Burgess OCIR Story

[Sandy]

You're right there. Back then I towed to the 'County with an SS El Camino and an open trailer I built myself...and I fit right in. In the back was my tool, box, ice chest, floor jack, two jugs of fuel, a couple of quarts of oil under the passenger seat and a couple lounge chairs.

Today, the typical rig cost more than the median single family residence in the US.

Towed my Pro ET Duster(cant seem to find any pictures of it) on an open trailer with surge brakes that didnt work with my Z-28. Should have seen the guy look at me when I asked to put a class three hitch on it. Oh, the good ole days! Its a wonder we are still alive

 

[Bob K.]

And then there was FREMONT, what a bummer when that closed, I sold my super gas Vega, cause I did'nt like Sears Point. Lots of great races at good old Fremont. BK

 

[Mr. Jean]

Same here Randy. El Camino and single axle trailer days.

and of course the County.

 

[Toejam]

Here's a couple scanned pages from Popular Hot Rodding January 1981, article and photos by Steve Reyes. It was spread across three pages and a little difficult to scan. Photos were taken in the gravel area between the water hole and the shut down area at OCIR.

Randy would that car pass tech today for say SG? The Rollbar specs back then looked pretty lax.

 

[Sandy]

okay here goes couldnt find any on track photos but this was my baby
http://www.nitromater.com/album.php?do=editpictures&albumid=57&pictureids[]=495

I someone could put this picture in the post for me I would be most appreciative

 

[Nunz]

Randy, that car was *****in'! You built that car the way I would today, super low. Matter of fact, that car would look every bit as wild today with modern wheels, you really couldn't tell that it was an older car. There are some nice altereds out there today, but they all sit up much higher. Also, I didn't know you actually ran in A/A, which hits home for me because as I've posted many times, my dad held the NHRA speed record from '70 to '71. His car was a Logghe twin to Ron Ellis' AA/A from that era. Thanks for posting the pic, and it's a shame the car got destroyed before you could get it back.

 

[Randy]

Randy would that car pass tech today for say SG? The Rollbar specs back then looked pretty lax.

As you can see by the body off picture it had a six point cage and the typical "K" layout current funny car chassis design built today by guys like Plueger, etc. I think a couple of $50 tweeks would have brought it up to current SFI TA/FC specs because the tubing in my car had the right layout and right diameter.

I had it built as an altered ready for TA/FC and I had two bodies for it. The altered body you see in the photos and a McCracken Corvette body that was very popular back then (which we never fully mounted). My plan was to run TA/FC (called BB/FC back then) but I just didn't have the budget to do it. The altered body was mounted like a funny car body with the go-around, rear body tree and frame hooks. You would just tilt it up and take it off (once you pulled the steering arm).

Randy

 

[Randy]

Randy, that car was *****in'! You built that car the way I would today, super low. Matter of fact, that car would look every bit as wild today with modern wheels, you really couldn't tell that it was an older car. There are some nice altereds out there today, but they all sit up much higher. Also, I didn't know you actually ran in A/A, which hits home for me because as I've posted many times, my dad held the NHRA speed record from '70 to '71. His car was a Logghe twin to Ron Ellis' AA/A from that era. Thanks for posting the pic, and it's a shame the car got destroyed before you could get it back.

Nunzio:

Thanks! I still love the altereds and walk around the staging lanes to see them whenever they are in line when we are.

I looked at 100 altereds before I asked Roger to build this one. During my search I decided I wanted a BB/FC capable car, and I was probably a pain in the #$% because I had a certain look in mind. And I agree, except for the wheels, shorter wheelie bars and a few dated engine parts it looks like a current car 32 years after it was built.

The body was black, the front stripe was magenta, the middle stripe was a deep faded orange and the rear stripe was electric blue. My late pal Tom Stratton outdid himself.

In the 70's the Mallicoat Bros modified an old Fiberglass Trends altered body with the raised deck and swoopie lines and they ran it for a while, but it weighed 100 pounds. When I ordered my altered in 1976, Neal at New Visions Race Cars borrowed the Mallicoat's body, spalshed a mold off of it and produced a handfull of bodies. Out of the mold my body weighed 18 pounds.

One of the first five bodies went to another chassis builder who made his own version of Neal's body and began selling them as his own. Most of the "T" bodies you see today are splashed versions of the original Mallicoat body. They would be rich if they had been paid royalties.

Randy

 

[You!]

Tom is still missed by many of us Randy. He was the best.



And your altered was ahead of it's time.

 

[Randy]

Tom is still missed by many of us Randy. He was the best.



And your altered was ahead of it's time.

Bill:

That's a classic picture of Tom. Looks like he's putting the spiral swirls in the gold leaf he glued on your car. Certainly a lot art with the vinyl being done today.

Check out the pictures of my car and you'll see where I had Tom remove "Ford" from the fiberglass radiator grill shell and replace it with his trademark classic Superman "S" for Stratton.

Do you still have that dragster? I thought I remember you telling me you sold it.

RG

 

[Randy]

Tom Stratton story:

Tom painted just about every car west of the Mississippi including most of Roland Leong's Hawaiian's, Brad Anderson's beautiful red cars, the Miller Beer funny cars for Larry Minor, etc. He had quite an album full. Bill can correct me if I am wrong, but I think he may have painted the most beautiful front engine dragster ever built, the Keeling and Clayton California Charger. Tom also painted Johnnie Loper's Arrow funny car, which is where he got the colors for my altered.

Anyway, when I went to pick up my Old's funny car body. This one:

Tom told me, in every paint job he's ever done, he puts the name of your biggest competitor somewhere in the paint job. He said he did it in pearl or in a fade so light that can only be seen if the light is exactly right, and it's a little easier to see it if the body is wet and in direct sunlight. He said "Somewhere on your car it says Pat Austin, but I'm not going to tell you where it is."

I could never find it until I finally got him to show me where it was. Sure enough. He also told me (and I suppose it's OK to say it now) that all of Brad Anderson's paint jobs had the same thing, and that Brad's later cars all had Pat Austin's name on them as well. He said he would walk by the race cars and chuckle under his breath as he said he could clearly read the name splashed on in the paint job on the car, but no one ever nailed him on it.

His most embarassing moment was when Brad was sponsored by Jolly Rancher Candies. Tom worked late into the night several days in a row to finish the body for Brad. When he hand lettered the front he accidentally spelled it out as "Jolly Raneher." He was hand painting the "c" in Rancher and inadvertantly added a last leg on the c which turned it into an e. The body was delivered that way before anyone caught it.

Randy

 

[You!]

Randy,

Even though I'm betting that we are the only two now reading this thread, I'll add my favorite Stratton story, of which I know we both have many.

Tom painted and had begun lettering on a top fuel dragster owned and driven by Rudy Topeke. For those who didn't know him, Tom was a real true character with many funny traits. For this one, he kept calling him "Rudy Topeka" and he walk around the shop just repeating it out loud for no apparent reason.

I would stop by there in the early afternoon on my way home from work (which I couldn't do now because you had to squeeze between the pole for the chain link fence and his metal building to get in...remember that Randy?) and he's doing the grease pencil for Rudy's name on the dragster. The side facing the door was drawn on and he was working on the other side.

He looked up at me and smiled as he looked over his bifocals, and said, "Billy! You missed lunch!" And he had to say this somewhat loud over the KROQ, punk music he listened to! I just smiled at him. He asked what was behind my grin. I told him to come back to this side and read out loud what he had written.

He got up off his stool, walked around and proudly proclaimed, "Rudy Topeka!" Took him a second before he realized that his little mantra had sunk so deep into his head that he really started to think that was the guy's name!

Still makes me laugh everytime I think of that, but maybe you had to be there to get it.

There was another time when two deep burnout marks showed up on his shop floor, coming OUT of the paint booth. I figured his kid Spud or one of his low life buddies had done it, and Tom said no, in fact he knows the guy that did it so well that he could crap in his pants!

Took me a second to get that one...

 

[d'kid]

wanna bet Bill????
enjoyed the '68 fog out MFg Meet... was at the track a couple of times a month from '69 to July '73 when I shipped over seas...

d'kid

 

[mick]

.....He asked what was behind my grin. I told him to come back to this side and read out loud what he had written.

He got up off his stool, walked around and proudly proclaimed, "Rudy Topeka!" Took him a second before he realized that his little mantra had sunk so deep into his head that he really started to think that was the guy's name!

Still makes me laugh everytime I think of that, but maybe you had to be there to get it.........

no, i laughed just reading it; that's funny stuff .......

 

[Mike]

Randy, wonder where Larry Buchanan is these days?

 

[Randy]

Randy, wonder where Larry Buchanan is these days?

Now why did you have to go and trash a perfectly good thread? Larry's probably retired living the good life in a single wide east of Lancaster.

NHRA.com Photo of the Week presented by Auto Imagery starring Larry Buchanan

Enjoy.

RG

 

[You!]

Leaving for OCIR circa early '83.

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I still have only two "items" in this picture today...the red Waterloo tool box and my now lovely bride of 22 years! These were great times!

 

[willy]

Now why did you have to go and trash a perfectly good thread? Larry's probably retired living the good life in a single wide east of Lancaster.

NHRA.com Photo of the Week presented by Auto Imagery starring Larry Buchanan

Enjoy.

RG

Love that shot, Randy..had to save that one. And don't you guys think we aren't reading..I love it.

 

[Mike]

RG, Naw, I think he is looking at roots on the eastside of Little Rock




I'll bring us back to the good side, how is Lefty doing these days?

 

[Mr. Jean]

Nice shots Bill. Here was my little single axle trailer from back then. All loaded up and getting ready to go racing. Simpler times for sure and more fun, in my opinion.