The Golden Age!

"Lions, Part 2": 1962-66
On New DVD

Five+ hours of
racers' "home movies" & hero
interviews ...

Video History
Of Hot Rods,
Dry Lakes,
Drag Strips &
Bonneville

This DVD's live-
action sound will
hurt your ears ...

"Cacklefest"
Plus '06 CHRR
Fuel-Car Racing

First & second
Bakersfield bashes!

1959 & 1960
March Meet
Highlights On
One New DVD

Crash 'n' burn for your coffee table ...

Steve Reyes's Big Book Of "Drag Racing Mayhem"

New old stock. Hurry!

Kenny Youngblood's "Memories Of El Mirage"

25 cars, just 20 bucks!

Bob McClurg's 10th Poster: "Fuel Altereds II"

"Is that my crank on the ground?"

'60s & '70s Custom Prints

From national stars to local losers, 1907-2006

A Century Of SoCal Action


'07 March Meet Photo Gallery

Super-model Mike Bumbeck's best
side

Men's formal wear: sweats, tanks, short- & long sleeve Ts.

Author Cole Coonce is one sick puppy!

272 pages of thrust-powered LSR heroes & zeroes.

Dig that '61 tail light!

By popular demand: official women's wear, only $15.95

Gillespie got it right!

Part One: From planning & ground breaking to 1962.

After 42 Years On The Wagon, Chuck Doss Falls Off, Big Time
Photography by Dave Wallace, ©2007

Some quality cacklers appeared in the Famoso Grove. Unlike the expert clones of the Stellings & Hampshire Red Stamp Special (center) and the Weekly, Rivero, Fox & Holding fueler, Number 23 is the real deal, as driven by both Chuck Doss (briefly) and Wayne King. The Grove brings welcome shade to a facility that had none before people started donating money for trees to be planted in honor of family members and friends, often deceased. Just above King's rare, four-port Hilborn injector (set up by — who else? — "Lean" Gene Adams!) is the engraved plaque dedicated to this particular tree.

For the past four decades, Wayne King had been trying to lure the former owner of his restored race car back to the track. Since Chuck Doss reluctantly sold the Doss, Clayton & King slingshot in 1965, he'd gone cold turkey, staying away from drag strips altogether. His only contact with ex-driver King, now 66, had been telephonic.

All it took to end both of those unfortunate, 42-year streaks was King's irresistible offer to "cackle" the car they'd campaigned in 1963 and '64 with Chuck's father-in-law Del Clayton, now deceased — and to do so at the drag strip where so many of the team's memories were made, especially during March Meets.

Wayne King's Top Fuel rivals included fellow-Bakersfield-boy Rick Stewart (near lane), now NHRA's chief starter. On this print of a late-1964 duel at San Fernando, Stewart scribbled, "Wayne — Were we great or what!" (Sorry about the unavoidable reflections in this plastic-encased print from the display that travels with the car.) Jim Kelly photo ©www.match-race-madness.com

At 71, Chuck Doss recalled working long days at construction around Santa Maria, Calif., then wrenching with Clayton late into each week night in his home garage. Weekends found Doss, Clayton & King at two, if not three, different tracks between San Diego and San Francisco. Backed only by the close relationship that driver King enjoyed with Ed Donovan, this low-buck trio and Chuck's small-inch (354) combination set multiple A/Fuel Dragster track records and often beat the best of the best at the very peak of Top Fuel competition.

Owner Wayne King (left) and crewchief Rex McHenry prepare for a cackle session just as Chuck Doss, the late Del Clayton and King prepared to make a pass in 1963-64. The duo and friends towed all the way from northern Washington to participate in all of the festivities that accompany every March Meet. King is a Bakersfield boy who relocated to L.A. to work and drive for Ed Donovan — who gave Wayne a nickname that has stuck to this day: "Peregrine."

When King jumped to a rare paid ride in Donovan Engineering's prestigious shop car in late 1964 ($100 a week and expenses, plus 25 percent of winnings), Chuck jumped in, but admittedly scared himself at his home track, Santa Maria. Mrs. Doss evidently wasn't crazy about this turn of events, either: "My wife told me to start sleeping with the race car," Chuck said. "That's when I sold everything. I never came back, even to watch. I knew I wouldn't make a very good spectator."

We have fire! Chuck Doss hadn't occupied this seat since late 1964, after Wayne King jumped ship to Ed Donovan's house car. He hadn't seen the car since selling it, shortly thereafter.

"These tears aren't just from the nitro," said Doss after his turn in Wayne King's time machine.

Sure enough, after a few minutes in a seat he'd briefly occupied 42 years ago, Doss was asking King when he could come out and do it again. The last time I saw Chuck in the Famoso Grove, he was inquiring about the cost of nitro and listening to his old driver describe the thrill of pushing down Famoso's fire-up road at the annual California Hot Rod Reunion, then idling into Cacklefest position on the racing surface.

From the look in Chuck Doss's eyes, I got the impression that it won't be long before his hands get dirty again.

Chuck Doss had not seen this race car nor these old friends in 42 years. At left is Bakersfield's Gary Guinn, whose sponsorship enables Wayne King to keep on cacklin'. Gary's late father, Irv Guinn, was a key backer of the U.S. Fuel & Gas Championships and Famoso Drag Strip.