Well - I think You forgot about Schultz and Jones. Walt was a good guy and hard to beat though.
Cliff - Top Gas was absolutely the most fun class I (And others) ran. Went from Jr. Fuel (Not ever NHRA) to Top Gas pretty much when NHRA was just going back to NITRO. You could run 3 times a week a lot of the time and I ran 4 times twice when Carlsbad ran it on Thursday night. The biggest hitter when I decided to move up was George Boltoff who lived a block from the Shop where I worked. Almost everybody got along well and we had BBQ's and parties that many of the Gas guys came to. People would loan others parts even if they were going to run them in the next round. Beacon Auto (Adams-Rasmussen- Scott) was the King of LIONS for a long time. Peters (Freight Train) was usually the fastest but not always consistent. Gas House Gang (Originally Travis-Rhodes-Eldridge) and Tommy Larkin were very good also until Bill Schultz showed up. Jack Jones (Former Lincoln & Jones Jr. Fuler) with Bill were pretty much unbeatable unless something happened. It was a shame NHRA combined Top Gas class with others so we kind of had to go to T/F or run in then Comp Eliminator. I guess they call that Progress for the Fans but it slowly pushed (Priced) a lot of people out of local Drag Racing within a few years.
Walt built a car at Race Car Specialties that they called the "Funny Digger" and P.J. "Crazy Injun" more than "Injun" drove it. It had a Funny Car Chassis with Dragster pipe in front of the Motor. Fred had more money than anybody needs and once when I beat him he took his car back to the Pitts and beat the Cowl with a hammer. Looks like an Ed Pink Motor doesn't guarentee you anything. Bill Ward still (semi partner) was usually the Starter at San Fernando and Jimmy announced. I was partners with Al Weiss with his car and my Motor and Jimmy went with us other than Fernando. When I got my car finished and went on my own Jimmy licensed in the car and drove it (Very Successful). The week before the '67 NHRA Winternationals we pulled in to the Pond Sunday morning and there was 15 T/F cars and 5 T/G cars. With the Curfew Harry decided to run every one together with no qualifying. Some of the cars there were: Purdhome - Dunn - Warren - Jimmy Nix - Pedregon - Joe Winters - Brissette - Greek - Beebe - Rance McDaniels and others I can't remember right now. I got a Gas Car in the first round and won. Second round I got Jimmy Nix and almost hurt myself trying to climb out and see why I was going BACKWARDS
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Not that I know of. To be real though there was no where to test back in those days and most of those cars were getting ready for Pomona. Prudhome - Warren - Pedregon - Brisette (different drivers) - Ivo - Rance and a few others ran there quite a bit. There were a lot of cars that ran there whenever they were sorting things out. Remember Pink and Zeuchel’s shops were only minutes away. The place was very good for me. I was able to win there 13 times in one year in T/G and 17 times total. Harry Hibler was the most accommodating (along with Steve Gibbs) Track manager I can think of. One time I got pushed down with the windshield wipers on and I needed the money. I ran 190 MPH in the 9 almost 10 second range in about 1/2 mile. Harry came down to the end and said “What the Hell were you thinking”. I told him I needed grocery money. He shook his head - Wrote me a check and said “ If you ever pull a stunt like that again you’d done”. I was the first and only one down the track with a “Hot” car that day and he let me know about it for a long time.
