About me…

My name’s Hal Sanguinetti. I’m 68 this past January 2014, and have been a drag racing enthusiast and participant most of my life. I live in Glendale Arizona, and have for the past 20 years; before that I lived in the San Gabriel Valley area of Southern California.

When I was just out of high school, at 20, I opened a Speed Shop that also sold motorcycle accessories in South Pasadena, called Western Performance Center & Cycle. I sponsored the late Gordon Mineo with his first fuel funny car during those years. The shop only lasted a year, but the die was cast – I wanted to be my own boss. It was during that time that I got published for the first time, a sequence of Bob Hightower crashing the Doug’s Headers Javelin funny car at Irwindale, during a high speed blowover.It was also at Western that I started my long relationship with Torco Racing Oil, which I now distribute in Arizona.

Hal’s National Dragster Pic of the week 1969

In 1972 I went in partnership with the late Ron Sexton, father of Scrambles & Speedway star Jeff Sexton. We opened our first Track ‘N Travel Maico dealership in Chino, CA. Four months later I opened Track ‘N Travel West in Pasadena, a business that went on to survive my lack of business accumen for 14 years, and which was the # 3 Maico dealer in the Western US for much of that time. We sponsored a number of riders, the most prominent of which was Val Tamietti, who became the first racer to be CMC #1 three times (quite an accomplishment in those days). But in 1985, the Japanese MX bike onslaught finally caught up with me, along with never having any money or time to do the things I wanted to do and I closed the store.

During the last couple of years at TNT, I was a road salesman for several SoCal-based warehouse distributors, including Flanders Company.  This is where I got my urge to be involved in wholesale distribution.I started working as the motocross announcer at Irwindale Raceway, thanks to Bruce Flanders, who had moved onto another gig. Eventually I announced at many tracks: Irwindale, Indian Dunes, Saddleback, Escape Country and others.

As I write this, I’m kind of fuzzy on the next couple of years. I worked for several major motorcycle industry distributors as Sales Managers: Circle Industries Sprockets (no longer in business); Graydon-Proline and finally White Brothers, where I became National Sales Manager & Racing Team Coordinator sometime in 1985 or ’86. This was where I became established in the motorcycle industry, and more announcing and other jobs came in as well. Tom & Dan White were very good to me, and we remain good friends to this day. I still help Tom with his Legends of MX presentation at Glen Helen each November.

Interviewing Jon Rosenthiel at 2010 Legends of MX presentation for Broc Glover

Leaving White Bros in 1988 or ’89, I started announcing R/C car races at One Stop Raceway in Cerritos, which led to a bunch of other announcing. Those were fun days, times when I met many of the people who are good friends to this day. But after awhile, I began to tire of the SoCal rat race – the rats were winning. So I scraped some bucks together and moved to Arizona to set up TNT Distributing, with my major line being Torco Racing Oils. For several years, I did the full-line deal, with 25 different product lines, but then I made the mistake of wanting to promote motocross racing because the other association in AZ was totally corrupt and inept. While it eventually broke their stranglehold on AZ MX, it nearly broke me financially, and I gave it up, along with all the other product lines except Torco.

Today, TNT Distributing is small but strong – the economic downturn has been very hard on the sale of a premium oil product. Nonetheless, I remain committed to the product – it’s clearly superior to anything else on the market.

For about 18 years, I was the main Announcer and Publications Manager at Speedworld Raceway Park in Surprise, AZ, about 25 minutes from my home. Beetween October 2011 and February 2013, I was also the dragstrip Track Manager, but at the end of January, 2013, the state of Arizona and Maricopa County shut us down – politics as usual. We were the largest single location, multi-use venue in AZ, with 4 MX tracks, a long Grand Prix track for bikes & quads that hosts the WORCS races each year, an NHRA dragstrip that celebrated its 50th anniversary on March 5/6, 2011; a large Lucas Oil Off Road Racing track; a world-class R/C airplane field, a world-class R/C car track (The Nitro Pit); 5 paintball fields and a mudbog pit and sand drag track…. whew, I get tired just trying to remember it all.

By now you know I have a front engine dragster, but I also love European travel, having been to England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic in either 2007 or 2009. In 2011 I returned to explore more of the same places in more depth, and also explored more of Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, Hungary, and more of the Czech Republic.

I also enjoy Theatre Pipe Organ, building plastic models and working on improving and fixing up my home.

My latest project is the reassembly of the famous Walton-Cerny-Moody T/F dragster from 1972-73. It was officially the second car in the 5’s, running a 5.91 at the 1972 Supernationals in Ontario, CA – a record that lasted nearly a year. The car won over $100,000 that year, equivalent to well over a half-million bucks today. The car is being reassembled with many of the original parts, and will have an all-new cast iron 426 hemi, built by none other than Dale Armstrong!

It will be a legal “exhibition” car, able to do burnouts and 1/2 track launches. We have pretty much decided on the “shoe” for the first runs, but can’t announce it yet. Suffice to say, he’s well known in Nostalgia drag racing.

Thanks to DRE for the slick set of rockers (first ones John Dearmore has made for the 426); to Mark Engle for the camshaft and considerable help in acquiring parts and to a lot more people that I will list as soon as I can.

February 2014 – the engine is done, and more parts have been accumulated for the car! Thanks to Jay Carpenter in Fallbrook for completely fixing and setting up the starter (which has to be an offset model). Larry Mersch (sp?) did the awesome battery pack, and I can’t wait to have it all hooked up and be starting the car. Now the thrash to get the chassis back to the original configuration begins. Stay tuned!