Racing on the River Road

By Pat Foster

All of us bozos were still racing on the street in the early '60s.

The clandestine races on the River Road were a sight to behold. Saw more than one hot rod towed in, some, on the funny smellin' stuff. A certain upholstery guy from Van Nuys might have been one of `em. <G>

This was when the Snake had his '56 Century. It made a better low rider than street racer. Then there was Pat Baner, Dale Gould, and a host of others. The Van Nuys Bob's Big Boy crowd was hard pressed to keep up with the "rich kids" out of Toluca Lake Bob's. To say nothing of the other bad boys from Burbank (Safford, Ivo, Floyd L., Gaide, Janke, etc., etc.)

The other end of Van Owen wasn't too bad either. If someone had to race "right now" we could leave Bob's and in five minutes be over on Chandler dodging Palm trees. One night a guy zigged when he should have zagged and paid the ultimate price.