Thread: Tucson Nostalgia Event 2007

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BTW, A friend from Canada asked me to visit the restored BubbleUp Firebird crew, and I'm pretty sure I saw Roland Leong working on the car!

I'd vote for more Speed Sport roadster pix too............always loved those cars.

Here is a picture I took in 1960. (Just kidding)

If my history is right, this car set a record on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, here in Tucson.....about 20-25 miles from today's track. They used to race there.

A little more history:

I don't have this sign any more, but Lyle Fisher was a pioneer in the use of motorcycle wheels for drag cars.

When I told Red I had this sign, he told me that the front engined roadster on the sign is a relatively unknown car that Fisher & Greth built, and immediately wrecked in Missouri.

BTW, that little injector scoop was another product they sold. You may recognize it as the scoop used by Chris Karamasines on the Chizler, and on the Bones-Dubach-Pisano 33 Willys AA/Gasser!

When I got the sign, which had hung in Lyle's shop, I could see it was painted on top of another sign, which announced the Air Force Base races, which had been run by the Tucson Timing Association (TTA). A friend of mine duplicated it on sign board.

HEY! I HIJACKED MY OWN THREAD!!!

Here is an article by the NHRA Museum.

The Speed Sport roadster campaigned by Lyle Fisher, "Red" Greth, and Don Maynard, one of the more popular cars of its era, produced record-setting performances from 1956 through the early 1960s. Powered by a 354-cid rear-mounted Chrysler Hemi, the 1,500-pound roadster stunned observers with a speed record of 160.14 mph at the 1957 ATAA World Series and finished the year with a clocking of 169.11 in Tucson, Ariz. Other records include an 8.03, 175.78 in March 1960; a 180.72 backed up by a 179.28 on Oct. 2, 1960; and the Drag News 1320 Standard Modified Fuel Roadster speed mark of 183.67 eight days later in Alton, Ill. The Speed Sport roadster remained competitive well into the mid-1960s, qualifying for Top Fuel at the 1963 AHRA Winternationals and making its final appearance at the 1964 Bakersfield March Meet.

BTW, this car ran nitro through modified Stromberg carbs.

Did anyone else in the group attend?