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Bob Wagner was a Southern California photographer, who shot mostly in the mid-60's to early 70's. He shot scads of feature articles for the various car magazines in the So Cal area. You can find his work in Hot Rod, Car Craft, Rod & Custom, Popular Hot Rodding, Drag Racing, Drag Strip...the list goes on and on.

Bob passed away a few years ago, and I've managed to get my hands on some of the photos from his estate...and they simply blew me away. Not a 35mm shot in the bunch. All 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inch transparencies and negatives...sometimes more than 50 shots of a single car from every possible angle, for that special magazine feature...

Here's a small sample of Bob's work. He liked to shoot in the pits, and there are shots that just amaze me...I hope they amaze you too.

2 guys goofing off...

Originally I thought these two were Geary & Walker, I've since been corrected on that. Now, i haven't the faintest. But, they look like they're having fun!

The first of three posed Walker and Geary photos taken at Fontana Drag Strip...more feature stuff, there were probably a dozen different angles of this setup, I chose these three...

 

 

Walker and Geary at Pomona, somewhere between 1964-1966.

Geary and Walker, at Lions.

Irwindale, which makes it 1966 or later, Walker and Geary get out on Anaheim Speed Engineering (Leon Fitzgerald).

Irwindale again, and again, Walker and Geary out front against the Scrounger of Stan Lucas.

Another of Bob Wagner's many posed shots...

Looks like the little injected Bantam got the jump on Geary and Walker...you'll notice I refer to the team both ways. If you look closely, the car is lettered "Walker & Geary" on the left side, and "Geary & Walker" on the right...equal billing, I guess.

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Gil Hayward's Monkey Motion at Fontana, the early version with the Chevy.

Well, sometimes when you admit ignorance, folks come to your aid...this is what I received after I admitted brain fade on this car.

"You did not know what car was in this picture. This was the original "BAD NEWS COUPE" (after Bruce McDowell sold the car to Joe Martinez). Tom King revamped the car. I built and tuned the motor & Lyle Webster drove the car. This car ran a 354 Chrysler, which was a B Fuel Altered. On 9/5/64 at San Fernando we ran 174.75 in 8:90. This was the first time any fuel altered ran that fast or that quick. The car ran as Martinez-Hawkins-Webster."

Thanks,
Les Hawkins

I know, I know. It's a gas burner. But man, is it pretty, or what? The Walden Bros. at the Winternationals in Pomona.

And I dig those sky-high injector stacks...

Cockpit of the Walden Bros. Fiat...pretty spartan, but clean.

Waiting for the scales...I sure dig this car. It's since been restored, and displayed at the California Hot Rod Reunion a number of times.

Duke, this one's for you...Snodgrass, Andrews and Mahnken's Ford powered Fiat, racing the Campos Bros. Lo-Blow T at Irwindale.
This car later lost the Fiat body, replaced with a Mustang Fastback, added a Cammer, and became the Psycho Mustang Fuel Altered.

Stan Lucas convincing those hard M & H's to hook up and haul ass at Lions...

Before they were fuel altereds, they were "Fuel Roadsters", back when they made distinctions between open and closed bodies...Boatman, Stone and Ingberg, later to be Ingberg, Stone, and Ferraro.

Well, it's Thomas and Pritchard...looks like Harrison has been painted out...

Staging lanes at Orange County...

OCIR Pits

The Nymph, gas, fuel, I don't know. This is the only picture I've ever seen of this car. Irwindale Raceway.

I'll bet you can tell this is Jim Patelli...at Fontana , the ORIGINAL Drag City.

Appears to be the M & V Automotive roadster, but with some kind of small Hemi replacing the small block Chevy...Pomona. Dig that tower.

Joe Davis and Wes Ingram's flat-out gorgeous "Jewel T". Yep, I've weakened, it's another gas burner, but the photos are SO NEAT!

The watering hole, and one immaculate big block Chev motor...that Jewel T again.

One beautiful front end, and one beautiful rear end. You make the call. One of 'em is the Jewel T.

I'd have to say this is John Mulligan in the JS Speed Center Bantam fuel altered. It's Pomona.

Hartwell and Frontuto, Olds powered, at Fontana Drag City.

Sometimes, when you throw these things out into the world, you never hear a thing. I try to leave an inaccuracy, or something that will provoke someone to write in and correct me. It sometimes works, sometimes not. This time, I hooked a big one.

"1959 THRU 1969 ---- 1928 BANTAM ROADSTER RAN ALL 1320 DRAG NEWS CLASSES WITH DIFFERENT OLDSMOBILE ENGINES FROM 302 INCHES TO 371 INCHES, BOTH INJECTED ONLY AND BLOWN AND INJECTED, USUALLY ON FUEL BUT SOMETIMES ON GAS AT NHRA EVENTS.
BOB WAS THE BUILDER/TUNER WITH CREW MEMBERS RON RIDDLE, BOB NOICE, PAUL STANLEY, DOYLE PAYNE, "JACK" JACKSON.
DRIVING CHORES WERE HANDLED BY BOB HARTWELL, BOB NOICE, BILL FRONTUTO, PAUL STANLEY, GARY ESSMAN.
GARY ESSMAN RAN WITH JIM MILES FOR A TIME.
IN 1968 GARY PUT HIS BLOWN CHRYSLER IN BOBS ROADSTER FOR SOME TESTING. IF I RECALL CORRECTLY IT RAN OVER 200 mph in the LOW 7 SECONDS AT THE SAN FERNANDO DRAG STRIP.
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFO ON BOB'S BANTAM ROADSTER LET ME KNOW, I LOST TRACK OF IT AFTER BOB'S DEATH IN JANUARY 1969, I THINK IT WENT TO BOB'S BROTHER-IN-LAW, JOHN CAFFEY."

RON RIDDLE

I sent him back an email, confessing my lack of knowledge, and that I'd only ID'ed the car from an old hot rod magazine photo, and received a second reply-

"YES, AS IN, HARTWELL & FRONTUTO. YOU ALSO HAVE THE CAR DESCRIBED CORRECTLY.

THE PICTURE ON YOUR WEB SITE AT "FONTANA DRAG CITY" APPEARS TO BE BOB DRIVING ALTHOUGH WITH YOUR TITLE OF HARTWELL & FRONTUTO, IT MAY BE BILL.
THE HELMET AND "FIRE MASK" MAKES ME THINK IT WAS BOB HARTWELL.

A FELLOW BY THE NAME OF GARY GABELICH ALSO TOOK A TURN AT DRIVING I BELIEVE ."

So, there ya go. Answers do show up on occasion. Thanks Ron!

Hope you dug the Wagner photos. These are some real history. Looking back at some of these cars, you wonder how they even made it from one end of the track to the other...and you wonder about how brave these drivers were.

True pioneers.


this way (West Coast 19) or that way (West Coast 21)

Awful Awful Fuel Altereds © 1999-2007 Jim Sorenson
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