Three

GOLETA

Goleta, a small town six miles north of Santa Barbara, was mainly known as the location of the small local airport. After the airfield’s wartime service as a Marine air station, a group of local hot-rodders formed an “acceleration association” and made part of the airport into America’s first drag strip. In this image, an unidentified roadster nears the livestock crossing over Carneros Creek that served as the finish line. (Courtesy of Don Lanning.)

If anyone were rightfully to be called the godfather of drag racing, it would be Bob Joehnck, pictured here with his deep red 1929 Ford roadster. A Santa Barbara native, Bob was the motivating factor in the establishment of the first drag strip at Goleta. He founded the Santa Barbara Acceleration Association and was instrumental in acquiring the insurance and other documentation necessary to start the first legal drag-racing operation in the country. Joehnck was also well known as an engine builder and producer of speed equipment, building engines like the Ardun-Mercury overhead V-8 in Motor Monarch Dave Marquez’s famous roadster, “No. 880.” Bob’s business, Bob Joehnck Automotive, is still a part of the Santa Barbara hot rod scene. (Courtesy of Don Lanning.)

Among the many hot rods owned and raced by Joehnck was this chopped 1936 Ford five-window coupe, which had quite a history. Originally built by Los Angeles hot-rodder Tom Cobb as a lake racer, it was then sold to Joehnck. Joehnck raced it for a while, and then the rod went through a series of local owners, including Jerry Gaskill. The fully modified dragster was sold to an Oregon resident who then downgraded it into a street rod, which survives today. (Courtesy of Don Lanning.)

Among the earliest hot-rodders to race at Goleta was Keith Loomis of Ojai, seen here at Goleta in 1949. Keith is seated behind the wheel of his modified 1927 Ford T roadster. It was powered by a mid-1940s Chevrolet six with a Wayne 12-port head and Winfield carburetors, a departure from the usual Ford-powered machines. (Courtesy of Keith Loomis.)

The clean lines of Keith Loomis’s roadster are really evident here in the pits at Santa Maria Fairgrounds in 1949. That is a 1932 Ford grill shell up front. On the day this picture was taken, several cars were wrecked, and a driver, killed during a race on the old horse track at the fairground, a dangerous, old, half-mile dirt oval. Loomis is at left unhooking the tow-hitch, and Howard Hall of Ojai is at center in the sunglasses. (Courtesy of Keith Loomis.)

Keith Purrington, at left in his 1934 Plymouth five-window coupe, is pictured at the Goleta starting line about to take on a 1940 Ford coupe from the Los Angeles area. The number 13 on the side of Keith’s hot rod would prove to be bad luck, because he would soon wreck it. He did salvage the engine for use in another rod. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

This image really captures the atmosphere of a cold late afternoon in the pit area of Goleta. At left sits a 1931 Ford roadster, while on the right, a group of hot-rodders pitches in to solve some mechanical problem. In the background are the Los Padres Mountains. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Bob Hays of Santa Barbara streaks down the strip at Goleta in his flathead powered 1927 Model T roadster in a race against an unidentified opponent from Los Angeles. The other roadster appears to be a fairly rare 1933 Ford with what looks like cartoon character Donald Duck painted on the door. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Tom Cobb, a well-known hot-rodder from Santa Monica, is awarded a trophy from SBAA president Stoddard Hensling at an early Goleta meet. The blown 24-stud flathead had an aircraft carburetor under that Plexiglas bubble on the hood. Note the rather sullen-looking crowd of leather-jacketed youths in the background. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Stoddard Hensling awards a trophy for best time of the day to the owner of this smart-looking Ford Model T roadster. Note the scalloped paint job and the Deuce grill shell. The car is sitting exactly across the drag strip starting line. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Santa Monica resident Tom Cobb ran this cool rod, seen here at Goleta Drag Strip. Under the Plexiglas bubble on the hood is a flathead V-8 equipped with an aircraft supercharger. The grill shell came from a 1932 DeSoto. The metal roof could be removed, so the rod could be raced in either coupe or roadster classes. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

This somewhat blurred image shows the one time that drag racing was allowed on the actual runway at Santa Barbara Airport. The Firestone Road strip had to be closed for maintenance, and the airport authority gave permission to the SBAA to hold this one-day event. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

John Purrington of Santa Barbara runs his Plymouth-powered Ford roadster down the strip at Goleta. Note the absence of the radiator shell and, of course, any safety gear. Surprisingly, there were never any serious accidents or injuries the entire time the SBAA held drag races at the Goleta location. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

When he was not racing jalopies, Keith Loomis of Ojai could be seen at Goleta with his WayneChevrolet–powered 1927 T-bucket. The view of the foothills in the background is today obscured by development and Highway 101. In 1949, the area surrounding the drag strip was all farmland and tidal swamp. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Lake racers, hot rods, and sports cars were not the only types seen on the track at Goleta. Bob Postell of Santa Barbara is pictured here taking his parents’ almost-new 1948 Plymouth around the warehouse. He actually got it up on two wheels during this turn. Fortunately, he got it back down again. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

This is Monte Hendricks’s Tombstone Special. Built by Rip Erickson as a front-engine rod at his garage on Milpas Street across from the Hendricks family funeral-supply business, this rear-engined version was powered by a 1947 Chevrolet straight-six equipped with a Wayne head and manifold and three Stromberg carburetors. It was later sold to Keith Loomis. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Another Santa Barbara local, Toby Schwalenberg, is seen here hauling his Chevy-powered Model T roadster pickup around the warehouse track at Goleta. The SBAA established the rough figure-eight course for when drivers got tired of racing in a straight line. This building and many others seen in these images are still in existence today. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

At the finish line at Goleta, SBAA flagman Dave Malis is about to drop the checkered flag on fellow SBAA member Jimmy Terres. The small bridge crossing Carneros Creek is just out of the picture, behind where the photographer is standing. Malis was connected to the improvised control tower by a hand-cranked field telephone attached to the pole at his left. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Dave Malis (left) and Lee Hammock (right), engage in a Ford-versus-Chevy duel during the summer of 1948. From the looks of it, the Ford has got the jump on things this time. In the background are some of the many vacant buildings left when the Marine Corps abandoned the air base after the war. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Monte Hendricks, at left, is seen at left racing Billy Byron’s Model T roadster. Like many hot rods, Byron’s car was made up of parts from several old junk cars. The frame came from a Chevrolet, and Lee Hammock donated the Ford body. It was powered by a Chevrolet six. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

This slightly blurry picture shows SBAA founding member and engine builder Bob Joehnck, at left, about to take off in a race with Jack Quinton in his custom 1941 Ford Coupe. It looks like Jack has chopped the black custom’s roof by about three inches. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

This nice-looking 1929 Ford roadster from Los Angeles showed up at Goleta during one of the early meets. The engine sports a pair of relatively rare Riley heads and an exhaust cutoff. The fit and finish look good. Note how the 1932 Ford grill shell has been dropped, and the headlights, lowered. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Another frequent visitor to Goleta in the early days was well-known hot rod builder Don Mansfield of Ojai. One of his creations, which also served as his personal rod, was this little flathead-powered Model T roadster. This was state of the art for a hot rod of the late 1940s. Note the “chopped” canvas top and chrome tube shocks. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Tom Cobb of Santa Monica appears to be admiring either the foothills of the Los Padres Mountains in the background or, more likely, the chrome louvers on the 1934 Ford behind him. This image also gives a view of his hot rod’s blown AB flathead engine. The carburetor is said to have come from an aircraft engine, possibly a Ranger or Menasco. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

SBAA member Jimmy Terres is seen here poised at the Goleta starting line. His well-finished 1929 Ford roadster was painted metallic gold with black headlamps and wheels. Note that big chrome straight exhaust pipe. The rod was built by Terres’s uncles, who owned the Fernandez Brother’s Garage on Milpas Street in Santa Barbara. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

A black custom 1941 Ford driven by John “Cruiser” Quinton heels over as it turns on the SBAA’s road racetrack. The rough dirt track began at the warehouse visible in the left background (north of Hollister Avenue near Robin Hill Road) and ran west in a very rough figure-eight configuration toward Carneros Creek. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Here is another view of Monte Hendricks’s 1927 Model T–bodied dragster, which shows the Chevrolet 235-cubic-inch six-cylinder engine to good advantage. This engine would shortly be installed in the rear-engine Tombstone Special. The race number on the side is from Hendricks’s days racing at El Mirage Dry Lake. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

This shot, taken from midway down the strip at Goleta, shows a duel between two roadsters. Some races in those days started from a rolling start instead of a standing start because a lot of the cars were geared for long acceleration runs on the lake bed and not the relatively new sport of drag racing. (Courtesy of Lee Hammock.)

Quite a few local car club members also raced European cars at Goleta. Barry Atsatt of the Igniters is seen here at center in his light blue Porsche 356 Speedster as he has just passed a Volvo 544. Except for safety equipment, cars in Barry’s class raced as factory unmodified. The field in this race appears to be mostly made up of Porsches. (Courtesy of Barry Atsatt.)

Barry Atsatt heels his Austin Mini Cooper over into Turn Four with a Porsche on his tail at Goleta during a 1966 race. The little blue-and-white Mini Cooper was powered by a stock 1275cc Austin A engine. Barry was a dealer of imported car parts in Santa Barbara and, for a short time, was also a dealer for the little-known English sports car manufacturer Elva. (Courtesy of Barry Atsatt.)