The Fall Top Speed King-Ron O' Donnell-Outa Site! (1 Viewer)

[TopFuel@Lions]

The fall and winter of 1967 was one my most favorite time ever in Drag Racing and Southern California in particular. One of the real bad a$$es that came West was the original "Outa-Site" ride. Most of the hard core folks knew it as the awesome "Chapman Automotive" Camaro shoed by Ron O' Donnell, later known as the "Big Noise From Illinois." This Camaro bucked the trend at the time as it did not possess the right engine to go with the body and car. A nice and wicked 392 was stuffed between the rails.

This Camaro looked mean and nasty sittin' still. It matched that look on the track. The car set top speed or was close to it at every race during that time of year. Ran top speed or was second in that category. Booked or open fields at Lions, Irwindale, Fremont, Carlsbad, Sacramento, and O.C.I.R. saw that car flying thru the traps usually above 190 if not in the high 180s'

That car just sounded radical and loaded up thru those weedburners. Ron did just angry and very smoky burn thru's, remember that term? No water or bleach, Ron would fire that car, pull up some, and from a stand still, mash the gas and just smoke the donuts, was great to watch. Saw him dust Don Shumacher, Thorley, Leal, and Rhonda at Irwindale with low et and top speed of the meeting. Had trick and cool looking smoked windows. Worked over the Super Cuda with Reyes at the wheel at Fremont.



TopFuel@Lions

 

[Nunz]

I think that Ron is good friends with Shoe and is often at the starting line with him watching Don’s team cars run.

 

[Cliff]

Was his nick name, Ron Snag O'Donnell?

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Mark, first of all, I love reading your stories about the golden age of SoCal fuel racing, especially the races that predate my own experiences.
However, I did see the '67 Chapman "Outa' Site" Camaro at my second trip to the drags (as a wee lad of 12), Irwindale's big E. vs. W. bash in NOV.
It was indeed a very impressive car in both performance and looks. Ron "Snag" O'Donnell was the r/u that night to Eddie Schartman's "Air-Lift Rattler" Comet. Schartman took 3 big CA races that fall---Fremont, Irwindale and finally, OCIR's Mfrs. Meet.

The team behind the Chapman Camaro had lots of fuel experience w/ the Dennison-Arlasky-Knox AA/FA which included Dave Arlasky, Bob Chapman and driver O'Donnell. But the main tuner was "Colonel" John Hogan who began as a protege of the Greek several year earlier. BTW, Don Schumacher didn't visit CA until '68 w/ his gorgeous "Stardust" Cuda. Hogan switched teams for '68. Both he and O'Donnell jumped ship to the new Stone-Wood-Cook Mustang. Then Hogan left SWC for Shoe's team later that year.

Regarding the Chapman Camaro's paint---it was stunning! I consider it one of the first "psychedelic" FC paint jobs. It was a tasty soft blend, going from deep candy red to gold. And like you said it had amber colored Lexan windows. The Camaro was painted by Scully's of Chicago. The lettering was by Dexter who did all of the great Illinois FCs (Chi-Town, Stardust, Mr. Norm, Beswick, etc.). I've attached one of the best photos of the Chapman Camaro I've ever seen. Other early "wild" or "psychedelic" paint jobs included the '67 "Doug's Headers" Corvair and '67 Gay Bros. rainbow Firebird. But the first was the '65 Dart Charger's dark rainbow by the Alexander Bros. Before these colorful FCs most were either gloss colors w/ sharp lines (stripes or panels) or single candy colors.

O'Donnell was sort of the Midwest's Pat Foster. That is, he drove many, many FCs. He may have driven something right after the '68 SWC but I didn't hear of him again until he drove Shoe's 2nd "Stardust" of '69, the former '68 "King Fish" Cuda. It looked just like Don's except it was painted red and white. He also drove the 2nd Mr. Norm Mini Charger, the Greek's '69 Cuda and the first Fighting Irish Camaro (late '70). Beyond those, Snag drove the Don Cook's patriotic "Damn Yankee," his own "Big Noise from Illinois" and Shoe's 3rd "Wonder Wagon" Cuda. I believe he also drove the "Chicago Patrol" for a while. And I'm sure I've only scratched the surface of Ron's rides!

 

[Cliff]

Hi James. Interesting post, lotsa history there. OK, lessee.... amber tinted windows. I remember that from the 1950's, especially on Fiat Altereds. That was a big deal back then, blue, amber, yellow, etc. It looked really cool on the various cars (Gassers too). Agree, the paint on these cars was fantastic. Big John always had Candy Red. California Charger cars with that blue on blue, etc etc. Also heard that some fiberglass bodies had pigment in the fiberglass, to save weight cuz paint was "heavy". The wraps of today are strictly sponsor, no creative paint on Pro cars. Altho I do see some great paint on Sportsmen cars when I wander thru the pits (best car show around). Don Garlits cars were always black (with a few exceptions). The story I heard was that Garlits realized that black paint absorbed more heat than other colors. He thought heated black paint would make the car go thru the air faster than, say, white or lite colors. Might be some truth to that. Here in Phoenix, one TV station did a test w/ a white car & a black car. Left them in the sun for about 30 min in summer, & the black car was 40 degrees hotter inside. Well, that's my Garlits story for today. heh

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Hi Cliff, I didn't know that colored Lexan went back as far as the '50s! Yeah, the hot cars led the way as far as the first exciting use of candies and colored windows. I'm thinking of the Willys, Fiats, AA/C T-bodies, etc. Johnny Loper's black "Lil' Hoss" Anglia used yellow Lexan. In fact, I think the
best examples used contrasting glass instead of matching the body color. Here's a good trio to make my point. The '68 Super Cuda and Candies & Hughes Cudas—both in candy red—used red Lexan. They looked very sharp. However, Big John's Cuda looked a step better w/ amber Lexan. The contrast made his combo more eye catching. The '67 "Seaton's Super Shaker" Corvair did the same. Although it was orange-black-white the Lexan was blue. Amber would've been too much orange for that one. And I just found a pic of the '68 Gay Bros. rainbow Firebird—their glass was green!

I believe Ron Pelligrini's Fiberglass LTD was the first to drop metalflake into FC bodies. The '69 Mr. Norm and Hawaiian mini Chargers may have been the very first. I didn't realize the Hawaiian had the trick color until I saw color photos of its debut. You may recall that '69 Memorial Day weekend where Roland and Larry Reyes won 3 races in SoCal (Irwindale-Carlsbad-OCIR). I always assumed that was a black primered body w/ shoe polish lettering. But an internet age photo revealed it was all blue metalflake! Mr. Norm continued to use impregnated metalflake bodies: the '70 Charger and '71-'72 Challengers. The silver flake '73 Mr. Norm Charger was another no-paint FC. Jim Dunn's first Cuda (late '70) was another example. The late '71 King Fish came to SoCal w/ a brand new impregnated blue body + temporary lettering. Then a few weeks later white panels and gold leaf lettering were added. That was the look Larry Arnold raced when he won the '71 Supernationals.

Regarding the weight savings of these impregnated bodies, I'm sure you remember the gorgeous '68 Super Chief which began as the Imperial Kustoms Charger. That green wonder is a Top Ten FC paint job on my list! The sides were gold w/ green spayed over a lace pattern. But the candy green areas featured 5 shades of green. Each one was about 1" wide. Imagine the masking and painting times to create this effect! Anyway, I've read that Nelson Carter said his FC shed 100 lbs. after he had it repainted. The '69 scheme debuted at the last Hot Rod Magazine race at Riverside. It was white w/ red, purple fade patterns everywhere. When I saw that paint my 13 yr. old heart just died cause that '68 Charger was the ultimate green paint job.

Don Garlits' theory of a black car cutting the air faster than lighter colors is amusing to hear. Here's why. I had a chat w/ Bill Jenkins where he preferred white in order to keep his engine bay as cool as possible! Grump said this was the reason his popular red-white '66 Nova, had a white hood. Of course, Garlits' motors were in the open air and nitro motors aren't as dependent on ambient temperatures like the doorslammers.

 

[Cliff]

Thanks James. Interesting that Jenkins had a white hood for the reason he stated. So many tricks in drag racing! I do agree w/ Jenkins, just cuz I live in Phoenix where it gets so hot. A "Phoenix car" is white w/ tinted windows & a really good A/C. heh

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

I should have been more concise with my post about the Chapman Camaro. When I say dusted, I should have been ultra specific that I was talking about speed alone as that car had run better speeds that most of the So-Cal cars of that fall in Saturday night action.

I am very aware, repeat, very aware that "Fast Eddie" won that night at the "Super Experimental Stock Invitational" at Irwindale. It was on October 28th, 1967. Myself and my dad were there to see the 8-cars from the East, 8-cars from the West. Dad and I were part of the 10,000 plus in the house to see Shartman win the $2000 overall prize. Fast Eddie went thru the traps at a best of 183 while Ron hit 183 as well, just a tick slower than the "Air Lift Rattler."

It is simple fact that the Outa Site car was a top end beast. I had so much info in front of me I got Shumacher inserted in the post much to my chagrin.

Round 1 O'Donnell beat Tommy Grove's "Ford Charger" hit 183mph.
Round 2-won over the "Hemi Cuda" at 182mph
Round 3-took out Gas Rhonda at 180mph
Final-Lost to Shartman with a shut off run of only 150mph




TopFuel@Lions
Talladega Announcer

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Hi Cliff, your mention of owning a white car reminds me of something regarding the evolution of drag racing paint jobs. We've already mentioned how the hot car classes led the way w/ candy paint and colored Lexan windows. So I'm going to focus on the burgeoning stocker stars of the early '60s. I feel the 409 competitors began the era of stock car headliners. I'm talking about the '61-'63 era of Dyno Don, Strickler-Jenkins, Sox & Martin, Hayden Proffitt, et al. The majority of those teams raced white cars. Hayden was an exception. When he drove M/T's 409 it was Mick's trademark metallic blue. Then, as a solo racer, his Bel Air was red.

Mercury lured many of the 409 stars away in '64. Those teams—Dyno, Eddie Schartman (Dyno's protege), Sox—continued the stocker tradition of white paint. You may recall that Arnie Beswick also had a white Tempest and matching wagon. Hayden bucked the trend again w/ his black Yeakel Plymouth. There were other exceptions like a handful of maroon Fords (T-Bolts, etc.) but the stock classes remained a majority of white cars.

I give this background cause somewhere I have a very early issue of SS&DI where the editor implored the stock class drivers to give their cars more colorful paint jobs. I think he knew that it was the key to building a strong marketing image. Plus, of course, it would also yield prettier pictures in his burgeoning magazine!

Years ago I asked Ronnie who designed the iconic S&M red-white-blue scheme. He proudly said it was his idea! I typically don't care for r-w-b schemes, mainly cause they've been overdone to death. But the S&M scheme was a great one, arguably the best. The sides were gloss red and the top surfaces were dark metallic blue w/ white accent stripes. Towards the end of the '64 season the first r-w-b S&M scheme appeared on their Mercury Comet.

'65 was the first year of funny cars and thankfully, most of the top teams began to incorporate colorful paint—the sea of white cars was greatly reduced! Landy's theme was silver-black, Leal had red-white and Dyno went red. The Ramchargers (white w/ candy red stripes) and Lindamood's "Color Me GONE" (dark blue-white) had already established striking schemes which they continued. And by Indy we saw the first custom painted exhibition stocker—Dick Branster's "Dart Charger" in a sexy dark rainbow, from bumper to bumper. From that point forward the stockers and FCs elevated to an amazing level of creativity. Those marvelous paint jobs were one of the main attractions to drag racing when I was a wee lad of 12!

 

[junglevsbrutus]

I should have been more concise with my post about the Chapman Camaro. When I say dusted, I should have been ultra specific that I was talking about speed alone as that car had run better speeds that most of the So-Cal cars of that fall in Saturday night action.

I am very aware, repeat, very aware that "Fast Eddie" won that night at the "Super Experimental Stock Invitational" at Irwindale. It was on October 28th, 1967. Myself and my dad were there to see the 8-cars from the East, 8-cars from the West. Dad and I were part of the 10,000 plus in the house to see Shartman win the $2000 overall prize. Fast Eddie went thru the traps at a best of 183 while Ron hit 183 as well, just a tick slower than the "Air Lift Rattler."

It is simple fact that the Outa Site car was a top end beast. I had so much info in front of me I got Shumacher inserted in the post much to my chagrin.

Round 1 O'Donnell beat Tommy Grove's "Ford Charger" hit 183mph.
Round 2-won over the "Hemi Cuda" at 182mph
Round 3-took out Gas Rhonda at 180mph
Final-Lost to Shartman with a shut off run of only 150mph




TopFuel@Lions
Talladega Announcer

Hi Mark, I wasn't trying to diminish anything you said. I was just saying I went to Irwindale's biggest fall race and simply mentioned who won it. The Chapman Camaro ran strong and came in 2nd place, a very admirable finish considering the national level of competition. I got the date wrong because my only source is the old Drag News CD but my computer's player isn't working. So all I had was my memory. Speaking of memories do you have the saved publications or personal notes? I have both but most of my records begin in '68. I used to scribble notes at the track and then carefully write them into the souvenir programs once I returned home. If you have the complete eliminations info the Irwindale race I'd love to see them. Thanks in advance!

The first time I started to record race results was for the '68 OCIR Mfrs. Meet. Even though it took 3 trips to OCIR to complete I still consider it my all time drag racing event! In fact, we did not get Drag News in '67 so I didn't learn about the inaugural Mfrs. Meet until the reports showed up in Drag Strip and SS&DI magazines. That is why I take great interest in your personal memories of that ground breaking FC event. The race was so huge we made sure to attend the '68 race. And this was no simple feat cause we were all too young to drive ourselves. We had to beg fathers, uncles or older brothers to take us. Our family lived south of Glendale so a trip to OCIR was a long trip indeed!

Still, that wasn't our first trip to OCIR. You may recall that manager Mike Jones held a spring version of the Mfrs. Meet. It was billed as the 1968 1/2 Mfrs. Meet. The 5 car teams were reduced to just 4. But thankfully, the May 4th race was still able to attract several name non-Calif. racers including Dick Harrell, Gene Snow, Don Gay, Dick Loehr and Kenz & Leslie. Additionally, touring locals like the Flying Dutchman, Fred Goeske and Jack Chrisman were still in town before heading East. The grand final was Dick Loehr's Max Curtis Ford Mach 1 defeating Charlie Allen's blue Dart. Based upon this event we made sure we'd be at the November Mfrs. Meet!

 

[Cliff]

James, where did you live "south of Glendale"? I was born in Los Angeles, but we moved to Glendale when I was in 3rd grade, so always consider that my home town. Glendale High class of '64. Yeah, it was a long ride to Lions, OCIR, Ontario, etc. Even Fernando was 30-40 min on surface street.

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Hi Cliff, our family house is right where the Golden State Fwy (5) meets the Glendale Fwy (2). The neighborhood's official name is Elysian Valley but the more familiar name is Frogtown. It's the Fletcher exit off the 5. Parallel to the freeway was "the other Riverside Raceway," used for street racing. The most famous industry was located in nearby Atwater Village and that was—JBL! They were there until '80 when they moved to Northridge in the San Fernando Valley. I began taking drum lessons at Charles Music in '69, Glendale's biggest music store, on Glendale Ave. My family of many brothers all helped my dad's gardening service in the '60s. Several customers were located near Hoover HS and Mark Keppel middle school. Glendale Speed Center was at Brand and Los Feliz Blvd., across the street from Allen Gwynn Chevrolet. We attended Washington Irving middle school, very close to Forest Lawn Cemetery; followed by John Marshall HS in the Los Feliz district. I graduated in '73, then took a semester at LACC, then 1 at LA Valley College before CSULA. Then I took several years off while performing in my disco band before going to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena ('82-'85). Oh, and just before I began Art Center I took a literature class at Glendale Community College. Regarding LA Valley College, I was there at the beginning of '74 and I was delighted to learn that Bill Carter's paint shop was right across the street. I watched him paint several cars for the upcoming Winternationals including the FC Eliminator winning Jeg's Camaro-Dale Emery and the black M/T Grand Am which Dale Pulde drove.

As far as San Fernando Raceway, I live VERY near the former location. I didn't know this until the famous cutaway illustrator David Kimble told me. He's the one who used to do fantastic detailed see-thru drawings of Vettes, Ferraris, etc. in the car magazines, They were typically red cars on black backgrounds. Anyway, Dave told me the drag strip used to run along the wash. Today the shut off area is my local Home Depot outlet. I have seen old photos of the Ratican-Jackson-Sterns Fiat resting in that area w/ the Foothill bridge over the wash in the background! The drag strip used to point northward and that's basically where I live today, in the foothills of Sylmar which is the top NE corner of the gigantic San Fernando Valley.
Finally, bringing my story back to Dale Pulde, he was a longtime Sylmar resident so I got to know him and Val. I once fed their menagerie of dogs while they were away on a racing trip.

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

No problem James, for the record I have 3 of your ultra trick works of art, SWC vs. Big John, Snake and Goose, and the Man Fact piece.

To answer your question, I get my info from my very bald head, programs that had ladders in them, (dork city I know) magazines, weekly publications as well. I do not use internet sources at all like many do on here, I am old so I don't go that route.

Here is the round by round breakdown of that great show at the "Dale." The Super Experimental Stock Invitational."

Round 1
Butch Leal nipped Larry Reyes in the Taylor and Collins "Super Cuda" with a 8.18 to Reyes close 8.20
Roger Lindamood's Color Me Gone won over a redlighting Charlie Allen
Jungle Jim took out Gary Dyer in the Mr. Norms Charger, 8.35 to Dyer's 8.17 (holeshot of the night!)
Ronnie Runyon's "Blue Hell" gate jobbed Terry Hedrick in Pete Seaton's "Seatons Shaker" Vair, 8.29 to a losing 8.14
The Chapman Camaro with Ron O' Donnell worked over Tommy Grove in the "Ford Charger," 8.19 to Grove's distant 8.57
Gas Rhonda upset "Dyno Don" 8.18 to the Comet's quicker 8.15
Fred Goeske "Hemi Cuda won over Jack Christman's GT-1 who va-voomed a rear end on the line
"Fast Eddie" trashed Doug Thorley after the "Dougs Header" Vair crossed the center line

(First round notes-Lindamood's injected car was the fastest injected car in the country at that point as this was I believe Dyno Don's first race with a Supercharger. (Not a blower people, a SUPERCHARGER, get it right!)

Round 2
Gas Rhonda defeated Ronnie Runyon with a 8.42
Ron O'Donnell worked over Goeske, 8.25 to the "Hemi Cuda's 8.74
Butch Leal smoked Jungle Jim, 8.19 to Liberman's 8.42
Shartman advanced over the "Color Me Gone" who went into a big ol' wheelstand.

Semi-Finals
"Fast Eddie" won over Leal with a nice time of 7.97
The Chapman Camaro with that boomin' Hemi crushed Gas Rhonda with a nice 8.15.

Finals
With $2000-to-win on the line final
The "Air Lift Rattler" won with a 7.93 over the Outa Site's shut off 9.03.

Event Note, Larry Reyes in that Memphis based ride had top speed with a great charge of 183mph. Flippin' fast folks!


[email protected] a nice S/XS show at Irwindale.

 

[Cliff]

I dunno Mark, I kinda like "blower", cuz when you say that the engine "woofed the blower", it just sounds right. Woofed the supercharger..... naww. Or woofed the Kompressor...... I guess a (argh) supercharger is really a compressor, right? heh heh BTW, I really like that you're providing all the times runs at those races. This IS drag racing history!

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Hi Mark, thanks so much for providing this rare information!
I'd like to share additional background info to add to your valuable report, gathered from my magazine collection and of course, my own 12 yr. old fan memories!

While some FCs ran blowers from the very beginning they didn't become mandatory until the conclusion of the '67 Nationals. That's where Jack Chrisman and Doug Thorley ran deep into the 7's on new M&H slicks. Outside of Seaton-Hedrick everyone else was in the 8-sec. zone at Indy. Chrisman nailed low ET at 7.60 and Thorley won NHRA's 3rd ever FC eliminator w/ a 7.69. At the time Dyno, Eddie, Grove and Leal were injected only. By the time they came to Calif. they were all supercharged except for Leal. I'm not totally sure about Leal, maybe you can shed some light on that. But Butch quit FC racing in '68. In fact, he didn't take possession of his '68 LSC Cuda which went to Don Schumacher instead. That's the Stardust that made a huge splash in the fall of '68. My Indy info was gleaned from CHRR's '97 souvenir book which featured a great John Jodauga article, "The FC 7-Second Explosion" w/ many rare Indy photos.

I don't know if these FCs initially raced their blowers in Calif. but I do know that Dyno's first race was at Southeastern Int'l. Raceway in Dallas, Georgia. I have an amateur photo by the photographer Marv Smith. It's dated OCT '67 but the actual race may have occurred in SEPT. This was a match race against Bobby Wood. Dyno was based in Atlanta at the time so this would make sense. It may also be why he wasn't at Fremont's big E. vs. W. event, the first Calif. FC race of the fall.

The 2/68 Drag Strip Magazine devoted 6 pages to this NorCal race. Surprisingly, it was a 2-day event! Many of the same FC teams raced at the Irwindale event. Jungle Jim's first flip-top FC, his '67 Nova, debuted at this Fremont bash. The Super Cuda was near new too. But the Chi-Town Hustler Cuda chose to return to Chicago, perhaps due to a broken block. They would not visit SoCal until '69 when they were the most impressive funny car of that fall season.

I share this background info because I've never seen a magazine report on the Irwindale event. Here are some notable things that stand out from your report. Of the 16-car field 3 were still injected: Lindamood, Ronda and Leal. Surprisingly, all 3 were Rd. 1 winners! Besides the addition of blowers the 1-piece body, flip-top designs were also in a transitional phase in '67. LSC's revolutionary chassis debuted in '66 but Mercury had an exclusive contract for one year. Then Logghe began to build chassis for the other non-Merc racers in '67. Their first customers included Leal, Grove, Tasca, Lindamood and Seaton. The late '67 LSC cars were the Super Cuda, Jungle Jim, Brutus and the Gay Bros.

Most of those LSC funny cars were at the Irwindale race. Half of the 16-car field were flip-tops (the 1 non-LSC was Chapman's own chassis). Gas Ronda's Mustang had a unique design by Exhibition Eng. The front was a tilt-forward, then from the firewall back it flipped up like a standard flip-top. Fred Goeske was still running the rear engined '65 Hemi-Cuda. The rest of the field consisted of steel and 'glass AWB designs. All of them would convert to flip-tops in '68.

The things I can remember as a 12 yr. old fan at my second ever drag race:
This was the second and last time we did not enter the pits. So our only static view of this fantastic field was the FCs being towed to the starting line on the opposite side of the track. I was so naive I thought the name of Liberman's FC was "Jungle Jim Goodies!" I was building the AMT model kit of Dyno Don's "Eliminator II" and had CC's feature of it. The centerspread showed a bright red Comet. So I was surprised how deep the candy red was on Dyno's FC once we saw it in person. Another surprise color reveal was Seaton's Super Shaker. Most published photos had it appearing like a pale orange (leaning more towards yellow). But it was a very bright, almost neon orange in person.

Mark and Cliff, are you guys familiar w/ the late Mike Ditty's photo collection? He took amazing professional quality pit photos at SoCal events in the late '60s. Mike shared them online during the burgeoning internet age of the early 2000's. Sadly now, others have taken his images and sell them illegally online. I'm including some of Mike' photos I've seen from this Irwindale race. Although the Lindamood photo is from the '68 Winternationals I'm sharing it just because of its fine quality and the GONE looked the same at Irwindale.
And finally Mark, thank you very much for collecting my work. It truly means a lot to me!

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

Great pics James. Dyer had a Supercharger up top in the 66 and 67 Charger.
Gas Rhonda busted out that new ride for 68 on Sep. 9th at Irwindale.

Nor sure if it could be considered fall in mid September but the "Big 3" in the country, Lions, Irwindale, and Orange County had S/XS shows.
Sep-10, Irwindale had a 10-car, 3-round, round robin event
Sep-23, Lions ran an 8-car round robin event.
Sep-30th, Lions had an 8-car qualified open event that ran for $1000-to-win
OCIR had the floppers on 3 weekends with either 2 or 4 car match races, then as you pointed out James we got very hard core in November.



TopFuel@Lions

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Hi Mark, officially the first day of fall is about the 20-22nd of each SEPT. But to me if the headliners returned to SoCal any time after Indy it was the fall season! Could you give us the most brief highlights (winner, r/u) of the races you listed? You don't have to go into as much detail as your Irwindale report. I'll be adding some thoughts to your wonderful '67 Mfrs. Meet pages since I have the DSM and SS&DI's reports. I've also collected some rare online pix of the groundbreaking FC event too!

 

[Cliff]

Not sure I've heard the Mike Ditty name, but I bet I've seen his photos. I loved the Corvair F/C. Thought they were sooooo cool. I think we did a thread here on the Mater w/ Corvair cars. One thing, the injected F/C cars switching to blowers. That reminded me of Don Garlits. He ran as fast as 178 (?) with a Chrysler w/ 6 carbs & no blower. that was the car that went to the first Bakersfield race in 1959, where Big didn't do very well. The Calif cars had all gone to blowers. So, the race after Bakersfield was at Kingdon, & Garlits showed up with a blower W/ 6 carbs on top. He won the race. Interesting to me that in the late 50's, the fastest cars had no blower, like Cook & Bedwell, then 1959, everyone switched. There have always been supercharged cars since Day One, but I guess it took Bakersfield to show the way.

BTW, we don't have "fall" in Phoenix. It just goes from HOT to Less Hot. heh heh

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

Will do James later on in the week, I also have those same mags that you mentioned, they are in pristine shape, framed behind glass in my drag room, I mean man room.

I have the entire staring lineup for each team in B&W in a special book devoted to that race, It has the exact cars with the exception of Seaton's Shaker, and Kelly Chadwick. Spent a small fortune buying them from Lions photographer Jere Alhadeff.

For Pete's car the shot I have is Del Heinert backing up from a burnout, the Kelly Chadwick shot is right after he put a "supercharger" on his Camaro. Ya read that Cliff.............."Supercharger"


[email protected], a chili tamale, and sitting with my dad at the drags, livin' the life!

 

[junglevsbrutus]

Thanks Mark!
Too bad I can't see your collection, I would surely be impressed. I visited Jere Alhadeff while working on my Irwindale-Borsch vs. Mondello painting. He provided some much needed photo references. Jere was the photographer who shot those great '69 OCIR night photos w/ the big criss cross highlights coming from every light source. Those pix were taken at the March '69 All-Pro Final which we attended. The TF and FC fields were only 8-cars each but they were star studded. It was the last SoCal race before the headliners left town. Another memorable Jere photo was the '69 Mfrs. Meet's pre-race line up. It's taken from the 300' mark, looking back at the tower. Most of the Plymouth and Dodge team are shown. I just posted commentary in your '67 Mfrs. Meet thread. Warning: it's a bit long!