REVISED AND UPDATED WITH NEW, FIRST-HAND INFO AND PHOTOS — These awesome photos, snapped back in the ’60s by Wayne Arteaga at his backyard race shop, capture a priceless moment in the golden age of drag racing. Check them out.
Note: Not long after we published this piece in January, we were contacted by John Hellmuth, racing partner with Wayne Artega and one of the featured players in the photos below. John kindly provided us with some valuable corrections to our captions and an additional photo. We are incredibly fortunate to have him join us here to add his priceless recollections. Thanks, John!
The late Wayne Arteaga (1934-2009) was a veteran drag racer, a consummate car enthusiast, and a certified nice guy. Back in the 1960s, he and partner John Hellmuth campaigned the Arteaga and Hellmuth supercharged Willys gasser, bonding with the informal national touring company of journeyman drag racers of the era. Fellow gasser racers out on the road were known to lay over at Wayne’s garage in St. Louis to catch up on their repairs.
Wayne, one of a family of professional photographers, shot lots of photos of the 1960s drag racing scene, including the set of images collected here. They feature two top California teams, K.S. Pittman and Stone, Woods and Cook, working on their Willys gassers in Wayne’s shop. These amazing photos, a genuine slice of drag racing Americana, have circulated around the internet for a few years, but over time they’ve become separated and the people have been misidentified. We seek to correct that by bringing all the photos together and introducing all the personalities in the shots. Ladies and gentlemen, a day at Wayne Arteaga’s gasser garage.
From right to left: famed supercharged gasser pilot K.S. Pittman, host Wayne Arteaga, and Pittman’s red S&S-sponsored 1941 Willys gasser. Taking a swig of milk at far left is Doug “Cookie” Cook, driver of the legendary Stone, Woods, and Cook Willys.
Here, John Hellmuth and Doug Cook look over the disassembled Chrysler hemi in the SWC ’41 Willys. John informs us that the hemi started life as a 392, but was enlarged to a whopping 454 cubic inches. Note the aluminum fuel tank, the magneto still installed in the block, and the team signage on the car’s door.
It’s not widely known even today, but the owners of the SWC Willys, Fred Stone and Leonard and Tim Woods, were African-Americans. The hot rod publications of the period did not seem terribly eager to promote that fact.
Here’s an uncropped version of the lead photo at the top of this page, featuring the SWC Swindler A Willys on the trailer with, from left to right: K.S. Pittman, Wayne Arteaga, Doug Cook, and Richard “Tiny” Roberts, a mechanic on the SWC Willys who would become a well-known figure on the Bonneville and dry lakes scene. Since John Hellmuth is not in the frame, we can guess that maybe he was holding the camera for this shot.
John Hellmuth and Doug Cook continue their work on the SWC Willys. Actually, there were multiple SWC Willys racers; this is one of the Swindler A cars. Note the race parts strewn across the floor, including a GMC 6-71 blower and Hilborn fuel injector assembly.
John tells us that here, “What Doug and I were doing is installing a cam gear drive setup. I then degreed his cam with the new drive. On K.S.’s car, we were working on the rear suspension.”
The SWC and K.S. Pittman teams were fierce rivals on the track, but out on the road between race gigs they were friends and comrades, as this photo illustrates. Pittman’s Willys is on the trailer parked in the alley while the SWC car is visible in the garage. The fiberglass nose of the SWC Willys is resting on the driveway, and we’re guessing that’s the shadow of Wayne Arteaga wielding the Rolleiflex in the foreground.
Grouped around the SWC Willys, from left to right: K.S. Pittman, Wayne Arteaga, Doug Cook, and, holding the speed handle, Tiny Roberts. All these racers have since passed on, but all have left their stamp on the sport. John Hellmuth (not shown in this shot but pictured in several images above) is still active on the Arkansas hot rodding scene.
Here’s one more photo from that memorable day in 1967, this one supplied to us by John Hellmuth. From right to left are Wayne Arteaga, K.S. Pittman, Tiny Roberts, and Doug Cook. At far left is a young man from the neighborhood whose name John can’t recall, but we bet we had the time of his life.
Totally. Made. My. Day. Thanks, awesome pics!
Thanks MCG, anytime you post anything on drag racing, you know you’ll hear from me. I think “gassers” are just the coolest cars from the past, especially the S,W,C car. I even built models of it when I was a kid. I think early on, it was “Cookie” and later changed to just “Cook”. I had no idea that Stone and Woods were black. Such a shame the media didn’t give them the credit they deserved. I’ve noticed, even today, blacks generally stay away from drag racing. Not really sure why. As far as the Willy’s, it seemed to be the standard gasser of the time, and even today, it’s odd to see a stock one pop up once in a while. Great pics of just a couple of regular guys in a garage in the back yard, not like the football field sized shops of modern drag racers today. Sometimes, modern drag racing events will hold nostalgia drags, and a Willy’s always shows up. They are cool to watch, pulling the front wheels off the ground. They look like they are a handful to drive. Thanks again.
Hey Howard, here is a little clip you might enjoy.
I got hooked on gassers in the late 60’s. New neighbor moved in 2 houses down from us. He had an Anglia he ran in C, and sometimes B, gas. I always loved when he would pull out of his garage and make a “test hit” on the street. I’m currently building a street going gasser and hope to have it road ready by August/September.
Gassers rule.
Sigh. Here is the clip I forgot to put in the above post.
This is really cool to see! My dad was good friends with Wayne. I’ve heard many stories from back in the day. I can’t wait to show him these pictures. He will love seeing them.
FANTASTIC!!!
Great to revive memories of these guys and the gassers of the 60s
Love them Willys. First car that I ever free hand drew and it turned out pretty good back when I was a kid in the ’60’s.
Awesome article & I’m a black man(like it really matters)who loves the hell out of gassers. So when I found out that the owners of one of the most famous gassers of all-time were black well it made me very happy. I was born in the 70’s so gassers were long gone at that time and sometimes I attend the hot rod reunion out in Bakersfield every Oct just to see them run. I’m trying to build one myself a 1965 Plymouth valiant two door post and I’m gonna stuff a 440 in it . Technically I don’t think it’ll be a gasser but no matter it’ll still be a gas to drive. If any of you guys get the chance pick up the book Gasser Wars Drag Racing’s Street Class: 1955-1968 by Larry Davis it’s a great read with a lot of great pictures like the ones from this article. See ya’l @ the track.
Milt, Have you ever run into any old pictures of the Henry-J
Just a few updates to Wayne’s photo. Wayne drove our Willys, not me. Doug ran a 454 cubic inch Chrysler which started life as a 392. Tiny Robert’s first name was Richard. Also, there were two additional photos taken that I have but don’t know how to post them on this site. John Hellmuth
AWESOME…….. REAL NICE TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE !!
If I am correct,when I was a KID growing up at Lions Drag Strip, there was a race with the B/ gas car as well. If my memory serves me well another A/gas car beat the Stone/Woods/Cook B/gas car and was bragging about beating the Stone/Woods/Cook car. The team said hey you did beat us but it’s our B/gas car. Story goes the team went home or near by and got the Stone/Woods/Cook A/gas car and blew the other guys car doors off.
I too raced at Lions Drag Strip back in the day.. Campaigned a 1965 GTO with 389 and tri-power 4 speed. 11 second machine in the 60s was not bad. I heard that the SWC Willys used a positrack to leave the line straight and true each time. Can anyone verify that?
It most certainly was a locked rearend. We found the GM positractions wouldn’t handle the power. Most everyone just welded up the spider gears. The other limitation was the stock Oldsmobile axles. They would break on a hard launch. We went to Summer Brothers forged axles. Never had a problem.
John Hellmuth
Yes, the GM posi was less than optimum. I blew several early sets of spiders until GM came out with an improved 4 gear spider. The 1965 GTO had 2 gear spiders. Much fun back then.
I saw one of the cars, the Willy’s run at Mid America Raceways in Wentzville, MO back in the 60’s. I don’t know what they did to it, but it was the loudest car on the strip that day. You could feel it in your abdomen when he launched.