Racing down memory lane

By Lou Modestino
Brockton Enterprise

BROCKTON - It all started back in the early '50s for Loyed Woodland and the late Bob Andresen. They became "fast" friends because of their common interest - drag racing.
Like many youngsters of that era, they "cruised" Main Street in Brockton because it was an opportunity to show off their hot rods.
At the time, Bob Andresen built a '34 Ford while Loyed Woodland had a '32 Ford-channeled car. Both were powered by modified Ford flathead engines, which was the hot set-up back in those days.
Bob was more conservative with his driving while Loyed was the opposite. Woodland even had a close call on West Street after lining up against Bob Paulson in an illegal drag race.
Loyed's car experienced a violent vibration after passing Paulson. It was so bad that he lost all four hub caps, not to mention carburetor covers, some nuts off the head bolts, radiator hoses and a cracked windshield all combined.
"That experience made me realize that I was lucky to be alive, and, after that, my street racing was over. I decided that it had to be on a sanctioned drag strip, " recalled Woodland.
The Brockton duo's racing activities were interrupted by the Korean War. Bob enlisted in the Air Force and the draft board called up Woodland for the Army. Bob was stationed in Germany as a structural and engine tech.
Loyed spent his tour of duty in Japan with the 10th Mountain Division as an instructor and later built roads in Japan's mountains. That road building experience also shaped his career for the next five decades. By making a living doing just that, it also financed his racing hobby.
When their obligation to Uncle Sam ended, they returned to civilian life and picked up where they left off - following the love of fast cars.
Loyed needed a job to pay for his racing hobby and went to work in his uncle's road paving business. Bob went to work at Dynisco in Sharon, which made transducers for the space program.
Woodland jumped back into racing right away and campaigned a series of drag cars, including coupes and roadsters from '55 to '60, including an Oldsmobile-powered car.
Andresen teamed up with Ralph Armstead and Marty McDonough. By 1968, they produced one of the fastest dragsters in New England.
Andresen excelled because he was able to produce non-existent performance parts, such as blower (supercharger) drives, manifolds and main bearing girdles that were the prime ingredients to his success, not to mention some state-of-the art chassis designs.
By 1960, Loyed and Bob teamed up to campaign a B Gas Dragster, forming the Woodland/Andresen race team and they became pioneers.
The blown B dragster was powered by an unpopular Olds engine. Without performance parts for the Olds on the shelves of speed shops, it required Bob's talent to produce manifolds, drive lines and a chassis that produced one of the fastest Oldsmobile race cars in the country.
In a parallel business effort from 1960-1965, the Andresen-Woodland partnership also developed major innovations for the construction industry.
The first was a unique snow plowing implement that dramatically reduced time to plow parking lots. It's used to this day and is known as The Pusher and is a very popular design in the industry.
The second product was an improved asphalt screed that reproduced a more compacted and smooth asphalt mat. They worked with the Blaw Knox Company in developing the vibratory screed, which is still the standard in the paving equipment industry.
In 1965, Ray Kaligian of Brainbeau Olds in Braintree approached Andresen and Woodland on a deal to race a factory-backed Olds 442.
Oldsmobile entered the muscle car wars in order to entice buyers into their showrooms. Sales were not going well because Olds still had a stogy image. Ray was convinced that the only way to turn this around was to "Win on Sunday and Sell on Monday."
Olds snapped up the team and they became major players in the muscle car wars. It only took them two seasons before the 442 became a big threat in the drag racing action between the factories. At the time, the Pontiac GTO was the king of the drag strips.
"I had a real problem coping when I didn't win. I'm what's commonly called a 'poor loser.' But Bob (Andresen) coached me on how to conduct myself," revealed Loyed. "For that, I'll always be grateful."
The 1966 drag racing season was a pivotal year for the upstart Brainbeau Olds team.
They dethroned the hot and popular Pontiac GTO as the Woodland/Andresen duo established four national records in NHRA-sanctioned events.
Their expertise in developing a suspension system, combined with the four-speed transmission, became the most potent winning combination, which was legend in the NHRA drag racing meets.
In 1967, financial problems closed down the Brainbeau Old dealership. With the team poised for success, team manager Kaligian moved the entire operation into the Berejik Olds dealership in Needham.
He was instrumental in convincing the management there, along with Oldsmobile, to continue their support of the drag-racing team. Shortly thereafter, the Smothers Brothers Comedy Team came on board to also sponsor the team.
That effort was the result of performance parts manufacturer Carl Schiefer of the Schiefer Mfg. Co. Carl was the designer of a clutch that could withstand 7,000 rpms.
That, combined with the hot suspension system developed by Andresen and Woodland, turned out to be the winning combination.
During this period, Olds worked with that race team to develop new engine blocks that produced more power. They included three different engine blocks with four-bolt mains.
Then, the muscle car wars came to a end in 1971, the result of the Arab oil embargo. It resulted in all of the U.S. automakers shifting their attention to more fuel efficient passenger cars.
Olds tested those new blocks for their experimental diesel engines, but chose the original production blocks instead. According to Woodland, had Olds used Andresen's designed blocks, the outcome might have been different.
Olds continued with the 442 model and revisited the Andresen/Woodland team, asking them to help develop the 442 model for a police interceptor vehicle package in the late '70s. They worked on a quick directional change for the police package.
Woodland and Andresen continued their partnership through the 1970s. Instead of racing, which was on the wane due to fuel efficiency, they channeled their efforts to improving machinery and built several prototype asphalt reclamation machines that pioneered the process of paving roads. This process is now the standard in roadway paving processes.
All of those ideas started in a barn behind Andresen's house on Summer Street in Brockton. The two partners also developed a new design of attaching carbide cutting tools that was the weak link in milling the asphalt and hard aggregate found in the tough New England materials.
Another development was to limit the excess material loaded into the paving equipment. Because it caused extreme wear on the edge bits of the front end loader buckets. The solution was incorporating a tooth on the bit, a design which all manufacturers use today.
Bob's final days were spent in developing a new pothole patching technique.
It's called a velocity feed patching system. Andresen passed away in 1995 and his partner, Woodland, incorporated many of his ideas to improve that process.
Woodland and his wife, Geraldine, have registered the design with the U.S. Patent Office. The "Pothole Medic" is what it's called.
The Woodlands are pioneering this system in memory of Bob Andresen. Both feel that this, too, will be part of the Woodland/Andresen legacy.
Andresen also worked at his daytime job at Dynisco in Sharon. A tool-and-die maker by trade, he helped develop several products for his company. Among them were high-speed dental drills. Bob was also the company's OSHA (Office of Safety, Health and Administration) representative.
Andresen's company's safety program became a model for that government agency, according to Brian Andresen.
"My father was a unique kind of guy. He wasn't happy unless he was working on something new," he said. "When the racing thing petered out, he channeled his ideas into other constructive things. It's just too bad he wasn't able to patent those ideas and labor saving devices."
Woodland also revealed that Andresen began restoring Austin Healy sports cars. In the process, he formed a close relationship with Donald Healy the founder and manufacturer of the Austin Healy street and racing cars.
In the near future, the Andresen family plans on cataloging the large supply and collection of Austin Healy parts in the world. The plan is to sell all of them at a private auction sometime in 2004.
On Sept. 6, 2003, the late Bob Andresen and Loyed Woodland were inducted into the Ty-Rods New England Drag Racing Hall of Fame at their annual old-timers dinner. Their enshrinement was the result of their efforts to take Oldsmobile to the forefront of the muscle car wars when it appeared to be quite impossible and a long shot at best.
In both their racing and business experience, the duo never shrank from a challenge. Loyed accepted this prestigious award for the Andresen and Woodland Family.
He also announced that in Bob's memory, he plans to build a replica of the 1966 Olds 442, which brought them both fame.