1001 Drag Racing Facts. Doug Boyce

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       Gerry Glenn makes what may have been his very first pass in a Top Fuel car. Magicar was one trick piece back in the day and has been beautifully restored.

       In the September 1965 issue of Drag Racing, Fuller, Winkel, and Trapp described the chassis setup this way: “Basically the whole power train is mounted in a separate sub-frame, which is suspended on coil springs within the main chassis. The engine then is an isolated, cushioned component. Its horrendous vibration isn’t transferred directly to the car’s main structure and its weight is allowed to shift rearward slightly for added bite coming off the line.” Magicar made its debut at San Fernando in October 1964. Trapp, who was track photographer and worked for Drag News, ensured the car received plenty of ink.

       Well, after all the hype and publicity, the debut proved to be a little anticlimatic. The car performed well but failed to meet the unrealistic expectations. Hampering the car’s ongoing development was the fact that three different drivers took the controls during the first season. Gary Casaday was the first and found the car a handful, relinquishing the seat almost immediately to Gerald “Jeep” Hampshire. Jeep was an experienced driver who, at the 1964 NHRA Winternationals, had set the low elapsed time of 7.85 behind the wheel of the Stellings-Hampshire Red Stamp Special.

       After transplanting the Red Stamp engine into Magicar, Jeep laid down the car’s best time of 7.62 at 204.08 mph. By season’s end, Magicar had won three Top Eliminators and grabbed top speed at meets at Fremont and L.A. County. By the end of 1965, Magicar was back in builder Kent Fuller’s shop. In Kent’s eyes, the car was a success, having proven a few of the ideas that had been kicking around in his head.

       By all appearances, the Rodger Lindwall Re-Entry showed great potential. It’s a shame that potential was never realized; the exercise in aerodynamics fizzled at Indy in 1966. (Photo Courtesy Pete Gemar)

      67 Chicago’s Bob Lindwall put his hydroplane experience to work when creating his Re-Entry dragster. The mid-engine rail featured an aluminum body, which enclosed the supercharged 392 Hemi along with the driver and the rear wheels. Re-Entry has been credited as being the first rear-engine car to crack 200 mph, accomplishing the feat in 1966 at the World Series of Drag Racing at Cordova. Driver Wayne Hill crashed the car a week later at Indy while running against Connie Kalitta in the second round. Hill hit 201.34 mph with an out-of-control ET of 9.52. The study in aerodynamics was never rebuilt and Lindwall retired from drag racing after the crash.

      68 Nye Frank’s Pulsator was one sexy dragster. Although it won the Best Engineered Car award at the 1965 NHRA Winternationals, it never really ran up to expectations. Nye had initially paired with John Peters to build the Top Gas twin-engine Freight Train and hoped the success would carry over into Top Fuel with Pulsator. Built similar to Freight Train with tandem injected small-block Chevys, Nye took it up a notch by wrapping the rail in a sleek outer shell, which enclosed the engines and driver’s compartment. Driven by Bob Muravez (aka Floyd Lippencott Jr.), Pulsator became the first twin-engine Chevy to top 200 mph when it hit 201.78 at Drag City at Fontana. The fiberglass-bodied dragster proved to be quite cumbersome and was eventually ditched, ending up some years later as a Hemi-powered snowmobile. Ice Kutter was dubbed the world’s fastest snowmobile.

      69 The first NHRA Springnationals was held in July 1965 at Bristol, Tennessee. The Top Gas final came down to Pete Robinson and Gordon Collett. In a show of ultimate sportsmanship, Collett gave up his good Hemi to Kenny Hirata before the semifinals, and just before blowing his own engine. Collett had no choice but to rebuild his engine in his motel parking lot overnight prior to the finals. Getting the job done in time, Collett faced Pete Robinson in the final. In a repeat of Indy 1965, Collett collected the win, putting away a fading Robinson with an easy 8.47 at 185.94 mph.

      70 The members of the Surfers Top Fuel team were not surfers at all, but compared to the crew-cut set, they were long hairs who had their act and engines together while other teams thrashed away. How’d they do it? According to team member Tom Jobe in a Hot Rod interview, they kept their engines together by studying and understanding the characteristics of nitro, which helped avoid continuous teardowns. The Surfers figured out how to run up to 97 or 98 percent without scattering their engines, whereas most could only run 60 to 70 percent and hope to keep it together. Higher loads meant more power. More power and a driver with the skill of Mike Sorokin helped propel the team to a win at Bakersfield in 1966.

      71 On August 1, 1965, the Canadian Frantic Four’s AA/FD becomes the first Canadian rail to crack the 7-second barrier. Driver Fred Farndon drove the Hemi to a 7.76 clocking at Ontario’s Mohawk Raceway.

      72 You have to love the stories behind the names; for instance, Fearless Fred Forkner’s Quarterhorse. Well, American Indians at one time bred quarter horses and for Fred, who was one-quarter Cherokee and whose car covered the quarter-mile in plenty of hurry with plenty of horses, the name seemed appropriate.

       The unmistakable, George Hutchenson’s Stone Age Man. George was a true entertainer, driving rails to Altereds to exhibition cars. (Photo Courtesy Dave Davis)

      73 For George “Hutch” Hutcheson, The Stone Age Man wasn’t just a name on one of the 1960s most beautiful dragsters, but it was a whole persona. George had a vivid dream in 1968, one in which he saw a helmet, similar in style to that which a Roman centurion would have worn, and affixed to the helmet were 24 red plumes. Over the next couple weeks, George went to work building the helmet, which became part of the Stone Age Man persona. Thereafter, not a pass was made without the helmet.

      74 To top the accolades of a handful of Southern California track records and a runner-up finish at the AHRA Winternationals, John “the Zookeeper” Mulligan drove the famed Adams & Warye dragster to NHRA’s first AA/FD 6-second ET in the first round of a match race against Tom “the Watchdog” Allen at Carlsbad, California, on October 9, 1966. Although a red-light run, John hit a 6.95 at 221.12 mph in the team’s Woody Gilmore Hemi-powered rail. In the second round, Mulligan shut off early after Allen blew and still managed a 7.17 ET.

      75 Conrad “Connie” Kalitta was named Detroit Dragway’s Man of the Year for 1966 and with good reason. Kalitta survived a high-speed wreck of his Bounty Hunter late in the season, and as he recovered, he went to work on building a new SOHC Ford-powered rail. Completed prior to the AHRA Winter meet, Kalitta drove the virgin car around stiff competition to win all the marbles. A week later, he repeated his big win, taking the NHRA Winternationals over Glen Goleman with a 7.17. A trip to Florida immediately after saw him take the NASCAR winter meet.

      76 Lou “Money” Baney, Ed Pink, and Don Prudhomme were a formidable trio in the mid-1960s with their SOHC Brand Ford Top Fueler. One of the team’s most memorable performances came at the 1967 NHRA Springnationals. Prudhomme not only won the event, he was the only competitor to break into the 6s. And he accomplished the feat every round. He started with a 6.99 at 220.04-mph defeat of Bub Reese and then coasted to a win against a broken Jimmy Nix. Mike Sorokin СКАЧАТЬ