My first drag race was the Grand Opening of the original San Gabriel Drag Strip on Rivergrade Road in Irwindale, CA, March 5^th and 6^th, 1956. I was selling hot dogs and Steve Gibbs (a good artist) was putting numbers on the race cars with shoe polish. But let me go back aways.

Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley in the 1950’s was truly “Happy Days.” Each town-Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Pasadena-had it’s own identity and space between them. They no longer do. My dad, Jay, a trucker and heavy equipment operator and my mom, Helen, a grocey checker, hocked everything to buy a little walk-up frostee freez / hamburger stand on the corner of Madison and Foothill, right across the street from Monrovia High School where I attended. We called it JAY’S.

I’m telling you it was Arnolds in the “Happy Days” sitcom. The previous owner hated kids; dad loved them. He put a used jukebox under a tree in a grassy area near the parking lot and let the kids pick the 78 rpm records they wanted to hear. They wore out five copies of Sha-Boom. He let them charge when they were broke, park their cars in his lot instead of the school’s and kicked the vice principal in the butt when he caught him going through their cars. Jay became GOD.

Business boomed. He added an eat-in addition, a 200 play 45 juke box and the kids danced just like Richie, Ralph, Fonz and the gang. He hosted parties for all the championship winning sports teams...and then the street racing started...out of his place.

Jay tried to get a drag strip built through his Optimist Club but just couldn’t raise the capitol. One day he told two adult regulars of his dream and the damnest thing happened. One was a contractor, the other a stock broker / sports car racer and they jointly owned 65 pretty usless acres in Irwindale. The deal happened right then!

They asked my dad what he wanted for all his hard work and he said, “Hell, I’ll sell hot dogs, snow cones and drinks.” I was 14, my brother 12, and we thought we were already working like slaves…this we didn’t need.

About a week before the opening of of old San Gabe dad took us to the site where hot rodders were trying out the new pavement. I saw a fuel flathead-powered ‘32 Ford go 102 mph in 13 seconds and I swear, right then, I was hooked forever.

JAY’s was sold and the track became the center of our universe. Our entire family, often including aunts and cousins, worked every Sunday and my brother and I picked up the trash during the week for spending money. I learned to drive there, having to back a two wheeled trailer behind a ‘50 Chevy the entire quarter-mile before being allowed to drive forward! Before I got my license we where running out of food and dad sent me to the storage locker in his new ‘57 Chevy pickup 3 speed. Naturally, I got caught street racing a guy on the way back. My dad was pissed when the Highway Patrol cruiser pulled in with me in the back seat. But he was relieved when the officer opened the trunk and helped unload the buns and wienies. I told you it was happy days!

Mom and dad were as loved by the racers as they were by the high school kids. I don’t think there was a Sunday they didn’t give away a helmet or some other prize. The first firesuit anyone ever saw dad gave to Don Yates when he won Top Fuel. He looked like a chrome man in it.

Dad and mom went on to become fairly major food concessionaires doing the Winternationals at Pomona, the Bob Hope Desert Classic and many others. I went on to become…well, you know that. My first drag race didn't change my life…it determined it.

Editor's Note: Steve Evans has one of the most familiar voices in all of auto racing. He has done it all, from driving a Junior Fuel dragster to running race tracks like Lions Dragstrip, selling hot dogs, and, of course, working the microphone. Before his current career at TNN, Evans’ most noted days for a lot of veteran race watchers were the years he and Bill Doner and their Raceway Parks syndicate hosted shows at tracks like Orange County Int’l Raceway, Irwindale Raceway, Fremont Raceway, and Seattle Int’l Raceway in the 1970’s. In addition to the wild shows, their radio ads for those events were cocky, rapid-fire, machinegun, aural mayhem that reeled in the fans (and can be heard in a CD format called “Be There!”) and set the standard for the industry. He is truly a legend in drag racing broadcasting.

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