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Super Chevy Drag Racing Greats, Part 3

More quarter-mile memories of strip burners gone by

May 7, 2012 0 Comment(s)
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The first two installments of Super Chevy Drag Racing Greats appear to have gone over so well with our readers that we thought that we would do it a third time! Shown in no particular order are some famous and not so famous genuine Chevrolet-powered Stovebolts taken by photographer Bob McClurg and other quarter-mile lensmen from drag racing's bygone eras from the '60s to the late '80s. Enjoy. –Editor

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Alabama drag racer Bobby "Palomino" Woods raced a series of Chevrolet-powered Funny Cars from mid-'64 to the early '70s, starting off with a steel-bodied 1965 Chevelle then this Logghe-built Nova and later a Vega. The latter two were raced on the famed Coca Cola Funny Car Cavalcade of Stars circuit against the likes of Fred Goeske, Dyno Don Nicholson, Stone, Woods & Cooke, Cecil, "Brand-X" Lankford, and others.

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Super Chevy Drag Racing Greats, Part 3
  • In the mid-'60s Jim Shores split from the Kohler Brothers and teamed up with Skip "Skipper's Critter" Hess and presto-change-o! Add one blown big-block Chevrolet engine to the equation and a whole new era of compact-sized blown gassers was born!
  • In 1975, this Super Modified '67 Camaro RS big-block project car was built by Car Craft magazine under the supervision of Editor Rick Voegelin to promote the concept of an affordable "Jr. Pro Stock" class, which NHRA adopted and folded into its Modified Eliminator category. Car Craft Technical Editor Norman Mayersohn, who had raced Super Stock cars in NHRA Division 1, was tabbed as driver, and the Voegelin & Mayersohn Camaro would set national speed and e.t. records in A/SM, B/SM, and C/SM (best of 9.90 at 136.00 mph) during the four years it was raced. The car won the NHRA Division 7 Modified Eliminator Championship in 1976 and 1978 and was runner-up in Modified Eliminator to Butch Leal at the 1978 NHRA Winternationals and Jeff Leininger at the 1978 NHRA Winston World Finals, as well as winning its class at Pomona from 1975-79. In 1981, the Camaro was parked in Rick Voegelin's barn after NHRA pulled the plug on Modified Eliminator, and it has remained there ever since.
  • This bright yellow '56 Chevrolet shoebox was campaigned by Southern California's Scribner Brothers (Tom, Dick, and Harry) throughout the '60s and competed in both C and D/Modified Production as well as C, D, and F/Gas, using a series of different-sized small-block engines. This Tri-Five bears the distinction of having never been beaten in the final round of class runoffs and was listed on Drag News Standard 1320 List for three consecutive years. Regarded to be one of the winningest Tri-Fives in drag racing history, the yellow '56 carded a career best of 12.32 at 115.54 mph.(Photo by G.K. Callaway).
  • Shores and Hess' principal rival was the Kohler Brothers (Ed and Ray) with a blown big-block Chevrolet-engine Anglia of their own, aka "King Kong," which (depending what sanctioning body it ran) competed in both the AA/Altered and AA/Gas Supercharged classes. However, match racing was where these cars really excelled in bringing the fans to their feet--especially when they raced each other. Best time for the King Kong Anglia was a 9.12 at 140.00 mph.
  • East Coast Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Carol Henson and husband/mechanic Dennis Whitestone primarily campaigned their S&W Race Cars, blown big-block Chevrolet (and later a Hemi)-powered "Warlock" '83 mini-Camaro on a number of Alcohol Funny Car circuits on the Eastern seaboard but would occasionally take in a national event or two (like the 1984 NHRA Summernationals, where this photo was taken), pleasing both fans and sponsors alike.
  • Driver Augie Sorichta leap-frogs off the Lions Associated Drag Strip starting line, driving the small-block-powered Qualifiers II '28 Chevrolet two-door sedan, which was another crowd favorite. Believe it or not, this car (now owned by the Rick Olivera family) still shows up and runs at the Wally Parks/NHRA Motorsports Museum–hosted California Hot Rod Reunion at Bakersfield (G.K. Callaway photo).
  • NHRA Division Seven racer Chris Christiansen is seen pulling the laundry on the big end at Orange County International Raceway, where his blown alcohol big-block Vega could routinely be counted on to run 7.02 at 200 mph.
  • Gervase O'Neil's "King Rat" was 100-percent pure fuel-burning Chevrolet and one of the last of the West Coast holdouts. O'Neil is seen grabbing a ton of air off the Irwindale Raceway starting line during a March 1972 event.
  • In the summer of 1966, the late Richard Schroeder campaigned this nitro-injected big-block Nova match racer sponsored by Beverly Hills, California's Emerald Chevrolet. The "Bad Bossa Nova" routinely ran mid-to-high 8s (GK Callaway photo).
  • "Rapid Ronnie" Runyon (Runyon & Grissom) reaches for the sky in the J&D Corvette Parts–sponsored "Blue Hell" Corvette blown fuel Funny Car. Like most of the cars from this era, Blue Hell was actually a real Corvette (GK Callaway photo).
  • One of the all-time Chevrolet racing greats was and is Dauphine, Pennsylvania's Bruce "USA-1" Larson, who was there at the very beginning of the match race Funny Car movement (we featured a photo of Bruce's match race Chevelle in the February '12 issue) and stuck with it until he annexed the 1989 NHRA-Winston Funny Car World Championship. Back in 1967, Bruce built this Logghe-chassis, blown Chevrolet Camaro and won a ton of races with it, including back to back Super Stock Nationals titles, carding a career best of 7.41 at 200 mph. To this day, Larson "cackles" USA-1 at select Chevrolet and drag racing nostalgia events.
  • Fuel-altered racing was always fun to watch, and Tocco, Harper & Garten's "Tequila Sunrise" big-block Chevrolet AA/FA (piloted by Roger Garten) always put on a show (seen here at the Bakersfield March Meet).
  • Fuel-altered racing was always fun to watch, and Tocco, Harper & Garten's "Tequila Sunrise" big-block Chevrolet AA/FA (piloted by Roger Garten) always put on a show (seen here at the Bakersfield March Meet).
  • This Tom Neja–driven '55 Chevrolet Stock Eliminator car is a perfect example of weight transfer in action. Look at that front suspension! This starting line photo was taken during the mid-'70s at Irwindale Raceway.
  • Anaheim's Richard and Joe Campos campaigned a series of "Lo Blow" Chevrolet-powered AA/FAs throughout the '60s. They were so named because the car originally featured a front-mounted, crank-driven Moon supercharger setup, which eventually gave way to the more conventional and more efficient top-mount supercharger design (GK Callaway photo).
  • NHRA Division Three racer Jim "Kenner SSP" Bucher was known for winning the very last NHRA Top Gas Eliminator Championship at the 1972 Mattel Hot Wheels Supernationals. Then Bucher went Top Fuel racing with this nitro-burning big-block Chevrolet digger that weighed a scant 1,000 pounds and ran a career best of 6.079 at 236.22 mph. Today this car sits in Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing located in Ocala, Florida.
  • NHRA Division One racer Bill Blanding campaigned a number of "MIMI" Camaros and this lone Vega in NHRA Super Stock, NHRA Modified Production, and finally NHRA Pro Stock Eliminators. Blanding’s cars were clean and fast, and his crew was always smartly dressed.
  • The Anaheim-based fuel altered team of Reed, Rockman & Fitzgerald was a force to be reckoned with from 1966-72. Actually, there were three blown Chevrolet-powered "Pure Heaven" Austin Bantam roadsters with "Pure Heaven II" (shown here) being the most successful. This ran a best of 7.60 at 200-plus mph, and won numerous fuel altered feature programs at Carlsbad, Lions, Irwindale, and Orange County International Raceways and participated in the first ever "Fuel Altered National Tour" set up by booking agent Ben Crist in the summer of 1968 along with "Wild Willie Borsch, Leroy "Magnificent 7" Chadderton, Nolan and Pritchard's "Beaver Hunter," and Don "Rat Trap" Green AA/FAs.
  • In the early '70s, NHRA/AHRA GT Camaro racers Hiner & Miller went Pro Stock racing with this Dick Lowry–constructed small-block Vega, which ran 9.70s at 140 mph. Jerry Miller drove.
  • One of the unsung Pro Stock Chevrolet heroes of the Midwest was Hammond, Indiana's Joe Satmary (shown here at Union Grove, Wisconsin) and his "We Haul" '70 Camaro. Not only did Joe race the NHRA-Winston national event schedule (Seventh in Pro Stock points standings in 1978, Sixth in 1979, and Fifth in 1980), but Satmary was particularly tough when it came to match racing and always put on a good show.
  • Nick Arias' famed Hemi Chevrolet engine was tried out in everything from Top Fuel to altered roadsters with moderate success.
  • Weird. That's one way to describe the "George's Corvette Shop" machine. When match race Funny Cars became all the rage, this one-piece fiberglass Corvette body was installed on a blown small-block Chevrolet dragster chassis to create an instant Funny Car. Note the driver's head protruding through the rear window.
  • Alabama drag racer Bobby "Palomino" Woods raced a series of Chevrolet-powered Funny Cars from mid-'64 to the early '70s, starting off with a steel-bodied 1965 Chevelle then this Logghe-built Nova and later a Vega. The latter two were raced on the famed Coca Cola Funny Car Cavalcade of Stars circuit against the likes of Fred Goeske, Dyno Don Nicholson, Stone, Woods & Cooke, Cecil, "Brand-X" Lankford, and others.

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