In Episode Three of our Legends Series, we take a look at the life and career of the late hot rod pioneer, Tommy Sparks. Born in Stuart, Iowa, Tom and his family relocated to Los Angeles during the Great Depression when he was still in grade school and the young and impressionable Tom was taken by the already budding hot rod movement of southern California.
Two years before he was of driving age, he bought his first car (a 3-window ’32 Ford) and was off and running, literally. He snuck the car out with his childhood best friend (Fred Carrillo of Carrillo Rods fame), crashed it, and later removed the crumpled fenders only to realize he’d built his first hot rod!
Tommy would ultimately race at the dry lakes during the 1940s, work as a machinist-engine builder-tuner at the famous Eddie Meyer garage in Hollywood, and would open his own Speed Shop on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood called Sparks and Bonney. Tom’s career and life with the automobile are one of the vastest that we know of; his involvement included midget racing, early drag racing, sportscar racing, stock car racing, classic car restoration, and a business that built custom-made camera vehicles for the movie studios. But once a hot rodder, always a hot rodder, and this was no different for Tom.
Listen in as Tom shares his stories with us ( and his lifelong friend and camera mate, Ray Brown ) that describe the wild times that only a teenage hot rodder in southern California during the 1940s could have had.
