James Warren
When James Warren began dating his future wife in 1952, his life changed in more ways than one. Juanita’s big brother, a local dirt track racer, introduced James to motorsports. By 1958, they were competing at Bakersfield’s oval track every Saturday night, and at Formosa Dragstrip on Sundays. When they decided to combine talents and concentrate on an injected Chrysler slingshot, Warren and Roger Coburn started a partnership that lasted until 1981, when James retired. Their 23 seasons together, always racing dragsters, were marked by Warrens expert driving in Coburn’s unconventional combinations. The “Ridge Route Terrors” terrorized Los Angeles area tracks with a dual-engine Chrysler-Chevrolet dragster, a lightweight Chevy fueler, and ultimately the “Rain for Rent Special” that dominated West Coast racing in the mid-1970s. In the process, Warren & Coburn won the 1962 March Meet, became the first team to run 230 mph and officially back it up, won multiple NHRA and AHRA national events, when five NHRA Pacific Division championships, and were four-time winners of their hometown’s most famous sporting event the US Fuel & Gas Championships.