Santa Ana Drags Reunion
Santa Ana, CASaturday, April 1, 2017
Photos by Roger Rohrdanz Story by Richard Parks
On April 1, 2017 we held our biannual reunion honoring the old Santa Ana Dragstrip at Santiago Creek Park, in Santa Ana. The next reunion will be in October at the same park and at the same time: 10AM to 2PM.
Many people ask us, “Why do you hold them so often?” The answer is simple; we are an older group and lose our friends to age and illness. We aren’t sure when our last reunion will be held, but we will carry it on for as long as we can. The Santa Ana Drags came into existence on July 2, 1950 and lasted for nearly a decade with the last race held in 1959, and then the County of Orange closed it down to expand the airport.
Another question often raised concerns the point of whether the Santa Ana Airport Dragstrip was the first in existence. The answer is that it all depends on what you mean by “first.” Santa Barbara airport in Goleta, CA, claims that it held regular and supervised drag races a year earlier and continued for some time. Ed Osepian, a regular at the old Santa Ana dragstrip, told us that he raced at that first 1949 Goleta drag race and won his class, and brought a story and photograph to prove it. Impromptu drag races were held around the nation and especially in Northern and Southern California long before 1949.
Miller told me of a drag race between a roadster and a quarterhorse on Highway 39 around Whittier, CA sometime in 1938. A man in a Stetson hat and cowboy boots came into a local speed shop and said, “That roadster looks fast, but I’ll bet that my horse can beat that car in a quarter mile!”
It was a typical scam of the time. The hot rodders were cagey too and took the bet, but instead of using that roadster, they borrowed a quicker roadster to race the horse. The hot rodders even went to Santa Anita racetrack and timed all the thoroughbreds. Convinced they had a second or two faster time than the horse, the young hot rodders accepted the challenge. The hot rodders were a nervous lot as they wagered their money, for this was during the Great Depression, yet they were very sure that they had worked out the bugs in this scheme. They hadn’t, for the horse was a quarterhorse, bred for quick speed for a quarter-mile, though they didn’t know it at the time. The quarterhorse had been trained to take off as soon as the gambler touched the brim of his Stetson. The driver floored the roadster and quickly shifted into high gear. According to the story the hot rodders told, they beat the quarterhorse by a nose.
The Santa Ana Airport Drags were not the first drag races, for these events took place all over the country. Santa Ana had many firsts, though; it had paid admissions, it was professionally organized, it codified many of the rules that we know today and, most importantly, it took the nation by storm. After that first race on July 2, 1950, the news media went crazy trying to cover drag racing and young people from all over the nation flocked to C. J. Hart’s dragstrip and copied the way he did things. Timing associations were organized overnight and dragstrips were created all over the nation. So haphazard were many of these early drag strips that less than a year later, in March of 1951 the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) was formed to create safety programs, insurance coverage and rules to govern a sport that grew overnight.
The Santa Ana Drags Reunion is a free event and there are no costs to attend. Leslie Long is the leader of the group and is assisted by Gene Mitchell, Roger Rohrdanz, Richard Parks, Jim Miller and Jerry Hart. Mitchell brings tables, chairs, tents and food, all free of charge, and reserves the park. Roger is the reunion photographer, Parks is in charge of public relations and Hart brings the old posters that he saved when his father and mother were the promoters of the dragstrip. Other guests also bring photographs and memorabilia to show. Non-racers and spectators are welcome.
Those in attendance were Fred Angelo and Hilda Armijo, Phil Turgasen, Dave Sackett, Wayne Harper, Doug Wilson, Richard Langson, Chris Cote, Duke Langson, Sharon Kim, Leon and Darlene FitzGerald, Ed Osepian, Mike English, Lance Martin, Doug Westfall, Mike Miniaci, Neariah Bolderoff, Nautica Williams, Eldon Harris, Norm Stevenson, Larry Corbett, Curt Kopetsky, Tim Love, Dave Cook, Bob Baxter, Bert Middleton, Sonny Cerneka, Betty Belcourt, Megan Mitchell, Rich Casada, Tim Casada, Doug and Roberta Gillespie, Jim Murphy, Mike Uribe, Fred Martinez, Gene Ellis, Ken Freund, Ken Butler, Diane Carmelo Vandenberg, Lyman Wilson, John Conner, David Steele, Ron and Anna Winship, Jim Donoho and Diane Klingaman.