Cal-Rods Car Club and Vic Cunnyngham

October 13, 2024

You know, there would not be a present-day Cal-Rods Car Club without Vic Cunnyngham. I am a member emeritus of the Cal-Rods. I say that because I have always been a Board Member since the club re-started in late 1990’s. I relocated to Nevada in 2012 and retired from my position, remaining a long-range member.

The Cal-Rods have continued to present day. I get email notifications of club activities that seem like daily, because the club is very active.

Vic is a very special person. He is a historian, model flying airplane champion a few times over, an entrepreneur, inventor, custom hot rod owner, collector, designer and builder. And a Baldwin Park High School Alumni and many, many other fine attributes. And I cannot forget he is a husband, father, grand-father and a very convincing Santa Claus at Christmas and Past President of the Cal-Rods. But most of all he has been a friend of mine since the late 1950’s.

The emails began me recalling the early days of the Cal-Rods. In the 1990’s many Baldwin Park High School (BPHS) alumni guys rebuilt/purchased duplicates of the hot rods they had back in high school, and we attended many local and not so local car shows.

Vic recognized that many of our era fellow classmates had this hobby in common and he got a group together. He knew of the Cal-Rods originating in 1954 at BPHS and had the idea of reforming the club. The original Cal-Rods President was Don Scurti. Don, being the retired owner of Bob’s Auto Parts on Ramona Blvd, in Baldwin Park, liked the idea very much and got involved.

We originally in 1999 had about a dozen members that were very interested. Don Scurti, Jack Ferguson, Don Ford, Tom Flenniken (all original members in 1954) Steve Gibbs and myself and others.

Well, we began having meetings. We recruited new members, and we grew and grew. Having a common meeting place at someone’s home, or a meeting room at a pizza place or other restaurant became a chore.

Steve Gibbs was an alumnus and an Exec VP and retired Director of Racing for the National Hot Rod Association. He had recently completed the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, at the Los Angeles County Pomona Fair plex. He suggested that we could possibly move some race cars around in the museum and put up some chairs, etc., and we could host our meetings there. In return the club members could volunteer to help at the Museum when they have events, move cars around, etc. WOW! We jumped at Steve’s offer. What other car club could boast that their clubhouse was at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. The club continued at the Museum until a management change at NHRA occurred. The meetings are now held at the La Verne Community Center.

Well as most of us know things really boomed from there. We at one time had approximately 400+ members including family. The Cal-Rods is a social car club that includes family members for the purpose of having fun, getting together as a club and attending car shows and events as well as donating money and time to local charities.

We had a great annual car show that we produced for 15+ years. It was called Run With a Winner at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. We would put on the show on the infield at Santa Anita Park. We had upwards of 500 entries annually. When Covid hit, the shows stopped. The club wanted to continue at Santa Anita, but their administrators wanted to charge large fees to do so. In the past they always guaranteed The Cal-Rods large proceeds to put on the shows. The Cal-Rods now have developed Run With a Winner Car Show and Drag Race, at the Irwindale Raceway. Their 2 nd Annual Show occurred in September 2024. I understand that the event was quite successful and that monies made will be used quite readily for the clubs annual charity donations to be made at years end.

As I was saying earlier, Vic was an entrepreneur amongst many other things. He organized car shows, parties and dances for the club. We had an annual Christmas Dinner Celebration, that the Cal-Rods Board commissioned, and it was held for many years at Cal-Poly Pomona Campus. The annual party has moved several times since.

Vic was a collector of anything connected with car clubs, shows, history, etc. He located an original Cal-Rods Car Club plaque from former and 1 st President, Don Scurti. Vic was friends with the owner of a metal recycling company. His friend collected old car club plaques that he found in storage bins of recycled aluminum. People had just discarded them, and he began to collect them. Eventually displaying them on the wall of his warehouse. I visited one day with Vic, as this friend of his was able to sandcast a duplicate of the Cal-Rods plaque. He had hundreds and hundreds of old car club plaques displayed on the walls of his warehouse. Most of them I did not recognize the names of the clubs, but there were hundreds.

So, the club plaque was re-cast into today’s version, which are duplicates of the originals from the 1950’s. Smaller versions were also made available for display trophy’s, trailer hitch covers, etc. I told you Vic was a designer, builder, entrepreneur. He also bowered an original Cal-Rods jacket that an original member had kept over the years. From that, Board Member Jack Ferguson, who took on the responsibility of obtaining and reproducing Cal-Rod tee shirts and memorabilia, had a jacket manufacturer reproduce our jackets. Black wool with White leather sleeves with our logo on the back. What classic jackets they are. I still have my jacket, along with other Cal- Rods gear, including the 70 th Anniversary tee shirt.

As a Board Member I suggested that we have our name and logo trademarked. I applied for and obtained the trademark through the US Patent and Trademark office for our club’s name and logo to protect our history. Later, I learned of a club in Northern California that used the name Cal Rods. We sent them a copy of our trademarked letter and advised them to desist from using our name. They did so willingly.

As we grew as a club, we began attending car shows as a group in many places. We have and still attend the Solvang, California, Car Show where we cruise in a caravan to Solvang and take over an entire hotel/motel facility for the weekend upwards of 60 cars have attended. We had a great time and parked together as the Solvang show closes many streets for the entire weekend. And we have partied hardy during these times. That’s the social part of the club.

Another large show we travel to is the Dr. George Charity Car Show in the Palm Desert area in Southern California. Again, we have a special staging area in the show parking lot and park together. Again, we reserved an entire motel for this event and party together at the two-day show. These are just two of the travel events we have been to over the years.

I mention these gatherings because Vic is always in contact with car clubs and shows and gets our club invited to their events. In turn these far away clubs have supported our shows.

The Grand National Car Show at the Pomona Fairplex in January every year started at the Pomona Fairplex in 2004. Vic contacted the owner, John Buck, about being active with the show. As it turned out, the Cal-Rods became the official security force for the show. We had a great time, kept a semblance of order with all participants and directed attendees to areas of interest. Since this is quite a large venue, it was necessary to assign our members to 4- or 5-hour shifts throughout the car show areas. It was not an easy task, but it got handled.

I personally enjoyed the staging of the participants in the main building, where the AMBR competition occurred. We were given a map of spots where entrants were to stage their cars. The most difficult part was keeping open avenues for trucks and trailers to enter and drop off their cars and displays and still being able to direct entrants around already early arrivals that were in place. The most fun was visiting with the arrivals. Many had been on the road for days, arriving from all parts of our country. They were tired and some were short tempered due to many hassles and mis-directions that they received, coming through the entrance gate. I assured them that I would make sure they were able to unload their cars as soon as I could and to be a little more patient and that their long journey was almost complete. They for the most part were understanding. It took a year or two to finally get the whole process on the same page.

I do recall one entrant that showed up late, yelling and screaming that he was assigned the wrong spot. You know there always has to be one. He paid for a better location, and he demanded that I move out another entrant so that he could take the space. He created quite a scene. He said he knew John Buck personally and that he was going to have me fired. He of course was a short guy (I am 6’5”) and really was displaying the so called “little man syndrome”. When I told him that I could not be fired, he asked why not? I simply told him that I was a volunteer and did my job for free so his request was quite foolish. He again became enraged. Several of the other car owners were in the area and heard all the commotion. When this very disturbing fellow stormed off, they all applauded. About an hour or so later, we were able to get him and his car into his assigned area. John Buck had cooled him down. He eventually came up to me and apologized for his actions. The building got staged. All entrants plus some late arrivals were in place and the event was another great experience. All in all, we all felt that the Cal-Rods were a big part of their success.

So, there are many, many more interesting stories to tell. I was a Board member up and until 2012 when I relocated to Las Vegas, NV. Like the many cruises and shows we participated in. The origination of the monthly cruise that Steve Gibbs started at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. I believe they still occur.

How about the reproduction of Wally Park’s 32 Roadster?. This again was a Vic Cunnyngham idea. Vic gathered all the information he could from photos posted at the museum and from others. He was able to get 90% of everything to be donated. And I mean a reproduction body, a flathead V8 with the engine being rebuilt by H&H Flatheads, all the parts, tires, chrome work, upholstery, etc., etc. It was a fun project.

When it was complete, we presented the reproduced 32 Roadster to Wally Parks at one of the Museum cruises. It was pre-planned and many hundreds of rodders were there for the unveiling. We pulled the cover off the roadster as Wally watched. He walked over and got behind the wheel. He turned the key and hit the starter button. The engine fired up to the delight of Wally and the crowd roared. He raced the engine in delight. It was quite an eventful experience that I will never forget.

As one of the workers on the project, after many months of completion, it was quite satisfying to see the end product. Vic was kind enough to give to each volunteer crew member that worked on the project, a duplicate ignition key to the roadster. Each of us was able to sit in the roadster and use our key to fire up the engine. I STILL HAVE MY KEY!

That’s my last story for now. I just wanted to pass on to others a little history of the Cal- Rods and the big part Vic has played in its past and current history.

Big John Morehead,

Cal-Rod member Emeritus

Las Vegas, Nevada