| My name is Gary Weldele, I grew up in Long Beach
and graduated from Poly High in ‘59. An avid fan of Lions Drag strip I built a
LaDawri bodied, Henry J chassis’d, Olds powered street machine which was
licensed for the street in 1961. My car is the one shown in “Byron’s gasser
madness” as the LaDawri.
I sold the car to Sheldon Konblett who owned
Service Center in Compton Ca. Sheldon converted it to a full-on race car, putting
a blown small block Chevy in the car,
painted it yellow and called it "Chicken Little." (It was one of the first “funny
cars”, funny because there was no class for them) It was raced for a couple of years taking
second at the 1964 Winter Nationals.
When I sold the car, I went on to build a new tube
chassis’d, big block Chevy for Les Dawes newest body; a fastback coupe with gull
wing doors. This car was to run NHRA’s AA modified sport class. My chassis
was built for the Formula Libre prototype.
Unfortunately about the time I was to take
possession of the body I discovered his shop locked. It is a long sad story from there but suffice it
to say that ended my drag racing career.
After Dawe’s shop shut down, I got a body from
Fiberfab in Sunnyvale Ca. Before the car was strip ready the NHRA dropped the
Modified Sport class and I had a white elephant! I sat on it for a few years
and finally sold it to some kid to race in, of all things, the sand drags! I
shudder to think of what happened to my beautiful machine!
I really don’t have too many stories and never
heard about or from Dawes after his shop was locked and the prototype for the
new car taken. Since I built a chassis to accommodate his new body I had many
trips to his shop to take dimensions and remember that it was a fastback coupe
with gull wing doors. Les had a man working for him that I had grown to know
while building my first LaDawri, Red Honeywell an older fellow who built his
own LaDawri which I believe is the white one shown on the old catalog. This car
was based on the very first Toyota I had ever heard of.
A funny story: In an effort to fill the somewhat
rough body condition Red used a ‘new at that time’ paint, Latex! Which he
figured would be thick enough to fill the lows quite handily. Unfortunately
being rubbery the paint would not sand and the whole car had to be stripped! At
one time Red built a hood scoop for my Drag racer and was really a talented guy.
One more story of those days which could never
occur today in California. At one point in the construction of my first LaDawri
I had to register it with the DMV. During this process I had to have a frame
number stamped on the car and the DMV referred me to a certified individual who
actually came to my house and stamped the number on the frame. This was an older
gentleman and he was quite impressed with my efforts. After he stamped the frame
he asked me when I intended to register the car and I replied that as soon as I
had the emergency brake, rear view mirror, headlights and horn installed I would
be ready. Then he asked me with what might be considered a “verbal wink” if I
intended to complete those tasks and when I assured him I would he informed me
he could register my car on the spot! WHATTA GUY! Consequently the DMV never saw
my car! From then on it was legally registered as a 1961 LaDawri!
I still live in Long beach California.
Sincerely,
Gary Weldele
gary@weldele.com
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