O.C.I.R Manufacturers Race-67 (1 Viewer)

[TopFuel@Lions]

Just this past weekend was the anniversary of the first Manufacturers race at Orange County in 67. Usually I have posted the line up of the teams and the race recap, not this time, more of some of the stuff I saw that made this race so iconic, revolutionary, and historical.

Of course this race format was original and unique. The talent was incredible. The crowd was massive, standing room only would not due the crowd justice. This was only the 4th race Dad and I had been to at O.C.I.R. since the opening in early August as we of course had our butts at Lions on most all Saturday nights.

We had seen some shows starting in late September and early October around So-Cal that had seen the slow and steady trickle of all the mid-west and eastern funny cars come west. From Fremont to Irwindale to Carlsbad and of course Lions. This early November event looked to top all the others with the talent booked.

We left the comfy confines of Van Nuys, California right about 1:30 in the afternoon as dad had the feeling if we don't get there early to park and get a good seat, we would be scavenging for scrap seats, lol, he was so right. About 2:15ish we passed by the Alameda exit of the 405, I looked at Lions as we passed. Weird.

We got there before 3, parked in a great spot right by the road coming in, way out there all by ourselves, looked odd as we were way out there, everybody at that time parked as close to the ticket booth, dad got it right as it payed off in the am.

We gathered our stuff and hustled of to the ticket booth, payed for our ducats and got in. Before I sat down, I went to the fence, spectator side, first grandstand right by that trick scoreboard. As dad secured top row on the aisle seats, I watched Jack Christman's Kendall GT-1 make a run and va-voom the supercharger and take the top of the sweet Comet, yikes.

After that we gorged on burgers, then payed for a pit pass, walked around behind the line to check out the "teams." This was the heaviest of the heavy-hitters in town, some I had only read about, some I had seen leading up to this epic show.

You could feel the electricity, the vibe, and the intense nature of this event. The driver/team introductions was intense, the best in the business! Flawless, killer, it had it all.

When the race started at 6 is was fully packed in like sardines, the crowd was into it, people pulling for their brand, it was serious, betting was going on, my dad cleaned up betting against some of the know-it-all newbies who knew zilch about the 67 season players, payed for that night and many to come, boo-ya!

The last race my dad and his buddies made some bank in the final, there were some Pontiac guys who thought the Gay bros. Firebird was going to "wax" Fast Eddies "Air Lift Rattler, we know how that turned out, my late uncle Joe won $20.00 on that race alone on a 1-run race, think about that, that was in 1967.

As soon as my dad and uncle got payed, we hustled out to the well parked car and in short order we were out of the track, got home after 2:00am. but it was sure worth it!



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[TopFuel@Lions]

That day/night I got to sit in Al Vanderwoods "Flying Dutchman" Dart, what a deal.


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[Cliff]

Great story Mark. I missed that one, was still in Air Force.

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

This race also pounded the nail into the coffin for the injected cars, door or flip top, and really hammered the stake into the Supercharged door cars. One of the many impressive rides at this race was the Gary Dyer driven "Mr. Norms Supercharger" Dodge Charger.

May I also repeat a statement made on other posts, Terry Hedrick driving Seaton's Corvair was a dang animal behind the wheel just punishing that Corvair, that dude beat the excrement out of the ride.



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[Jimbo]

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

The best race of the night may have gone down in Round 1 when "Fast Eddie" nipped Doug Thorley in a titanic battle of two of the nations best S/XS cars of that year.



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[TopFuel@Lions]

Hopefully soon James I. could post some of those shots from the race he said he found.




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[J. S.]

Any chance of posting details of the 68, 69, 70, and 71 Manufacturers Meets at OCIR? I'm pretty sure I went to the 69 race - the one that was postponed a few times due to the heavy rains we had in So Cal that year.

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Hi Jon, funny that you should name those specific Mfrs. Meet years....cause I felt the '71 was the last great one. '72 was a huge disappointment cause the national car count fell off drastically. It was also the last year of the unique team format. From there the once magnificent race slowly diminished, year by year. I think Mike Jones' departure and the fast rising cost of racing a FC were the prime reasons. That being said '68 and '71 were my favorite MM's because they featured the most non-CA cars, best paint and the teams were more evenly weighted. No doubt the '70 MM was the best in terms of performance. But save for the Blue Max's 6.72 and overall win it was an all Dodge-Plymouth show. Ford and GM had few of their expected headliners at the '70 race.

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Hi Mark, I can't stress this enough—missing out on the first Mfrs. Meet was a major regret for me, a brand new drag racing fan in '67. Even if we had heard the KRLA radio ads I'm not sure if we could've convinced any elders to take us to a drag strip twice as far as Irwindale (w/ only 2 visits under our belt). So all I have are my DSM and SS&DI reports, and of course, along w/ your personal retelling of that historical night. I will also be sharing some rare images I've found online several years ago. I'll start by examining key elements of each team.

DODGE
The new Mr.Norm's Charger certainly was the star of the team. DSM says Norm and Gary Dyer wanted to debut it Irwindale but repairing the '67 Charger's damaged motor at Fremont created unforeseen delays. The new style '68 was so sleek compared to the first generation Charger. Molly's red and silverflake paint was pretty slick too. Plus, Gary Dyer was the only one to beat Schartman that night! Lindamood's unblown '67 was the other Charger. The rest of the team included a trio of '66 Darts: Charlie Allen (now blown), the Flying Dutchman (always blown) and NorCal's Samson Dart, another midseason blower convert. You'll have to tell us how you got to sit in the Flying Dutchman's cockpit! That '66 Dutchman Dart was the first of a series painted by Dennis Ricklefs. The mint green fading from dark to light and the Old English logo were fantastic. I still consider the Flying Dutchman lettering to be one of the best ever on a FC.

PLYMOUTH
The Calif. Flash was probably the top bill, followed by the Super Cuda. Owner Bill Taylor was forced to come up w/ a new FC name after he sold his famous King Fish to TB Smallwood earlier in the year. Larry Reyes stayed w/ the Fish for a bit but reunited w/ Taylor once the Super Cuda was ready to go. Fred Goeske's aged '65 Hemi-Cuda was still up and running. The rest of the team consisted of the very stock appearing Lime Fire (Clare Sanders) and the last rendition of the Stock and FX pioneer, the Melrose Missile (Cecil Yother).

MERCURY
Despite the other teams' recent access to LSC chassis the Mercs were still top threats at any race. Schartman led the way, followed by Dyno Don, Chrisman, Pete Gates and our local Keaton's Comet. All were LSC, save for Keaton who ran a Fletcher chassis. And here's something important to note. After Chrisman blew off the roof he was replaced by none other than "Jungle Jim" Liberman. Yes, the most popular FC driver of all time was a mere alternate at the first Mfrs. Meet! JJ's first flip-top was unique. Despite having an LSC chassis the body was half steel w/ opening doors!

FORD
Tom Grove also lost his roof. I saw the "Ford Charger" at my very first race, a 4-FC rd. robin at Irwindale in July.
It was brand new, in all white w/ blue lettering. It still looked like this at Indy. But for the fall season blue accents were added. BTW, I remember Mike Ditty saying that his Irwindale photo was from a private test session. That was Grove's first time out w/ a blower. For me Tom Grove was always Ford's top FC. He ran the SOHC longer than anyone w/ a Ford career that went from a '65 FX to his '73 red-white-blue FC. Grove's "Ford Charger" name probably sounds confusing to any newer fan after 1970. But that name was lettered on Tom's early '66 blue-gold Mustang, just before the Dodge Chargers became popular! Grove would drop the car name in late '68 when his '69 Mach 1 debuted. Dick Loehr's '68 Max Curtis Ford (blown Hemi power) was about a month old. Loehr was one of the first to run a Hemi in a Ford FC. I read somewhere that he couldn't get SOHC's for '67-'68. But he'd return to Ford power w/ his '69 Stampede Mach 1. Gas Ronda's fairly new Mustang was still unblown. Psycho and an early Trojan Horse rounded out the team.

CHEVROLET
Thorley's gorgeous "Doug's Headers" Corvair led the team. To this day I feel it featured the best use of lace on a FC. In a retrospective article Doug said he wanted an LSC but they were too backed up. Instead he had Exhibition Eng. construct a tilt-forward car. Larry Watson did the amazing paint. Seaton's Corvair was another top billed FC. If you look closely at the 2 Corvairs you'll see that Seaton's had a more OEM appearing wheelbase. He kept the rear wheel location and extended the front. Doug moved the rear wheels forward, directly under the pillars, then extended the front fenders longer than Seaton's. Dick Harrell only made 2 Mfrs. Meets, this one and the May 4, 1968 spring version of the MM. This race featured Dick's Don Hardy AWB Camaro, now sporting a huffer—plus a faux black vinyl roof! Kelly Chadwick's Hardy clone was also present (unblown). Stronger than all of them but probably not as well known was the aforementioned Chapman Camaro w/ Ron O'Donnell. As fast as the Outa' Site ran their presence was brief. Key members O'Donnell and John Hogan moved on to the resurrected SWC Mustang for '68 (Tim Woods' first FC after Doug Cook's career ending crash).

PONTIAC
The Gay Brothers' rainbow Firebird was at the top of this list, sporting that amazing rainbow scheme, one of the earliest examples of psychedelic paint. Don and Roy Gay were still running a genuine Pontiac motor w/ James Osteen turning the wrenches. Lew Arrington had a rare role—he drove his old '65 GTO and new LSC Firebird! Both were blown Hemi powered. The New Breed and Don Sappington rounded out the team. DSM called Don's Firebird new so I assume it was the silvery blue and red fogged Phoenix Bird we saw at the May '68 Mfrs. Meet.

Key points: the most notable for me were the 2 finalists—one Mercury and one Pontiac. Why? Cause those teams would exist for only one more year. In '69 OCIR combined the Mercs w/ the Ford team. The Pontiacs joined Chevrolet to create the GM team. As I said earlier Schartman was definitely the killer car of the Calif. fall season. He won Fremont, Irwindale and this mega FC event. And the Air-Lift Rattler looked so good doing it, w/ its front wheels up and slicks making smoke out back. Amos Saterlee was the tuner responsible for Eddie's amazing performances. He would have a bit of an off year in '68 while tuning Hayden Proffitt's AMC Rebel SST but Amos would rebound in '69 for his greatest season ever. Of course, I'm talking about M/T's all conquering Mach 1 w/ Danny Ongais at the wheel.

I've noticed that Thorley's great Indy success didn't carry over to the fall season. However, he did win a top billed match race at Carlsbad a bit later against Dyno Don. I just recently learned that Thorley managed Carlsbad for a while and this was his first advertised race. Of course, the classic line up of all the FCs began at this inaugural Mfrs. Meet. What many may not know is that for the first 2 years the FCs did not flip up their bodies. They were probably displayed w/ their bodies down because so many cars were still AWB configurations. The flipped up bodies would've obscured the rest.

A final tiny tidbit before I move on to a few attached photos. Something as minor as those team banners in the pits really caught my eye as a young drag racing fan. I thought, "Wow, they had so many funny cars they needed banners to keep track of them all!" My first shared image is a Mfrs. Meet souvenir program that I've only seen online. Mark, do you still have yours? Notice how some of the listed FCs did not appear that night. Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick would've certainly bolstered the Pontiac team.

Jungle and Lew lining up their FCs for the starting line ceremony—for the first time ever!

A rare photo of Doug's amazing Corvair being painted at Larry Watson's shop. The paint appears to be completed; there is no amber Lexan, nor any lettering just yet.

One final pic of a minor Mfrs. Meet match, an ND clipping which shows Kelly Chadwick's AWB Camaro against Bob Blinn's very stock appearing Contemporary Fiberglass Mustang. Blinn was an alternate for Merc. Other notable subs included Pisano's ultra-long Camaro, Blair's Speed Shop, Randy Walls' topless Corvair (formerly Proffitt's), and Hairy Canary Valiant. Of those only Bovan's Camaro was a flip-top.

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

That race James had 15 alternate's that gave the race 45 cars. In my pit walk in the afternoon that dad and I took when we got to Vanderwoode's ride dad and I started a conversation with Al In the talk I expressed that I liked his cars, saw him run alot, and said I saw him at a match race at Beeline and that he did great burnouts. He said come over to the car, he opened the door and said check out the seat, boom!

That same night at Lions they had what they jokingly and un officially called the "King of the John Doe's" funny car race for the floppers that were "not" invited to that big race at the County.



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[junglevsbrutus]

Mark, what a great story!
I really envy the time you spent w/ your dad at the drags. My dad was raised in Japan and had little interest in cars, especially anything in the hot rod world. We considered ourselves very lucky when he took us to Irwindale....and slept in the car! He also drove us to our first Winternationals in '71. But note I said "drove" and not "take." That's cause we got dropped off and picked up several hours later. If not for that fatherly favor we would've missed Garlits' history making win and Roland's second straight FC victory w/ Butch Maas at the wheel. Overall I think that was the best looking Hawaiian FC ever.

During the Golden Age of the CHRR's I got to sit in 3 famous cockpits. Sometime in the early 2000's the Howard Cam Rattler was in the Winternationals pits. They were cackling it many times and offering fans to sit in the cockpit. After I watched a few Bob Muvarez asked me if I wanted to take the seat. Would I?!? He helped me get and put on the face mask. It was at dusk so the flames were the best thing about the experience. When it was over the small group cheered and as Bob helped me to exit he asked, "Did you get a woody?" I said, "No, bamboo!" and he couldn't stop laughing.

When I did my painting of the Hawaiian I needed some front axle detail. The GBP's spindles were close enough so I went to the NHRA museum and they were nice enough to move the famed dragster into a better lighting position. Wayne asked me if I'd steer it. Would I?!?
The thing that hit me was how tight the cockpit was. The tin was tight against my shoulders. Plus, of course, how you couldn't see anything in front of you save for the back of the blower and maybe the top 1/4 of the front tires.

My 3rd experience was at CHRR. Saturday was ending and I had secured by booth. The event guys wanted to get the Pure Hell AA/FA inside of a tent so Greg Sharp asked me if I'd steer it. Would I?!? I carefully hopped on to the slick and then slipped myself into the cockpit. Imagine my fear of accidentally stepping on the famous Bantam body and cracking it!
Those were my "driving experiences" and I won all 3 races!

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Mark, as we know Lew Arrington drove 2 FCs at the '67 Mfrs. Meet, both his old '65 Brutus GTO and the brand new Firebird.
My '68 MM program shows the pre-race FC line up off all the cars, taken from the magnificent OCIR tower. The first FC on the spectator side is Ray Alley's Engine Masters Cuda. I was surprised to see it debut that early since it was a solid '68 season FC. I've also seen a few pix of Alley's '67 Engine Masters Charger. Even though Alley was just an alternate I'm wondering if he had both his Charger and new Cuda at the MM. Do you recall seeing the Charger there too?

 

[J. S.]

James:

Thank you for taking so much time to post your very detailed accounts of the early Mfg Funny Car Championships at OCIR. They are a real enjoyable read for us students of drag racing. I know it takes a lot of time to research and type those long posts so wanted to be sure you know they are really appreciated by this fan.

I look forward to your (and Mark's) accounts of the next few years of these iconic events of the past.

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

If y'all want I can go into stupid detail of the event but I have done it before. In some recent peeking at my album of every starter in that race I would like to state the the Rich Hammon's "Sampson" Dart indeed had a supercharger up top. That Goodies Speed Shop ride put on a show every time out, it would get all twisted up and launch into some nice foot tall+ powerstands.


[email protected] Sand Canyon off I-5 and driving into O.C.I.R. with my dad that November day....priceless.

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Mark, thanks for the info, I just edited my post to reflect that. Here's another '67 MM line up photo showing the Samson's blower. Speaking of the Samson Dart I always found it interesting how only the Ramchargers raced a '67 Dart body that season. Every other Dart FC racer ran a '66. I didn't mind cause I loved the '66 style. To me they were the Dodge version of the '66 Nova, a small compact that wasn't as sporty looking as a Charger or Camaro. And I'll trade you a correction for a few. Gas Ronda had no H and Samson no P!

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Thanks Jon!
Reminiscing these old SoCal FC events has been a lot of fun. At some point I'll get to the '68 Mfrs. Meet which I still consider my best drag race of all time. FC paint jobs had advanced tenfold within a year and for me that MM showcased some of the most fantastic flopper paint jobs ever. Stay tuned...