That Girl was a true altered-wheelbase match-bash funny car. Bonnie Anderson was one of the pioneer women funny car pliots and she was a regular on the UDRA circuit,.
Bonnie Anderson helped pave the way for women funny car drivers with the That Girl Chevelle
Bonnie Anderson and the That Girl A/FX Chevelle.
From 1966 to 1971, one of the most popular series on television was That Girl, with Marlo Thomas, Hollywood might have considered That Girl to be the daughter of Danny Thomas, but for mid-western drag racers, the term refered to an entirely different person. On the UDRA circuit, That Girl was Bonnie Anderson of Elgin, Illinois. Anderson wheeled the ’65 Chevelle match racer at a number of events, including the ’67 Midwest Championships at Detroit Dragway.
Although the Chevelle wasn’t as radically altered as the Gray Ghost GTO, any Chevy fan would recognize that both the front and rear wheels have been moved forward for better weight transfer. In addition, Ms Anderson had to look through a forest of roof-high injector stacks to see the dragstrip.
Make no mistake, That Girl was a true altered-wheelbase match-bash funny car. Draglist reports the car’s best as 9.67 at 146mph on nitro. Danny White at Draglist also indicates that Anderson drove the Tension Nova funny Car as well as the big Chevelle.
Somehow, Anderson never got the recognition that other women funny car racers received. According to Draglist, an out of control top fuel car slammed in to Anderson’s Nova on the return road at Union Grove dragway, burning Anderson in the process.
As far as I know, Bonnie Anderson never made the transion from mash-bash A/FXer to flip-top funny car. Another women UDRA racer did just that, and I will talk about her next time.
nice article! what’s next then? who’s that girl?…. make it so soon.. please…… please.. please… thanks… 🙂 goodluck..
to sir tom, i really appreciate your blogs… as a car enthusiast, its nice to know that these some people existed and i’m actually amazed by how classic cars looked like… its only that i was able to see how great the transitions were from historic cars to modern ones… keep it up.. hope to hear soon from you…
Bonnie & her husband Jim had a gold color 1957 chevy 2 door hard top. It was the tow car for that girl. They sold it to me around 1966 . dream come true. I often think of Bonnie & jim I being born & raised in Elgin.
nice article! what’s next then? who’s that girl?…. make it so soon.. please…… please.. please… thanks… 🙂 goodluck..
to sir tom, i really appreciate your blogs… as a car enthusiast, its nice to know that these some people existed and i’m actually amazed by how classic cars looked like… its only that i was able to see how great the transitions were from historic cars to modern ones… keep it up.. hope to hear soon from you…
Bonnie & her husband Jim had a gold color 1957 chevy 2 door hard top. It was the tow car for that girl. They sold it to me around 1966 . dream come true. I often think of Bonnie & jim I being born & raised in Elgin.