Mon, 22 Feb 2016, 20:47 PM Bay Area Boy- Part I

By Steve Reyes Photo copyright 2016 Steve Reyes

Since I began my crazy adventures attending and photographing drag racing in 1963, my early travels have always lead me back to my home track at Fremont Drag Strip. Even when I moved from Northern California to Southern California, I found myself making the five and a half hour drive (one way) to attend the races at Fremont. Maybe it was the people or the great lighting for photos, but I always enjoyed being at my "home track."

I believe every drag fan has that special race track that they enjoyed as a kid or as a young adult. It is that wonderful place with all the cool cars, the noise, the smell of nitro in the air, and maybe the lingering smell of hamburgers being grilled at the race track concession stand. It seemed like every drag strip I ventured to had that certain draw to it. A hundred and nine drag strips is the most recent count of strips visited in the last fifty-two years, yet I still think of Fremont as my home base.

Even though it's been almost thirty years since Fremont a.k.a. Badlands Race Way was padlocked, my fond memories of this place of speed and wonderful race cars will never fade. This place was the first I ever saw a nitro burning top fuel dragster make a wheels up tire churning 190mph run and fifty years ago, I got to see and photograph a new kind of drag race car, the funny car. Yes, you can call me a homer and you would be right. For me, Fremont will always be the place where I started one wild ride of a career as a touring drag racing photographer.

If you wish to purchase prints of the photos below or any others, they may be obtained by contacting us at breyes@reyesontour.com. Other photos for purchase may be viewed by following the links at www.reyesontour.com.

The big rivalry in top fuel when I started to attend the drag races at Fremont was
between Ted Gotelli and the team of Masters and Richter. What was really strange
was that Denny Milani, Gotelli's driver, would sometimes be behind the wheel of the M&R AA/FD.
Usually about once a month Milani and Gotelli would have a big falling out and Milani would
go to their rival and drive their car. Sammy Hale would then drive Gotelli's AA/FD.

The Berry Brothers may have been based in Fresno, California, but they spent a lot of time
racing their A/FA roadster and line of top fuel dragsters at Fremont. Claude Stark, Butch Maas,
John Edmunds and Dwight Hughes all drove for the Berry Brothers.

The Santa Rosa, California, based team of Batto, Valente and Bings raced the first ever
Woody chassis fuel car at Fremont. In 1965, Batto and Gotelli battled in top fuel every
weekend at Fremont for Top Eliminator honors. This ended in August of 1965 when Milani
was killed in the crash of Ted Gotelli's AA/FD at Half Moon Bay, California.

Jim Davis was NorCal's answer to SoCal's Woody Gilmore. Davis built dragster chassis
and of course, drove his own product. Davis had a herd of his chassis running in NorCal .
Some of his top fuel customers were Dennis Baca, Denny Ball, Dennis Hollingsworth, Don Cook,
Ed Roth and Howard Cameron (The Cheetah AA/FD).

A real fixture in Fremont's top fuel class was Roger Harrington. About the only thing this
bucks down racer didn't do was build his own chassis. Davis did that and Roger did the rest.

Coming into the Fremont top fuel wars in 1965 was Jessie Perkins and Ray Matelli.
They had purchased Tony Waters' Bakersfield Smoker's winning roadster and stuffed a
blown 392 Hemi on nitro in the engine compartment. The car tried to race in top fuel but was
very outdated and soon vanished. In mid-1966 Perkins debuted a new AA/FD named the Runt
with Rich "Hippie" Bruckmann at the controls. It was soon replaced with a longer newer
Cow Palace Shell AA/FD. Bruckman, Dan Madigan and Bob Hightower drove Perkins' line of
Cow Palace Shell AA/FD's in the early 1970s.

Frank Bradley, a future drag racing hall of fame driver was in the Bailey Brothers nitro
burning Drag Master chassis dragster for this photo. Yes, the Napa based plumber rose
through the dragster ranks to earn a spot in the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame with
his driving and tuning talent. Note the movie camera on Bradley's roll bar; yes, it's mine and
we were making some "home movies."

The gasser scene at Fremont had some very cool cars. The Panella Trucking Anglia
with Ken Dondero at the controls came after the Panella Brothers Willy's Pickup.
Ronnie Nunes and his blown Olds powered Willy's always made the class exciting.
Two of the standout 1933 Willys in the class belonged to Hamberis and Mitchell with
"Hippie" Mike Mitchell at the wheel. Also, the Warren, Miller and Warren '33 was a Fremont regular.

Rich Guasco set the fuel altered class on its ear with this Pure Hell fuel altered in the
mid and late 1960s, Fred Cerutti and Don Petrich were the first couple of drivers to sit in
the fuel burning roadster. But things really came together when Dale Emery got into the driver's
seat. Both Guasco and Emery have been inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

A long time Fremont racer was Fred Cerutti and his Quality Auto fuel altered.
It was Cerutti who helped Guasco with the first version of Pure Hell. Cerutti then
raced his own two versions of his Quality Auto AA/FA at Fremont almost on a weekly basis.
He would race a dragster or whatever lined up against him on the other side of the 1320.

The Bay Area/San Jose provided Fremont with some great top gas dragster racers.
The standout team of Goodnight, Keith and Williamson raced with a blown Chevy early on
and became one of a handful of drag racers to be a member of the first drag team to ever
tour England. Sporting a Hemi and then Ford engine in their top gas dragster was the team
of Halstead and Dunlap. In 1968, the team switched to nitro with their Ford power.
Driver Bill Dunlap is still driving in the retro top fuel class and having a mountain of fun.

Another Bay area racer that has been inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame
is chassis builder and driver Dave Uyehara. I first saw Uyehara in 1965 when he was partners
in the Speed City junior fuel car with Frank Martinez. In this strange partnership, the duo swapped
out the driving chores every round. Dave honed his car building craft and drove for Dick Oswald
in top gas and also Oswald and Cohen's AA/FD. Uyehara found seat time in many of the local
top fuel cars and even ventured into the funny car class during the 1980s.

Nitro burning injected Chevy dragsters were in force at Fremont almost every weekend.
George Santo's Goldfinger with Jim Perry behind the wheel lead the charge in Top Eliminator.
Sacramento's Jim Brandy was a regular with his Giant Killer fuel car and Denny Forsburg
could be seen in the driver's seat of the Vic Hubbard Speed and Marine Woody chassis A/FD.
Last but not least, Gene Gilmore piloted his Bing's Speed Shop A/FD and on the far side,
Rance McDaniel wheeled his A/FD.