Dos Palmas Machine Spl.

February 2024 • by Tony Thacker • Presented by MicksPaint.com and USAutomotive.co.uk

Stop the presses: Thanks to Santa Pod Raceway, the Goodnight, Keith and Williamson Dos Palmas Machine Spl. will be shipped to England for the 60th anniversary of its first trip. It will appear with the Mooneyes dragster at Santa Pod Raceway’s Dragstalgia event, July 5-7, 2024

The official end of the so-called fuel ban came at the ’63 Winternationals and while many drag racers switched back to nitro some continued to wave the gas flag. One such racer was Gary Goodnight who purchased a rolling dragster chassis from ‘TV’ Tommy Ivo and Rod Peppmuller in 1963. High school friends, Ivo and Peppmuller were members of the Road Kings of Burbank and the chassis was an early version of one of maybe a dozen built by the duo who operated Tommy Ivo Speed Specialties at the end of Tujunga Avenue in Sun Valley, California. No slouches—they built Tommy’s ‘Barnstormer’ Top Fuel car in less than a week according to Tom Cotter’s book ‘TV’ Tommy Ivo—the 117-inch wheelbase Goodnight frame had a three-point cage, torsion-bar front suspension and long radius rods like Barnstormer. 

‘TV’ Tommy Ivo in Ron Johnson’s recreation of Ivo’s ‘Barnstromer’ built by Ivo and Peppmuller and powered by a Dave Zeuschel-built Hemi.

According to Tommy in a recent conversation, “The basic chassis we sold for about $395. Don't laugh, that wouldn't buy a rocker cover gasket nowadays. That included the chassis itself, with motor mounts and radius rods and front end less rims and tires.  Then you could start adding things on like the steering box, rear end housing, etc. But with what we did with shortened axles, wire wheels, etc. Pretty much everything except the body, center sections, gauges and the like, was usually less than $800 dollars.”

‘TV’ Tommy Ivo, alias Jack Snodgrass, with the Ernie’s Camera Shop ‘Shutter Bug’ with a Kent Fuller chassis and Pontiac power.

The lightweight Ivo frame was a natural development of Kent Fuller’s original ‘Ernie’s Camera Shutter Bug’ slingshot driven initially by Tommy Ivo. There was an upper and lower hoop that tapered quickly ahead of the engine. There were only four uprights each side and only one diagonal brace behind the engine. Also, there were no hoops under the cowl, instead, there was just one upper cross tube that supported the reversed Corvair steering box. Minimal maybe but it did the job and the Dos Palmas Machine weighs just 1,163 lbs. complete with oil but no fuel.

Possibly the first Dos Palmas Machine Spl. built by Arnold Chaves and Gary Goodnight in 1963/64. It had 155-inch Ivo/Pepmuller chassis, Tony Nancy interior and a Jack Hagemann chute-pack body. Arnold recalls the car was painted by Louis Stojanovich.

“It took some time for the car to come together,” remembered Chris Goodnight, Gary’s younger brother. “I remember sitting in the frame that was on milk crates. Eventually, Gary arranged for the frame to go to ace metal shaper Jack Hagemann to have the tin work done.” Jack had developed his skills during WWII at the Alameda Naval Station and was well known for his work on Indy cars. Hagemann beat the swoopy three-piece ‘chute-pack’ body—maybe one of the first—from aluminum. The interior had been stitched by Tony Nancy.

“Meanwhile,” continued Chris, “Arnold Chaves who owned Dos Palmas Machine became the go-to guy for machine work and assistance. Eventually Arnold became Gary’s partner. Arnold had a blown 354 ci Chevrolet BB/GD and that engine was put in the Ivo chassis.”

Possibly painted blue by Joe Crisafulli, the as-yet unlettered DPM at Fremont for some shake-down runs. Note the Mel Scott Engineering ‘SuperSlot’ injection.

According to contemporary magazine articles and Arnold Chaves the Chevy featured a stroked 327 ci Chevy  engine, Schaller cam, Mickey Thompson rods, pistons and blower drive, P.P.’d Mondello heads, a Bob Sbarbaro blower, Hilborn injection and Vertex mag.

Arnold Chaves raced #45 at the ’64 Winternationals in Pomona.

“Gary Goodnight and fellow Lockheed computer analyst Ron Love purchased the frame from Tommy Ivo in 1963 and they both moved north to San Jose.” Said Arnold. “Initially, I drove the car that was originally painted candy tangerine by Louis Stojanovich, however, we soon painted it Persian blue (possibly by Joe Crisafulli) and most of my race cars since have been blue.” 

Arnold gets the wheels up at San Diego Raceway in April 1964. Note the car is now partially lettered on the tail with Dos Palmas Machine Special.

Arnold did some shakedown runs at nearby Fremont, before the car was lettered, after which he entered the ’64 Winternationals in AA/D. There are a few good shots from that event. After Pomona Arnold raced at San Diego Raceway—Ramona’s first ever points meet—on April 11 and 12. “I also remember driving all the way to Arlington, Washington, for a points meet,” said Arnold, “but Danny Ongais was there driving the Mickey Thompson Dragmaster car and he had us beat everywhere we raced. At Riverside, June 12-14, when Danny famously pushed his car the length of the track for a 1 min 35 second ET, I remember we red lit in the semis.” The Hot Rod Championship Drags would be Bob Keith’s first turn in the hot seat.

June 1964 when Danny Ongais famously pushed his Mickey Thompson/Dragmaster dragster the full Riverside Raceway quarter in 1 minute, 35 seconds to win Top Gas.

Chris Goodnight remembers, “There was a number of cars that ran out of Arnold’s shop that was located on his father-in-law’s Dos Palmas Dairy farm. One of which was a B/GD run by Bob Keith and Maurice ‘Moe’ Williamson. Gary, Bob and Moe were bachelors and quickly became best of friends. Arnold was married and the hand writing was on the wall—mid-way through ’64 Bob Keith took over driving Dos Palmas.” 

When it was ready to ship to England the Dos Palmas had a new Arnold Chaves 400 ci engine made by stroking the crank 1-inch. It had a Schaller cam, Mondello heads, Bob Sbarbaro blower with M/T drive and a new Hilborn two-port injection to replace the Scott SuperSlot.

L-R: From mid-’64 on, the team of Maurice ‘Moe’ Williamson, Bob Keith and Gary Goodnight took the Dos Palmas Machine to new heights.

“Around that time, we put in a bigger Chevy stroked to almost 400 ci and I turned over the driving to Bob Keith who had joined the team with Maurice ‘Moe’ Williamson.” Recalled Arnold. 

In 1963, Dante Duce organized the shipping of the Mooneyes dragster to England for some demo runs. Sensing a publicity bonanza, Mickey Thompson flew over the Harvey Aluminum Special and the pair introduced the Brits to drag racing.

Bob Keith, meanwhile, had assumed the role of ambassador from Dante Duce who had initiated the 1963 Mooneyes trip to England. Bob had been communicating with Sydney Allard in England regarding the 1st British International Drag Festival. Plans came together and early in September 1964, Goodnight, Keith & Williamson  (G,K&W) trailered the crated dragster to New York where it was hoisted aboard the USS United States and shipped to Southampton, England. Also on the trip was Don Garlits, Tommy Ivo, Tony Nancy, Ronnie Sox & Buddy Martin, Dave Strickler & Bill Jenkins, Doug Church, Dante Duce, KS Pittman, George Montgomery, Bill Woods and Don Hyland. It was quite the gang. 

Goodnight, Keith & Williamson were among the big boys in England including Ivo and Garlits.

Just as the Mooneyes dragster wowed the Brits in ’63, the G, K&W Dos Palmas Machine Spl. did much the same the following year—it was the first American dragster to run in England in 1964 . Out of the box, or, off the ship, Keith ran an impressive 8.70/171 mph.

Bob Keith wowed the natives in England as the first American to run at the 1st British International Drag Festival with some long, smokey runs and some in the rain.

Meanwhile, in the U.K. the six-member Croft Drag Racing Partnership (CDRP) of Norman Barclay, Gerry Belton, Peter Godlee, Bruce and John Ropner (who owned the Croft Racing Circuit near Darlington) and Keith Schellenberg approached Bob at the Church Fenton event to buy the car but failed to put the money together and it returned to the US where G, K&W continued to race it. It’s for certain that they raced Gas Eliminator at the February 7, ’65 Winternationals (known as the Great One-Day Race because of heavy rains) as there is a good ABC TV interview with Bob about safety gear most of which was made of asbestos. They also raced at the ’65 Bakersfield Fuel & Gas Championship and made the covers of magazines including the UK’s Autosport and Super Stock & Drag Illustrated.   

The Croft Drag Racing Partnership of Norman Barclay, Gerry Belton, Peter Godlee, Bruce and John Ropner and Keith Schellenberg received the car with detailed instructions.

Later that year, Croft got their act together, purchased the car, for maybe as little as £950 ($2,660), (when the £1 was worth $2.80) and got it back to the UK where it raced in the 1965 2nd International Drag Festival with stockbroker and British bobsleigh champion Norman Barclay at the helm and Bob Keith in a second Dos Palmas car this time with Hemi power (later BB Chevy). The Croft group never did seem to get to grips with the blown Chevy. Bruce Ropner drove it first and became the first unrecognized British driver to run under 10 seconds with a 9.74. Norman took over for the July 3 meeting at the Vickers Gala Day at South Marston near Swindon and became the quickest driver to date on British soil with a 9.77/155. Norman later ran a best of 9.65/163—aways from Bob Keith’s best UK run of 9.06/175. Despite some criticism the Dos Palmas was a reasonably fast, good looking car the sleek lines of which inspired many British builders.

In an interview before he passed away, Gary Goodnight recalled, “I always wondered if they could keep rings in it. It had a 1-inch stroker and the pistons were so short, they wobbled in the bores and you had to change rings every 5-6 runs. We got so fast at changing rings; it was like changing spark plugs.”  

Late in ’69 U.S. Air Force man ‘Wild’ Bill Weichelt, a seasoned drag racer, got behind the wheel, albeit with his head above the roll cage and figured it out.

The final round of the ’65 tour was at Woodvale when the Croft partnership decided to sell the Dos Palmas Machine and go power boat racing instead. Late in 1969, U.S. Air Force man Bill Weichelt, who was a regular drag racer and had crewed on ‘Tudor Rose’ acquired the car from Keith Schellenberg.

Seasoned drag racer U.S. Air Force man ‘Wild Bill’ Weichelt took over Dos Palmas and ran it sucessfully with the help of Dave and Gary Page.

‘Wild Bill,’ as he became known, soon had the hang of it and got the car back into the low-8s at 8.3/182 mph, possibly with the help of some nitro. Sometime during the year Bill repainted and renamed the car ‘Asmodeus’ (‘King of the Devils’) and competed in so many events he won the National Drag Racing Club Points Championship and the Top Dragster Champion crown. With Dave and Gary Page as crew, he also managed a standing start 500 meters World Record at 10.12/120.6 mph.

‘Wild Bill’s wildest stunt was driving out of the Piccadilly underpass for a Lamborghini commercial.

Wild Bill was not opposed to pulling a few crazy stunts and in one such incident he drove the dragster out of the Piccadilly underpass in the middle of London traffic and popped the chute for a Lamborghini commercial according to the newspaper. Out of the tunnel, parachute laying in the street Bill is questioned by a ‘bobby’ on a motorcycle.

After re-naming the car Asmodeus, and with a 339 ci Chevy ‘Wild"‘ Bill successfully set some land speed records at Elvington in Yorkshire.

In July 1971, Bill participated in the annual World Records meet at Elvington in Yorkshire. With a 339 ci Chevy, he just missed a World record but managed a British and European standing-start kilometer record of 17.7 seconds reportedly hitting a top speed of 275 kph saying at the time, “The slicks had grown to about 4 feet tall at the top end.”

In August 1971, Bill returned to the U.S. taking the Dos Palmas Machine with him and we found his entry #978 for the ’71 US Nationals in Competition Eliminator BB/D class. Unfortunately, the car was no longer competitive and Bill and the car disappeared for forty years.

NASCAR/TV personality Ray Evernham and some of the original team including Arnold Chaves display the restored Dos Palmas Machine Spl. at the 2015 California Hot Rod Reunion.

In 2015, the car was found by NASACAR/TV personality Ray Evernham who restored it with Chaves, Goodnight and Keith in time for the 2015 California Hot Rod Reunion. According to EJ Kowalski who had seen it there, the car had been sitting almost complete less engine in ‘Wasted’ Willy Glass’ welding shop in Richmond, Virginia. Unfortunately, Bob Keith died before he could see the car finished. He did, however, see it make the cover of the 1995 California Hot Rod Reunion program when he was racing ‘Sneaky’ Pete Robinson at the ’65 Bakersfield Fuel & Gas Championships.

In March 1965, Goodnight, Keith & Williamson ran Dos Palmas as the Bakersfield Fuel & Gas Championship, here against Pete Robinson in ‘Tinker Toy Too.’

In 2022, another British consortium consisting of Stewart Bassett of USAutomotive in Bedford, England, Nick Davies of ICE Automotive in Milton Keynes, England, Mick Jenkins of Mick’s Paint in Pomona, California, Geoff Stilwell and myself acquired the car with the intention of preserving it. Thanks to Scott Campbell and a lot of help from a lot of people the car is running again. We’ve displayed it at numerous events and we even got to do a burn out at Irwindale Dragstrip.

October ’23 and Tim and his team at Irwindale Dragstrip allowed us to make a burn out in a car that hadn’t been driven under power since 1971. Thanks to all involved but especially Scott Campbell who helped so much with the resurrection.