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The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum puts on a monthly Twilight cruise for vehicles built pre-1970. The cruise is held on the first Wednesday of the month, from April through December, with the exception of September, when the Los Angeles County Fair is going on. Then the cruise is held on the first and last Wednesday in August. The Sponsor of the Museum is the Auto Club of Southern California and this fine organization has been supporting car groups and racing for over a century, as well as auto safety and road assistance. The cruise sponsor is Prolong Oil Care Products. The host for the cruise is the Cal-Rods car club. Roger and I made it a point not to miss this cruise, because the June Twilight cruise is always ladies night and we weren’t disappointed. The weather was overcast and those with light windbreakers found the elements to be perfect. The parking lot has room for nearly 400 cars and there are always some surprises in store for the serious car buff. The venue site is on McKinley Avenue, in front of the museum, just west of White Avenue, on the grounds of the Los Angeles County Fairplex, in Pomona, California. The starting time is 4pm, but many cruisers got there around noon and stayed the entire day and evening. Other cruisers came after work. It’s a very flexible car show in that you can come when you want and leave when you want and the Cal-Rods coordinate everything with skill and experience. The top 4 cars chosen by the judges are rewarded to admission to the Auto Club of Southern California NHRA World Finals in November, at the Pomona Raceway, where they will cruise up and down the strip to the cheering throng of over 40,000 fans. Admission to the museum on cruise night is free and people flocked inside to see the world class exhibits.
The first group of people that we noticed upon arriving at the museum was Dick Wells, Dave and Eloise McClelland, Bob and Sharon Muravez, Bobby Colgrove, Bill Groak, Tony Thacker and Wayne Phillips. Dick Wells came to California from Nebraska in the 1960’s and landed a job with the racing publications. He has been a close associate of those in the SEMA organization and racing groups ever since and a friend of the family, serving as a Board Member of the NHRA and the Museum for many years. Dave McClelland, known for that perfectly silky Southern voice, is a renowned sports announcer in demand for racing events. His lovely wife Eloise makes some of the most beautiful quilts and blankets. Muravez raced under the nom de plume of Floyd J. Lippincott Jr, so that his parents wouldn’t find out and force him to stop. His lovely wife, Sharon, accompanies him to all of these cruises, events and reunions. Bobby Colgrove has been called the partner in crime with Dusty Brandel. She is a top photographer who has helped to break the gender barrier that kept women out of auto racing for so many years. She is a great supporter of AARWBA, the writers, broadcasters, photographers and journalists association founded back in the early 1950’s. Bill Groak is one of the best PR men in the business and keeps the writers interested in the Museum’s activities. Tony Thacker is the Director of the Museum. He hails from England, is a car nut of the first order, has a great accent, which is accentuated by the speed that he talks and works, and has first-rate hot rodding credentials. Wayne Phillips is Mr Fix it around the museum. If it doesn’t work, they call on him and if it does work, well he’s just about to fix it before anybody notices and calls him.
Kenny Youngblood did a great painting of my dad, Wally Parks, and it is located on the far wall as you come into the museum through the front door. The Museum is quickly running out of space and a few cars have been hoisted up onto the walls to make more room below. Either the museum has to expand, or the staff will have to find nooks and crannies to keep putting in more nifty things to see. At 29,000 square feet, you would think there would be enough room for everything, but there are enough show cars and memorabilia to fill ten museums. We walked outside to see the cars on display and the first thing we noticed were the exhibitors. George Haywood brought his pop-up tent and table to display the Prolong car care products. With him was Jennifer Rothstein, representing customer service and marketing for the company. George and Jennifer were having a great time talking to the crowds and George would toss out Prolong hats to the people. Haywood is a distributor for the company and a really enthusiastic guy. Extreme Automotive also had an exhibit. On their table was an album dedicated to their founder, Ivan Leatherman, who passed away unexpectedly in 2006 from a heart attack. We did a shop tour on Extreme Automotive. Leatherman was only 47 and it was a real blow to hot rodders who came to look at this designer/fabricator as a gifted creator of hot rods. The Auto Club of Southern California had their pop-up tent and table, manned by Scottie Sundquist and Sherry Huber. They told me that they also volunteer to take the tent to the California Speedway, Southern California Boat Show, NHRA drag races, NASCAR races and other events and they will come to your cruise, reunion or event if you ask them to. How cool is that, to have the Auto Club of Southern California at your event? I asked them if they are forced to work the booths. “No, we love to volunteer and come and represent the Auto Club. We enjoy the car stuff and we get out of the offices,” they said. The Auto Club sends representatives from regional offices to the local events. The last table was reserved for Custom Chrome Racing, owned by Robert Ehlers, but he was out chasing down some stray dogs and calling their owners. The dogs seemed to love the cars and the people.
We met more people as we waded past the throngs of people. There was Steve, Gloria and Cindy Gibbs, Embo Bowland, Vic Cunnyngham, Bud and Lynne Rasmus and George Phillips. Steve Gibbs was the operations and track manager for NHRA for years. He was affectionately known as “the hook,” for pulling a stalled drag car off the line. Well, maybe the stallee didn’t think so, but no one could hold a grudge against the likeable and generous Gibbs. When we had a problem, Gibbs was the person we looked for and he’s loved by all the racers to this day. Gloria is Steve’s wife and Cindy is his daughter and both of these lovely ladies were judges today. Vic Cunnyngham is a Cal-Rod and always sees to the needs of the guests who come to the cruises. The Rasmus’ are faithful fans and I just learned that their name was spelled Rasmussen in the old country. George Phillips is in charge of the Junior Dragster Program for NHRA and is an official of the organization and another person you can count on when you have a problem. John Duran picked me up in his cart and gave me a tour. John’s job is to find trouble and take care of it. When you pack 400 cars and a 1000 people into a small area you are going to have problems and I watched John solve one problem after another. He pointed out Tom Tucker, owner of Tucker Tires. He also introduced me to Leonard Knight and his son Jade, who came to the cruise in their ’39 injected Ford coupe. With them was Leonard’s relative, Bill Bourke, parked in the next spot with his ’58 Morris Minor pick-up. Otis King brought his ’39 Ford coupe this time, but alternates that car with his ’32 Ford roadster. Otis drag raced at Pomona in 1952. Tom Kennedy brought his ’65 Mustang to show at the cruise. Kennedy brings the car to the cruise frequently. Duran told me that the Cal-Rods host 10 car shows a year and help out at the Grand National Roadster Show. They do nine cruises at the museum and their own show at the Santa Anita Race Track. All their work goes to support charitable events.
I found some of the judges hurriedly going up and down the aisles, trying to pick their favorite car. This time there were six judges, with six cars being chosen for honors. The judges were; Mendy Fry, Linda Vaughn, Melinda Miles, Sarah Allen, Gloria Gibbs and Shelly Anderson. Talk about a hall of fame group of judges. Mendy has driven all kinds of drag cars and is now driving an AA Funny Car in the Nostalgia Fuel category. Linda Vaughn has been a model, spokesperson, PR and marketing person and a beautiful representative for our sport. Since the early ‘60’s when we saw her holding onto that giant Hurst Shifter at the Nationals in Indy, she has been our special lady. Melinda Miles is a model and co-owner of Walden Speed Shop, in Pomona, California. Shelly Anderson has driven top fuel dragsters and is Brad Anderson’s sister. Otis King ran over and grabbed my arm, “Come quick and meet Homer Overton,” he said. That’s the interesting thing about coming to the museum cruises, you never know what you will see or hear and I can tell you, there are always surprises. Overton is a slight gentleman with a story to tell. When he was in high school, some of his buddies in the Spooks car club in the Pomona area were street racing over in the Chino area late at night. They put up barricades and ran their cars and when the cops showed up they would take off. Well, the cops caught them this time over on Pipeline Avenue and a young motorcycle Lt by the name of Ralph Parker gave them a break. “How would you like to organize some racing over on the parking lot of the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds,” said Parker. The young Lieutenant would soon rise to be Chief Parker of the Pomona Police Department and he would become legendary in the history of drag racing. Parker was in talks with the Fair for permission to use part of the back parking lot, which was crowded with Quonset huts from World War II, when the huts were used to house German prisoners of war. The Spooks agreed and for a short time in 1950, from February to September, they ran races there. Overton stresses that “we didn’t call them drag races; they were just untimed races, one car against another.”
I talked my friends into joining the California National Guard and by September of 1950, we were all called up for the Korean War and that ended our involvement in organizing the races at Pomona. Chief Parker found another group to keep the races going and get the kids off the streets,” he said. “There were six or seven of us who were involved; Howard Clelland, Warren Trout, Doug Ranney, Mel Dow, Duane Churchill, myself and another,” he said. “All of us went to the old Pomona High School, which has since burned down,” he added. When they returned from the war in 1952, the group reformed and called themselves the Short Timers car club and Chief Parker came to them and asked if they would take back the races in the parking lot as the other club were not living up to their agreement with the Fairgrounds. “There were a few others than the ones I mentioned and we continued to put on the races for another 7 months until the various car clubs got together and organized the Pomona Valley Timing Association in early 1953,” Overton concluded. Just then Greg Sharp walked by and waved. He is the curator for the Museum and a very knowledgeable car guy. Greg’s an ex-policeman and I will have to ask him if he has heard about the Spooks and the Short Timers. I spoke to Steve Gibbs. “I’ll be in Bowling Green, Kentucky on the 14th and will miss the L.A. Roadster’s Father’s Day Cruise and Car Show,” Gibbs said. “The race track at Bowling Green has that nostalgic feel to it. Holley is happy to sponsor the event and the town of Bowling Green has that magical touch. The Eastern Hot Rod Reunion has grown larger than the California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, California. There will be over 1500 hot rods at Bowling Green, everything from roadsters, hot rods, muscle cars and more. We have 460 race cars entered and expect to have more than that by the time the reunion starts. Some of the race cars will be Cacklefest and nostalgia show cars, but many of them will be racing,“ he added.
Rose Dickinson and Kat Lotz said hello. They are part of the marketing and PR staff that work diligently to promote the museum. Bones Noteboom walked by and waved. Bones is a car and boat racing legend and builds some of the best hot rods around. Captain Ed Ballinger stopped to say hello. Captain Ed was with us at Black Rock, the land speed equivalent to Woodstock, only bigger. Ed worked with Craig Breedlove on the Spirit of America. The Captain also raced some mighty fast jet cars in his day. Finally it was time to go, but before we did we had to say hello to one of our judges, Melinda Miles. Melinda is a co-owner in the Walden Speed Shop, at 1040 Price Avenue, Pomona, California. She is also a model, writer and representative for the younger generation that has taken the 1930’s, ‘40’s, ‘50’s and ‘60’s styles to heart. The young people are part of the rising Traditional and Nostalgia Hot Rodding movement and their enthusiasm is evident. With Melinda was Christian Dotson, a fabricator and designer. Walden Speed Shop has been building cars for 3 years now and before the speed shop was opened, the owners had many other creations to their credit. Melinda also writes for Car Kulture Deluxe, a new magazine that has caught the attention and imagination of young hot rodders everywhere, here, in Europe, Asia and wherever people love hot rods. Melinda has the look down just right, the hair, the lipstick, the clothes, the attitude and the enthusiasm and love for the genre. As soon as we can we will schedule an appointment with them to do a shop tour.
Gone Racin’ is at [email protected].
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