John Dutton

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We are very pleased to be able to feature John Dutton, who served time as the official
strip photographer at San Cobble Raceway/Van Isle Dragways from 1967-1972. John's vast archive of photographs recorded a wonderful era on Vancouver Island. We feel, that, if not for John’s efforts, this history could be all but forgotten. We strongly believe that John's contributions to Vancouver Island's drag racing history warranted recognition.

JOHN DUTTON

Quarter Milers Car Club
Victoria, British Columbia
1963 - 1967
Executive/Secretary, Vice-President, President
San Cobble Raceways/Strip Announcer, Photographer
Autorama Car Shows/Master Of Ceremonies, Photographer
QM Newsletter/Editor
Island Drag Racing Association/Club Representative
Quarter Miler Of The Year/1966

San Cobble Raceway/Van Isle Dragways
Mill Bay, British Columbia
1967 - 1972
Member/lsland Dragway Promoters
Official Strip Photographer
Secondary Public Address Announcer

Mission Raceways
Mission, British Columbia
1967 - 1972
Photographer/Reporter

Drag News
Los Angeles, California
Columnist/Canada Notes

Road and Motorsports Magazine
Vancouver, British Colurnbia
Photographer/Columnist

International Wheelspin News
Ontario
Photographer/Columnist

National Dragster
Los Angeles, California
Photographer/Reporter

June 1970. With fellow members of the Island Dragway Promoters. From left, Russ Hepworth, Gerry Clarke and Doug Ferguson. British Columbia Ferries, returning from Mission Raceway. 

September 1971, location forgotten, Master of Ceremonies, Van Isle Dragway 1971 Season Yearend Banquet and Awards Presentations

Van Isle Dragway, 1968, With Cinematographer Barry Casson

September 1968, with Bert Sweeting (driver of Gary Shepherd-Bert Sweeting BB/Gas Dragster), British Columbia Ferries, returning from Mission Raceway

May 1969, announcer, Van Isle Dragway
 

May 1969, announcer, Van Isle Dragway
 

October 1969, photographer, Van Isle Dragway

August 1971, Van Isle Dragway (A little wasted after a long day of announcing, photographing and a few too many Kokanees!) 

Ray Digby's 29 Model A sport coupe

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 At the Goodguys Rod and Custom show in Puyallup Wa. this year, my car was selected for the best homebuilt award, also known as the Homebuilt Heaven Award sponsored by Speedway Motors. What I didn't know at the time was this made this car eligible for the National Award in this category, to be selected by voters from the cars picked at each of the 25 Goodguys shows from across the U.S.
  For those that don't know this car, it is truly a "homebuilt vehicle". From the construction of the frame to the design and fabrication of the lift off convertible top, including dozens of custom body modifications, all body work and paint, and countless 'on-off ' special hand made pieces , everything on this hot rod was done by the owner in his home garage (except the custom leather upholstery). 
This is a quote from the Goodguys Gazette, " We love showing support for home builders and Ray Digby's '29 Model A sport coupe fooled us on that aspect. The craftsmanship was so top notch, from fabrication to final fit and finish, we'd assumed it was pro built! "
You can find out more about this car in the Canadian Hot Rods Feature. 
 
If, after looking at the other cars and you really believe this car is deserving of this prestigeous award, you can go to  https://www.good-guys.com/homebuilt17  to cast your ballot . 

What I started with.

How it looks now.

1970's in Ucluelet

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We would like to say “Thank you” to Todd Rocke for sending us these old time drag photos dating back to the 1970’s in the Ucluelet area back in the day...

There were many other cars in Ucluelet back then that were sweet. A Mercury Cyclone with a 428 CJ, A Maverick Grabber with a 302. A 69 Mustang Mach I with 428 CJ. Numerous other hot rods as well. Forgotten many as it was almost 40 yrs ago for me. lol Tim Scott would know the others. We grew up together in Ukee. 

Here is a pic of the 69 Road Runner. Originally a Henri car (so goes the story) Had a fiberglass lift off Six Pack hood. In this pic it was running a stout 340 with a 727 trans and 4:10 Dana rear. This car was owned by Steve Halvarson. Davids' brother.

This is Serge Noel with his brother Conrad. The 64 Corvette was a 427 -600HP 4 spd car with I believe 4:88 or lower gearing. Serge used to race it up between Courtney & Campbell River on the old paved logging road. It was a very fast car in its day. Serge took it to Mission to see how it ran on the lights...High 9's back then. 

Derek's 70 C10

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I got a phone call about a C10, shorty for sale. Widow sale, ex body mans truck. New box, New tubs, pile of parts, ran, all sheet metal already body worked. Made the purchase and I was off to the races.

Some early thoughts about mods were full extreme drop members, CPP big brakes, 6.0 lQ9 6l80e, accuair, and more!

I pulled in the 70 Chev to my shop at home, pulled the full front end off, then got the cab ready to lay it back so i could start on the floor underside. it had some patches put in it, I wanted to final weld them up/grind them and ready it for seam sealer/raptor guard. So the oem cab floor undercoating is a PAIN to remove. Wow it sucked! heat lamp, razor scraper, thinners, we got there. Oh and beer to ease the pain! Then i had to patch the lower firewall corner, which was a bit complex. Bunch of angles and seams, got it done tho. Was easier with the cab laid on its back. Then the frame was ready for the next stage. I got the complete setup, extreme front drop member, inc a arms, power rack, gas strut hood hinges, front tube x member, and rear extreme with inboard bags, outboard shocks so i can run some big boots out back. Then I patiently waited for the mail to do its thing! But here in Canada EH, I had to go claim it myself and bring it across through customs at the airport where i had it shipped.

First off i wanna say this was my first C10 build ever. I don't have any experience bagging trucks or even doing a frame off build. I enjoyed it though for sure. After cutting/drilling/air chisel all the stock x members were gone. My PB stuff came in and I prepped for mock up. I Had already installed the drop member rack notches and started putting the tubular cross members in.

Also i deleted the factory frame curve for the fuel pump (i believe) that's what it was for, and made it flush. I later did more work on it and made it symmetrical to the other side . With a little radius to a point. I was planning on boxing the frame upfront, and in back in a section. Also picked up a 6.0l truck motor and it is mated to a 6l80e. Came with all the wiring, dbw, dash, seats, pile of parts. 

I also started shaving my firewall and installed the porter built hood hinges. 

Alright, so then I welded up the back notches, then cut the frame pieces out. buddy dropped off his 220 (250v) plasma for me so i used that. Sweet timing for me cause a cut off sucked for the first bit. Also I cut the low rise tranny hump outta my cab while i had the plasma. Have to put in a high rise (4x4) tranny hub cause the truck is drop membered. Here's hoping the 6l80 clears that! That trans is a giant. I then boxed the notches with some 3/16 supplied by PB. Nice kit to weld, big true steel. Then i made a couple boxing plates for the front, then started making templates for the back end. Got 3/16 plate and welded it in front and back in spots. Trying to get it to paint I made a deadline and hunted it down. I took a few days of my holidays and brought the frame to a buddy's shop and body worked it and primed it. Then I single staged it with endura black. Haven't sprayed that stuff for 7 years but it dried wet (shiny) so i m happy with it. Then also I sprayed two cycles of PB suspension. While I was at his shop I tried to paint as much as I could.

So I brought the frame home and put it on my frame table. Then started final assembly. I painted the parts with a single stage green, basf, just a chip i liked off the wall really. Epoxy the bare metal parts and then sprayed the green. It was starting to look like something

Epoxyed the blasted frame, mudded up all the welds in the back end and smoothed them all out. Then single stage black for the frame. (endura) I'm happy with it. The it came home on the rack for final assembly.

It really started to take shape. Received my accu air e level kit. 2x 400c compressors, one 5 gallon tank. Then had a hard time deciding on my fuel tank. Ideally i want a boyds with in tank pump for a LS. I see they've changed to aeromotive pumps. The problem with boyds is the $ for me. Plus it has to ship to canada and clear customs, blah blah so in other words we are talking around 869$ I'd say after exchange and shipping and duties. Also i have the oem tank/pump that came with my 6.0/6l80e swap. Ideally i would love to incorporate this pump with some sort of cell, but the boyds isn't deep enough. I was thinking a oem blazer tank and fabbing my pump in there somehow. My stock tank is running the return in the lid of the pump also. As I've been told by a gm mechanic, not sure that makes sense to me but.

Next I started cleaning up my firewall. I had to trim a lot off my tie rod ends obviously, I threaded the ends on and it was real toed out I must say! They're narrowed arms so i was aware to begin with they needed to be narrowed. That came later. looks like I may need to trim around 2" off each tie rod. Good times hah.

At this point I took a little break and got hitched. But after a few weeks was back on the project.

Ordered my new wheels and tires. I was stoked to put this set up on the ground! 22x8.5 and 22x9.5.

I put the complete rear set up in with axle to set up my rear bags. Needed to mock up to find ride height, then determine where to put my bag mounts on the rear axle. Threw fittings in the rear sleeve bags and actually cycled the suspension. That was pretty neat to finally see some working parts!! Then i set up my pan hard with my PB kit. This came with the rear extreme drop kit, now the bracket needs to be welded in the rear driver side notch, pretty much where the truck is at ride height, the bar should be level. My problem was i didn't have wheels on the axle. So we measured, mocked up and measured some more. My buddy came by who has experience in bagged trucks and showed me the ropes, since I'm new to this all together. Got it all sorted. Tacked the large bracket in place, then blew it all apart again for final welding for bag mounts and the bracket to the notch. Sure was a shame to grind my nice black paint but i knew it had to be done, ran outta time in the summer when i wanted to paint the frame. 
Later I will blew in the back little spot and you can't see the difference! Then i pulled the axles in my 72 5 bolt posi, in order to assemble my 12" rear disc kit. Mocked all that up. It's the cpp BB kit and i modified it a little, not to use these large band clamps that come with it to hold a bracket to the axle that the rubber lines plug into and the hard lines join to. Mocked all that up, pulled the diff cover, banged some dents out of it and filled the rust pits, primed it and painted it. Then on to the POR15 and axel and assembly.

For now i am running 22x9.5 wheels, 295/30/22

Here is my rear 72 factory posi. Got it free. Welded on my bag mounts, then mocked up my rear disc set up. cpp BB kit. now time to paint the rear axle. 

My tailgate, I've blasted it, shaved the front and updated the handle to 88-98 and flipped it around back. 

My rear diff cover was rusty and looked awful, as you can see, so i fixed it, painted it and had a buddy stripe it for me. Now the rear axle was ready to be put in the frame!!

She's a roller! actually rolled it outta the shop for its first daylight in a long time!