Question for Don Schumacher (1 Viewer)

[Mooseman]

Hey Don I hope you dont mind me asking but most drag racing fans know of your old cars like the Stardust and some of the really trick Wonderwagon cars but would love to know how you got into drag racing . I have seen an old pic of one of your early cars which was an injected car with an Ed Pink engine of course though all your cars seem to have been Pink powered . But if you have the time would be great to hear about your beginings in the sport in your own words . What got you into it why you chose the classes you chose what made you choose Pink as a engine builder . Just some questions I felt like asking .

 

[Rajunz]

This may be of interest....................printed in 1970.

 

[None]

I hope Don picks up on this, but I know that he is very busy. Don came into Fiberglass Ltd when we first started with misc sheet metal he wanted copied in fiberglass to build an Oldsmobile 442 funny car.. I was VERY busy and did not make the pieces as I knew sales would not be good. I had a business arrangement with R & B automotive ( Rollian & Buttera) to build complete funny cars through Automotive Research & Engineering (ARE) a company I had just started. I talked Don into Buying a Dodge Charger and that with a order from Don Gay for a Pontiac and Bobby Woods for a Chevy 2 were the first three cars that we built.

And the story goes on from here.


Don has a birthday tomorrow. I think its number 39, but I do not remember how may times he has pasted this level.

Ron Pellegrini

 

[afx421]

im sure everyone on here knows my loyalties but with that been said, i have to say dons stardust cars were the hottest funny cars of thier days and thats the coolest name also. and i believe if memory serves don had a deal or his old challenger was bought by my freind and legend arnie beswick. very cool era for floppers, and happy birthday don.

 

[JHOLE]

I hope Don picks up on this, but I know that he is very busy. Don came into Fiberglass Ltd when we first started with misc sheet metal he wanted copied in fiberglass to build an Oldsmobile 442 funny car.. I was VERY busy and did not make the pieces as I knew sales would not be good. I had a business arrangement with R & B automotive ( Rollian & Buttera) to build complete funny cars through Automotive Research & Engineering (ARE) a company I had just started. I talked Don into Buying a Dodge Charger and that with a order from Don Gay for a Pontiac and Bobby Woods for a Chevy 2 were the first three cars that we built.

And the story goes on from here.


Don has a birthday tomorrow. I think its number 39, but I do not remember how may times he has pasted this level.

Ron Pellegrini

When I saw the body of the question, of the original post, I was hoping you'de chime in. I figured you would have a wealth of information in this topic. I understand that this is the internet and all... But I would love to understand more of the origins - as does the original poster.

I understand the "humble" attitude of people who were involved. But some of your ( collective) humbleness will leave the rest of us with questions unanswerable as time passes. Maybe there is a better venue that I'm not aware of, and maybe some of it has been spilled there. But, even if this isn't the right place to post, I would be interested in anything that you or Mr. S have to say on the topic.

I would be interested in anything that you have to say on the topic of drag racing in general, but I would mostly be interested in anything that you would care to share that I can't see on tv...the real racing, back when it was a love - not a business...and the business worked itself out, enough to enable the love at least...

Some of us still care, and would rather listen and be enlightened than argue stats and facts, we'll be listening, and supporting you ( collectively ) that were there...and will share...

Thanks in advance...

 

[Solid Rock]

I agree with Jeff. I'd also like to hear more stories from the old days. I remember seeing these cars at Oswego and US 30 back in the late 60's and early 70's.

Here's a link that I found interesting.

Ron Pellegrini

 

[Mooseman]

Im glad people are showing an interest in this thread , I dont put people on pedistals , im not the kind of guy who goes "oh my god its insert persons name here , im your biggest fan" I am more of a handshake pleased to meet you kind of person . But in saying that im 21 and so was never around back in the day and most of my racing heroes are old racers from back in the day and I would love to just sit down and chat with some of them . I have many questions haha . Hopefully this turns out a good thread .

 

[timebombkal]

The first time I saw Don was at Detroit Dragway and he had the 68 cuda,
that one was my favorite.

 

[Nick Name]

I remember seeing him at Irwindale and the county.

Speaking of Don, did you all see him on TV last weekend on one of Capps runs when he got a good dose of nitro and was tearing up on the starting line. I was thinking how funny that you can be around the stuff forever like he has and it will still get you.

 

[willy]

I agree with Jeff. I'd also like to hear more stories from the old days. I remember seeing these cars at Oswego and US 30 back in the late 60's and early 70's.

Here's a link that I found interesting.

Ron Pellegrini

Nice link, Rocky!!

Great history.

 

[Nunz]

Having grown up in the sport, and having a dad who raced Comp in the 60s & 70s, I have seen an awful lot, and loved every bit of it. I'm like you Jeff, and most others here, in that I can never get too much of the old-time stories. BTW Jeff, I'm a huge '70s Pro Comp & BB/FC fan, and your dad's cars were always cool. Back to Shoe, I remember being at Indy for I believe a divisional back in 1970 when my dad was running A/A. We were towing back up the return road, and stopped to watch Shoe, and I can't remember who he was running, but I'll never forget how that car thundered when it left the line. Changed me forever. 40 years later I'm still bugging my dad with "Why couldn't we run a blown car?!?" BTW, I believe all that thunder resulted in somethung like a 7.0, which was flying back then. Happy birthday Shoe.

 

[marlin]

Great find Rocky ....

Many thanks for the link Rocky ...

This was back in the day when drag racing was drag racing..Great stuff..

Ron you were defintely a "pioneer" of the sport . Many thanks for your contributions making drag racing history .

Did you ever make it down the 1/4 mile at my track ...Thunder Valley USA ?

I saw my first Spingnationals back in 1968..

Ah...the stories you could tell:

Happy Birthday Shoe ..

 

[shoe]

All
I will answer this in segments since I just traveled back to Florida to be with my wife today.

The first experience I had at a Drag Strip was with a friend from Chicago. I always drove faster then I should have back in those days on the streets and he invited me to go to US 30 with him back in 1963. I was driving a Oldsmobile Starfire and raced it that day and got beat and did not like getting beat so when I got home I decided to try to do some work on the car to go faster. I had never worked on a car or motor so I got some books and started to read and take it apart. I used a lot of paper cups to mark where every bolt and nut came from since I had no idea about what I was doing. I was lucky that all of the nuts and bolts were used again when I put it back together. I tuned it up and put headers on it and raced it again and as time went bye I even had the engine blueprinted. As I continued to work on it I enjoyed it more and more and just kept working to make it faster. It did not take long before the car was not drivable on the streets any more so I then started to use my Mom's car for everything and got a trailer to take the car to the track on. In the 60's there were a lot of tracks around Chicago, US 30 in Gary Indiana, Union Grove in Wisconsin, Rockford Dragway in Byron Illinois, Oswego in a suburb of Chicago and Cordova Dragway and Martin Michigan had dragway 31. It really gave young people a reason to get away and travel with friends. I learned a lot in a short amount of time and I was determined to go faster and faster.



I will write more later.

 

[mw6789]

Thanks a lot Don--I know you must be a super busy guy, and I for one really appreciate you taking the time to reply. Hope you are having a great day.

 

[none]

Thats great stuff Don! Paper cups to mark the parts......makes me feel better about my son's use of sticky notes while doing some "motor work"

 

[Rajunz]

Thanks Don for the reply, I love these old stories. I once read a story by Tim Grose where he said that during the early 70's match race days, the big rally point between races was at Don Shumacher's house? Hopefully we'll get some stories from those days.

 

[DLB]

Thanks for the story Don.
And Happy Birthday.

DLB

 

[Paul]

Hopefully we'll get some stories from those days.

I hope somebody writes a book about those wild and wooly times of nitro racing, so many great personalities, Jungle Jim, Connie K., Shirley M., Don S., Don P., Tom M., etc., etc., etc.

I know if somebody did a good job of writing the true story of what was going on both on the track and off the track it would be both a best seller and also probably be made into a mainstream film.

I know some people would feel it might hurt the sport but I think the opposite would happen, drag racing would gain a lot of media attention.

NASCAR's "black past" of being started by moonshiners helps it more now than it hurts it and I think this would also be the case here, people would understand that all the wildness was in the past and was a "sign of the times".

 

[Earl]

Don,

Thanks for the insight to your drag racing roots. I am a 67 year old local bracket racer and want to offer yourself, Tony and your whole team my sincere congratulations on a phenomenal year of drag racing. When Alan left, and most of the team went with him, I was certain your chances of being where you are today, was impossible. You and your team have proved everyone wrong. If this year accomplishments by DSR does not go down in history as one of the greatest performances in drag racing history, it is beyond me as to why. Good luck in Pomona. Win, lose or draw, DSR has given us one of the best performances in many a year.

Earl Helm

 

[.]

I hope somebody writes a book about those wild and wooly times of nitro racing, so many great personalities, Jungle Jim, Connie K., Shirley M., Don S., Don P., Tom M., etc., etc., etc.

I asked Snake (in 2003) if he would consider writing a book about his life's experiences.
He said he didn't have an immediate plans, but who knows. Maybe in the future. That would be a great book.

Like I told one of the guys in Vegas this past weekend, the best stories in drag racing cannot be made public or printed.