The Boys from Belmont

The Schrank Bros; Walt & Jesse

Page Two

The Boys (Jesse and Walt); hey, what happened to Roberta?

The final concept for the car; 97” Chassis Research frame, 276.1 cid Desoto mill, 6:71 GMC supercharger carrying those lusty looking Algon injectors; Little Brother debuted behind the wheel at the U.S. Gas and Fuel Championships, March 1961

Can you imagine this happening today; “Big” letting the locals get up close and personal; U.S. Gas and Fuel Championships, 1961

“T.V.” Tommy Ivo and Kent Fuller; same race

Bob Sullivan’s Pandemonium III; yes, it’s Bakersfield 1961

By 1962 The Boys from Belmont were a full-fledged member of Northern California’s top fuel elite. They held both ends of the Standard 1320 B/FD record, and could run with anything the 392 cid Chryslers threw at them. Though purely unofficial, the members of this little club included Ted Gotelli, Champion Speed Shop-McLennan, Cash Auto Parts-Stuckey, Forsberg-Hubbard, Bob Sbarbaro, and Masters-Richter. Week in and week out these guys would duke it out at Fremont, HMB, and Kingdon. Though intense, the rivalries were never vituperous nor revengeful. Jesse sums up the way it was back then: “In those days guys would always be blowing up their stuff qualifying, so you never knew who would show up for the first round. But, all the racers were first rate guys. Ted Gotelli probably had the best car out there, but Masters-Richer probably would challenge that statement. Once at Fremont we were racing M & R and” Big” Bob Haines was having a lot of problems with the starter and red lighted twice while staging. Haines was livid with the starter, but we just cooled it down and said let’s do it in about 30 minutes. When we finally squared off, I smoked the tires too hard, got out of it, stabbed it, did a wheelie, and watched Haines streak to victory. Class guys that they were, Sid Masters came over at the end of the night and gave us $100.00 of his winnings”.

But, there was a bigger prize lurking beyond the horizon; knock off the giants from the Midwest and the East that ventured West each winter. Starting around 1959 and in conjunction with the U.S. Gas and Fuel Championships, it had become standard practice for the big guns east of the Rockies to come to California during the winter months and challenge the “best from the West”. The time was March 1962 and the venue, Kingdon Drag Strip in Lodi. Up to this point, the East Coast lions had had a difficult time finding the victory circle. Don Prudhomme had won at Bakersfield, Champion Speed Shop won The California State Championships at Half Moon Bay, and Bob Sbarbaro and his “California kid” had been victorious at Fremont. Don Garlits, Art Malone, Chris Karamesines, Bob Sullivan, and Vance Hunt were fixing for a fight and the arena would be Johnny Soares’ track. In the semis, Art “The Colonel” Malone was matched against “The Boys from Belmont”. Jesse had been nicked in the semis at Fremont the week before by Sbarbaro and was looking for some redemption. Uncharacteristically, Art Malone red lighted away the race. Although Al Caldwell lobbied against it, Jesse generously agreed to a re-run stating, “We don’t win races that way”. On the rematch, Art squeaked out a win and then went on to race Don Garlits (Connie Swingle was driving at that time) in the final. Ironically, in that final, Art had engine trouble; Swingle blew his engine at half track, and limped across the finish line first with an anemic 8.93, leaving Walt and Jesse to ponder the $1000.00 that could have been theirs. “”We had a tremendous amount of faith in our combination; we never ran more than 50% in the tank. The Desoto made just enough bottom end torque to hook up and not boil the tires. And, the Scotty Fenn chassis was the perfect frame (length and weight) for the amount of power the engine generated. The dragster weighed 1580 lbs. and the horsepower was managed through a Ford transmission that ran high gear only. Once, we put a Chrysler in and it smoked the tires from end to end.”

Chris “The Crazy Greek” at Fremont with his Stuckey car; Fremont 1963; that’s the Greek knelling on the left

Bill Butler and Warren Welsh’s Shoehorn from Reno NV; this little A/GD did in many a Chrysler with this set-up

Terrible Ted Gotelli’s top fueler; Kingdon 1962

Walt, Jesse, and John Phelps in the hats (courtesy Al Caldwell); doing a number on Ted Gotelli and Jim McLennan at HMB, 1961; the flagman? None other than Andy Brizio

Jesse out on Cash Auto and Archie Liederbrand. “These are the guys I wanted to beat the most. Nothing bad to say about Archie, but Ivan, the owner of Cash Auto, really needed a personality make-over”. (Jesse)

This is the Ansen-Stuckey car which was campaigned as the Cash Auto Spl. (above) in 1961. Lou Senter sold the car to Cash Auto but repossessed it when Cash Auto failed to pay for it. Lou then sold it to Keith Black who had Fuller update it. It debuted in June 1962 as the now infamous Greer-Black-Prudhomme dragster. (commentary by Don Prieto)

Left to right: Jesse’s wife Edna, Edie Wilson, Sandi Barnett, Bud Barnett (Gotelli’s driver); and Jesse.

As 1962 unfolded, it was clear drag racing was moving in a new direction fueled by a huge performance aftermarket that was growing and prospering, especially in California. Not only were there better engineered components for the engine, but also light weight kit chassis’ and other high performance accessories. This meant more money was needed to compete with the better funded teams. As Jesse recollects, “Though we really didn’t have it (money), we persevered, even building a new car for the 1963 season. It was a real nice dragster with an aluminum chute pack. Then a tragic, discouraging event occurred. Floyd Head (Head-Justus A/FD), a Poor Boys member, friend, and racer from our San Antonio days, had come West with his top fuel dragster to race Champion Speed Shop at Fremont. Their driver, Rex, was killed when another car hit it while still on the track. That deeply affected both Walt and I because of how tight the San Antonio gang had always been. Shortly thereafter, and on a day when Walt could not make it, I really had a bad and costly engine explosion at Fremont. That was just the end of the line. I kept the chassis for a long time, but it eventually got the torch. And, the record setting Chassis Research frame? I set it outside the shop one night and by the next day it was gone.”

One of Al Caldwell’s all-time great Drag News covers; left to right and top to bottom: Don Garlits, Denny Milani, “Jet Car” Bob Smith, Jesse, Tommy Ivo, Chris Karamesines, Art Malone, Frank Silva, Bob Sullivan, and Conrad Kalitta; a contemporary composite of the time’s top fuel heroes.

The Itch

After nearly a 20-year hiatus from the drag strip, The Boys teamed up with Jesse’s son, Jerry, to race pro comp. True to the end, they used the same 276.1 cid Desoto on nitro. Initially, they raced a car previously owned by Steve San Paolo, but later had Don Long build them a real beauty. It wasn’t the terror like the earlier one, but it was stout enough to run 6.83-185.

Jesse again, “We raced the West Coast until 1986, but thinking there might be other projects in the future, I kept my license current through 1990.”

Some nice front yard shots of the Don Long car

“I used to fit in these things real easy”-getting ready, Fremont Raceway

Walt, Edna (Jesse’s wife), and son Jerry (back turned); Fremont Raceway

1992 San Antonio Poor Boys/Road Runners Re-union: R. C. Waldendorf, Bobby Joe Rutledge, Bobby Langley, Henry Garner, and Jesse

Floyd Head getting ready to cackle his fueler (Poor Boys/ Road Runners Re-union, San Antonio 1992); crew is Bobby Joe Rutledge, Peters, and Max Lang

Four “no lift lead foots”; standing left to right: Jeep Hampshire, Jesse Schrank, Ron Hampshire, and Denny Forsberg; sitting: Jeep and Ron’s brother-in-law Joe Douglas (CHRR, 2005)

Grass Valley CA (2005)