Dyno Don: The Cars and Career of Dyno Don Nicholson. Doug Boyce

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       At the Nationals, Don is all smiles with helpers Jerry Jardine (left) and Turk after winning Stock. It was a fleeting moment of celebration; once in the tear down barn, the Chevy was disqualified on a technicality. (Photo Courtesy Nicholson Family Collection)

      Don called Gil Kohn at Detroit and tried to beg out of the match, but Kohn wouldn’t hear of it. He had Garlits and Ivo lined up but Garlits bailed after getting burned in a fire. Kohn insisted that Don be there, as without him, there was no show. Kohn arranged to have a body shop straighten the Impala, doing what they could before the Sunday match. The car looked like crap but did manage to win the match, defeating the Ace Wilson Royal Pontiac driven by Jim Wangers in convincing fashion.

      Back home, the Impala was repaired and repainted in preparation for a planned second trip east early in July to Easy Street Dragstrip near Newton Grove, North Carolina. This time, Jerry Jardine came along to assist Don. The pair borrowed Big John Mazmanian’s stubby trailer and loaded up Don’s 1955 Chev with spare parts. As Jardine recalls, “To balance the load [on the hitch], tools and spare parts, including a spare rear-end section, were tucked under the hood of the ‘61.”

       “To make it a big deal, the $600-dollar winnings was all in one-dollar bills in a wheelbarrow.„

      Don has often been credited as the father of the bleach box–style burnout, first using bleach to clean the tires. By trial and error, he found the best water/bleach mix for his Vogue (or Caslers) slicks was 50/50. People use to question the fact that he ran his 7-inch cheater slicks on 4-inch rims, without realizing the advantage it gave him by increasing the footprint.

      By August, Chevrolet was producing upgraded performance parts for the 409. The over-the-counter parts included larger valve heads, a longer duration high-lift camshaft, and a pair of deep-breathing Carter 4-barrel carburetors on an aluminum intake manifold. The parts brought the horsepower rating of the 409 up to an equal 409. Chevrolet slipped Don the parts, which were installed on his 409 prior to the NHRA Nationals on Labor Day weekend. It was after the Winternationals that Don’s tie with General Motors strengthened. He’d had indirect contact with Chevrolet but after the winters’ win, he had an open line to Vince Piggins. Even though cash and cars were not in the cards from the manufacturer, parts were generally there for the asking. With Don going through transmissions and weak-link third members, it proved to be a beneficial arrangement.

      At Indy in September for the NHRA Nationals, the Stockers ran Saturday afternoon and stealing the show were the cars in Optional Super Stock (O/SS). The category was created in 1961 and designed specifically for limited-production cars or cars featuring high-performance parts made available after June 1, 1961, by Detroit’s Big Three. Leading the way in O/SS was the 368-horse Pontiac of Mickey Thompson, driven by Hayden Proffitt. Proffitt held the low ET and top speed with a 13.07 at 112.21. Close behind was Don with a 13.25 at 110.29 mph. Opening day eliminations saw Proffitt defeat Dave Strickler’s Biscayne for honors. Proffitt ran a phenomenal 12.55 during the meet and walked into Sunday’s 50-car Mr. Stock Eliminator as the favorite.

       In mid-1961, Chevrolet released a twin 4-barrel option for the 409, bringing the horsepower rating up to an even 409. As noted by the cutouts in the hood, Don was running the Chevy in Optional Super Stock at this point. Note the deep-groove generator pulley and additional crankcase breathers, as well the lack of a heater. (Photo ©TEN: The Enthusiast Network. All Rights Reserved.)

       Don was ready to take on the world when he headed east in July. Prior to doing so, he won a Super Stock meet at Vaca Valley on July 8, setting the track record with a 13.21 at 108.42 mph. Don actually preferred to run a hose to the carbs rather than the Enderle scoop but was not allowed to do so at Indy. (Photo Courtesy Mike Strickler)

      In an unorthodox semifinal’s move, precipitated by a burning desire to defeat his opponent, Al Eckstrand in the Ramchargers Dodge, Mickey Thompson replaced Proffitt behind the wheel of his Pontiac. Thompson and the Pontiac faithful’s hopes were dashed when the Pontiac got hung up in gear. The same thing happened the next round to Eckstrand when the 3-speed in his Dodge failed against Don. The final round came down to the O/SS cars of Dyno Don and the Passionate Poncho of Arnie “the Farmer” Beswick. Because of Eckstrand’s failed gear in the previous round, Don and Beswick agreed that the overall Stock Eliminator winner should come back to run in a best-of-three grudge race against the 413 Dodge. At the flag, Don and Beswick left bumper to bumper. On the top end, it was Don inching ahead for the win with a 13.37 at 108.69 mph. In the grudge race, Don lost the first round but came back to take the next two. As was usual, after the final race, the cars of both Beswick and Dyno Don were torn down for inspection. Both were disqualified.

       Don’s reputation preceded him to the East Coast, and from day one the crowds began to gather. Seen here at Indy, fans wanted to know what made the baddest Chevy in the nation tick. As you can see, in 1961, the luxury of paved pits at Indy was still only a dream. (Photo Courtesy Mike Strickler)

      As Don recalled, “They started picking on stuff. They pulled the valve springs off my heads. Took the shims from underneath and checked them in their little tester. They checked them at minimum height. I showed them how to check them at the stock height. Actually the springs were down on pressure because as the runs went on, they went away. The car started missing on me a little bit in the lights and was getting a little worse with each run. I was sure it was the valve springs going away. When we checked them, there was no problem. Then they started mic’ing the heads of the valves. I had never mic’d a head of a valve unless I was making a valve for something. I just pulled the valves out of the Chevrolet boxes and put them in the heads. There were some they found a few thousand over size. I was arguing with Farmer Dismuke, the tech inspector; Chevrolet didn’t say 1¹¹/₁₆, +/- 10, or 15 thousand as Chrysler, Pontiac, and most others did. They just had the size, no plus or minus. The valves were sitting right out on the edge, which was the way I did a valve job. We got that squared away and then they said the intake was matched. The factory or whoever made the castings for them had used a die grinder to clean off the burrs as opposed to using a hand scraper. I told them it wasn’t matched as it was out a 1/4-inch in spots.” It all got very ridiculous with Farmer arguing that Don had received special parts. Chevrolet’s Paul Prior, who was there, got involved, СКАЧАТЬ