Gone Racin' - Dick Guldstrand
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I have met Dick Guldstrand many times at reunions and events and he was always a quiet gentleman who was very approachable and willing to help any hot rodder with his problems. He was on the Jay Leno’s Garage show a few years back and Leno was as excited as I’ve ever seen him. In his own quiet manner Dick Guldstrand has always commanded the respect of other car and engine builders. So it was hard to hear that on September 2, 2015 he passed from us.
Dick was born in California on December 1, 1927 and attended local high schools before going on to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA Bruins), where he majored in engineering. He merged this technical learning with his earlier hot rodding roots. Dick would tell us that, “Either you were a hot-rodder or you were a candy ass!” In high school he built his own car using ’32 rails and a 1927 Ford body, something very similar to what my father used in his old hot rod. Like most young men in the 1940’s he went where the action was and that was on the local dirt tracks. He was at ease behind the wheel of a midget or sprint car and in whatever classes were open to him. A change to the new Corvettes in the latter half of the 1950’s sent him along a path that made him famous; sports car and road course racing. They say he liked the safer twists and turns of road racing, but I believe he simply liked the more complex and demanding style that brought out the best in a driver’s skill set.
If you ask me I think he just liked the guys and gals in one of the coolest and flashiest sports of all. Road racers, as in sports car racing, were the apex of the motor racing sports. Land speed racing was long, lacked action, was in hot, dry and dusty climates and often a labor to reach the dry lakes and salt flats. But when a car reached full power and speed it was a sight most holy. Land speed racers like Karl Orr, Randy Shinn and Ak Miller competed for the honor of speed alone; prize money and fame did not exist for them. Early drag racers also drove for speed and a trophy and little else. It was a love of speed and competition that set them apart. Men like Otto Ryssman and Dave Marquez were great racers and innovators long before fame and fortune came to drag racing. Jalopy racing was tough, virile and made for the guy with little money. There were some great racers who got started that way, such as Parnelli Jones.
Roadster racing was exemplified by men like Rosie Roussel and Walt James. Open cockpits and roaring engines gave the roadster racers a sort of panache. Every spectator was enthralled with watching the midgets roar around the oval. Guys like Danny Oakes knew how to get the most out of the lightweight cars and motors. Midgets were exciting, fast and dangerous. But not as dangerous to drive as the very powerful sprint cars, sometimes called the “Big Cars,” or Champ cars. That is where everyone tried to end up in as a driver, mechanic and owner. The big race was the Indy 500 and it was a monster of a race and it killed its fair share of drivers. Then there was boat racing and while the only round wheel is the steering wheel, it still used a motor and not only were they fast and slippery, but it was on water. What could be better than watching a race on the shore with pretty girls in bathing suits sunning themselves and feigning interest in the race?
But the top echelon of all racing was sports car or road racing. Not the illegal sort that took innocent pedestrian lives, but the organized form of road racing that tested every skill of driving talent, mechanical knowhow and endurance. This form of racing could be amateur or professional and evolved into endurance racing, mountain and desert racing and closed street racing. Parking lots and race tracks were also reformed to provide a surface to race on. Old, abandoned or seldom used military landing strips were ideal. Twelve hour, twenty-four hour and even longer time spans were used to test a road racer’s skill. Mountain climbs like Pike’s Peak represented distance runs and timed runs. They were a sort of land speed race that incorporated extreme danger and called for endurance of machine and man. It really didn’t matter if the race was long or short, straight or oval or winding and unpredictable. The goal was speed, time, skill and courage and Dick Guldstrand had it all.
I’ve met many of his friends, all of them road course and sports car guys who also raced in other genres of the motor racing world. You might specialize in one section but it was only a matter of time before you participated and enjoyed all the other rich aspects of motor racing. Dick Guldstrand knew personally or was familiar with a host of very special people; too many to name in full. Here is a list just so you can see why he loved road racing and the special people in it. They are people that he partied with at the many Fab ‘50’s social events; Bob Akin, Max and Ina Balchowsky, Jay Chamberlain, Chuck Daigh, Steve Earle, Juan Fangio, Bill Devin, Bob Bondurant, Tim Considine, James Dean (the actor), Lindley Bothwell, Mary Davis, Jack Brabham, Briggs Cunningham, John Fitch, Vasek Polak, Dan Gurney, George Follmer, Jim Hall, Jerry Grant, Sam and Alice Hanks, Ruth Levy, Jim Haynes, Bill Krause, Phil Hill, Parnelli Jones, David Hobbs, Bruce Kessler, Skip Hudson, Jim Jeffords, Ed Hugus, Art Evans, Dennis Hulme, Pete Lovely, Rodger Ward, Jack McAfee, John von Neumann, Ken Miles, Bobby Unser, Sterling Moss, Bill Stroppe, Bill Murphy, Carroll Shelby, Paul O’Shea, Lance Reventlow, Augie Pabst, Brian Redman, Scooter Patrick, Andy Porterfield, Jim Peterson, Bill Pollack and many more.
The list of his associates, competitors and friends are just too numerous to state, but I can say that the list of his foes is pretty small and perhaps non-existent. The places that he raced on, visited or followed included; Watkins Glen, Le Mans, Bridgehampton, Sandberg, Palm Springs, Elkhart Lake, Sebring, Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines, Paramount Ranch, Santa Barbara, Riverside and many more. It would be easier to tell you the places he didn’t race at than those that he did.
After his time at UCLA he found employment in the aerospace industry, a mainstay for hot rodders with quick minds and inventive nature. He raced all manner of race cars at night and on weekends to earn a little extra money and for the thrill of speed. The road racing bug got to Dick in a big way in the late 1950’s while watching an amateur road race and he bought a 1957 Corvette and entered sports car racing. He was nearly unbeatable from 1963 through 1965, winning the Pacific Coast Championship all three years and Southern Pacific Championship in 1964. He was the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Driver of the Year in 1964 in the California region of the SCCA. Dick won the 24 Hours of Daytona race in 1966 in the GT class and was ninth overall among all the contestants. He raced Corvettes at Sebring and Le Mans and entered the 1966 Indy 500, but did not qualify. He raced the Grand Sport Corvette for Roger Penske at Sebring. Zora Arkus Duntov paired Dick with Bob Bondurant in a Corvette at Le Mans in 1967. It was primitive by today’s standards with only four crewmembers and minimal equipment. Sort of like a “run what you brung” sports car race. The route took them from the famed Orly Airport in Paris along narrow roads to Le Mans.
To hear Dick tell it, “Damn thing wouldn't go under 70 because of the gearing and it had loud pipes. So word got out and as we rolled on, more and more people were on the side of the road. When we got to Chartres, there was a gendarme standing on a box. I could see his eyes open wide; we nearly blew him off his box, he snapped off a [salute. At 170 mph, that kink was a corner. I slid the car through it and stopped at the pit. They said, ‘Why'd you come in?' and I told them because of the Mulsanne stain in my shorts.” They were leading the race in their class when they had engine trouble and had to pull out of the race.
He raced in Trans-Am up through 1968 at tracks in Las Vegas (Stardust), St Jovite and Riverside. In 1968 he opened up his own shop which he called Guldstrand Engineering and right up to the end of his life he would work in the shop. In 1969 he won a contract to provide Z28 Camaros to a South American sports car association and he also traveled to the region and participated as a driver, winning the South American championship in that same year. Over the years his collaboration with General Motors has seen his innovations become a part of that brand’s performances. Corvette dealers sell his customized “Guldstrand Corvette” that has a 427 V8 c.i. motor that puts out 500 horsepower (hp).
Guldstrand became friends with James Garner through Bob Bondurant in the movie “Grand Prix,” and was part of the American International Racing team owned by Garner. The team used L88 Corvettes and T70 Lola’s at Sebring and Daytona and Guldstrand drove with other famous racers such as Davey Jordan, Lothar Mothschenbacher, Scooter Patrick and others. James Garner also drove a Surtees A/F5000 Formula car that Guldstrand worked on, in the movie “The Racing Scene.” There was never a better time to be a road racer than the fabulous 1950’s and ‘60’s. There comes a time in every racer’s life when he has to re-evaluate his value as a driver over that of other talents that he possesses. Dick Guldstrand was a good driver, but he was also a great car builder and he found more of his time was needed in turning out great race cars.
His shop in Culver City was popular from day one. He was also close to other hot rodders, speed equipment manufacturers and popular icons of the day, such as Troutman and Barnes, Stuart Hilborn, Ed Iskenderian and more. Not far away was the Eddie Miller Garage, Louie Senter, Art Evans, Vic Edelbrock and many of his friends in road racing. Dick Guldstrand never lacked for friends in the field of motorsports. Around 2000 he moved his shop to Burbank, California, another hot bed of speed equipment manufacturers and motorsports celebrities such as Carmen and Gordon Schroeder and the Schroeder Speed Shop, Jim Deist Parachutes, Wally Parks and others whom he knew. He adapted the Corvette into his own plans and sold them under the GS80 and GS90 series. He was invited onto the Jay Leno Garage show and wowed the famous comic.
Dick also joined the Fabulous 50’s and attended their reunions, car shows and events. It takes a bit of explaining to describe the Fab 50’s. It isn’t really a club or association. They call themselves the UNclub and they have UNmembers and there are no fees, dues, duties or responsibilities, except having fun and keeping the old road racing glory days of the 1950’s alive. No one runs it and no one takes responsibility, yet the 1000 or so members (they let me UNjoin) all pitch in and keep it going. The UNleaders are Bill Pollack, Art Evans, Alice Hanks (Sam’s widow), Ginny and John Dixon, Davey and Norma Jordan among many more. Others pitch in and help too and they hold a Christmas dinner where they celebrate the famous and infamous among them. I used to stand next to the food line and get their signatures on a calendar so that I knew their birthdays too. I got Dick’s signature many times and he was always gracious in giving it to me. Then I would donate the calendars to museums. Dick was a respected UNmember among many respected UNmembers and I will always remember him as a gracious and kind man and a wonderful car guy.
Gone Racin’ is at [email protected].