The Santa Ana Drags and Main Street Malt Shop Reunion is held twice a year, once in April and again in October.  It is a combination of two old reunions, one honoring the iconic drag strip organized by C. J. and Peggy Hart, with Frank Stillwell and Creighton Hunter’s help, back in 1950 on a roadway next to the old Santa Ana Airfield.

The spirit of the past is alive and strong in these reunions, which is held at Santiago Creek Park at the corner of Lawson Way and East Memory Lane, in the city of Orange, CA.

Leslie Long keeps the mailing lists and calls people to remind them of the event. He is also the historian for the Santa Ana Drags and the El Mirage dry lake land speed racers. Gene Mitchell provides the tents, tables, food and drinks for the guests. We post the story and photos on the reunions at Hotrodhotline.com and Landspeedracing.com. Jim Miller also posts photos and reports to his website at Ahrf.com.

A hot Santa Ana wind condition had driven the temperature up into triple digits and it was feared that the reunion might be affected. But on Saturday, October 4, 2014 the day was absolutely perfect California weather with the temps in the 80s, sunny and bright and we found plenty of shade under the oak trees and canopies. There was a lot of bench racing, posters, photo albums, old flyers, maps, books and other material to share. Ed Iskenderian was the guest speaker and, for nearly an hour, he related stories from long ago at the Santa Ana drags.

Those in attendance were: Gene Mitchell and his daughter Megan Mitchell, who helped her dad set up the tents, chairs and food. Roger Rohrdanz and I represented the Society of Land Speed Racing Historians (SLSRH).

Kay Kimes was an original ‘49’er who raced at the first Bonneville Speedweek in 1949. Diane Vandenberg came with Lyman Wilson. Diane raced at the Santa Ana drags and was also a Main Street Malt Shop patron. Old time racers Gene Ellis, Doug Wilson, Dave Cook, Eldon Harris, Jim Moran and Tim Timmerman were present. Ellis also raced on oval tracks and had quite a career. Gerald (Jerry) Hart, the son of C. J. and Peggy Hart, brought lots of photos of the old drag strip. Motorcycle racers Jim Murphy and Joe Arce told us about their racing exploits. Other racers were: Mac McClelland, Phil Turgasen, and Harry Deshazo. Goleta class winner (1949), Ed Osepian, also raced at Santa Ana.

Alan Zusman came after talking to Anna Marco. He’s learning all he can about early drag racing. Al Teague set many land speed records at Bonneville and his record of 409 mph lasted for nearly twenty years. Bob Falcon came and introduced Jon Durham. Bob is one of our historians and main research guys on the SLSRH Newsletter. Doug Westfall and Shawn Diaz publish books on early day racers. Mike and John Uribe represented the Bean Bandits. Mike told me that they would come up to Santa Ana to race every chance that they could and often toured the country with their drag car. Jim Miller was there for the American Hot Rod Foundation, based in New York City. Miller is the President of the SLSRH and the most knowledgeable person around in all forms of motorsports. Jim “Grumpy” Donoho and Rich Childers rounded out the list of racers who attended the event. The next reunion will be held in April, 2016 and you can check Landspeedracing.com for details.

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