• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Any Concord Ca. guys, from back in the day

Budnicks

Jackstand racer #1 & proud of it, Sir Posts A Lot
FBBO Gold Member
Local time
2:51 AM
Joined
Jan 16, 2011
Messages
70,328
Reaction score
100,594
Location
NorCal Sierras
Wondering how many others here may have been in the S.F. East Bay area east of the Culdicot {spelling} Tunnel or Concord/Clayton, Walnut Creek, Danville, Lafayette areas mainly back in the mid 70's to the mid 90's....
 
I lived in the bay area from 1982 to 2004...I,m an army brat,so we lived on the presidio across the street from letterman hospital.Used to go bass fishin in orinda..It was drinkin water owned by east bay mud..We would sneak in before light and catch a shi*load of black bass...Took a buddy with me one time ..he was going to school to be a state game warden...All the fish had warts on them...He said that there were too many fish inn the water and this was natures way of controlling the population...Used to cruise broadway street in s.f back in the day...They still had the strip joints and quarter peep shows...Man spent alot of dough there...Now that the army and navy has almost disappered from the bay area all the cool stuff is gone...Now you cannot pay me to return there..Now I call it the big shitty!!!I was at the old fremont dragstrip for the last drag!!!MOPARS RULE!!!
Petty Blue 67 gTx
 
I think we already covered this but I grew up 5 mins from your old Concord house. Did you ever go to W 10th st in Pittsburg on a Sat night to see (or participate) in the races? Everyone used to call it the ni__er nationals. I had the Max Wedge in my 68 RR then and every time I ran one of the local brothas would jump up and down and swing his cane in the air. I don't remember his name but he loved my car. And that was the whole thing back then as far as I saw it. No gangs. No fighting. No racial bullshit. Just a bunch of gearheads out racing. One night the Hwy Patrol showed up and over his loudspeaker said "there will be no more racing tonight folks and I hope everyone's got their headers capped up". This was being said as I was putting my exhaust back together. The CHP followed me out of town and pulled me over for no drivers side mirror and while he was there I got loud exhaust and bald tires. He tried to get me for emissions but I respectively pointed out the factory part number on the cross ram and he did take note I had my PCV valve hooked up (even though he said PVC, but I didn't correct him!).

Getting that ticket signed off was another entertaining story. I had no hood on the car because of the cross ram so he gave the engine a second look and asked me what it did in the quarter. I thought for a minute if I should answer that then I replied with "at the track it runs high 12's" to where he replied, while looking at me over his cop shades "that's pretty damn fast". Several years later I saw the same cop out front of Monument Auto Parts on Clayton Rd with his 69 or 70 Chevelle. We made eye contact like we both knew we met before and while I was thinking no wonder he was asking so many questions (plus his car is probably slow), he probably thought there's that damn kid with the cross ram 426 Road Runner. Oh, and Martinez Auto Dismantlers had the best stock of MoPar parts. Sorry for the ramble but thanks for the opportunity to recall the good 'ol days!
 
Old days relived

I think we already covered this but I grew up 5 mins from your old Concord house. Did you ever go to W 10th st in Pittsburg on a Sat night to see (or participate) in the races? Everyone used to call it the ni__er nationals. I had the Max Wedge in my 68 RR then and every time I ran one of the local brothas would jump up and down and swing his cane in the air. I don't remember his name but he loved my car. And that was the whole thing back then as far as I saw it. No gangs. No fighting. No racial bullshit. Just a bunch of gearheads out racing. One night the Hwy Patrol showed up and over his loudspeaker said "there will be no more racing tonight folks and I hope everyone's got their headers capped up". This was being said as I was putting my exhaust back together. The CHP followed me out of town and pulled me over for no drivers side mirror and while he was there I got loud exhaust and bald tires. He tried to get me for emissions but I respectively pointed out the factory part number on the cross ram and he did take note I had my PCV valve hooked up (even though he said PVC, but I didn't correct him!).

Getting that ticket signed off was another entertaining story. I had no hood on the car because of the cross ram so he gave the engine a second look and asked me what it did in the quarter. I thought for a minute if I should answer that then I replied with "at the track it runs high 12's" to where he replied, while looking at me over his cop shades "that's pretty damn fast". Several years later I saw the same cop out front of Monument Auto Parts on Clayton Rd with his 69 or 70 Chevelle. We made eye contact like we both knew we met before and while I was thinking no wonder he was asking so many questions (plus his car is probably slow), he probably thought there's that damn kid with the cross ram 426 Road Runner. Oh, and Martinez Auto Dismantlers had the best stock of MoPar parts. Sorry for the ramble but thanks for the opportunity to recall the good 'ol days!

I wanted to start a new thread because we were hig jackin another thread with our walk down Concords memory lane... I did participate in the famed N----- Nationals in Pittsburg, that's what the brothers would call it not just everyone else, not even an 1/8 mile, there was a place across the street/HWY 4, that had a skid pad we would go do burn outs, donuts & autocross type ****... I worked at Monument Auto Supply for a couple of Summers as a youngster, at the performance counter, machine shop helper & stock boy at a couple of there stores in Concord & Antioch.... Sounds like you & I probably crossed common paths many times... My buddies back then included Jim Cyr, Jeff Boggs, Rob Duarte, Scott Holman, Roland Merman, Rob Meyers, Eric Barrado all were Mopar & Chevy/GM guys most of us had both brands of some sort at that time, and many, many more friends especially on Friday & Saturday cruise nights, in Walnut Creek, Concord, Antioch & Fairfield, sometimes Sacramento or Modesto even, we always had some were to street race after the cruises... I do remember Martinez Auto Dismantlers very well, they ended up with a few of my cars, not intentionally, because my mother, had someone take or towed off when I was gone on a racing trip, she said to "thin the heard or she would" & she did... I was able to get a few things back but not all of it, 2 Chargers a 68 & 69, a 68 & 70 RR, a 69 Barracuda, my step dads 64 GTO, the Chargers had a full trunks with all my race motor stuff,you name it, it was in there, a couple of the RR's had all my racing transmission stuff, 4spds, clutches, Torque converters, flywheels & auto trans parts, I got most of the stuff back but some of the stuff was taken & not returned, my step father Bob was extremely P-Oed at my mother {I remember that huge yelling & screaming fight they had, one for the ages} for have someone hauling off a bunch of our parts & cars, we listened to "her warnings" after that for sure... Concord was my home for most my youth except 10th-12th grade, I don't miss the bay area traffic for sure, but I do miss a bunch of the car guys I lost contact with most all of them now, I'm not sure how many are still in that area, it would be cool to look up some & do a reunion party of sorts...
 
Bay Area Boys

I lived in the bay area from 1982 to 2004...I,m an army brat,so we lived on the presidio across the street from letterman hospital.Used to go bass fishin in orinda..It was drinkin water owned by east bay mud..We would sneak in before light and catch a shi*load of black bass...Took a buddy with me one time ..he was going to school to be a state game warden...All the fish had warts on them...He said that there were too many fish inn the water and this was natures way of controlling the population...Used to cruise broadway street in s.f back in the day...They still had the strip joints and quarter peep shows...Man spent alot of dough there...Now that the army and navy has almost disappered from the bay area all the cool stuff is gone...Now you cannot pay me to return there..Now I call it the big shitty!!!I was at the old fremont dragstrip for the last drag!!!MOPARS RULE!!!
Petty Blue 67 gTx

Good to see some other guys that were in the area back in my youth, mine was a little earlier 1959-73 then again 1977-81 off & on mostly holidays & summers, while I went to University of Oregon, then from 1982-1996, I then moved to Rancho Murieta Ca. east of Sacramento gated golf community, lived there for 11+ years, then moved 2007 here to Sonora Ca. to spend some time with & take care of Pops... I didn't make it over to S.F. all that much back then, at least not to cruise, we would go to street race in Oakland & Alameda a bunch of times {stupid **** in my youth}, there were many guys from S.F area there usually participating... I too was at & participated in the final race at the once fastest track in the U.S. Freemont/Baylands Raceway... That was my favorite track of all time, much better than Sacramento, Vacaville 1/8 mile or even Sears Point/Infinion back then anyway...
 
Was stationed at NAS Alameda from 78-82. Roomy was from Antioch. Bay area was home for 4 years. Lived in Oregon/WA another 19. Back in TN. Friend of mine used to work as welder at some rock quarry near Concord. Just remember he made darn good money.
 
Seems like there was a bad accident in the tunnel back then. Lots of cars and fire.
 
Maybe a bit off the track here, but in '83 I drove my '70 GTX from WI to my brother's place in Santa Clara. I lived there with him from April through August that year. I had a good time cruising El Camino Real in the Santa Clara/San Jose area. Met a bunch of good Mopar pals cruising that street. They were really cracking down on cruising that summer - they had a no loitering ordinance as a way to hassle the car guys and keep them from stopping to chat. One of my funnier cruising experiences there was when a guy came up next to me at a stop light and asked where I got my hood. He just laughed and didn't believe me when I told him the Air Grabber was factory.

I was a member of the old MMCI club back then, and there was a nice girl named Linda from Concord who was the local chapter leader in the area (there's my Concord connection). I met her once when we all went to the Fremont dragstip one night. Some good memories.
 
Yep

Seems like there was a bad accident in the tunnel back then. Lots of cars and fire.

The tanker that blew up & killed quite a few people & destroyed the tunnel, don't remember the year but it was some bad stuff...
 
West coaster

Was stationed at NAS Alameda from 78-82. Roomy was from Antioch. Bay area was home for 4 years. Lived in Oregon/WA another 19. Back in TN. Friend of mine used to work as welder at some rock quarry near Concord. Just remember he made darn good money.

So you were a west/left coaster for a while anyway, I went to Alameda, Oakland & Berkley a lot back in them days...
 
Well, while you guys were beating up chebys in Concord and Pittsburgh me and my buddy's were taking them down on the 680 corridor through San Ramon and Pleasanton lol his dark blue 68 barracuda with a small block used to scream up and down 680 every weekend I remember when he bought from Mike loge (maybe wrong spelling) for $800 bucks great deal. We used to buz up to concerts at the pavilion too then run from the concord P.D. after lol Good times.
 
I wanted to start a new thread because we were hig jackin another thread with our walk down Concords memory lane... I did participate in the famed N----- Nationals in Pittsburg, that's what the brothers would call it not just everyone else, not even an 1/8 mile, there was a place across the street/HWY 4, that had a skid pad we would go do burn outs, donuts & autocross type ****... I worked at Monument Auto Supply for a couple of Summers as a youngster, at the performance counter, machine shop helper & stock boy at a couple of there stores in Concord & Antioch.... Sounds like you & I probably crossed common paths many times... My buddies back then included Jim Cyr, Jeff Boggs, Rob Duarte, Scott Holman, Roland Merman, Rob Meyers, Eric Barrado all were Mopar & Chevy/GM guys most of us had both brands of some sort at that time, and many, many more friends especially on Friday & Saturday cruise nights, in Walnut Creek, Concord, Antioch & Fairfield, sometimes Sacramento or Modesto even, we always had some were to street race after the cruises... I do remember Martinez Auto Dismantlers very well, they ended up with a few of my cars, not intentionally, because my mother, had someone take or towed off when I was gone on a racing trip, she said to "thin the heard or she would" & she did... I was able to get a few things back but not all of it, 2 Chargers a 68 & 69, a 68 & 70 RR, a 69 Barracuda, my step dads 64 GTO, the Chargers had a full trunks with all my race motor stuff,you name it, it was in there, a couple of the RR's had all my racing transmission stuff, 4spds, clutches, Torque converters, flywheels & auto trans parts, I got most of the stuff back but some of the stuff was taken & not returned, my step father Bob was extremely P-Oed at my mother {I remember that huge yelling & screaming fight they had, one for the ages} for have someone hauling off a bunch of our parts & cars, we listened to "her warnings" after that for sure... Concord was my home for most my youth except 10th-12th grade, I don't miss the bay area traffic for sure, but I do miss a bunch of the car guys I lost contact with most all of them now, I'm not sure how many are still in that area, it would be cool to look up some & do a reunion party of sorts...



No way!!! I know Rob Duarte very well. Used to work with him at the Berkeley lab. He's still there so you should look him up. I also know Roland but haven't seen him in ages. Last I heard he's pretty messed up - as in had a stroke or multiple strokes and is probably living in a convalescent hospital or something. It is said his current situation was brought on by too much partying (drugs). Do you remember the Edgecomes? There is Larry, Larry Jr. and Dave. My buddies were (and most still are) Rob Dickerson, Mike Kwok, Neil Holcombe, Mike McIntosh, Ron Clark (speaker head), Jeff Brown, Brian Smith, Rob Bennett, Dick Ibbesson (RIP), Bobby Short, Dan Starkey (jr. and senior) and Mike Starkey (RIP), Steve Leonard AKA Fatty (RIP). If you want a reunion my shop is the perfect place. I do a car show every year and try to get as many old buddies together as possible. That sucks about your cars and parts!
 
Small world

No way!!! I know Rob Duarte very well. Used to work with him at the Berkeley lab. He's still there so you should look him up. I also know Roland but haven't seen him in ages. Last I heard he's pretty messed up - as in had a stroke or multiple strokes and is probably living in a convalescent hospital or something. It is said his current situation was brought on by too much partying (drugs). Do you remember the Edgecomes? There is Larry, Larry Jr. and Dave. My buddies were (and most still are) Rob Dickerson, Mike Kwok, Neil Holcombe, Mike McIntosh, Ron Clark (speaker head), Jeff Brown, Brian Smith, Rob Bennett, Dick Ibbesson (RIP), Bobby Short, Dan Starkey (jr. and senior) and Mike Starkey (RIP), Steve Leonard AKA Fatty (RIP). If you want a reunion my shop is the perfect place. I do a car show every year and try to get as many old buddies together as possible. That sucks about your cars and parts!

Small freaken world isn't it !... A lot of those name do sound familiar, as far as Roland, A couple of my racing partners Rob & Dee Corrado were friends of the Mermons & another guy always there was Mike Fuentes, long before I met him... Roland is dead, he died probably 12-15 years ago now, he got into some bad stuff {powders, I think}, he had a massive annureisum {spelling} he was a veg pretty much before it happened anyway, He & Sue divorced, shortly after he got popped for growing herbs in his attic, "I always knew he didn't make all that money he was spending, just being an electrician & selling & buying cars/parts", he made some very questionable deals at times I went with him as back up when he went to look at cars he wanted to buy, I knew him very well , helped him build his garage/shop & many of his cars/Mopar projects, He & Sue got into the "Jet car stuff" & things got kind of weird after that, I went swimming & ate at his house {we called it Club Merm} many, many times & didn't have a clue about what he was doing on the sly, until near his death about the scumbags Oakland gang guys, he was dealing with... I know the Edgecombes {crane operators} Larry mostly, they had dragsters & DeTomaso's, Pantera's, Mopars etc., not real well but I do remember them, they were more friends of friends the Kaisers my neighbors on Jeanie Dr. when I lived in Pleasant Hill, I do remember "Fatty" Steve Leonard, he use to hang around "Speaker Head Ron" & Lori Clark {self proclaimed N20 guru, Pontiac Guy mostly & 1 of mine & Jim's racing crew members} he was another friend of mine from that area, back many moons ago, they were a kind of strange group though... I knew Rob Duarte very well from his teen years tell after he graduated from DVC & went to work for the lab, a bunch of us would go over & BS/Bench race at his house/garage while he would be working on some project or another his BBC 510 Datsun or His turbo V-6 Morris Minor, I actully purchased his pistons for his 468 FI engine in his 510, I had him replace a 2.8 V-6 in a piece of crap s-10 work truck to earn some extra money, he was a damn good mechanic & fabricator, he was a little younger than me, Scott Holman & Jeff Boggs, Fat BoB ? {don't remember his last name}, Jim Cyr & others use to be over there all of the time, Rob was our designated driver when we went out prowling he didn't drink alcohol, he was a good youngster...
 
Last edited:
Danville area

Well, while you guys were beating up chebys in Concord and Pittsburgh me and my buddy's were taking them down on the 680 corridor through San Ramon and Pleasanton lol his dark blue 68 barracuda with a small block used to scream up and down 680 every weekend I remember when he bought from Mike loge (maybe wrong spelling) for $800 bucks great deal. We used to buz up to concerts at the pavilion too then run from the concord P.D. after lol Good times.

Most of my girlfriends were from the Danville, San Ramone, Pleasanton areas, I aimed high back then, I was in the area very frequently, I had a friend Rocco Peralta Jr., that worked at a Shell station on Crow Canyon exit off of 680 I think it was, I use to go bug him a lot... I went to the Danville hotel bar to drink, while I would wait for my then Girlfriend Vicky Hodges to get off of work, she was a local before she moved in with me in Concord, my Aunt & Uncle still live there in Danville, all of the dealership owners lived in Black Hawk I was there a whole bunch, I was a golf member there & worked for a dealership group in that area also...
 
Oh geez, this is getting to be like a family reunion! And you even knew Fatty. He used to hang around with Mark Elton, who drove a black Cordoba that PHPD knew all to well. The saying was "use the Cordoba; go to jail". I had no idea Roland died but from what I know it doesn't surprise me. I never thought much of him but never wished him any harm. Sounds like we need to get together for a pizza!!

I live in Danville now but I'm a transplant so won't necessarily know the old timers. I do have some friends that have been in the area forever and they might! Yep, the world is still small.
 
Pizza/Beer time

Oh geez, this is getting to be like a family reunion! And you even knew Fatty. He used to hang around with Mark Elton, who drove a black Cordoba that PHPD knew all to well. The saying was "use the Cordoba; go to jail". I had no idea Roland died but from what I know it doesn't surprise me. I never thought much of him but never wished him any harm. Sounds like we need to get together for a pizza!!

I live in Danville now but I'm a transplant so won't necessarily know the old timers. I do have some friends that have been in the area forever and they might! Yep, the world is still small.
Pizza & a Beer sounds pretty good some time when I go down that way, don't get down there much anymore, we should get together... Sounds like we covered the same ground many times, There was a guy Jerry Nunes, I think his name was that lived in Danville, if memory serves me correctly he was a die hard car guy built gasser type in the late 70's to early 80's, he was my former girlfriends Vicky's ex-boyfriend, he was a nice guy dont know what happened to most of the people from back then I grew up & moved on... There was another guy Jerry Noonan, he had a bad *** 68-71 BB Corvette, with a narrowed Dana 60, full cage etc., he was a Snap On Truck distributor for awhile... Roland rubbed a bunch of people the wrong way... I kind of regret defending him a bunch of times, I think when he stroked out from the drugs was my thinking, I may suspect he was given some bad stuff on purpose, because of a bad deal, with the wrong kind of people... He had that kind of personality, I kind of distanced myself when he started going bad after his divorce got ugly, some un-sitely people over his place all the time...
 
Those names sound familiar too! Then there's Jim Molino of JM Enterprises (auto dismantler). Well, he's pretty much dismantled after the city got on his case. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!! Fatty went the same way Roland did. When I saw fatty last he wasn't fatty anymore and a month later he was dead. It sounds like you have a couple of years on me (I'm 46) but I do remember Molino back in the mid 70's telling a buddy about a big street race involving Rod Banna (sp?) in his BBC powered T bucket and I think a HEMI Cuda.
 
Those names sound familiar too! Then there's Jim Molino of JM Enterprises (auto dismantler). Well, he's pretty much dismantled after the city got on his case. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!! Fatty went the same way Roland did. When I saw fatty last he wasn't fatty anymore and a month later he was dead. It sounds like you have a couple of years on me (I'm 46) but I do remember Molino back in the mid 70's telling a buddy about a big street race involving Rod Banna (sp?) in his BBC powered T bucket and I think a HEMI Cuda.

I'm 52, I know or knew thru a friend Scott Holman, Rod Banna he had a bad *** 30 something coupe w/LS7 454 equipped, it was fast as hell, If you knew Rod you must have known Danny Masachini {spelling}... He had a fast as hell LS7 BBC 70 Z-28, he had a friend with a Lime green 70 Demon that was kind of quick too I don't remember the guys name... How about Ron & Randy Panky, Ron was a lowrider painter body guy, Randy was an old room mate & bought my old V-8 Vega, the whole family was body men but into HP also, lots of fond memories around those years...
 
So you were a west/left coaster for a while anyway, I went to Alameda, Oakland & Berkley a lot back in them days...

Yeah, talk about culture shock. LOL. Got used to the Bay area after a couple years. Good memory's. The 89 earthquake sure brought me back to those times. I sat in traffic a bunch of times on the Nimitz freeway. You know, the one that collapsed. Berkley was a lot fun in those days. Left over hippies, used record stores (cheap). Drank my first mocca there.
 
Berkley

Yeah, talk about culture shock. LOL. Got used to the Bay area after a couple years. Good memory's. The 89 earthquake sure brought me back to those times. I sat in traffic a bunch of times on the Nimitz freeway. You know, the one that collapsed. Berkley was a lot fun in those days. Left over hippies, used record stores (cheap). Drank my first mocca there.

My father & aunt were born & raised in Berkley area Santa Fe dr., up on the hill some, towards Piedmont/Monclare area, I remember going to visit my grandparents in Berkley, going by the college "U.C. Berkley", in the 60's & early 70's seeing all the hippies & protesting & wonder who are all these dirty scummy people here, I didn't care for the useless hippy activist movement or all of the war protesters back then & really still don't now I guess... After my parents split when I was 2 or so, I lived in Oakland off 49th & Telegraph ave. close to mothers father, until I was 6, 'I think' {not the nicest area}, when my mother remarried & we moved back to Concord again... I'm so glad we lived 40 or so miles east in Contra Costa county, instead of Oakland, Berkley, Alameda, Richmond, San, Francisco area {was a great place before the late 60's}, Concord was much more kind of rural/suburbia back then, now Concord is huge city in comparison to when I was young, that's 1 of the main reasons I moved,... My old neighbor Pete Kaiser & Don Tourte {Nostalgia T/F Dragster & IHBA record holders}were machinist & welders at the Alameda ship yards for many years, Pete had a lathe & Bridgeport mill in his garage, Don a chassis jig & had even more machinist equipment & was probably the best welder I ever met to this day, they taught me so much about race car fabrication, machining, welding & fab skills... I remember the 1989 World Series "battle of the bay' Oakland A's Vs. S.F. Giants & the horrendous "Loma Prieta Earth Quake very well, I was sick stayed home from work for a couple of days or I would have been on or near the Nimitz/Cyprus structure the freeway that collapsed, I worked a lot in Oakland, S.F., Berkley, Hayward, San Leandro areas doing construction work, we had a job in S.F. off of Front st., I would have been caught up in all that mess 1 way or another, I was the Project Mngr./Superintendent & would have traveled back & forth between all those job sites, that was 1 time it was good to be sick.... Getting to the city was a big ordeal for a long time after that had to go over the Golden Gate bridge or down to the Dumbarton{name?} Bridge, because the Oakland/S.F. Bay Bridge was messed up from a collapsed top section mid span, it was a big cluster f--- for a while especially for commuters...
 
Auto Transport Service
Back
Top