I've been racing ever since I bought my first car. In 1959 I went to the smokers meet with a friend

and his brother who was in the T-Timers car club.

They had a 39 Ford coup with no fenders. They ran the car on the salt and the drag strip.

I remember there was more racing in the parking lot, then the drag strip back then...ha..ha.

I used to run A/G in my 1930 Chevy. Seems like that put me racing Hayden Profit

with his 409" Chevy at the pond and Doug Cook at Lions against his blown Studebaker coupe.

I never did win one of those races.

I was a junior in high school when I bought the Chevy.

It had spoke wheels and 19" tires. The first thing I did was buy 16" wheels off of a 49
chevy...it had a stock 6 in it .

My auto shop teacher had a 50 olds in the back lot, so we put the brakes,

motor,trans,and rear end in the my chevy.

My first race at Lions was the Bean Bandits, needless to say they

beat me by half a dragstrip, but I was hooked...ha...ha...ha. I have so many stories.

Frank "Rootbeer" Hedges and I used to go to the A&W in Hawthorne CA. and race any body

in the place, it was one bad little hot rod...the cops would bust me every time.

We use to have to sneak into the Standard Station (now Chevron)

to get Custom Supreme, the white pump which was 102+octane.

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I raced that '30 Chevy until 1962 when I went to Pomona and saw Gary Cagle had his chassis for sale.

It was sitting under the grand stands with a for sale sign $500.00. It was a complete roller
less motor and I had to have it.

 

I raced that car until I had Eddy Potter build me a full body 150" car in 1965 ,

it had a 425" Olds motor and was going to be sponsored by Allen Paul Olds in Inglewood,

but that sponsorship fell through so I installed a Chrysler Hemi in the chassis.

The Olds motor that was in the 30 chev went into the Dragster.

I bought the dragster from Gary Cagle in 1963 at Pomona.

Injected 488" Olds engine, with Hilborn injectors, Crankshaft Co crank, Sid Hoover aluminum rods,

Engle cam, Firestone slicks, Donovan welded direct drive and axles, Henry Olds rear end and brakes..

We raced dragster @ Lions and San Fernando.

I raced George Bolthoff and who ever else was at the Pond or Lions

I raced the second 4 all the time, the car ran in high 8's around 180mph.

I remember beating Adams& Stuart and Gary Cagles roadster once. We had match races with Boyd and others
incuding Eddie Potter, Pete Millar, Fireside Inn and others, it's hard to remember.

Ralph Gudall use to take pcxs at the track, I wonder if he saved any of them.

This car ran pretty good. I used to run 10% nitro in it. Keith Black used to kid me all the time about the load

I was running...ha...ha. He said his motors wouldn't start on 10% ha...ha.

1963-4

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The Potter built chassis never went straight so I sold it. I contacted Don Long and he built me a great car.

The Don Long car was like a Ferrari it went so straight. I bought a Ed Pink motor for it

from Jesse Sturgeon and asked Don Madden help me, he showed me how to run it.

The stuff I didn't know about dragsters then, would fill a large book...ha...ha...ha

1st Run in the New Don Long Car @ the "Beach"

Wheels Up....@ Famosa in '72, I like it Digger!!!

I think we ran 6.76 and won Top Fuel Eliminator against Don Moody in 1972

Digger trying to lighten the car alittle by shedding a few heavy parts.

Check out the guys out under the tarp, they don't have a clue what's happening.

 

I never towed a car so far just to blow it up..ha...ha...Back then gas was 23.9 cents a gallon,

it cost me $38.00 to tow to this race in 1972.

I went to my first challenge Garlits race, this car ran 6.80s no matter where you ran it .

At Tulsa we were the first car to run in the 6s on Friday, but the we broke
the block and didn't have a spare.

Rule #1. If you are going to race a fuel car, you need two motors,

order them when you order the car or don't plan on winning any big meets.

Any way my first trip to Tulsa was a bust, but it was a lot a fun,

believe it or not you could buy beer in the pits standing in your drivers suit and

if you showed them a NHRA license they got real mad!!! Put that crap away,ha...ha...ha.

 

The second year at Tulsa was bad too, only this time the whole car ate it.

Needless to say I won't go to Tulsa no more. You know there places your just are not meant to go..

Tulsa must be my place...

 

 

See what I mean!!! Tulsa 1973 was not a good track for Digger...a little Digger dancing

 

Second year at Tulsa. The car ran good first pass, we were in the show

..second pass tires went bad, turned purple that's is bad as it gets.

So I borrowed some tires from the Damn Yankee funny car.

Rule #2 not a good idea to borrow stuff you can't afford to buy

..any way these tires were 112 roll out and my tires were 104" roll out.

When the clutch locked up the motor stopped, BANG!!!! No chute, burned off, no brakes,

parts cut the brake lines, needless to say parts went every where...ha..ha...ha.

The exploding parts broke the steering off and the car was on it own and it didn't do to well...

after 600 feet of guard rail was knocked down it stopped...geeeese.

No body got hurt but we lost a lot of parts never found any thing. Steve Reuse found the Don Long
throttle linkage..the track loaded the car on the trailer with a skiploader...

but we still had a good time. What a trip, to top it off, I hit a skunk on the way out of Tulsa
and all the way home no one would come near the trailer

when we stopped for gas, the smell was really bad...ha...ha...ha.

 

But after all the excitement in Tulsa, he's still with us today...Go get 'em Digger Dan

Sears Point '99

 

All Photos provided by Digger Dan Horan ~ August 2000