Steve,

Are you talking about the Hot Rod issue with the banzai runners in it or one of the Mulholland articles.

If it is the Hot Rod one you want I can scan it in after I get back from dropping the wife at the airport today.

It was just like yesterday...
 

I was 'on the hill' as a passenger from '66 to '69 then driving it from '69 to about '77 … First with a '59 Alfa Spider then a '67 CalBug.

One of the fastest guys up there from about '70 to about '73 was guy from Detroit named John… He had a 1450lbs Élan S-1 with 155 hp on Goodyear Bluestreaks … it was devastatingly fast… The story goes that John squared-off with Charlie and the Corvette on the 'other side' (Mulholland, East of Laurel) and Charlie crashed the Vette trying to follow.

The stories can go on for hours… suffice to say, I think we took up ALL of our luck… and most of the luck of those around us…

Once I got the '73S I kept pretty much to Mulholland Highway and off Mulholland Drive…

Some hill racers of that generation that went on to win on the track:

Bill Fox - '71 C/Sedan National winner - Mini Cooper
Jim West - A/Sedan - 70's Regional racer - Mustang
Bruce Chambal - C/P - '69/'70 National racer - 911S
Hector Vazquez - '73 C/Sedan Regional Champ - Alfa GTA Jr. and '76 F/Ford Regional Champ
Jay Weinstein - '70s C/Sedan National winner - Mini Cooper
Dale Shore - 70's C/Sedan Regional/National winner - Mini Cooper
(BTW Dale's car is Jay's old Mulholland car and it's STILL winning vintage races… including Monterey last year)

… and so it goes

ANY old articles about Mulholland!

That would be me. Gimme an e-mail address & I'll send it.

Agreed !

Re: It was just like yesterday...
 

SSB - Howdy...yes I remember Bob Hall...really takes me back. Same question to you regarding CRE...you say that some are still in contact? Tell me more...oh, and keep that MGB!

Here's CRE in 2004http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1169839740.jpg

Re: Re: It was just like yesterday...
 

I remember one of those guys mentioned that raced with the stereo on full blast,and wore moccasin high tops with tassles.

More Formula Mul alumni,from the mid seventies on and in no particular order

Tommy Kendall : multi time T/A champ

Jeff Krosnoff: Japan F3000,LeMans,and SCCA racetruck champ

David Kudrave: Russell Formula Mazda winner(champion?)

Ted Prappas: Formula Atlantic Champ,Indy lights race winner INDY 500 starter

George Metsos: Champ car test driver for KRACO,Indy lights

David Brien : Formula Atlantic B class race winner

Thats just the open wheel,gimmie time on the tin tops..

Yes Henry, and I've known you for about 20 years too. :D Going back as far as the 944 days.

LateBrakeU2 - I think the guy in the moccasins was Tommy Hughes.

SSB - Wow that CRE photo blows my mind...I recognize Pat Pearson, Adolfo, and is that Bob Wilcox in the back? The rest are too fuzzy. Does CRE have a regular reunion?

semi regularly , thanks to Linda, Cliff , and Beth. I think we've had 3 x-mas parties recently. More than happy to get you on the list for future events. Bob was at the last one I attended too. pm me at dave.bouzaglou@gmail.com for the list
db

Agreed with the other poster. Any available articles. The Hot Rod would be great, thanks.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1169865435.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1169865508.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1169865969.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1169866002.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1169866024.jpg

First clandestine night at Willow Springs
 

Here is my recollection of the first time we snuck into Willow Springs raceway for some "midnight hotlaps". I am fairly sure it was a first because no one else in the group was familiar with the track. I had an advantage because I had been to Willow several times as a crew member for Mickey Fowler who was racing a Lola T300 in formula 5000 (or formula A as it was known in those days).

Anyway, it was a spontaneous decision as I recall, several of us (me, Ron Cortez, Paul ?, Tommy Hughs, Bob Wilcox and more) were out on a weekend evening and we started running the canyon roads around what is now Valencia. About an hour later we popped out of the hills not far from Palmdale. Someone had the idea of trying to get into Willow since it was only about 30 minutes away. I knew we could get in if no one was there so we headed off down the freeway.

In those days, Willow was vacant... no buildings, just a strip of asphalt in the desert with a loose cable across the entrance road. I just so happens that the cable had enough slack in it that one of us could hold it up enough for our lowered hotrods to drive underneath. One by one we crawled under the cable laughing our butts off. Once we got inside everyone was giddy and ready to rip but before we went out I knew I needed to warn everyone about turn 9. As I'm sure many of you know, turn 8 at Willow is a flat out high speed right hand sweeper that dumps you into a decreasing radius right hand turn 9...which has claimed many victims. The typical goof is to enter turn 9 way too fast and not discover it until you've run out of pavement. In those days the runoff was very rough and you risked rolling your car or launching into the air off the safety berm that protects the pits.

So we head out of the pits and onto the course towards turn one. Most of the guys had aircraft landing lights (another story) so lighting was no problem. We were doing follow the leader and everthing was fine until the second lap...as we passed the pits I noticed some activity and dust so we pulled in. Ron Cortez walks over laughing his head off, and shouting "you warned us, you warned us!". It seems that even after the turn 9 warning, Ron had underestimated just how tight turn 9 was and had an exciting top gear off-course excursion on the first lap! Luckly, damage to his 510 was light, most of the damage was to his ego. Things could have been much worse....

We spent about an hour running the course before we headed home. There were several more late night Willow trips until the owners figured out what was going on and fixed the entry gate!

Great stuff......Expecially since I've taken an excursion off turn 9 on an open class motorcycle....

Hot Rod Article
 

I've e-mailed it to ttweed as he offered to convert it to jpeg and then post it.

Thanks for the "HotRod" article scans. Great stuff.

Thanks for the story. That sort of thing could never happen these days.

Thanks for making the other article available.

Times were very different then. Once I started racing at the race track (yes, even a '77 SSC Chevette is a race car) I couldn't bring myself to go 10/10th across the hill anymore. I was driving my Blue '73 Camaro (Nevada plates) one night. I wound out 3rd gear and hit 4th at 110 mph going east through the "mini esses" then said to myself "what the hell am I doing?" I backed off of it and started to cruise 6/10th when I came up to the pit and found a big time "bust" going on. Once that Hot Rod article was printed we got allot of people up there who wanted to know where the "Drag Strip" was and that's who was (I believe) getting busted that night. Looking back I think we all knew that the article was going to be the end for us on Mulholland. Yet as most of us were trying to go SCCA racing anyway we were still known as "The Mulholland Gang"

I just remembered I have an article from the LA Times where Shav Glick covered our move from Mulholland to the Renault Cup. I'll look for it.

Willow, the first time...
 

My first recollection of Willow Springs was on a week day during my second year of high school in 1966. My buddy Hector convinced me (not a hard push) to cut school and go out to the track with a couple of our friends. It was me and Hector, Danny Bowls and a friend, and 2 others... (sorry it was 40 years ago) We were in Hector's '59 Alfa 1300 spider (later to become mine) Danny was in his Dad's MGA twin cam... and not sure of the other car... I think a Healey. We got there in the morning, no one there, and a big slack chain between two metal stanchions. We lifted the chain and drove on in.... We kept on switching off until we drove and passengered about all the cars.... I remember I was with with Danny when Hector tried to pass us in his Alfa on the outside of turn 9 (probably at about 55mph)... and the next thing we saw was Hector bouncing through the desert in a cloud of dust.... very funny looking.

This went on for seemed to be until the afternoon when the local county sheriff pulled up to the chain and yelled... (ready for it... just like a movie script)... HEY YOU KIDS... GET OUT OF THERE!!!! .... We collected our stuff, jumped in our cars, the sheriff lifted the chain, and we went home with BIG smiles.........


Here I am, 40 years later, go'n out to the 'Short Track' tomorrow... and hope'n it doesn't rain

....... and so it goes...;)