Gary Cagle
Another one of the early pioneers in the sport of drag racing, Gary Cagle was a man of many moods. Must of the time he was a happy go lucky individual, but if he was pushed hard he could be about as tough as anyone around. He had a true love affair with racing and didn’t limit this love to just working on a car driving it. Gary started racing almost as soon as the old Santa Ana Dragstrip opened and in a variety of cars. One of his early rides was a four-banger powered rail job that he campaigned with partner Don Hampton.
While he was known as the driver of many early drag cars, Gary’s first real notoriety came while he was driving Chet Herbert’s slingshot dragster. This car was one of the very first to be fitted with a 392 Chrysler Hemi engine and a tip mounted blower. It was also one of the first cars to top the 180 MPH mark, which it did in 1959.
Driving for Herbert also gave Gary a tie-in with Chet sister, Doris Herbert, who owned and published Drag News. Gary was one of the first drag racers who decided he could make a living as a touring professional drag racer, and through Doris, Gary was able to arrange for a tour of midwestern and eastern drag strips in the summer of 1959. California hot shoe started the tour out on a high note, but a crash at great Bend after a 160 MPH run cut short the entire tour. Gary suffered a lot of physical damage, and it was a long time before he recovered enough to begin racing again. When Gary was able to reenter the drag racing wars, he did so in style. For his return entry, Gary built one of the most memorable machines ever, a canary yellow 1927 T-Roadster with a Chrysler Windsor engine driving through a torque converter. The Newhouse Auto sponsored roadster really shook up the competitors at Lions dragstrip in 1964 and 1965.
It was during the same period that Gary became one of the most outspoken leaders of the United Drag Racing Association and organization of immense political significance in the history of drag racing. Gary helped the you UDRA organization go to battle with many of the strip managers and operators over such things as safety, purses, and other issues he believed were not in the best interest of the racers. No one ever knew Gary to back away from fighting for his beliefs when it came to racing.
After Gary decided to retire the Newhouse Auto roadster, he continued to campaign a variety of other machines including the gorgeous Briggs-Cagle-Steen car that was best known for its unique trapdoor parachute arrangement. Even as he continued to be one of the toughest competitors on the race track, Gary was gradually shifting his interest in other directions. While at the UDRA, he had gained experience in producing successful events, and he also gained a lot of knowledge while working in the hot car staging at some of AHRA’s major meets. With this experience behind them, in the 1970s Gary decided to take a more active leadership role in the Southern California timing Association, where he served in many positions. Gary took the lead SCTA’s fight to retain access to its racing at El Mirage, and he was a leader in upgrading the timing equipment and eventually took charge of timing and internal communication at every Lakes and Bonneville event staged. This love affair with the SCTA was Gary’s passion until the end of his life in 1996. Drag racing never made Gary Cagle he super celebrity, and it certainly never made him monetarily rich, but it did give Gary something money couldn’t buy, the enjoyment of participating in a sport he loved and a man who was rich and friends.