I first started Drag Racing in 1955. My Friend and I had street/dirt bikes we had fun with on the weekends. My bike was a basket case I bought from Ed Kretz, Triumph Dealer in Rosemead CA. It was an Indian Scout that he had raised up for more ground clearance and the motor was completely rebuilt. After getting it together it was a really good dirt bike. My friend’s bike was an Indian Chief that was striped to lighten. He was getting ready to go to the East for a few months to work and ask if he could leave his bike in my garage, said go ahead and ride it some. So I got the ideal to go to Pomona Fairgrounds (later site of the NHRA Winter National) where they had just started a drag strip. That day I set a new track record, which wasn't hard to do because of the newest of the track. That was my introduction to Drag Racing. A few months later, on my Birthday, my wife said my present was in the garage. I thought some new tools of some kind, there sit a 1947 Harley Knucklehead, no Pink slip and it had been sitting for a long, long time. I ask what I was suppose to do with that, I can't ride it, evidently it’s hotter than a firecracker? A Drag Bike she says. I contacted my friend Dick Butterworth (my first racing partner) because of weak finances and he joined the team. We didn't know a thing about Motorcycles but nine months later we were at the races. We had to get Laidlaw to build the stock engine for us.  Before building my first real race bike I had made many changes to that bike, became the racing team Smith and Johnson, (Clem Johnson of Barn Job fame) gained Laidlaw's Harley Davidson for a Sponsor and set many strip records on Gasoline on the West Coast. I build my first frame in an old Chicken Coup I turned into a work shop; build a jig frame table and tacked weld the frame together with an acetylene torch. (I built this frame with a dummy Shovelhead Engine because I was in the process of putting one together). Took it to a welder to get it Helli-arc welded and put the knucklehead in it and started a new adventure. Here are a few pictures of those early years.

1966, first Drag Bike Frame

First Trophy
Pomona Drags 1956
 Pomona Valley Timing Association.
Joe Smith Winner A/Gas Bike
106 MPH
1947 Knucklehead