Born
in New Jersey in 1936, Herman Booy came west to the off-road
Mecca of San Jacinto, California when he was just 11 years
old. Shortly after enrolling at Cal-Poly, Pomona, Herman
went to Glamis where he fell in love with performance sand
vehicles. Once he completed his time in college, Herman
focused his attention on building sand machines. Always an
innovator, Herman’s first competitive effort was a single
seat “C” Class buggy driven by Dennis Irwin and maintained
by Booy. The pair ran hillclimbs and Sand Drags whenever
they could. During this time, Herman developed the
back/undercut groove for implement tires that gave them an
edge at these events and the buggy became a consistent
winner. Of course it wasn’t long before everyone was using
this new technology so, in the late 60’s, Herman worked with
Ken Stuart at Skat Trak to develop the now famous paddle
tire, which revolutionized the world of competitive Sand
Sports.
As Sand Sports gained momentum throughout the Pacific
Southwest, Herman worked with the Inland Empire Dune Buggy
Association (IEDBA) to help bring Sand Drags to the San
Jacinto riverbed and later donated much of his time working
with Sand Sports and 4-wheeler groups to standardize class
rules for competition. Naturally, Herman’s principle
interest was in the area of high horsepower vehicles
Throughout his career, Herman’s skills as a sand car
builder, mechanic and innovator were in constant demand. He
built cars with various engine builders such as Dale
Williamson, John Palmer and Dave Stults and built and
wrenched for Hank Eckhardt on his rear engined blown
Chrysler powered Funny Car. He built two Funny Cars and two
Dragsters for Larry Minor and was a mechanic for Larry and
Roger Mears in Minor’s “Smokey SS1” class one buggy in the
NORRA Mexican 500 during the early 70’s. Herman built a
number of sand vehicles for himself, not the least of which
was a sand dragster which propelled him to the “100 Yard
World Record for top speed on sand” as recorded in the
Guinness Book of World Records.
As a builder, mechanic, driver, promoter and innovator,
Herman Booy has indeed been a master of Sand Sports at every
conceivable level. There is little doubt that without the
influence of Herman Booy, the world of Sand Sports as we
know it today would have a very different history.
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