Remembering Walt Rhoades
Walt Rhoades, who had a successful NHRA career in nitro-, alcohol-, and gas-burning dragsters, passed away earlier this week, bringing to a close an amazingly diverse career.
Walt Rhoades (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Cliff
- Start date
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.
I remember a T/G car called The Mustard Gasser. One guy also had a T/G with a 3 speed auto trans, & it was competitive. There was a driver named PJ "Injun" Johnson. And Walt Stephans. I can't remember all the names anymore, but boy did I love to see these guys run. Also at San Fernando. Guy named Fred Fishbach, ran the Devil Fish, A/FD and also AA/GD; used to see him at San Fernando a lot. He moved to Dallas around 1969?? Jimmy Scott, who was the starter at Fernando & drove for Scott & Weiss. They ran T/G I saw him license for T/F at Lions in a front motor car. Then they ran Pro Comp when it started (loved that class) in AA/GD and ran 6.90's & won a bunch of races. Saw The Train crash at Lions one Sat night. Arghhh Everyone OK, I think the car was fixable. Remember the car moving from side to side & knew it wasn't gonna turn out OK. Also remember match races where F/C ran against T/G and it would be very close. One year at Indy, Schultz & Jones ran a 7.27 ET, which at the time, was quickest ever for a single engined T/G car. Unfortunatly, the twins were a few tenths quicker..... Moates & Williams won that year. The twins were cool too. After T/G went away, OCIR had that Combo Elim class, & I saw the Train run that a few times.
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
.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.
I was at Fernando one Sunday. It had rained but rain stopped & sun was out. Left lane was dry & right lane was still wet. Starting line crew was using brooms to push the water off the track. Next thing ya know, a AA/FD pushes down from the hot pits and I can hear the annauncer, saying something like you gotta be kidding me. Made the run, smoking the tires like always. heh
The race I always remember was probably 1962?? T/F final, blown Chevy VS blown Chrysler. The Chevy car does a wheelie, comes down, does a wheelie again & takes off. Chrysler car "boils the hides" & has to pedal it about 1/2 way down, and the Chevy took the win. The Chevy doing the wheelies (while smoking the tires) was what astonished me, as I'd never seen that before. Wish I knew who those drivers were. Races like that is what put the hook in deep....
The race I always remember was probably 1962?? T/F final, blown Chevy VS blown Chrysler. The Chevy car does a wheelie, comes down, does a wheelie again & takes off. Chrysler car "boils the hides" & has to pedal it about 1/2 way down, and the Chevy took the win. The Chevy doing the wheelies (while smoking the tires) was what astonished me, as I'd never seen that before. Wish I knew who those drivers were. Races like that is what put the hook in deep....
TopFuel@Lions
Nitro Member
Great overall driver.
TopFuel@Lions
TopFuel@Lions
Al
Nitro Member
You are right Lance. This 1979 movie BURNOUT, featured travels with the Buehl-Cirino-Rhoades Top Fueler. Rhoades was the driver, but his character's arm got broken by a jealous husband while
they were racing in LasVegas. This allowed the movies "hero", Scott to take over the driving for the rest of the season. I assume that the actual driving was still done by Rhoades when "Scott" was supposedly behind the wheel.
In an April 2020 ND Insider column, "Ten Great drag racing movies", it was pointed out (by Brian Lohnes), that the plot and the acting "suck beyond all recognition". But for a Top fuel driver with no prior acting experience, I thought Rhoades did pretty well (maybe better than the actual stars). Besides, how many Top Fuel drivers can say they "starred" in a movie ?
I have this movie in my library and have watched it several times. Yes, as Lohnes said, the plot is weak, and the acting by the actual "actors" is also weak, but I also agree with his comment that the racing and people footage "is awesome and well worth the watch" (at least for us old timers !)
