1001 Drag Racing Facts. Doug Boyce

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ turbo BB/GD. Golden Gator out of Fort Lauderdale won Best Engineered award at the 1972 NHRA Nationals and took class at the 1973 Gatornationals. Driven by Chase Knight, the car had turbos mounted to a 482-inch Keith Black mill and fed 60 to 70 psi of boost. The NHRA eventually took notice of the car and added weight, and more weight, and more . . . well, you get the picture. Best times for the doomed ride came in 1977 when it clicked off 6.70s in AA/DA. That same season, the car won the Division 2 points championship.

       The Greek jumped onto the wedge bandwagon in 1971 but, like most, discovered no real advantage to the design. The wedge was removed and never made it to the end of the season. And the car? Well, it was involved in one of the season’s more unusual accidents. (Photo Courtesy James Handy)

      123 Poor Chris “the Greek” Karamesines. He received a swoopy, new rear-engine wedge Top Fueler in 1971 and what happens? He gets run over! Well, not him but the car. And not just by anyone, but by Jim Nicoll, who was driving Chris’ own push car. The accident happened at Fremont in October when the push bar broke. Jim went right up and over the entire car. Thankfully, Chris came out of the incident unscathed. Can’t say the same for the car, though.

      124 At the 1971 Supernationals, Ed Donovan debuted his 417 aluminum-block Hemi. Based closely on the 392 design, the first aftermarket Hemi was placed in John Wiebe’s Top Fuel car and proceeded to run a 10th quicker (6.53 best) than anyone in the field. A red light in the final against Hank Johnson marred Donovan’s debut.

       John Wiebe sits behind Ed Donovan’s first aluminum 417 Hemi. The block made use of pressed-in sleeves and 392 heads. John’s impression after running early 6.50 times? Super strong and super powerful. (Photo Courtesy Roger Phillips)

      125 The first major victory for Donovan’s nugget of Hemi gold came in the summer of 1972 at the 6th Annual PDA race held at Orange County International Raceway. Herm Petersen overcame a number of odds to drive around a failing Tom McEwen in the final round for the honors. Herm had been eliminated in the second round by a young Fred Mooneyham but was reinstated on the low ET rule after Garlits dropped out.

      126 Dale Thierer, driving the E. T. Engineering Lewis Brothers Top Fueler, Hemi Hunter, holds the distinction of being the last to pilot a Chevy-powered dragster to a division championship. Dale, running out of Division 1, won in 1971, accumulating 2,800 points with the 454-inch car. Dale’s division win earned him a birth at the season-ending NHRA World Finals, where he cranked out 6.80 times at 217 mph.

      127 The final Top Fuel national event win by a front-engine dragster went to (drum roll, please) 23-year-old Art Marshall. Art earned the win behind the wheel of Prudhomme’s old high-back Hot Wheels rail at the 1972 NHRA Grandnationals. A young Jeb Allen, looking for his second national event win in a row, went up in smoke just off the line while Marshall sailed to an easy victory with a 6.57 at 220.58 mph.

      128 American-born and Canadian-adopted Gary Beck, a relative unknown in 1972, shocked the Top Fuel troops at the NHRA Nationals when he defeated the Northwest’s Jerry “the King” Ruth in the final of the season’s biggest race. Driving the Ken McLean Woody Gilmore–chassis car, Beck, who had just earned his fuel license two weeks before, went into a burn-down with Ruth on the line and the ensuing heat built by Ruth’s engine saw his promised 5-second run go up in smoke. Beck went on to an effortless win with a 6.11 time.

      129 The first member of Cragar’s Top Fuel magical 5-second club was Tommy Ivo, who reportedly hit that mark on October 22, 1972. Tommy found the perfect combination of a sticky track and a cool-air front to reach 5.97 at Pittsburgh.

      130 The 5-second barrier was broken for the second time in November 1972 at the NHRA Supernationals. Mike Snively, who became the quickest man ever to lose a national event, knocked out a 5.97 at 235.69 mph in Diamond Jim Annin’s Woody Gilmore fueler. Snively fell to Vic Brown’s hole-shot time of 6.03 at 231.36 mph. Don Moody won the meet with the third 5-second run, a 5.91.

      131 The last member to join Cragar’s 5-second club was Frank Bradley, who ran a 5.94 at Orange County on June 29, 1974. Bradley was also around long enough to become the 10th member of the 4-second club, hitting a 4.998 at Pomona on October 25, 1989.

       Mike Snively, driving “Diamond Jim” Annin’s rear-engine car used the NHRA 1972 season-ending Supernationals to ring in a new, quicker age in Top Fuel. (Photo Courtesy Peter Quinn)

      132 The success of Garlits’ rear-engine Swamp Rat in 1971 really rejuvenated interest and innovation in Top Fuel. Roy Fjastad (SPE Chassis) went to work building a hexagon-shaped wedge car that customer Fred Fardon fell in love with and just had to have. When a divorce ended that dream, Vince Rossi and Tommy Lisa scooped up the car. The Tom Hanna hexagon-shaped body wrapped Fjastad’s 180-inch wheelbase chassis and power came from a Keith Black 426. Bill Tidwell, Danny Ongais, and Jack Martin each drove the wedge. According to Rossi’s son, Jim, the wedge was the first Top Fueler in the 5s. Bill Tidwell hit a 5.99 at Lions in 1972, but track manager Steve Evans refused to recognize it. Ongais eventually got the wedge into the record books with a 243.24-mph time, recorded at Supernationals in 1972. They ran the wedge into 1974 before selling it to Harry Nunn in Texas.

      133 Tony Nancy, drag racing’s custom upholsterer extraordinaire, holds the distinction of being the only Top Fueler to smoke the Goodyears down the famed Hollywood Boulevard. It was during the grand opening of Petersen’s Motorama Cars of the Stars show on March 20, 1975, that Tony donned a fire suit over his shirt and tie.

      134 Shirley Muldowney became the first woman in drag racing to earn an Unlimited Fuel driver’s license, accomplishing the feat during the summer of 1973 at Dragway Park in Cayuga, Ontario. Muldowney borrowed Bobby “Poncho” Rendon’s Top Fuel Frito Bandito. On hand to witness the accomplishment were partner Connie Kalitta and fellow racers Tommy Ivo and Don Garlits.

       Shirley Muldowney never cared much for her “Cha-Cha” moniker. She joined the Funny Car ranks in 1971. (Photo Courtesy Roger Phillips)

      135 Jim Bucher of West Chester, Ohio, was on a quickly shrinking list of those running a big-block Chevy in Top Fuel. He was also one of the last to win an NHRA national event with a Chevy-powered Top Fueler. Bucher’s rail featured a Stebbins chassis and was powered by a 468-inch aluminum Chevy. At the rain-delayed 1975 Summernationals, Jim faced Gary Beck in the final. Jim, who had been running consistent 6.50s on the bad track, had an easy go of it in the finals after Beck hazed the tires off the line. Jim and his Chevy first drew national attention in 1973 when he set the Top Fuel ET record at 6.07 at the Gatornationals. The best time for the Chevy was a 5.91 at 248 mph.

      136 Garlits sets СКАЧАТЬ