Ohio George Willys Gasser at The Henry Ford

By Tom Bonner | Published: September 8, 2011

Ohio George Willys Coupe at The Henry Ford

I was surprised to find the famous Ohio George Montgomery Willys gasser on display at the Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan.



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I spotted a curious sight during a recent stroll through the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn. There among the locomotives, historic airplanes and exotic antique cars, I spotted a powder-blue Willys Coupe.

This wasn’t just any Willys. The chopped top, fat tires and a fiberglass front clip identified the car as a Willys gasser. But this wasn’t just any Willys gasser. Even from a distance the unmistakable shape of the hood scoop told me this was Ohio George Montgomery’s nationals dominating ’33 Willys.

Historic Willys on display at the Henry Ford

How did a historic drag racing machine wind up in the Henry Ford? When I grew up nearby, the place was known as the Henry Ford Museum, and famous gas coupes did not appear among the huge array of vehicles assembled inside.
Read More »

 
Posted in 2011 | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Larry Arnold and the Penetration Dodge Funny Car

By Tom Bonner | Published: July 12, 2011
Larry Arnold and the Penetration Dodge Charger

Dodge Charger's were plentiful at Detroit Dragway's 1967 Midwest Championships, Larry Arnold was on hand with the Penetration Dodge funny car.

Dodge Chargers were everywhere at the 1967 Midwest Championships. This somewhat ungainly looking glass charger was campaigned by Larry Arnold of Berkley, Michigan. Arnold would go on to much more competitive rides in the future, but for ’67, this radical long wheelbase Charger was a stand-out on the UDRA circuit.

The body was ‘glass, but I don’t think the car was a flopper. Unlike most funny cars of the era, there was no windshield or side glass. Arnold sat far back in the rear of the car, with an injected 426 Hemi occupying the area where a real Charger’s dashboard would be. If you look closely, you notice a forest of short injector stacks to the rear of the lengthened hood.

Draglist gives Jay Howell credit for building the car, which was painted a royal blue with a wide white stripe on it’s flanks.

After 1967, Arnold moved into the driver;s seat of the fearsome Super Cuda, where he enjoyed much success. He drove the Super Ford for Larry Coleman, before taking the controls of the Kingfish Cuda.  He drove briefly for Mickey Thompson, before Roland Leong tapped him to drive the famous Hawaiian Monza in the mid-seventies.

Arnold looked strong in the early rounds of Detroit Dragway’s midwest championships, but he fell to eventual winner Steve McKesson in the semi-finals.

 

 
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Dick Mack’s Satisfaction Chevelle versus Bob DuBrock’s Mustang

By Tom Bonner | Published: June 1, 2011
Dick Mack's Chevelle defeats Bob DuBrock's Mustang

Dick Mack's ultra-short wheelbase Mash Basher takes on Bob DuBrock at Detroit Dragway

Yet another less than stellar photo from Detroit Dragway’s Midwest Championships. Hey what can I say, I was only a kid with an Instamatic back in 1967.

I wanted to include this photo, because it is the only one I have of fuel runner-up Dick Mack and his Satisfaction Chevelle. Take a minute to look at the wheelbase on the Chevelle (far lane.) It appears that Mack pushed the rear wheels forward nearly as much as Larry Swiatek’s Gray Ghost GTO. Unlike Swiatek, who also shifted the front wheels forward, Mack left the front axle in the stock location. Do the math. A 1965 Chevelle coupe had a wheelbase of 115 inches. It appears Mack reduced that number by at least 20 inches.

The result is a full bodied, A/FX funny car with a wheelbase approaching that of a fuel altered. Despite the truncated wheelbase, Mack managed to get down the track without incident, eventually claiming the runner-up slot to Steve McKesson’s Mustang flopper. Read More »

 
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Limelight Dodge: the Jack-Knife Funny Car

By Tom Bonner | Published: May 16, 2011
Limelight Dodge funny car on the return road at Detroit Dragway

The Limelight Dodge funny car on the return road at Detroit Dragway in 1967 | 126 Instamatic image by Tom Bonner

One of my favorite images from Detroit’s Dragway’s Midwest Championships is this shot of Bill McKessson’s Limelight Dodge Charger funny car.

I’ve discussed Steve McKesson’s Mustang funny car at length in earlier posts. In 1965-66, brothers Bill and Steve McKesson campaigned an altered wheelbase Plymouth Fury funny car. It was typical of the early A/FX funny cars, with a steel body, altered wheelbase and an injected 426 Hemi. For 1967, the brothers split up. Steve built a flip-top Mustang, while Bill remained with Mopar and assembled the radical Dodge Charger funny car you see here.

The car was state of the art, with a full Logghe chassis and a injected, nitro-burning Hemi. I call it a jack-knife funny car, because of the way the body opened. The front clip tilted forward, gasser style. There is nothing very unusual about that; many early funny cars featured tilt front-ends. The rest of the car’s body however, was hinged at the rear and could be titlted up like a flopper. So when both front clip and the main body were titlted upward, the car opened up like a jack-knife.

To make things more interesting, the car had opening doors, which made quite a sight when the body was up, the front end was titled forward and both doors were wide open. I don’t remember seeing another funny car built in this fashion.

I have found several references to this car, including the usually reliable DragList, which claim the body of the Limelight was fiberglass. I’m sceptical about that, for two reasons. Read More »

 
Posted in 1967 | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Saga of the Competition + Mustang Funny Car

By Tom Bonner | Published: April 8, 2011
Midwest Championship fuel funny car winner Steve McKesson w

Steve McKesson's SOHC Mustang won the fuel funny car category at Detroit Dragway's Midwest Championships -- Instamatic photo by Tom Bonner

Detroit Dragway, 1967 Midwest Championships: The overall winner in the fuel funny car division was Steve McKesson and the Competition + flip-top Mustang.

We’ve seen this car before, as some time ago I launched a campaign to discover the owner and history of the Competition +. After failing in numerous attempts to learn the car’s history, Daryl Huffman stepped up to identify the owner and driver as Steve McKesson of Michigan. Not long after that I discovered a report in Drag News covering Detroit Dragway’s 1967 Midwest Championships. Collaborating my sometimes faulty memory, the story lists Steve McKesson as the overall winner in the fuel funny car category.

Huffman had further information about the car. I was surprised to learn that Larry Coleman acquired the Mustang, and that this was the car that Del Heinelt was driving when he was killed in at the 1967 US Nationals.

A short while after hearing from Huffman, Lee Moore commented that he found a story online that seemed to contradict the assumption that Heinelt was driving the flip-top Mustang when he was killed. Heinelt, driving for Larry Coleman at a large funny car event in Memphis Tennessee, defeated a field that included Steve McKesson driving the Competition + Mustang.

Moore came to the natural conclusion that if Heinelt was driving a Mustang for Larry Coleman at Memphis, he couldn’t have been driving the Comptition + at the same event. And he couldn’t have been killed in the Competition +  a few weeks later.

After considerable study, digging through a variety of material and communicating with many knowledgeable experts, I think I finally know what happened to both Heinelt and the Competition + Mustang. Here is my analysis: Read More »

 
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Dick Smith defeats Ron Ross for gasoline Funny Car Honors

By Tom Bonner | Published: March 31, 2011
Dick Smith's Firebrewed Dodge defeats Ron Ross

Dick Smith's Firebrewed Dodge defeats Ron Ross at the Detroit Dragway Midwest Championships

This is the final for the Gas funny cars at Detroit Dragway’s Midwest Championships. I’ll be the first to admit this isn’t a very great photo. The cars are blurred, there is a big sedan taking up much of the foreground, and there is a photographer in the way.

So the photo won’t win any prizes, but I wanted to include it for several reasons.

Here you see Dick Smith’s Firebrewed Dodge Coronet facing off with Ron Ross in an altered wheelbase Mustang.

I wrote about Smith before, when he drove the big Coronet to victory at a Detroit Dragway event year earlier. In 1967, the results were the same as Smith handled all comers and went home undefeated. Read More »

 
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Jack Thorton and the Southern Style Dodge Funny Car

By Tom Bonner | Published: March 28, 2011
Southern Style Dodge Charger

The long nose Southern Style Dodge Charger on the return road at Detroit Dragway.

Another tough Dodge funny car at Detroit Dragway’s Midwest Championships was Jack Thorton’s Southern Style Dodge Charger.

Thorton was running in the gas funny car ranks that Sunday. I snapped this photo on the return road after Thorton lost to eventual winner Dick Smith’s Firebrewed Coronet in the first round.

I’m not exactly sure what the term “Southern Style” match racing come from. I know it is supposed to be summed up by no-holds barred, “run what you brung”  racing, but that mode of competition isn’t exclusive to the South. After all, the altered wheelbase match racer was basically invented in Michigan, and many of the top match-bash racers hailed from California, the Midwest and the East Coast. Nothing against Southern racers, but I’m not sure what makes this Dodge Charger all that different from the other funny cars at Detroit Dragway that day.

I don’t know that much about the car, other than it features an extended nose, the rear wheels have been moved forward significantly and the engine appears to have been set back to further increase weight transfer. I can’t say what sort of chassis the car used, although I can see a husky roll cage inside, and it looks like the car has a straight axle. I found another photo that indicates the rear suspension used leaf springs, which is a tip-off that the car may have retained a modified Charger frame.  Most of the tubular funny car chassis of the era used coil over shocks for suspension, front and rear. Read More »

 
Posted in 1967 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ron Pellegrini’s Superbird Buick Funny Car

By Tom Bonner | Published: March 17, 2011
Ron Pellegrini's SuperBird Buick

Ron Pellegrini's flip-top Buick Gran Sport at Detroit Dragway in 1967

Of the funny cars at Detroit Dragway’s 1967 Midwest Championships, one of the wildest entries was Ron Pellegrini’s SuperBird Buick Gran Sport. Paradoxically, the SuperBird probably looked closer to a factory machine than any of the other nitro cars.

At first glance this could be any  Gran Sport you might see on the street. Except for the paint (and the drag chute), the only non-stock items are the wheels and tires. Lots of kids spent their after school work earnings to purchase fat tires and chrome wheels for their ride in ’67, so the tires don’t seem out-of-place.

There were only a handful of Buick funny cars in the 1960s, and Pellegrini raced two of them. The first was this 1967 Gran Sport known as SuperBird. The second was a truly radical ’68 GS called Beware.

SuperBird was a more or less conventional funny car, utilizing a Logghe chassis under the one-piece fiberglass Buick shell.

The Buick body came from Pellegrini’s own Fiberglass Limited, a company responsible for many of the early one-piece glass shells,

Read More »

 
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Funny car showdown: Jerry Harvey against Wayne Gapp

By Tom Bonner | Published: January 4, 2011

Wayne Gapp leaves on Jerry Harvey's Quiet One Mustang A/FX car at Detroit Dragway's 1967 Midwest Championships. 126mm Instamatic Photo by Tom Bonner

This one is for the Ford and Mercury lovers. Jerry Harvey, wheeling the Quiet One II SOHC Mustang takes on Wayne Gapp in the Chargin’ Cyclone at Detroit Dragway’s 1967 Midwest Championships.

I’ve discussed the Chargin’ Cyclone before, as Gapp ran the same car at the Detroit Invitational a year earlier. Gapp and the Hi-Risers returned in 1967 to again capture runner up honors in the gasoine funny car segment.

His opponent this round is Jerry Harvey. According to Dearborn Flashback, a site that seems to be an authority on Ford Racing History, the Mustang was originally built for Len Richer. It was updated by Holmon and Moody and turned over to Harvey for the ’66 and ’67 racing seasons. Harvey collected the A/FX crown at the 1966 Winternationals in the ‘Stang, and ran the car through 1967.

In later years, both Hubert Platt and Dyno Don Nicholson took turns running the Mustang at national events. A group of east coast racers then acquired it for street racing. According to the Dearbon Flashback article, the car still exists and has been restored to the ’66 configuration.

Although not as radical as the Gray Ghost or the Stardust Charger, the Quiet One II is indeed an altered wheelbase funny car, with the rear wheels moved forward three inches. The original Mustang chassis was heavily modified to accommodate the big 427ci Ford cammer powerplant. Read More »

 
Posted in 1967 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Don Schumacher and the Stardust Charger Funny Car

By Tom Bonner | Published: December 20, 2010
Don Shumacher Stardust Funny Car at Detroit Dragway

Don Shumacher and his early Stardust Funny Car at Detroit Dragway

Another “Star in the Making” at Detroit Dragway’s 1967 Midwest Championships was Don Schumacher and his Stardust injected Charger.

Schumacher, of course, would go on to much bigger and better things, but in 1967, he was just another UDRA Circuit regular. I’m not too sure what the chassis was like under the original Stardust Charger funny car, but it wasn’t a flip top. As you can see, this is yet another extreme altered wheelbase car, with both the rear and front wheels moved forward significantly. Interestingly, the front fenders do not appear to be lengthened –resulting in a stubby front end.

Schumacher soon became a major funny car star, eventually landing a huge multi-car sponsorship from Wonder bread. For a time, you couldn’t pickup a drag racing magazine without seeing one or more photos of Schumacher’s pokka-dotted Wonder bread machines in action.

Then suddenly, it ended. Schumacher sold all his cars and retired from the limelight. It seemed that the “shoe’s” racing career was over.

In the late ’70s, just over a decade after this photo was taken, I had become a full-time motorsports journalist. I wrote a regular column for Drag News and covered events all over the east coast. One day, I received a phone call from someone claiming to be Don Schumacher.

Read More »

 
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