As regular readers of our newsletter will know, we conducted an interview with hot rod pioneer Lee Hammock a little over a year ago, and we’re excited to announce that Part One of that interview has been uploaded to the members area of our website. Members will get to tune in and hear how, with friends Bob Joehnck and Hugh Simpson, a young Lee Hammock met with the manager of the Goleta Airport in 1947 to see if a deal could be struck to allow their souped-up jalopies onto the airport grounds for “acceleration trials.” Incredibly, the airport manager agreed. The three boys settled on and marked off a distance of 1320 feet for the length of their course and, so, quarter-mile drag racing was established. In addition, Joehnck, Simpson, and Hammock’s determination to make their events professional and respectable ( they ran on a tight schedule, they had a gate where they charged a ticket price for entry, and they insured their two-car side-by-side race events through Lloyd’s of London ) makes their 1948 events the very first organized drag races ever held. Supporting AHRF Members will get to tune in to our interview with Lee and hear him tell the story in his own words (complete with a couple of clips we’ve interspersed from an earlier AHRF interview we conducted with Bob Joehnck) of exactly how this act of inventing organized drag racing came about and what it was about Lee Hammock’s early life that set him on this path.
Watch Part 1:
Run time: 29 min
Watch Part 2:
Run time: 23 min
Watch Part 3:
Run time: 29 min
Watch Part 4:
Run time: 24 min
Watch Part 5:
Run time: 26 min
