Legendary NHRA car owner and crew chief, Roland Leong passed away Dec. 29. He was 79.
Born and raised on the island of Oahu, Leong took to fast cars when hot rod culture made its way to the Hawaiian Islands in the late 1950s. He spent a lot of time hanging around a local speed shop which served to throw gasoline onto an already growing flame.
“I remember taking my mother’s 1959 Oldsmobile out at night, promising her that I wouldn’t race, but I didn’t keep my promise very often,” Leong noted in the Sept/Oct issue of Vintage Motorsport.
Leong became a successful gas dragster racer in Hawaii but knew the real action was in California. His mother lined up a job for him at Jim Nelson and Dode Martin’s Dragmaster Company in Carlsbad, Calif. and Leong headed east in the early ’60s.