History

Alex Morales and his "Tamale Wagons" were well known throughout the country. His cars get their name from his highly successful Alex Foods (Mexican Food) business. Alex was inducted into the NSCHofF (National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa) in 1992.

This Don Edmunds creation is the 4th Tamale Wagon and was raced in the CRA (California Racing Association) from 1975 until 1980, when it was retired. During that period, the Tamale Wagon, with drivers such as Johnny Parsons, Jr., Bobby Olivero, Buster Vernard, Rich Vogler, Steve Howard and Rick Goudy racked up a very impressive record of 15 fast qualifying times, 23 trophy dashes, 33 heat wins, 10 semi main events, 21 main events plus the 1978 CRA championship. The 1978 championship was accomplished by Rick Goudy of Templeton, California, as the driver.

During the majority of the time this car was raced, it ran a traditional Chevy V-8 configured engine. The Moser engine was used on a more limited basis such as for pavement tracks or special events throughout its career. The engine in this particular car is a story in itself. The Moser is a 4 cam 16 port exhaust V-8 based upon a Chevy short block. We believe 8 sets of heads were made and only 4 complete Moser engines are known to exist today. The plan was to build 20 more sets of heads but the cost was prohibitive as this was before the computerized CNC machines. The engine was very much ahead of its' time and dyno estimates placed it well over 800HP on 350 cu in. While the Moser was still in development stages, R & D, it was run mostly on asphalt tracks although it did run on occasion on the larger dirt tracks.

This Tamale Wagon was eventually restored to this beautiful condition by Buz Shoemaker and Sons who in turn, sold it to Richard Woodland.

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