Although Al Clark was born in London, England and has lived in Victoria since age three, he was one of the most successful drag racers at Mission Raceways.

At 10 he started fooling with cars working on brother’s car, he drove a customized ‘48 Chev coupe to high school and by 16, he had joined the Quarter Milers Club.

Al started drag racing by driving the Quarter Milers C/Dragster in 1962 at Arlington, Washington and at San Cobble on Vancouver Island.

Clark drove the second dragster to appear at the Mission track after Jack Williams, he continued to drive the Quarter Milers dragster until 1966, when he bought it and then ran it on his own. Engines were injected Chevys as C/D until ‘70, one season as E/D with a straight 8 Buick and then switched to injected Chrysler to run B/Dragster until ‘74, using a 55 Nomad wagon as a tow vehicle. Al raced at Mission, Arlington, Seattle, Edmonton and Van Isle with a fair amount of success and then retired from racing in 1974.

AL CLARK - Inducted 2006

Pioneer - Hot Rod, Custom Car and Drag Racing

 

Al Clark at Van Isle, 1972 (Al Clark collection)

By George Bell, 2006

Al Clark, 2006

Al recalls that the early races with flag man starts were a lot of fun.

In 1965, Al apprenticed as a boilermaker/fabricator at a local shipyard.

Al was show chairman for the Quarter Miler’s Autorama from 1968 to ‘72 and then became show chairman for the International Show Car Association

(ISCA) World of Wheels from 1974 until 1988 and later produced his own shows in 1991 and 1994

Al was a founding member of the Van Isle Regional Group (1980), of the Early Ford V8 Club, and was show chairman for two national conventions (Fords ‘n Flowers, 1986 and ‘96). For the 1996 show, he convinced Don Garlits to be the Grand Marshall, as a result, he came to know Garlits quite well (best part of meet).

Part time building street rod chassis started in 1986 and by 1996 he had his company Deuces Northwest Street Rods going full time producing award winning projects with numerous best undercarriage and Best of Show awards.

Another project that Al started was Northwest Deuce Day beginning in 1998 with just 33 1932 Fords showing up, 2004 saw 127, and for 2007 the 75 the anniversary of the car, five hundred Deuces are expected.

Perhaps Al’s proudest achievements is; as a single parent, raising his daughter Karen. Today Karen runs a successful software business in Seattle.