Chris, I do have pictures of the bulk plants and tankers in the area. Associated, Standard and Seaside all had bulk facilities locally. You'll see the Seaside bulk plant as the story continues...

Jack's Speed Shop



Jack Mendenhall’s “speed shop” would be the building ground for many of the Pea Soup Specials to come. It was officially called “The Buellton Garage” and housed the AAA Towing Service for the area as well as his Richfield service station. In addition to racing drag cars, Jack was also into circle track racing. One of his first circle track cars was called the “Piranha”. This first carnivorous fish car would spawn a II, III and IV version. The spawns were born out of their predecessors crashes when Jack got “eaten up” on the race track.



More “Pea Soup Specials” would follow the dragster and circle track cars, including Baja racing vehicles, stock cars driven by Slick Gardner and even a drag boat. Apparently pea soup could power vehicles on land and sea.. Evans and his team of racers invoked the irony of the gas charged peas and used them to promote Buellton and Andersen’s “Home of the Famous Split Pea Soup”.





C Cragg