Carpinteria Thunderbowl Part Ten the 1956 season

Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part Ten 

the 1956 season

Author’s note – This 12-part article highlights the brief 12-year history of one of Southern California’s least-documented   auto racing venues – the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

Rufus “Parnelli” Jones, the runner-up in the 1955 Tri-Counties Racing Association (TCRA) championship, won the first event of the 1956 jalopy racing season at Carpinteria Thunderbowl on opening night Monday May 7, albeit the three-lap helmet dash. Lee Andrews, Dick Jump, Paul Lang and Frank Kephart won the preliminary heat races that followed, and defending TCRA champion Buford Lane won the semi-main event.

Marvin Porter, a 32-year old friend of Parnelli Jones’ became the star of the night, as he won the trophy dash, his heat race and the 30-lap feature race in his #14 Chrysler jalopy, an unusual entry against a field comprised mainly of Fords.

Porter, an Army Air Force veteran, would later graduate to the NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) Pacific Coast Late Model series and won the 1959 NASCAR National Short Track championship in the last season for the series which used points earned in races held on tracks a half-mile or shorter.  Porter would later win the 1960 NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model title with three wins, and became a partner in Parnelli Jones Enterprises.

Paul Lang won the 30-lap features on May 14 and May 21, and then scored again on May 28 for three straight wins, in a special 50-lap holiday feature, trailed by Dave Revard, Sonny Mars, and Buford Lane. On the evening of June 11, Lang beat Jones and Pete Gallagher to the checkered flag in the 30-lap feature to win his fourth race in six 1956 starts at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.  Lee Hammock of Santa Barbara won the trophy dash over fast qualifier Lee Andrews, as well as his heat race and the June 11^th semi-main event. 

On June 25, Andrews won his first Thunderbowl feature event of the season ahead of Lang after Pete Gallagher crashed out of the lead on the 18th lap of the 30-lap feature and flipped. On July 2, Ventura motorcycle policeman Chuck Gibson set a new track record for jalopies at Carpinteria in time trials with an incredible 17-second flat lap, which eclipsed the old record held by Lee Hammock at 17.28 seconds. 

Competitors and fans alike were curious as Gibson’s previous best qualifying time was 17.29 seconds set on June 25^th.  Gibson was not the only Ventura Police officer who appeared at Carpinteria weekly, as Sergeant Robert Krupp moonlighted as the track’s starter.

The 30-year old Gibson previously had raced his own cars at Carpinteria, but for 1956 he drove the #5 cream-and-red 1934 Ford owned by Joe Savatier who ran British Motor Car Service in Ventura. Savatier, a long-time automobile mechanic and race car owner and builder in the Ventura area, fielded a stock car at several 1954 NASCAR West Coast races for Tony Nelson.

Savatier’s jalopy was a regular front runner at Carpinteria with previous drivers Nelson, Bob Stanclift, Joe James and most recently Jim Jennings, but the new record raised eyebrows. Other competitors complained to the Tri-Counties Racing Association officials, and claimed an allegedly illegal intake manifold, so Gibson’s new record held in abeyance pending an inspection.

The driver Gibson and car owner Savatier both denied knowledge of any illegality, and the subsequent inspection of Savatier’s car set off a flurry of protests and counter-protests, and on Saturday July 7^th, Thunderbowl officials cancelled jalopy racing “until further notice,” with advertisements in both the Oxnard Press Courier and the Ventura County Star-Free Press newspapers. The officiating controversy led to track owner Jim Slaybaugh to take over as the track operator from Cliff Allen of Oxnard.

After a turbulent week of reorganization, racing resumed on July 16^th and on July 23^rd Lee Andrews set the quick time in time trials of 17.47 seconds, with heat race wins to Jump, Don Barlow, Gallagher and Bud Kelch. Jump won the semi-main and Mary Jo Erickson, wife of multiple Carpinteria feature winner Rip, won the special powder puff race and Bob Garrett won the night’s 30-lap feature event.

The following week, Chuck Gibson set fast time at 18.02 seconds, and Larry Albertson, Ray Foss, Buford Lane and Don Barlow scored heat race victories. Bob McFarland won the special mechanic’s race, while Mickey McDonald won the semi-main and Gallagher was first under the checkered flag in the feature race.

Paul Lang, in an interview with Hal Totten of the Oxnard Press-Courier revealed that contrary to the public belief that the jalopies were junk, he spent an average of 16 hours a week to maintain his yellow-and-black #10 1934 Ford coupe. Lang stated that in addition to engine tuning, he swapped in a new axles every four races and a rebuilt transmission nearly every other week, though he raced at the Thunderbowl locked in second gear with a top speed of 60 miles per hour on the short Carpinteria straightaways.   Even with multiple feature wins, sponsorship and free parts, Paul noted he was only $50 ahead so far in the 1956 season, as a main event win at the Thunderbowl paid just over $45. 

 

On August 7^th the Oxnard Press Courier newspaper published an unintentionally humorous article about the previous night’s Carpinteria race. The newspaper reported that Buford Lane won the feature in “slightly over eight minutes,” and Vern Scanlon won the semi-main in “about four minutes.”  The short article stated that “the exact times and amount knocked off the old records were not available today.” The same day’s Ventura County Star-Free Press report did not mention any new records, but noted that Irene Kephart (wife of Frank) won the powder puff race.

The following week on August 13^th, Lee Andrews set quick time at 17.65 seconds and won the trophy dash. Bob Waldren, Bob Garrett Chuck Wood and Paul Lang scored heat race victories and Pete Gallagher won the semi-main. Don Dunmyer won the special race held that week - a “backwards race,” in which the cars ran around the track clockwise and the race started with the checkered flag and finished with the green flag.

On Friday August 17^th, the Ventura County Star-Free Press reported that Thunderbowl owner and promoter Jim Slaybaugh closed on his purchase of Lane Speedway, a ¼-mile dirt oval described as “located in Los Angeles County between Palmdale and Lancaster.” The article related that Slaybaugh planned to race jalopies at the Speedway, built in 1955 with seating for 1800 fans, on Sunday afternoons.  The author has been unable to locate any records of Lane Speedway – do any of our readers have any information? 

September 24 marked the final race of the 1956 Carpinteria Thunderbowl season, highlighted by the return of Parnelli Jones, who timed in fastest with a best lap of 17.75 seconds and then won the trophy dash.  During the 1956 season, Jones graduated to NASCAR Pacific Coast stock cars as he drove for Torrance Ford dealer and future racing team partner Vel Miletich. Jones finished second in the NASCAR Grand National race held in August at Bay Meadows in San Mateo, and three weeks earlier raced in the ‘Southern 500’ held at Darlington South Carolina where he crashed and finished 50^th in a 70-car field.  

In the Carpinteria season finale, Bill Cherry, Cecil Moss, Pete Gallagher and Lee Andrews scored heat race wins and Ray Chapin won the semi-main event.   On the 16^th lap of the feature, Ventura’s Dave Revard, winner of his first feature race just three weeks earlier, escaped uninjured in a grinding crash.

Revard’s car collided with the out-of-control machine of Buford Lane which had blown a rear tire. Paul Lang then struck Revard’s car, which launched it over the crash wall, where it landed upside down and burst into flames. Once the race restarted, Lee Andrews scored the season’s final win.

Photo from the Oxnard Press-Courier of the top two drivers in TCRA 1956 points.

The final 1956 Tri-Counties Racing Association (TCRA)  points tally awarded the season championship for the second year in a row to Buford Lane with 1995 points to runner-up Paul Lang with 1880 points. Lee Andrews took third place with 1785 points, Revard wound up fourth with 1650 markers and Chuck Gibson rounded out the top points with 1340 points. 

Less than a week after the racing finale, on September 30, a Los Angeles pilot who took off from the nearby Parsons Airpark reported to the Ventura County Sherriff that his plane had been shot at as he flew near the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

Vincent Purden reported that the bullet struck his plane’s generator, but he landed safely at the Santa Barbara airport.  Avocado rancher Louis Parsons built and operated his Airpark with a 2000-foot dirt runaway with five small hangars through the mid-nineteen sixties.