Legends: The Series - Ed McCulloch (1 Viewer)

I just watched the Don Schumacher one last night and I thought it was excellent. Hopefully I will get some time today between meetings to check this one out. Keep up the good work.
 
Another excellent episode in a fantastic Series! Thanks, Bobby... and please keep 'em coming!
 
I just watched the Don Schumacher one last night and I thought it was excellent. Hopefully I will get some time today between meetings to check this one out. Keep up the good work.

I had thought the same about the Schumacher one. Watched it a few weeks ago. Just finished watching the McCulloch one about a half hour ago, and thought it was at least as good.
Thank you Bobby
 
I also watched the episode with Schumacher and watched it a second time with one of our crew guys who was one of those "Gypsies" Don spoke of. Ray (crewed for guys like Leong, Leroy Chatterton, Ongias, Butch Leal, etc.) had a smile on his face the whole time. He said that's how it was.

Looking forward to watching this one with him.
 
I also watched the episode with Schumacher and watched it a second time with one of our crew guys who was one of those "Gypsies" Don spoke of. Ray (crewed for guys like Leong, Leroy Chatterton, Ongias, Butch Leal, etc.) had a smile on his face the whole time. He said that's how it was.

I always like to see Danny Ongias mentioned, that is a guy that NEVER gets his due. Motorcycle champion in Hawaii, AHRA and NHRA Top Gas Champion (for Leong) during the nitro ban, excellent nitro Funny Car driver. Oh yeah ... He set many records at Bonneville in Mickey Thompson's Mach 1 Mustang. Oh yeah ... He drove both of Parnelli Jones' cars at NHRA National Events, one was a top fueler and the other was a nitro funny car, winning National Events in the flopper for both Jones and Thompson. Oh yeah ... he was a winner in the Indy Cars too. Several top 10 finishes in the Indy 500. Oh yeah ... he raced in F1 too ... a couple of top 10s back when they only gave out points to the top 6 in the race. In 1987, he finally got the dream ride, a Penske at the Indy 500. He wrecked in practice and was unable to compete in the race, he was replaced by Al Unser in a car that was a show car the week before the race. All Big Al did was go on to win the 500. In 1996, at age 54, he replaced Indy 500 pole sitter Scott Brayton after his fatal accident on Carb Day in the Menard as a teammate to Tony Stewart, Ongias started last and finished 7th. Danny "On The Gas" could drive anything, anywhere and was quicker than most, yet you never hear about him these days. I think he is the only guy in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame for Drag Racing and IndyCars. When NHRA did their Top 50 Drivers in 2001 for the 50th anniversary of NHRA, Ongias was #39.

As far as I know he is still alive, I hope he is enjoying his well earned retirement. That is definitely a guy I would like to sit down and have a couple of beers with.

EDIT: Oh yeah .. I forgot he was an SCCA Sports Car Champion and competitor at the 24 hours of Le Mans.

EDIT #2: GREAT video Bobby. These Legends series vids just keep getting better and better.
 
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Awesome. Ace is my 2nd favorite drag racing person of all time. Thank you Bobby. You're killing me with the acoustic guitar and bass drum between every segment tho. lol

Can I request you do a Dick Lahaie interview? :D
 
I always like to see Danny Ongias mentioned, that is a guy that NEVER gets his due. Motorcycle champion in Hawaii, AHRA and NHRA Top Gas Champion (for Leong) during the nitro ban, excellent nitro Funny Car driver. Oh yeah ... He set many records at Bonneville in Mickey Thompson's Mach 1 Mustang. Oh yeah ... He drove both of Parnelli Jones' cars at NHRA National Events, one was a top fueler and the other was a nitro funny car, winning National Events in the flopper for both Jones and Thompson. Oh yeah ... he was a winner in the Indy Cars too. Several top 10 finishes in the Indy 500. Oh yeah ... he raced in F1 too ... a couple of top 10s back when they only gave out points to the top 6 in the race. In 1987, he finally got the dream ride, a Penske at the Indy 500. He wrecked in practice and was unable to compete in the race, he was replaced by Al Unser in a car that was a show car the week before the race. All Big Al did was go on to win the 500. In 1996, at age 54, he replaced Indy 500 pole sitter Scott Brayton after his fatal accident on Carb Day in the Menard as a teammate to Tony Stewart, Ongias started last and finished 7th. Danny "On The Gas" could drive anything, anywhere and was quicker than most, yet you never hear about him these days. I think he is the only guy in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame for Drag Racing and IndyCars. When NHRA did their Top 50 Drivers in 2001 for the 50th anniversary of NHRA, Ongias was #39.

As far as I know he is still alive, I hope he is enjoying his well earned retirement. That is definitely a guy I would like to sit down and have a couple of beers with.

EDIT: Oh yeah .. I forgot he was an SCCA Sports Car Champion and competitor at the 24 hours of Le Mans.

EDIT #2: GREAT video Bobby. These Legends series vids just keep getting better and better.

Chris,

It's great listening to Ray's old stories of the road trips. He says of Ongias that he always traveled with a small suitcase and one change of clothes. Most of the time never traveled with the race car, but would always show up out of the blue when it came time to race. That was when they were running the Vel's Parnelli Jones Mustang F/C.

Ongias would be an interesting interview.
 
Ongais just celebrated his 73rd birthday in May....

http://www.hotrod.com/news/1505-hot-rod-birthday-danny-on-gas-ongais-age-73/

danny-ongais.jpg




Remember the story behind this famous photo?
b89e19855f07e38c17ee5985c1e8ebb5.jpg



"At the Hot Rod Magazine Championships at Riverside he pushed his crippled dragster the entire quarter-mile by hand to an elapsed time of one minute and 35 seconds to stay alive in the competition he won later."
 
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