History

The Woodland Auto Display is proud to feature the Ken Clapp Annex, opened May 13th, 2023. The annex features rotating tributes to many who dedicated their passions to vintage racing, and the vehicles which played a major role is the history of automotive racing. Ken Clapp is a long time NASCAR excutive who dedicated his life to promoting West Coast NASCAR racing and had a huge impact on racing overall in California.

The first two vehicles featured are the 1937 Midget (Old Ironsides) driven by Bill Vukovich whose career took him all the way to the Indy 500, and #88, originally built by Art "Shorty" Scovil in 1930 and later updated in 1947. The second featured Sprint Car (originally called "Big Cars") built in 1930 and was raced over the years by numerous owners and drivers quite successfully at the various Northern California tracks. Of the many standout drivers, three progressed to compete at the Indianapolis 500!

The Ken Clapp Annex also features the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame Memorabilia Gallery, an extensive reference library, both printed and digital, and photo library from the anals of west coast racing history. Recent donated items include numerous racecar driver Johnny Boyd items. Johnny was from Fresno, Calif and made his mark in Midget racing post WW II. This eventually led him to racing at the Indy 500 with his good friend, Bill Vukovich Sr. Numerous items include his Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA), champion's ring, trophies, scrap books etc..

Another addition to the annex is the lifetime photo collection of prolific southern California racing photographer, Earl Stubbs. This collection includes literally thousands of 35 mm negatives that cover most forms of auto racing at most of the tracks in southern California from the 1970's until approx. 2010. These will be available to the public for scanning, or copying.

Among the library archives are the Bruce Bromme collection of Ascot programs, the complete collections of Circle Track, Open Wheel and Speed Age, the Shannon and Bob Schmitt collection of Competition Press and Autoweek and the Gary Fisk donations of Vintage Motorsports, Cavallino, Christphorus, Sports Car Market and Octane and a bound collection of Road and Track (1948 – 2017).

Our archives are managed by the Racing History Project. Contact Executive Director Dave Wolin for details.