Thread: Bye Pappy

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Lifted from the NHRA site;

C.J. "Pappy" Hart, who helped create the first commercial drag strip in America, passed away June 25, a few weeks after suffering a stroke. He was 93.

Hart, who along with Creighton Hunter established the Santa Ana Drag Strip on an unused runway at the Orange County Airport, and held races Sundays from 1950 to 1959, was known to legions of drag racing fans as the one of the grand old men of the sport. In his later years, Hart was a member of the NHRA Safety Safari, traveling the country and greeting well wishers at every stop.

Hunter sold his interest in the strip to Hart in the first month of operation, and Hart, who owned a gas station in Santa Ana at the time, went on to run the strip with his wife, Peggy, who competed – and won – regularly at the track in her '33 Willy's coupe. Peggy Hart died in 1980.

"There's been drag racing since cars were invented," Hart said in a 2001 interview in National DRAGSTER, "but I guess they say I invented drag racing because I was the first one to have a commercial strip. There was one in [Arleta, Calif.], but they charged no fee at the time. I saw a need to get people to stop racing on the streets; that was dangerous."
Hart flags off a pair of cars at the Santa Ana Drags in the mid-1950s.

The fee to race or watch was 50 cents, and Hart decided on a quarter-mile length adapted from thoroughbred racing. In addition to installing an electronic timing system (cobbled together from an old Victrola), Hart's track also created some of the sport's earliest rules, regulating axle ratios as well as year, make, and displacements of engines, and safety regulations such as roll bars.

When Santa Ana closed in 1959, Hart helped stage races at a Taft airport facility and later at Riverside Raceway.

In 1965, the Lions Club Board of Directors hired Hart to succeed Mickey Thompson as manager of fabled Lions Dragstrip, which he managed until the facility closed in 1971. Hart later served as a consultant to many tracks, offering advice on everything from racing surfaces to pit areas.

After his wife's death, Hart missed the sport and was convinced by then NHRA Competition Director Steve Gibbs to join the Safety Safari. For many years he hauled the jet track dryer from stop to stop and help keep his fellow Safari workers refreshed by bringing them beverages and ice.
Earlier this year, Hart was a member of an elite panel that discussed early drasgtrip operations at an event at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum.

In 1999, Hart was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame and in 2001 the city of Santa Ana honored Hart, proclaiming April 29 C.J. "Pappy" Hart Day.

"Throughout his adult life, C.J. Hart was a car guy's car guy," said NHRA founder wally Parks. "Likewise, he was a pioneer's pioneer in the development of organized drag racing as a community service activity.

"He was everybody's friend, and while we often debated issues involving the sport, his knowledgeable influence on its early rules and procedures was widespread and respected.

"C.J. was a member of the team, from day one – always concerned about welfare of the racers.In later years, serving as an active and dedicated member of the NHRA Safety Safari crew, he became aware of the legions of friends he had accumulated in all parts of the country. That he was truly an Icon of the sport cannot be questioned and his affable presence will be missed.

"We salute his memory as we pay tribute to his contributions in building a solid foundation for drag racing as one of today's most highly respected fields of motorsport."

RIP Darrell Russell.

Amen to both Bob

Thanks for the reminder, Bob. What a world it would be if we were all willing to give that much to any cause that is as worthwhile as the one Pappy chose.