From left, Bill Topping, Al Castillon and Bill’s brother, Harold Topping, in Torrance in Feb. 2018. Bill and Harold have Drifters jackets. (Photo by Sam Gnerre)
You can find brothers Harold and Bill Topping and their pal Al Castillon having breakfast together at Eat at Joe’s restaurant in Redondo Beach every Friday morning at 7 a.m.
They’ve been meeting there since the three of them became friends while attending Redondo Union High School back in the late 1940s.
The trio — Harold just turned 92, and Bill and Albert are 90 — are among about half a dozen surviving members of the Redondo Beach Drifters car club.
All of them have always loved cars and still do, as I found out when I talked to them at Harold Topping’s daughter Coleen’s home in Torrance recently.
The Redondo Beach Drifters, undated photo. Left top row, from left: Harold Topping (Hawaiian shirt), Al Castillon, Ronnie Glass. Directly behind Glen “Shorty” Stokey, who is seated in front of photo, are Bill Topping, left, and club president Gene Wood (wearing sunglasses). (Credit: Kustomrama website)
She contacted me after Harold recognized the photo, above, of the Drifters that ran with my recent story on the Youth Safety Run sponsored for car clubs by police departments.
Castillon told me that when they returned from the service following their Korean War stints in 1952 — Harold and Bill served in the Army, Albert in the Air Force — they all decided they wanted to build and race cars.
Since no one had the financial means to do so on their own, they got a couple dozen friends and fellow gearheads together and formed the Drifters, planning to pool their resources to build a race car.
The trio pointed to the late Gene Wood and Ronnie Glass, along with Bill Topping, as the club’s primary founders. (Glass’ widow Beverly also shared her memories at the discussion.)
Harold Topping poses at the wheel of the Drifters’ 23 Jr. race care in this undated photo circa mid-1950s. (Credit: Harold Topping)
Organized drag racing was just getting off the ground then. Californian Wally Parks had formed the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) a year earlier, in 1951.
The Drifters were serious about racing. They decided early on to designate only a couple members to be drivers, with Glass being the first. Three members were chosen to be the official tuners. They would engineer the car to suit Glass’ particular driving style. Other members pitched in to work on the rest of car as needed.
The origin of the club’s first race car is unclear. “We got it for free, it may have come from the junkyard,” Castillon said of the 1937 2-door Ford slantback sedan, which was given the number 23. “The price was right,” Harold Topping added.
Club members fixed up “23,” adding then-uncommon safety innovations picked up from their time in the military. These included a roll bar, an airplane seat with a seat belt, and holes drilled in the fenders to help cut down wind resistance and engine heat, and increase speed.
The roll bar came in handy during an early race at the Santa Ana Drag Strip at Orange County (now John Wayne) Airport. Santa Ana was the first dragstrip in the U.S., opening on June 19, 1950. An auxiliary airplane landing strip was used for racing; the airport only handled general aviation at the time.
The 1937 Ford slantback sedan, #23, was the Drifters’ first race car. Note holes drilled in fender. (Credit: Harold Topping)
The 1937 Ford slantback sedan, #23, after it crashed in Santa Ana. (Credit: Harold Topping)
At the conclusion of one of Glass’ runs, Number 23 flipped and rolled over backwards at a speed in excess of 100 miles an hour before coming to a stop.
The car was completely totaled, but thanks to the roll bar and other safety features — and much good luck — Glass was shaken up but not seriously injured.
Their next car, a 1935 five-window Ford coupe, was given the number 23 as well, and would become the club’s pride and joy.
The Drifters painted their 23 Jr. car white so it would stand out on the drag strip. (Credit: Harold Topping)
They painted it white so it would stand out. Most other car clubs painted their cars dark colors.
“23 Jr.,” as it was affectionately known, won races and competitions for the next several years.
“We don’t know what happened to the trophies, we can’t find them,” Harold says. Several of them are clearly visible in old photos.
Harold Topping models a Drifters jacket as Al Castillon Jr. looks on. (Feb. 2018 photo by Sam Gnerre)
A couple of club jackets have survived; Harold’s brother Bill wore one to the interview. One of his army buddies in Korea came up with the
Harold Topping’s Drifters car club plaque. (Feb. 2018 Photo by Sam Gnerre)
logo design when Bill told him about plans to form the club once out of the service.
Harold also has one of the metal “Redondo Drifters” plaques that were displayed proudly in members’ cars.
Some of the drag races involved their crosstown Redondo rivals, the Millwinders car club. “The Millwinders and us were friends, until we got to the dragstrip, then, forget it,” says Harold Topping.
The 23 Jr. car faces off against the Millwinders’ entry, top, in this photo staged for the cover of the Nov. 1954 issue of Hot Rod magazine.
In addition to the Santa Ana dragstrip, Castillon recalled racing at another early strip, Paradise Mesa in San Diego, that was not as idyllic as its name sounds: “It was behind the city dump, you had to drive through the dump to get there.”
The club held many NHRA records in its class during its racing days, participating regularly in events all over Southern California.
Marriage, children and job responsibilities eventually led to the original Drifters members becoming less active, and a new generation of enthusiasts took their place in the club.
A third car, “a rail job we got from some guy in PV,” according to Castillon, competed in races, some at Lions Drag Strip in Wilmington, after some of the original members left. The Drifters also took the car, a 1934 five-window Ford coupe, to the NHRA Nationals drag races at Oklahoma City in 1958.
The Drifters with their third race car at the NHRA Nationals in Oklahoma City in 1958. (Credit: Kustomrama website)
The original members never lost touch with each other, holding weekly meetings through the years.
Those meetings now take place over Friday breakfast at Joe’s, and I guarantee they are as lively and feisty as Harold, Bill and Al themselves.
The whereabouts of this sign at the garage used by the Drifters is unknown. (Credit: Harold Topping)
Note: Special thanks to Coleen Berg for organizing and hosting the meeting and providing copies of photos and documents for this story.
Sources:
Collective recollections and memorabilia from Harold and Bill Topping and Al Castillon.
“H.A.M.B.” message board, Jalopy Journal website.
“Redondo Beach Drifters Car Club,” Kustomrama.com website.
#23, the club’s original race car. (Credit: Harold Topping)
