James I-Here Is The Sep-16-67-Irwindale Race (Short) (1 Viewer)

[TopFuel@Lions]

Here ya go James leaving out all the detail, this event ran on September 16th, 1967 at Irwindale, drew 11,000 fans!

Booked in 10 of the "Best from the West" Funny Cars.
All Cars ran 3 rounds.
The Field-Gas Rhonda-The Hemi Cuda (Goeske's Rear Engine Ride)-Destroyer Jeep-Dee Keaton-Fiberglass Trends-Steve Bovan-Secret Weapon Jeep-Pisano Bros.
New Breed-Engine Masters

15 rounds of racing.
Low ET +Top Speed-The Hemi Cuda 8.44 188+mph.

Final Round;Destroyer Jeep(won all 3 rounds) beat the Secret Weapon



TopFuel@Lions

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Thanks Mark!
That's a huge amount of fans for a SoCal FC race w/ no Eastern cars!
I wonder if both of the 2 finalists being Jeeps led to the eventual outlawing of their body styles. It's amazing how long the Secret Weapon raced.
It debuted in '66 and was still competing at the '68 Mfrs. Meet which concluded on DEC 1st! I'm going to guess the Engine Masters you mentioned was Alley's Charger, right? Was the ftrends FC Marv's Corvair or topless Vette?

Would you happen to have any race reports from Irwindale's July '67 races? Our first trip to the drags was the SAT closest to the Fourth of July.
It was a 4-FC rd. robin featuring Gas Ronda (still in his '66 Holman-Moody AWB Mustang), Hemi-Cuda, Blair's Speed Shop Camaro and Grove's new Ford Charger Mustang. We did not go to the pits side for our first 2 trips to Irwindale. But I have a distinct memory of seeing Goeske's Hemi through the big rear glass of his '65 Cuda. Even though Tom Grove's FC was plain white w/ blue lettering it was the most impressive; probably cause he was one of the big names we knew from the magazines. As to be expected the noise and fury of fuel FC racing was beyond anything we were expecting to see. Our oldest brother took us to the race in his '65 SS 327 Malibu. We wouldn't return to the drags until the NOV show we've been discussing in the Chapman "Outa' Site" Camaro thread.

Here's a small photo from '67 Indy which shows Seaton-Hedrick and the all white Grove Mustang passing through the Hurst bridge before their Rd. 1 match up. Hedrick would win, then defeat Schartman in Rd. 2 before falling to Lunati's Camaro, the r/u to Thorley.