Back around 1970 or 71, I was 13 or 14 years old. I would “drive” my dad’s funnycar while being towed to the starting line and back from the finish line. I also would sit in the seat during warm ups. My job was simple. When they had everything ready and turning over, dad would give me the signal and I would flip the mag switch to fire the motor. I would man the brake handle and be ready with the fuel shut off lever. We were in Saint Louis at some AHRA race and had a new “Cotton”?? mag on the car. Unknown to us, they had an intermittent problem of some kind that caused misfiring issues. When we warmed the car up in the pits, my dad was on one side of the motor, his partner Keith Williams was on the other and I think there was someone steadying the body support rails. When it came time to flip the mag switch, BOOM!! A huge explosion and everyone vanished. Then the body flopped down. All I could think was I wish I could unflip that switch. Scared and thinking it had to be my fault since it happened when I flipped the switch, I just sat quietly in the seat. After a while, they had checked everyone out and luckily there were no serious injuries, my dad remembered me in the car. As they lifted the body up and I scrambled out, some of the guys from several pits down showed up and started complaining about all the “junk” we were throwing into their pits!! It had lifted the head off the car and sent debris a good distance. Not too long ago, someone sent me a picture from that race. Not a great picture but it sure brought back the memories.
