Legends of the Quarter-Mile

Presented by

The Drag Racing Heritage Foundation

Leonard Van Luven

Part Two

A nice shot of one of the Dyer & Van Luven cars.

 Dave Beebe in the Hansleben & Van Luven "Charger" Woody car at the 1968 AHRA Winternationals. Dave Beebe was the most intense driver I'd ever seen. One time I watched him go to the line and measure the distance between the last staging light bulb and the red light bulb with a pack of cigarettes. I asked him why he did it and he told me he was trying to figure out how early he could leave on the tree.(Bob van Luven) Photo by Jim Kelly, Courtesy of Dick Towers

. June 1971 at Lions the brand new Wilcox, Stewart & Van Luven car set a new track record of 6.48 on the first run on the car. This shot is in the first round where the record was backed up with a 6.50 run, shutting off very early at 190 mph. “This was one of the lightest cars, weighing only 1280 pounds, wet, even with a cast-iron 392! It had a Don Long chassis, a mag body and .02 thin everything.”(Bob Van Luven)

My favorite, me and Dad pushing the Keeling, Johnson & Van Luven California Charger after the burnout. Steve Carbone driving. Lions, June1970. This was the first time Steve drove the car so we were at the track when it opened to get his check out pass out of the way. Steve shut the car off just past the half way point and still ran the lowest ET for that session (early afternoon) with the chute out, blossomed, through the lights. We started to push the car back down the return road when CJ Hart came up on his mini bike, madder than hell, saying Steve drove it all the way down the track and threatening to throw us out. After several people said the chute was out before the lights he calmed down and told us that this run wouldn't count as a qualifying run (duh). This picture is the next run which netted the number 1 qualifying position. (Bob Van Luven)

A picture of Dad, Tom Dyer and Hippo in the pits with the Dyer & Van Luven car. Whenever Hippo wasn't running his own car he would go out and help Dad. Dad always said his cars ran better when Hippo helped him because Hippo would talk him into a more moderate tune-up than Dad would have run on his own. Hippo had a great sense of humor and was a pleasure to be around.
(Bob Van Luven)

This picture is waiting in the staging lanes for a qualfying run at the 1972 Winternationals;
Dad, the Greek, Creitz, Carbone, Don Hampton and his 2 daughters
(Bob Van Luven)

The Dyer and Van Luven car on the starting line. Dyer driving, Hippo on the left and Dad on the right checking cylinder head temperature. Ted Frye has the fuel tank cap open and is going to pour in some Hydrazine from the glass bottle in his left hand.(Bob Van Luven)

Me and my brother Richey with Dad at the 69 Winternationals standing next to the
Hangsleben & Van Luven car.(Bob Van Luven)

Here's a picture of Dad running the valves at the March Meet in 1970. He's talking to long time backer Louie Senter of Ansen. Norm Wilcox is standing in the background, holding his daughter. Also in the background is Mikio Yoshioka who would drive Dad's last front-engine car in 1973.
(Bob Van Luven)

Here's a great before and after sequence. March Meet, 1970, Norm Wilcox in the California Charger. We were the #1 qualifier and had the quickest ET in each of the first 3 rounds. The first picture is in the staging lanes before the semi-final round. Norm is sitting on the hood of the truck, suiting up. Louie Senter (Ansen) is leaning on the right rear slick while the Goodyear rep sets the tire pressure on the left slick. John Keeling is backing down the engine. Dad is next to John wearing his authentic Indian Reservation hat, a gift from Bob Creitz.

The engine is mortally wounded at this point. The plan is for Norm to fire up late and forgo doing the burnout. We race Harry Hibbler whose quickest run was over a 1/4 second slower than our slowest pass. We thought the engine had enough left in it to get by Hibbler and Dad had made a deal to buy a new engine for the final round.

The second picture is the top end after the semi final round. The engine broke a couple hundred feet off the line and Harry Hibler won. Norm has just gotten out of the car. Dad (less hat) is talking to to Louie Senter. Somehow I'm now wearing Dad's hat and I'm behind the engine on the right side of the car. Chuck Johnson, one of the partners, is looking disgustedly at the engine from the other side. Al Mays, who would become the crew chief when the team evolved into Keeling & Clayton's California Charger, is a couple of feet away from Chuck, in the blue shirt.

A good title for these 2 shots would be "hero to zero in 6 seconds"

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