Speed racers A look back at drag racing in Sanford from 1955-1966
SANFORD— "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, Sanford Dragway, Route 109, Sanford, Maine. Be There."
The obnoxious, gravel voiced DJ at Boston's WRKO radio station, Dale Dorman, belted across the airwaves throughout New England hawking drag racing at the Sanford Airport. From 1955-1966, Sanford was advertised as one of the fastest strips on the East Coast and paid well enough to attract some of the top competitors in the country.
Sanford was trying to recover from the economic disaster of the loss of the Goodall Mills and was labeled "The town that refused to die." But a bright spot appeared just east of town. The Department of the Navy turned a former Naval Air Facility over to the town at the close of World War II. An unused runway caught the attention of the drag racers. It measured 7000 feet by 150 feet with a shut off area of a mile and a staging area of 300 feet. The asphalt was smooth, offering a safe place to run a car as fast as you could.
Drag racing was a cultural phenomenon on the West Coast after the War and like the prevailing wind, it came eastward. New England drag racing evolved out of the rod and custom car clubs whose members built their cars for the street and shows. Later, drivers, mechanics and fabricators tested their machines illegally on back roads or in parking lots. Rivalry grew among the clubs of southern New England and illegal drag races sprang up in desolated areas. A few bad accidents, and a bad image had the public and police up in arms. The clubs tried to better themselves by giving free assistance to motorists who had broken down and handing them their club's card when finished. Eventually, the police and local merchants supported these young men and their speed machines and sponsored and encouraged legal drag racing on seldom-used airstrips.
In 1951, the National Hot Rod Association was established in California with its first sanctioned meet in April of 1953 at the parking lot of the Orange County Fairgrounds in Pomona.
Rival clubs like the No-Mads and Ty-Rods of Massachusetts built racers and competed against each other at airstrips in Beverly and Orange, MA, expanding in 1953 to Laconia and Newington, NH.
With the closing of Newington's airport to drag racing, the New England Hot Rod Council sought another drag strip outside of Massachusetts. The Bay State was openly hostile to hot rodders in general, and drag racers in particular. As early as March 1952, the NEHRC spoke with Sanford town officials to about using an abandoned airport runway.
In 1955, the Shafter Twisters of Portland and Hap Frank, the director of the Portland YMCA, were able to end their two-year search for a permanent track when they landed in Sanford. The Council along with the New England Timing Association sanctioned the strip and invited clubs from Massachusetts that ironically were unaware of the Maine club's effort, and ran the first official race in Sanford on July 8th. In that inaugural season they ran a half dozen races drawing over a thousand fans each Sunday. The season's culmination was the Northern New England Championships in October drawing 78 cars before 1,700 fans. Ralph Bannister won the top-fuel eliminator (dragster) division at 112.5 mph.
The next few years saw a dramatic increase in performance from all divisions of hot rods. Sanford's races were a huge success and formed a circuit with Orange and Charlestown, RI. The schedule was arranged so that Charlestown ran the first Sunday and Orange the third. Sanford ran twice a month on the second and third Sunday. Initially racers won ribbons and trophies and top eliminators won tow money to the next meet. Sanford drew huge crowds and paid well, giving out savings bonds, cash, gift certificates and guarantee money to the top competitors.
Racers and fans loved to come to Sanford. It was an easy off-the-turnpike ride for the southern New Englanders who got a kick out of the local accent, especially when they tried to pronounce a "fawty-fawd" (40-Ford), and fondly referred to northerners as "Mainiacs." The local motorheads led the boys from "away" to musty old barns and garages in the back country where treasures from the past lay hidden. Chassis, frames, motors and parts were bought and recycled into future racing machines. To these gearheads, the car was like "A sheath for the knife of himself," quoted writer John Updike.
Local vendors did well feeding the huge Sunday crowds at what was often an all day event. One such vendor, Lloyd "Red" Woodman would sell hundreds of his Rosa brand submarine sandwiches, and at such a modest price for the city dwellers who would even take some back home.
The styles of the fifties and early sixties were like out of Happy Days with many guys looking like the Fonz. Black leather or club jackets were worn over tight blue jeans and a white T-shirt. Usually a soft pack of Chesterfields was rolled up one sleeve whether the guys smoked them or not. They wore either black loafers with white socks or hob-nailed engineer boots. The girls could be seen in poodle skirts, bobby sox and saddle shoes.
The girls of this era were attracted to the cunning and bravery of these young men. Many were attracted to the anti-hero, the outlaw or rebel. Actor James Dean epitomized this in his character in Rebel Without a Cause and unlike the attraction to the quarterback, golf or tennis club champion, girls clamored to the likes of these motorheads because they had cars, and cars were an escape to privacy and/or intimacy, much to the chagrin of their parents. When they came to the drags with their boyfriends, they would sit mostly in their pleasure cars and play the radio to the tunes of Bill Haley and the Comets or Pat Boone, often running the car battery down. Hot-rodding was a widespread form of youth rebellion, glamorizing speed, and often ignoring the consequences of danger.
The Sanford Drags as they became known were very crude by later standards. A flagman started the two cars standing in front of and between the two cars instead of the "Christmas Tree" staging and starting lights; and hand-timing devices with conversions to miles per hour were at the end of the quarter mile. The Town of Sanford would not allow any permanent facilities such as a scorers booth, bleachers or concession stands. The cars were junk actually, unpainted, unprimed, with only the barest of necessities. Few would break the 100 MPH barrier.
Some of the early pioneers who helped get things started were the Sharrigan brothers, Mudd and John from the Armenian-American section of Watertown, MA., Ralph Armstead, Ralph Bannister, Jack Doyle, Paul Fitzgerald, Woody Kneeland, Dick Morse, Ray Potter, Walt and Wally Packard, Bob Parsons, Dick Pratt, Phil Holmes, Don Roberts, Dave Sanderson, Jerry Sheehan, Carroll Sleeper, Joe Murray and Al Thistle. Not to be ignored was Emil "The Racing Grandfather" Nelson of Portland, who at age 68 was one of the first Mainers to break the 100 MPH mark with a '34 coupe and DeSoto engine. His son-in-law Moe Ward also ran in Sanford and served as president of the NEHRC.
Mudd Sharrigan, the older of the two brothers, was the Smokey Yunick of New England. A machinist trained in the military, he was one of the founders of the No-Mads and built and raced his own bronze '32-channeled roadster at Sanford, and also served as a technical inspector there. He once disqualified a car because its roll cage was made of exhaust pipe. Mudd Sharrigan was a craftsman and later chose the more sedate life and moved to Wiscasset, ME where he made knives.
John or "Shag", finished high school at the Newton Trade Center with this writer's uncle Abe Kaloustian now of Natick. "Shaggy" was a crackerjack with a wrench" Kaloustian says. Shag was a brilliant mechanic, fabricator, and sports and drag racer. With his dark bushy hair and thick horned-rimmed glasses, he resembled musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. He ran a 9.18-quarter at Sanford.
In 1956, Shaggy swept all top-fuel eliminator races that summer including the Northern New England Championship in October. Driving the No-Mads blue and white dragster with a Chrysler V-8 engine, he increased his speed each race from 117 mph to a top of 136.36. A June 14th Sanford Tribune account describes Sharrigan as "bearded, piratical-looking."
Both brothers were an integral part of the start of drag racing in New England. They once raced as a 4-man bob sled team at Lake Placid and won the famous Cresta Run at St. Moritz in Switzerland. Shag started a speed shop in his sister's two-bay garage on what is now Speedway Avenue off Western Ave, in Allston, MA. There he built engines and sold parts to dragsters, stockers and street rodders. The shop was the unofficial home of the No-Mads, a fun-loving bunch of crazy guys that would warm up their racing weekend with a trip to the strip clubs at Boston's old Combat Zone. They were also known to take "field trips" to "study" fermentation at the Carling Brewery in Natick and sampled the free beer.
Shag died of cancer in 1993 and at his funeral and graveside burial, a lot of the old gang showed up. As the minister was eulogizing over Shaggy in the casket below, the preacher became unnerved by the goings on of several old No-Mads who were off to the side near a fence. In the stillness, Ka-boom! The guys let off a small canon to give their old friend a good send off. His demeanor and exploits usually hit the spotlight and no one was more interested in and helpful to aspiring builders and drivers. He was unquestionably a fun guy to be around. Everyone loved him.
(Continued next week)