Petersen Archive - Helen Root and the Root Roadster

The scene on the cover of the July 1955 issue of Hot Rod magazine was much like any other. Rendered in brilliant “Ektachrome” color, it showed, underneath the magazine’s red and white “Hot Rod” logo, a glistening black roadster parked in a suburban driveway flanked by its owners Bart and Helen Root. Bart, in a crisp mechanic’s uniform, leaned over the car’s engine, while Helen, wearing a fashionable blue boatneck and red capris, stood next to its finely polished windshield.

Perhaps adding a bit of variety, two children, Bart Jr. and Jodie Root sat in the car and a smattering of picnic supplies leaned casually in the background. From this perspective, the scene produced around the “Root Roadster” looked much like a typical beautified subject of a Hot Rod cover.

This was not entirely incorrect. The roadster at least at first glance, appeared to be simply another classic, well-engineered hot rod. Like many other Ford-based units, its construction combined aspects of two Ford products, the body of a 1929 Model A and the frame of the ubiquitous 1932 Roadster.

Its engine was as polished as its exterior and had construction to match, featuring as Hot Rod described a “near perfect as possible matching of engine components and gearing.” Specifically, the powerplant consisted of a modified 1938 Ford V-8 engine, which had been tuned by Tom Logan, a member of the “Qualifiers” car club based in Norwalk, California. Like many typical hot rods, the Roots’ roadster also included a smattering of “speed parts,” items that could be bolted on or attached to an engine in order to increase its performance. It had, for example, Stromberg carburetors and an Evans intake manifold, helping to improve the engine’s fuel-burning efficiency.

Notable speed parts shop, Bell Auto Parts, supplied components for the car’s front axle.

But the Roots’ roadster was not just built for show, or for a feature on the cover of Hot Rod magazine. It also made appearances on the makeshift race tracks of Southern California. This is because like many other hot rod builders, the Roots campaigned their home-built creation in local drag racing competitions. Unlike many who campaigned cars in these contests, however, both Bart and his wife Helen drove the roadster. Trading in their picture-perfect “cover car” attire for something more practical, both Roots donned helmets and goggles on race days.

And Helen, as it would appear here, did not seem out of place sitting in the driver’s seat. Women had been racing automobiles since the beginnings of the sport in the late 19th century. The introduction and popularization of the automobile gave women, like many other Americans, new ways in which to express themselves, offering mobility in both a practical and social sense. This newfound mobility, however, did not just extend to having the opportunity to travel, write about cars, or buy and collect unique automobiles. Like Helen Root, many women pursued their interest in automotive culture through participation in the fast, dangerous, and exciting world of automotive racing. Periods of war somewhat expanded roles in automotive-related industries for women, yet participation in automotive racing often remained limited. It was not until the late 1930s, for instance, that record setting driver Veda Orr prompted the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) to allow women to compete in officially sponsored meets, helping to broaden competition opportunities for drivers like Helen Root.

Helen had been racing with Bart as fellow driver and mechanic throughout the mid-1950s. Hot Rod magazine described a usual arrangement which put “Helen taking her share of the qualifying runs and Bart tooling their small-engined roadster through the eliminations.” Helen, however, was to race in more than just the qualifying runs. This is because “the Root family roadster,” as Hot Rod described, “consistently brings home the bacon…often as not” with Helen “at the wheel.”

This the Roots’ small-engined Ford did so in the form of none other than a California State Championship drag racing title, which Helen captured at the Colton, California stop of the “Drag Safari.” First organized by the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) in 1954, the Drag Safari was a series of regional drag races designed to form part of a nationwide competition. The series functioned, in essence, much like auditions for a nationwide reality show. The NHRA would work with local car clubs to set up and host regional meets, where local racers would campaign their cars hoping to gain a State Championship title. Those who were fortunate enough to win would go on to the national competition, where the top contenders would race against each other to determine the fastest vehicles, and drivers, across the US. Many would compete, but only a select number would win. Helen Root would be one of these lucky few.

Indeed, merely a month after it featured the Roots’ Roadster on the cover of its July 1955 issue, Hot Rod would again showcase the Ford during its coverage of the Safari’s California State Championship drag races held in Colton, California. Here, as the enthusiast magazine simply described, “Helen Root, successfully wiped out all competitors in ‘C’ Street Rdstrs.” A fact implied only subtly through the scene produced for Hot Rod’s July cover, Helen, and the Roots’ roadster, were becoming a formidable competitors.

After winning the State Championship meet, it was onto Great Bend, Kansas for the first annual 1955 NHRA National Championships for what Hot Rod called “some of the hottest competition ever seen in the annals of hot rodding.”

“Fourteen-hundred miles is a long way to go to a drag meet,” the magazine recognized, yet at Great Bend, Helen Root continued as she did at Colton, racing the Roots’ Ford with Bart as mechanic. Echoing her previous success, Helen progressed into the final elimination rounds of the competition.

In the culminating matchup for the Class “C” Street Roadsters category, she was pitted against Dale Ham of Amarillo, Texas, a meet shown here in the December 1955 issue of Hot Rod. This time, however, it was Ham who scored the faster time, preventing Helen from repeating the success she had found earlier at Colton. Nonetheless, though she did not capture the national title, with her State Championship victory and entry in the elimination rounds, Helen Root had indeed proved that the Roots’ “little” Ford packed a powerful punch.

…and even earned the Roots, and their roadster, a little spotlight from radio station press representatives at the Great Bend meet.

Today drag racing teams look far different than the one portrayed on the cover of Hot Rod in July 1955. Often associated with large corporate sponsorships and accompanied by well-organized transport and pit crews, the NHRA-sponsored drag racing enterprise has evolved into a complex and high-profile series of events. The Roots’ participation in the sport, however, helps to highlight the important role that individual hot rodders, both men and women, had in shaping the character of this unique brand of American auto racing.

By Kristin Feay

Photography by Eric Rickman, Chic Cannon, Bob D’Olivo, and Gary Herbert