1001 Drag Racing Facts. Doug Boyce

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СКАЧАТЬ Although Milner lost to the Auto Sales–Trader Town B/G Willys, it was no big deal because he was still working the bugs out of the Z-11 ride. As the sun set, Milner pulled the Chevy II out for one final run. It looked like the makings of a great pass until just before the lights when the Fiberglass Trends roofing literally peeled back from the windshield and turned the fastback into an instant roadster. Milner popped the chute immediately and still managed to trip the lights with a 12.04 at 124.91 mph.

       Dick Milner in the Alan Green Chevrolet fastback Chevy II. Four of these fastbacks were built, originally for road racing. One car was a test and mockup piece.

      168 Hot on the heels of Jack Chrisman building his blown 427 1964 Comet came the 1965 Chevy II hardtop of Pasadena’s Steve Bovan, what many feel was the first step in the evolution of the Funny Car. Backed by employer Don Blair of Blair’s Speed Shop, Steve’s Chevy II was powered by one of the first blown 396 Chevys. Bovan’s big-block ran on 100-percent alcohol, and due to the newness of the recently released Chevy engine, he had to fabricate a number of his own parts, including the blower manifold. Bovan clocked a best of 9.29 at 160 mph with the wild ride. Like Chrisman’s Comet, Bovan’s Chevy II was forced to run in the Fuel Dragster class in NHRA competition.

      169 “Jungle” Jim Liberman received his nickname while driving the Experimental Stock 1965 Pontiac Tempest of Lew Arrington. Recalls “Jungle” Clare Sanders, “A radio DJ came up with the name prior to a match race at Fontana. The announcer was doing his best ‘Sunday, Sunday, Sunday’ high-energy routine, kind of off-the-cuff, and it went kind of like this: ‘This is a do or die match race folks, Dodge versus Pontiac, ‘Dandy’ Dick Landy, versus uh, er, ‘Jungle’ Jim Liberman!” He just blurted it out and it stuck.

      170 Bob Larimore had B&N (Bob & Nancy Mangold) Fiberglass of Springfield, Ohio, mold a 1966 Chevelle sedan to fit his existing A/FA chassis. The Matchmaker Chevelle debuted in early 1966 with an injected 427 and has been pegged as the first all-fiberglass Chevy Funny Car. Larimore sold the Chevelle in 1967 when Uncle Sam came calling. Where this significant piece of drag racing history is today is unknown.

      171 Malcolm Durham, the DC Lip, and his 1966 Corvair became the first Chevy Funny Car in the 8s during a Cecil County match race in August 1966. It was a four-way match between Durham, Del Heinelt in Seaton’s Shaker, and Dick Landy and the Ramchargers. Durham topped the tank with 95-percent nitro in hopes of getting around the quicker Ramchargers’ Dart driven by Mike Buckett. Although Buckett took the win for the Ramchargers with an 8.63, the attention was all on Durham, who cranked a Chevy best of 8.96.

      172 Hot on Durham’s heels was Huston Platt. Platt’s Dixie Twister 1966 Chevy II hit 8.97 at 159 mph the same summer. Power for the altered-wheelbase match-race Funny Car came courtesy of an Enderle-injected 396 Chevy.

      173 Roy and Don Gay finally brought an end to the domination of Nicholson’s Eliminator 1 1966 Comet when their Infinity II GTO stopped him cold at a match race in Maryland. The Gays’ GTO, driven by Don, was built by Jay Howell, better known for his work with Chrysler products and Logghe chassis. The Gays relied upon a 421 for low-8-second times. After years of success, the Texas-based Gays dropped out of racing in 1972 after the death of Roy.

      174 Don Gay, Sr. took his first trip down the strip at age 15, borrowing a Pontiac Bonneville from his father’s dealership floor one weekend while his parents were away. That weekend, at the Houston International Raceway in Dickinson, Gay won his first trophy. At 16, Gay became the youngest person to win class at an NHRA national event when he drove his lightweight 421-powered Catalina to A/S honors at Indy in 1963 over Ralph Swain’s Chevy.

       Mike Strickler provided this photo of his father Dave’s Experimental Stock Corvette. Dave ran the glass wonder into 1969, relying on Terry Strickler and Grumpy Jenkins to put the long-nose match basher well into the 8s before Dave put the car out of its misery. (Photo courtesy of Mike Strickler)

      175 With Dave Strickler’s Chrysler factory deal ending at the end of 1965, he returned to his first love, Chevrolets, and built an A/Experimental Stock long-nose Corvette. Named Old Reliable V, the Corvette counted on a Jenkins-built 427 running nitro to hit 8-second times. Although the car made plenty of power, its ill-handling habits prevented it from reaching its full potential. Dave retired the car in 1969 and it sat for some time beside his shop in York. Although some showed interest in buying it, Dave felt it was unsafe and refused to sell. Around 1972, Dave scrapped the homemade chassis, and after a few drinks one night with friends, someone thought it would be a good idea to drag the body across the street into a field and burn it. Although Dave went on to run other cars dubbed Old Reliable, the Corvette was the last numbered car.

      176 On March 27, 1966, Bruce Larson debuted his USA-1 1966 Chevelle during a match against Bob Harrop’s Flying Carpet Mopar. Racing at Great Meadows, New Jersey, Larson’s Chevy counted on 480 ci running on alky while Harrop dipped the nitro can hoping to offset the weight of his heavier 1965 Dodge. Larson clicked off a best of 10.02 at more than 135 mph in defeating the hurtin’ Harrop.

      177 Tom Strum was the first out with a second-generation Corvair-bodied Funny Car, debuting the 427-powered Just 4 Chevy Lovers on April 2, 1966, at Lions. Tom opened up with a match against Tex Darnaby’s Temptation Mopar out of Texas. The debut was a bit embarrassing for Tom, to say the least, as driver Bill Churchfield stood the Corvair up on end and then it spun into the Lions chain-link fence, coming to rest in a vertical position.

      178 Jim Lutz and Myron Lundberg had made themselves quite the name in Gasser ranks, running a Willys and Anglia throughout the early 1960s. After crashing the Anglia at Ocean Falls, Iowa, they decided to join the growing match-race scene by building an altered-wheelbase Cutlass dubbed 442 Much. This Cutlass really was too much. Weighing 3,000 pounds and powered by a blown Jack Wheeler 496 Olds, the Cutlass ran low-9s at 175. The pair won the Division 5 Super Eliminator title in both 1966 and 1967 with the car.

      179 Buick entered the Funny Car game in 1967 when Jerry Lipori rounded up 19 Northeast Buick dealers, each of whom contributed $1,000 to help finance his Skylark build. Brooklyn Speed and Machine (BS&M) performed pretty much all the work in-house, including building the Logghe knock-off chassis as well as fabricating and machining parts for the 8-71 blown 430-inch Buick mill. Ron Pellegrini’s Fiberglass Limited molded the body, which weighed in the neighborhood of 600 pounds(!). Best times for Jerry’s Ingenue were 7.91 at 191 mph. Today, Jerry’s son is restoring the car.

       And when better Buicks were built, guys like Jerry Lipori and Ron Pellegrini were building them. You have to love the variety that yesterday’s drag wars provided. (Photo Courtesy John Lipori)

      180 Dick “Mr. Unswitchable” Jesse was a salesman at Royal Pontiac and of course was loyal to the Pontiac brand. Jesse earned himself a name with a 1965 match-bash altered-wheelbase GTO but is probably best remembered for his radically modified 1967 GTO. Chopped 13 inches at the A-pillars and 7 at the rear, СКАЧАТЬ