Santa Ana Blimp Base (Tustin)

The Southern California Timing Association held a special event here on July 16, 1950 called the Gold Cup, which it hoped would become annual. Organizers expected thousands of fans to watch 60 cars and motorcycles race in four classes plus special match races. It was billed as the first acceleration races with hot rods and motorcycles on the same program, and newspapers said it would settle the old argument over which was faster. The runway was 5,400 feet long, but racing used only 8/10 of a mile of it, and vehicles were timed over the last 132 feet of the quarter mile. Class B entries, cars of 183 to 250 cubic inches, included Thomas Cobbs, James Hawley, Ed Beeching, Bob Anderson-Jim Woods, George Wheatcraft, Allen Cheney-Tom Eiden, Al Craig, Eugene Hewitt, Ak Miller and Carl Kaylor. As far as research shows, this was the only drag race at the blimp base. The base was four miles north of the Orange County Airport, site of the first timed, supervised drag races.