RPM Nationals: Back To The Future Vintage Hot Rod Drags

September 2020 • By Tony Thacker • Photo Marc Gewertz and Tony Thacker
Presented by H&H Flatheads

Eventual winner Timmy McMaster gets the jump on Jay Dean. Photo Marc Gewertz

The first ever-recorded organized drag races were held at Goleta, a small airport 100 miles north of Los Angeles, now known as Santa Barbara Airport. It was also the first ever semi-recorded use of nitro in a racecar. Members of the Motor Monarchs club got the airport manager to allow them to hold races on a paved road on the north side of the airport running east to west, towards the Pacific, away from the mountains.

Early drag racing circa 1949 at Goleta. Photo TorqTalk Archives

They started holding races in late 1948 or early 1949 and, as the story goes, a locked gate at the top end signaled the end as only a locked gate could. The finish line was a small, narrow bridge, and you could judge who won by seeing who was the first to bump up over the bridge. There were three classes: roadsters, fenderless coupes, and fendered coupes and timing was by stopwatch. Oh, and it was Fran Hernandez who splashed a little nitro in the tank of his 3-window to beat out Tom Cobbs.

Those early drags spawned a sport and an industry that is now worth billions of dollars but sometimes big is not always better and sometimes we yearn for a return to simpler times. You can do that at the annual RPM Nationals.

The RPM Nats is organized by Justin Bass and Russ Hare, and is billed as a drag race for pre-1936 flathead V-8 and 4-cylinder hot rods and racecars. It’s held at Santa Margarita Ranch located some 100 miles north of Santa Barbara and 200 miles north of Los Angeles and sponsored by American Hot Rod Foundation, Bare Metal Kustoms, Beach Grease beer, CW Moss, Hop Up Magazine, Offenhauser and Stromberg.        

Taking Highway 101 north of Santa Barbara is like a Back to the Future DeLorean ride back to California of the 60s. Entering the somewhat derelict ranch clicks off another 10 years and rolling down the hill to the old airstrip takes you to the 1940s and the early days of drag racing at Goleta. It was pure magic made more so by the diversity of racing machinery, everything from historic sports roadsters like the ‘Payne Special’ to Jim Lattin’s tribute to the long-lost Danny Sakai Modified.             

This year, because of the pandemic, the event was restricted to 100 early-Ford-powered hot rods racing the 1/8-mile strip and, no spectators. Just like ol’ times, they used a flag start and there were no times; a guy just stepped out from behind the finish markers to show which lane won. It was all incredibly casual and consequently lots of fun and the eventual winner was Timmy McMaster in his flathead V-8-powered ’27 T (above).

If you want to learn more visit RPMNationals.com