Life & Times of Denny Savage

[Cliff]

The life and times of Denny Savage, a Funny Car driver's Funny Car driver

Denny Savage was an old-school Funny Car driver, born in the class' earliest years in the mid-1960s, and enjoyed a career that lasted well into the 1980s while driving famed cars such as the Hawaiian, the Chi-Town Hustler, and more than a dozen others. This is his story.

www.nhra.com

He is still with us. His dad was CIA. Whoa....

 

[Harry]

Oh brother, where to start. It's 1973 and Denny is working for Dick Bourgeois out of Romeo Palamides and my good friend Bill Muskitus shop on Pulaski and 67th Street on Chicago's south side. Dick hired Denny to work on and drive the Doug's Headers Funny Car after Denny's deal with Kelly Chadwick went up in flames, literally. Denny knew how to build and run a Chevrolet on 88%. The driving part never happened. Roland pulls into town with a bent up chassis that gets front halved and they take it to Rockford with Denny driving. Mike Van Sant was dismissed. 6.40s was the tuneup then. Denny heads down the road with Roland but life would find him driving the CHI TOWN HUSTLER soon enough. If you knew Denny, just imagine he and Austin Coil together. You could sell their CB radio time for millions today. I remember being at Coils apartment with Denny, Jungle and Pam, Cliff Brown & co. and the gator. That's another story.

 

[Harry]

Friends, you might like this......one evening Savage and I went over to Pat Minicks Mothers garage. Where the Chi Town was kept and worked on back then. Austin is livid because his Venolia Piston Bill is killing them. He is flowing the fuel system hanging off a sheet of plywood and flowing into a steel barrel. Austin would "procure" some Titanium which was very hard to do back then. Austin would make piston tops made of Titanium to stop the burning of the pistons. You couldn't just add a bigger fuel pump. You would then need a SUPER Mag that wasn't yet produced and even if you had one there were no plugs that could stand up to that amperage. Hard times! The conversation in the garage was memorable.