“That was one of the first...
“That was one of the first times I had ever done a wheel stand. Kent Fuller, who built the chassis, went down to the end of the strip and said, ‘You pulled the front end off the ground.’ I raised only a couple of inches off the ground but I couldn’t feel it. When we got back to the starting line, the buzz had gotten around the pits. When I made my next run, everyone was laying on the ground to see if I pulled the wheels up again.”
Tommy made the decision to purchase the car back, restore it himself at home, and simply change the graphics. It was an impressive-looking race car with its stunning new Tom Hanna aluminum skin. Tommy felt that instead of returning it to its original look he would campaign it as is. “This was to be my final North American tour, to run the car at all of the dragstrips I match-raced on, then I planned to go into national event racing.”
Tommy took the car on his third stop of the tour to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, which is cold country. The dragstrip surface had been damaged by the winter frost when the heavy dragster hit a lifted portion and came down hard. In the process Tommy crushed three vertebrae in his back. He was told by his doctors never to drive a race car again or risk the consequences. After three decades, “TV Tommy” Ivo was forced to retire from drag racing.
The only silver spoon Tommy has had in his mouth was when the script writer put it there. Tommy has worked (played) very hard all his life doing what most of us can only dream about: “The house I live in right now I bought for my parents for $12,000 when I was 12 years old. It grew from 1,000 square feet to a 4,000-square-foot home over the years. I worked out of my garage and that’s where I built my four-motor car in 1961. Then when the cars got too long to shut the garage door we built the shop in the back. That’s where my master bedroom sits right now. I’ve never moved.”
Bob Shorrell (of Shorrell...
Bob Shorrell (of Shorrell Engineering in Inglewood) built all of Tommy’s aluminum bodies for the single-, twin-, and four-engine dragsters. Shorrell’s ad in Car Craft March 1956 read: “Competition Bodies Aluminum or Fiberglass.”
Tommy learned from his mother to invest for the future and he did. With his pension from the Screen Actors Guild and real-estate holdings, Tommy is, deservedly, very comfortable.
Tommy Ivo hasn’t driven a dragster in 30 years, but he would agree that the race cars of today have become virtually mass produced. When the hot rod innovators were brushed aside, the originality and unexpected stopped. TV Tommy was his own man when he got a taste of the corporate world for a short time and wanted no part of it. Yes he was a showman, but he was recognized by the racers he competed against as a pacesetter who never stopped going beyond accepted boundaries.
When the superstars of drag racing are mentioned today, most of us could only name a handful. When Tommy ran there were dozens who even the folks who drove Nash Ramblers knew, be it that kid actor from California or that other one from Florida. Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end.
Bakersfield 1959, a night...
Bakersfield 1959, a night and weekend to remember. You can see there was an intense strategy meeting taking place with the crew by the guy with the lampshade on his head (Tommy) Saturday night in the Motel 6 (when they were $6 a night) before the big drag race at Famoso. The groovy guy on the left is Don Prudhomme proclaiming they’d be number one when it was all over—and they were. “We won the Gas part of the Fuel and Gas Championships,” Tommy laughs, looking at the photo, “and what a great time to be crazy kids!” TV Tommy definitely put the fun into drag racing for his crew and the fans when he was competing.
Can you imagine what 1,856...
Can you imagine what 1,856 ci of Buick engines sounded like? Judging by C.J. ”Pappy” Hart’s plugged ears: LOUD! “That was one of the first times we ran the four-motored car at Long Beach [Lions Dragstrip]. That was not me doing the driving but Don Prudhomme,” Tommy explains. (Tommy was still under contract doing a television show and was told he was not to race.) “That was Don’s first professional driving job; he got $25 to drive the car and that’s what started Prudhomme driving dragsters.”
“The worst thing about the...
“The worst thing about the four-engine car was when you put out the chute it would start bouncing like a rubber ball, it only had a 110-inch wheelbase but it went pretty much right where you pointed it with four-wheel drive and would smoke all the tires going down the strip.”
You might say Tommy had tunnel...
You might say Tommy had tunnel vision when he drove the four-engine Buick. To the fans in the stands it looked like he was driving blind but Tommy could look down through the center of the tire smoke, as if in a tunnel, and see just fine.
One of the most horrific crashes...
One of the most horrific crashes in drag racing occurred during the Winternationals at Pomona in 1974. “When I first started drag racing we were using leather jackets, so I lived through a lot of changes. The fire suit I wore during the crash was adequate but nothing like today of course. (Tommy went backward so his rear engine dragster became a front engine and he was engulfed in flames.) I had the wing mounted too low on the car. I had leaned out the engine, which melted all eight pistons, and the motor blew into a ball of fire at 240 mph. The torque from the engine rolled the car over as I went through the lights with such a violent explosion, the fire went all around the wing, and zeroed out the down force.” The violent internal engine explosion broke the block; the rods blew out the bottom and oil dumped out in front of the rear wheels throwing the car sideways. Tommy was on the ride of his life. And he walked away!
We could have met at a coffee...
We could have met at a coffee shop but I was invited to Tommy Ivo’s home, which has his soul inside, from childhood to today. It was the place he came to for solace after a season of nonstop racing. Today, he’s surrounded by his lifework—both on the track and the silver screen.
Not too long after Bakersfield,...
Not too long after Bakersfield, Isky’s ads and the press would elevate the two relative unknowns from Tommy and Don to “TV Tommy” Ivo and “Big Daddy” Don Garlits.