Minter Field Air Base (Bakersfield)

The Smokers put on a big top fuel meet here in 1955. On May 12-13, 1956, a two-day event ran on the runway of Minter Field, now Shafter Airport, about ten miles northwest of Bakersfield. Promoter Glen Howe billed it as the fifth annual national championships, held in California for the first time. That claim doesn’t hold up. Newspapers named Calvin Rice as the prior year’s champion, and he was NHRA’s first national champion in 1955, which leaves no record of who won in 1952, 1953 or 1954, or where. It looks like advertising hype. The event’s claim to be California’s first night drag race was true, though. Minter Field ran on Saturday night, a few months before Lions Drag Strip held its first night drags.

Trophies were offered in 48 classes, spectators paid $1.25, and bleachers were set up. The San Joaquin Timing Association sponsored the event, which was reportedly sanctioned by NHRA, the Southern California Timing Association, Drag Racers Inc. and the Rosetta Timing Association. Before the race, publicity claimed over 700 pre-entries from as far away as Alabama and Louisiana. Afterward only a few short reports turned up, and the event seems to have been a bust. Local racers from the Smokers club won most of it. Ernie Hashim had top speed at 148 mph and Tony Waters ran 129 mph in his modified roadster. The gap between the buildup and the coverage suggests the pre-race publicity was at least partly misleading.