and family have been there for decades and will not allow any development and as they are close to the edge of town and I was amazed how it is unchanged from the 1950s.
.
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(Ken H photo)
Looking toward Buellton today from the 1950 start area. The building with the long roof in the middle is the home of Tilton Engineering which make pretty decent racing clutches that go around the world.(One can get lost for a while at this site.)
https://tiltonracing.com/


(Ken H)

[khyndart in CA]

Buellton is a small town about 40 miles north of Santa Barbara and 10 miles from Los Olivos. (
(https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/los- ... california)
I saw recently that there was a race track on the edge of Buellton 70 years ago and I went to check out what I could, from looking at some old photos.
As you can see not much has changed over that period of time !
The farmer asked why did I want to take photos of the farmland and I showed him the archive photos. He was not aware of the racing and was most helpful and let me enter the property to try to match where the racing had taken place and this is the result.
He said it was a good time to wander around and take photos before the area was leased out for organic crop farming and the place is busy with people, farm equipment and irrigation pipes and watering and No Trespassers !
Where I stood to take this photo by the cut down tree is marked in the early photo of a start in 1951 of a group from the local Model T Club who organized the events at Buellton. ( I was at the white marker between the trees.)
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The property owner and family have been there for decades and will not allow any development and they are close to the edge of town and I was amazed how it is unchanged from the 1950s.

[khyndart in CA]

Buellton is a small town about 40 miles north of Santa Barbara and 10 miles from Los Olivos. (
(https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/los- ... california)
I saw recently that there was a race track on the edge of Buellton 70 years ago and I went to check out what I could, from looking at some old photos.
As you can see not much has changed over that period of time !
The farmer asked why did I want to take photos of the farmland and I showed him the archive photos. He was not aware of the racing and was most helpful and let me enter the property to try to match where the racing had taken place and this is the result.
He said it was a good time to wander around and take photos before the area was leased out for organic crop farming and the place is busy with people, farm equipment and irrigation pipes and watering and No Trespassers !
Where I stood to take this photo by the cut down tree is marked in the early photo of a start in 1951 of a group from the local Model T Club who organized the events at Buellton. ( I was at the white marker between the trees.)



The property owner and family have been there for decades and will not allow any development and they are close to the edge of town and I was amazed how it is unchanged from the 1950s.

Looking toward Buellton today. The long building in the middle is home to Tilton Engineering which make pretty decent racing clutches
used around the world, (One can spend some time going through this site ) https://tiltonracing.com/

In the distant hills in the middle at the top was the home for President Reagan during the 1980s known as the Western Whitehouse.

(And that is my geography lesson for today.)

(Ken H.)

[khyndart in CA]

Buellton is a small town about 40 miles north of Santa Barbara and 10 miles from Los Olivos. (
(https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/los- ... california)
I saw recently that there was a race track on the edge of Buellton 70 years ago and I went to check out what I could, from looking at some old photos.
As you can see not much has changed over that period of time !
The farmer asked why did I want to take photos of the farmland and I showed him the archive photos. He was not aware of the racing and was most helpful and let me enter the property to try to match where the racing had taken place and this is the result.
He said it was a good time to wander around and take photos before the area was leased out for organic crop farming and the place is busy with people, farm equipment and irrigation pipes and watering and No Trespassers !
Where I stood to take this photo by the cut down tree is marked in the early photo of a start in 1951 of a group from the local Model T Club who organized the events at Buellton. ( I was at the white marker between the trees.)
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The property owner and family have been there for decades and will not allow any development and they are close to the edge of town and I was amazed how it is unchanged from the 1950s.

Looking toward Buellton today. The long building in the middle is home to Tilton Engineering which make pretty decent racing clutches
used around the world, (One can spend some time going through this site ) https://tiltonracing.com/

In the distant hills in the middle at the top was the home for President Reagan during the 1980s known as the Western Whitehouse.

(And that is my geography lesson for today.)

(Ken H.)

[khyndart in CA]

Buellton is a small town about 40 miles north of Santa Barbara and 10 miles from Los Olivos. (
(https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/los- ... california)
I saw recently that there was a race track on the edge of Buellton 70 years ago and I went to check out what I could, from looking at some old photos.
As you can see not much has changed over that period of time !
The farmer asked why did I want to take photos of the farmland and I showed him the archive photos. He was not aware of the racing and was most helpful and let me enter the property to try to match where the racing had taken place and this is the result.
He said it was a good time to wander around and take photos before the area was leased out for organic crop farming and the place is busy with people, farm equipment and irrigation pipes and watering and No Trespassers !
Where I stood to take this photo by the cut down tree is marked in the early photo of a start in 1951 of a group from the local Model T Club who organized the events at Buellton. ( I was at the white marker between the trees.)
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The property owner and family have been there for decades and will not allow any development and they are close to the edge of town and I was amazed how it is unchanged from the 1950s.

[khyndart in CA]

I will try this once again.
Buellton is a small town about 40 miles north of Santa Barbara and 10 miles from Los Olivos. ( https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/los- ... california)
I saw recently that there was a race track on the edge of Buellton 70 years ago and I went to check out what I could, from looking at some old photos.
As you can see not much has changed over that period of time !
The farmer asked why did I want to take photos of the farmland and I showed him the archive photos. He was not aware of the racing and was most helpful and let me enter the property to try match where the racing had taken place and this is the result.
He said it was a good time to wander around and take photos before the area is leased out for organic crop farming and the place is busy with people, farm equipment and irrigation pipes and watering etc. and No Trespassers !
A present day photo of where the hills had resounded 70 years earlier to the sounds of vintage Model T jalopies, hot rods and motorcycles.

(Ken H photo)

Where I stood to take this photo is marked in the early photo of a start in 1950 of a group from the local Model T Club who organized the events at Buellton. ( I was at the white marker between the trees.)

The property owner and family have been there for decades and will not allow any development and they are close to the edge of town and I was amazed how it is unchanged from the 1950s.

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Looking toward Buellton today. The long building in the middle is home to Tilton Engineering which make pretty decent racing clutches
used around the world, (One can spend some time going through this site ) https://tiltonracing.com/

In the distant hills in the middle at the top was the home for President Reagan during the 1980s known as the Western Whitehouse.

(And that is my geography lesson for today.)

(Ken H.)

[khyndart in CA]

A "Jalopy" is defined as an old and unreliable automobile. After WW2 there were many of these to be found in the US and so the local lads made good use of them at raceways such as Buellton.
Here are some examples of racing at Buellton in 1950 and how it looks today.

Note the cars and spectators parked up in the natural grandstands of the hills.

(Ken H )

[khyndart in CA]

A 1950 photo shows the race winner with the checkered flag behind the winning car # 38 a 1934 Ford Tudor.

My 2022 photo of the same area where some of the same trees are growing on the hillside.
The big difference is the major Highway 101 that by-passed Buellton in 1965, can be seen running north and south in the middle of the photo.

Lunch break at the Buellton pit area where most of the vehicles appear to be 1934 Fords except for # 14 a Chevrolet.

A much quieter place today.
(Ken H photo )

[Roger Dowding]

Ken H,

That Buellton stuff is great and welcome back !!.

Am busy in the cold in the Bay of Plenty collecting information from Don Tilsley who raced in the 1950's at Ohakea, Mount Wellington, a course I knew little about [ make that nothing as was not around the actual Mount but in the suburb of Mount Wellington near the present Motorway ], Seagrove and at NSCC Hill Climbs at Wairamarama Hill, near Onewhero that Trevor Sheffield knows a lot about.

Keep them coming - and the modern photos make good comparisons - not a lot has happened since.

[Allan]

Share with what you know about the Mt Wellington circuit when you can please Roger.

[khyndart in CA]

Not one of the prettier cars on the track, but local garage owner, Tommy Garland had his? machine # 2 running well.

Another young man who is featured in this thread was the popular Jack Mendenhall. Jack operated the local garage and tow services in Buellton along with building hot rods, dragsters, Jalopy racers etc,,.
Here is a young Jack standing by 1931 Ford Model A (Which has a 1932 grill shell )