Bobby and George Matsuda began racing way back in the 1960s while attending Waimea High School and building their first car, a ‘31 Ford five-window coupe. Their father was an accountant who was also a backyard mechanic and taught his
Bobby and George Matsuda began racing way back in the 1960s while attending Waimea High School and building their first car, a ‘31 Ford five-window coupe.
Their father was an accountant who was also a backyard mechanic and taught his sons the working skills that eventually led them to designing dragsters, welding frames better than NHRA standards and building monster drag strip engines. He allowed his boys to hot rod cars as long as it didn’t cost too much money.
In 1960, their father bought a four-door Valiant, and within a couple of years trusted his sons to pull out the slant six and drop a choice Pontiac V-8 engine in its place. How many fathers today would let their sons pull off that trick with a brand new car? The elder Matsuda impressed only one solemn rule of advice upon his sons: “Boys, whatever you do, do it safely.”
“The Matsuda racing history actually began in 1966, when we raced down at the air strip known as Burns field,” said Bobby Matsuda. Matsuda recalled that Burns Field was the first drag strip on Kaua‘i and a Matsuda homemade altered car driven by George Matsuda won the 1968 Top Eliminator slot at the Fourth of July race.
In 1970, Team Matsuda built the first rear-engine dragster in Hawai‘i. There were only two of these dragsters in Hawai‘i at the time. The other dragster was bought from nationally recognized Jeb Allen on the mainland by Honolulu’s Junior Ah-Kiu.
After graduating from high school, Bobby Matsuda joined the Army and later became a professional engineer. When George Matsuda graduated, he left for L.A. and started racing with his brother Howard in a front-motor dragster.
One time, Bobby Matsuda was on vacation and he visited his brothers George and Howard in L.A. They persuaded him to race their dragster on a track in Southern California. In those days they had to push the car to 50 miles an hour to turn the engine over, and, once it fired up they saw the flames burst out of the pipes.
However, the engine had a moment of stall during the startup and a spray of water spewed over the windshield of the tow/push truck. Though water coming out of the exhaust is never a good sign, the Matsudas figured, “Heck’em ..we go.” So Bobby did the burnout and was getting to ready to blast out of the chute when the flames from eight pipes began to slowly flicker their way down to four.
Because the car was only running on four cylinders during the start of the race the car began hopping its way down the track, and yet it somehow still banged out a 9.94 seconds at 150 mph. The Matsudas won a grand total of $35 for the semi-finals. Not bad winnings for the home team “back in the day.”
Once Bobby and George returned to Kaua‘i they even raced against each other in the same class while running out of the same pit.
“Those were good races,” said George Matsuda.
“And I used to win,” said Bobby Matsuda with a sly smile and a twinkle in his eye.
“Cause I used to let him,” counters brother George with an off-stage whisper, and they both burst out with a shared laughter.
Picking up the conversation, Nancy Matsuda said, “This is a family affair and from the time my children were in my tummy we were down at the races, and as the babies grew up, they were down at the track every month.”
Later on, when Bobby and Nancy’s younger daughter, Marissa, was a junior in high school, she was the first woman on Kaua‘i to obtain a license to drive the race cars. Even George’s wife Linda was a licensed racer back in Los Angeles. The brothers Matsuda both agree that without the support from the wives and family racing would be very, very difficult.
The special rail dragster that the Matsudas completely hand built in their Waimea garage and race at Mana these days, is from the “old-school” design of a front-engine Chrysler Hemi loaded with beaucoup safety features from one end to the other.
The wheelbase is 215 inches, with the roll cage and chassis around the driver constructed according to NHRA specifications. The dragster took a year to build and has been raced for another year.
Riley Takeyama, the Matsudas’ driver of choice, was approached by Bobby and George after many years of pitting alongside the brothers while he was racing his trophy winning Camaro.
“Not just anyone can drive a seven-second, 190-mile-an-hour dragster,” said George Matsuda. “We look at the character, intelligence and competitive nature of a driver, and have found all these qualities in Riley Takeyama.”
“We admire this young man who is a key member of our team, and feel he is like a son to us,” George said.
Describing the experience of power marching a monster rail down the Mana strip, Takeyama said, “These cars are so fast that you drive by instinct because you really don’t have time to think.”
That means with each race Riley enters, he must follow a strict routine to keep his concentration intently focused and on point. Takeyama said he learned pretty much everything about driving from George and Bobby because they have been through every situation in so many different cars.
“With a rear engine car they told me you gotta watch out for when it feels like it’s going sideways, that means it’s REALLY going sideways and you must immediately lift off the gas,” said Takeyama.
One night Takeyama experienced this split-second racing phenomenon while roaring down the strip, he remembered the rule and lifted as the tires voraciously chewed up the track and wrenched the rail in the opposite direction. This is just one example of why the Matsudas chose Takeyama.
“Riley reacts as a mature professional and not an immature must-win-at-any-cost racer who would roll a dragster over just for the sake of the win,” said George Matsuda.
As for Takeyama’s competitive side, “When I’m strapped in the car,” Riley said, “it’s game on.”
“The trick to drag racing is you must do as much as you can with what you have,” said Bobby Matsuda. We have three cars we use for drag racing at Mana that were all built here in Waimea. Bobby designed and welded the frames, over-building each one strictly for safety. The “old school” rail has been tested and certified by NHRA and each dragster was built over the specifications demanded by NHRA bringing to mind their father’s motto: “Whatever you do, do it safely.”
The Mana drag strip is a state-owned facility run by the department of Land and Natural resources, and the Garden Island Racing Association has been responsible for the track area which has made tremendous improvements since the 1970s when they took over.
There is a hardcore group of spectators who attend each month and the Fourth of July is the highlight of the year bringing out the highest numbers. Kaua‘i residents and visitors alike make this annual event the numbah-one must-see show for July. Gates open for spectators at 11 a.m. and eliminations begin at 7 p.m.
The Matsuda Race Team will be racing their monster cars at Mana Drag Strip on July 3 and July 4 as part of the blow-you-away GIRA racing event.
To view a short video of the Matsuda Race Team, click on the “TGI video” link at kauaiworld.com.
• Leo DuBois, contributor, can be reached via news editor Nathan Eagle at 245-3681 (ext. 227) or via e-mail at neagle@kauaipubco.com
