A mere 73 years ago local legend the late C.J. "Pappy" Hart in Santa Ana, California, created the first drag strip. Yes, there had been other strips here and there before that, but those were temporary, often illegal stretches of empty road that came and went. Santa Ana was permanent, commercial establishment, or as permanent as history and SoCal development allowed. It was built on the periphery of what was then Orange County Airport, and it is now etched in drag racing lore.
Now the land that once was the drag strip is home to the Lyon Air Museum, founded by developer and Air Force veteran the late Gen. William Lyon. The museum houses much of the general’s magnificent airplane collection, including one of the few remaining B-17s in the world, in addition to many other significant aircraft. Among all those planes sit the original drag cars from the glory days of Santa Ana’s founding years, from 1950 to 1959.
Photographer and graphic artist Royce Rumsey shot the cars, many in front of the great airplanes of the museum, and forwarded a nice zip file of them to us. Thank you, Royce.that will celebrate the great drag and street cars of yesteryear at the museum. An exhibit of select cars will then run at the museum through Labor Day. The museum is located on the north side of what is now John Wayne Airport, at 19300 Ike Jones Road, Santa Ana, CA, 92707. Museum hours are 10 am to 4 pm daily.