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This website shows almost all of the race cars that you will find in the Woodland Museum in Paso Robles. The #54 Edmunds modified that Billy was working on will be added to the Museum soon. Spend a little time on the site and click on all of the cars listed on the left-hand site of the web page...Billy's #2 Sprint Car is the 1962 Sprint Car....and the 1995 #11 Car is a car that many of you have seen run at Perris.....so enjoy the show of midgets, sprints, indy car, nascar cars, etc on this very special website.... go to www.ewarbirds.org and click on Woodland Auto Collection....enjoy!!!!

Museum update......last week two additional cars were added to the Woodland Collection. The #3 Al Pombo car and also the #54 Super Modified, built and driven by Don Edmunds. This is the car that Billy was restoring (with help of Bob Feltham) and it was recently fnished by Buzz Shoemaker. You can see photos of the car when it was photograped by Hot Rod Magazine in 1966 (on the cover) by going to www.donedmunds.com click on Full Size Cars, then click on Super Modifieds. The car looks exactly the same today (except for the yellow headers) as the original body and paint were in great condition.....right down to the lettering and decals.

Anne, I am a native of San Diego and lived only a little over a mile from Balboa Stadium. Is this car the same as what they called a "Modified Sportsman"?

Harryfan,

Obviously I'm not Ann; however, I vividly remember the San Diego Racing Association modified sportsman cars and the Edmunds' car is a late version of them. My family relocated to the San Diego area in 1956 and I saw my first modified sportsman race at Balboa Stadium in 1957. At that point the cars were still evolving from cut down jalopies and the variety of cars and engines was tremendous. The cutting edge car was probably Don Thomas' roadster. A perennial winner was Art Pratt's Fiat bodied blue car with a Buick engine. There was also Chuck Morris' T-bodied car with a Cadillac engine. The Peat brothers' T-bodied car was also memorable with Don Edmunds driving it. The modified sportsman cars were very popular until racing in Balboa Stadium was closed down to add a second level to it for the San Diego Chargers.

In the early 1960s the San Diego Racing Association had no home track until Tom Jackman and Earle Brucker opened Cajon Speedway in nearby El Cajon. Unfortunately the modifieds never seemed to get back to their former position of eminence.

I will always have fond memories of all of the drivers I saw in Balboa Stadium and Cajon Speedway -- Parnelli Jones, Bobby Hogle, Jim Hurtubise, AJ Shepherd, Art Pratt, Don Edmunds, Jack McCoy, Rosie Roussel, Bud Sterrett, Herb Crawford, Les Crawford, Kenny Lengle, Don Freeman, Jim Culbert, Carl Adams, Chuck Allen, Mondo Iavelli (what a heavy right foot he had), Bobby Belcher, Fred Thomas, Hank Henry, Don Ray, Ralph Jasper, Rip Erickson, Jimmy Woods, and on and on.

Those were the days of great racing.

Tucson Osty

I think that there was a couple of guys nanmed Donnie Hamilton and Dick Fries. My older brother said someone had a Jaguar powered car.

harryfan,

Don Hamilton was Gordon Hamilton's son. Gordon ran modified sportsmen for a number of years and when Don was old enough Gordon bought a car for him to run. Don later ran the famous Tamale Wagon owned by the Morales brothers. If I remember correctly, it had a four cam Ford and/or turbocharged engine in it for a while while Don drove it. I remember that they hadn't figured out how to handle the turbo lag so there was a brief delay before it cut in when he hit the accelerator. Don was a California Racing Association champion back in the 70s. He once competed at Knoxville with the Peat Brothers' T-bodied car. Again, my memory might be failing me but I believe the car caught on fire and literally burned/melted to the ground. Fortunately Don wasn't injured.

Dick Fries and his brother Jack both raced with the San Diego Racing Association. I remember that Dick ran a car that was basically a sprint car with a roll cage -- remember that this was when sprints didn't yet have roll cages. Dick was a "rim rider" with CRA.

I have no idea what has happened to Don; however, I believe Dick passed away from a heart attack several years ago.

And yes I believe that there was a Jaguar powered car. I have a San Diego Racing Association yearbook and will have to find it to see if it has any reference to the Jaguar powered car.

Tucson Osty

My first race at Balboa Stadium was in 1951 when I was 6 years old. Obviously I have been hooked on the short tracks ever since then.

Hi,

I went to the site to see a pic of the Al Pombo car but didn't see it. Can anyone send or post the pic for me?

Jerry

I've been looking for the Peat Bros T bodied car. Anyone know where it is?

PJ

New-Parts

That more than likely was Parnelli Jones in the Vel's Ford car at Balboa Stadium in San Diego. I remember the starter's stand. This probably was before Jones headed to the midwest and USAC.

Jack Clegg drove the car after Parnelli.

Those were truly great times!

Tucson Osty

Glad to see the Edmonds Car is going in the Museum. Mr. Woodland Commissioned me a few years back to build the new chassis for this car. It was a challenge to make all of the tabs fit the old Alum. body. We were not allowed to drill any new holes. Richard Harvey, Stinger Chassis

My Dad and I have it and I will finish getting it together this coming year. His health is failing so the car stays where it is until he is well enough to see it run.

Wow ,What a great place, so many beautiful creations.......Next time I am in Cali to see my Mom..I will make a point of going there!!!!!

According to my Dad he saw the Peat Bros T @ The Pomona fairgrounds a couple tears ago , he remembered it cuz he raced against it with Vukie Jr driving @ the old Irwindale back in the 60's

The above Comments are satire & for entertainment
purposes only

An email from Don Edmunds to me about the Peat Bro's T buckets. I have the picture of My Dad and Wally Peat with Don's model.

Jerry

There were 3 Peat Bros modifieds, most of the races I drove for them were in the first car, that was the one in the picture you sent , it was mostly managed by Wally, I won a lot of races with that cat, most at Balboa Stadium in San Diego and Ascot but there was one I won at Lemon Valley speedway in Nevada that paid $1000 to win, a lot of money back then. At the time I was working for Bill Stroppe , so I was away at times , then other drivers would fill in ,but it was always my ride when I was back . Wally sold that car to Billy Wilkerson , Billy got rid of the "T" shell and put a race car" bull nose" on the car. Billy won quite a few races with the car, it was always fast. He finally sold the car to someone in the southeast, he doesn't remember who the buyer was ,I talked to Billy before he passed away and he said he always regretted selling that car. By the time the second car was built, mostly by the twins, Donnie and David, I had my shop going and didn't have a lot of time, I did drive some, I remember winning a main event at Ascot in your car, I had a "slide job" dual with Jimmy Wood that I won on the last lap. I believe your car was driven a lot by Bob Hogle and I think Billy Vukovich drove it a few times before the twins sold it to Al Pombo, Both the twins have passed away, Wally is still around , he told me he built a third car with an aluminum body that is up in Washington somewhere . Don Jerry I had forgotten (81 years old) that Wally had gone with me to your dads place to see the "T". I had built a model of the car, steel, and brought it along. I drove Wally's car as both #71 and #6. Did the model as #6 #71 was the number that the Peats usually ran, so I will probably should change it one of these days. Don

You have any pics of the Peat Bros T you can post ?

The above Comments are satire & for entertainment
purposes only