Best Pontiac Powered Stockers

[Terry Witzel]

Originally Posted by oldskool

As mentioned, there were a lot of Pontiac dealers that fielded drag cars.

That Stephen Pontiac car reminded me of a couple of pics I have.

One is a chrome bumper '68 GTO Stocker. The other is what I think was a poor attempt at a Pro Stock car. Anybody know how quick it was & how much it lacked being competitive ?

When I 1st saw it, I thought the "Pro" was for the Pro bracket, at a local bracket race. But, I think I read that it was actually an attempt at the Pro Stock class. That was obviously in the very early days of Pro Stock. Never knew of a dealership sponsoring a bracket car.

"...Following a 1973 NHRA rule change to allow records to be set at any national meet, at the 1973 NHRA Winternationals, "Dyno Don" Nicholson set the first official Pro Stock e.t. record with a 9.33, while Bill Jenkins turned in a record 148.76 mph (239.41 km/h) speed; later at the same event, Nicholson made a 9.01 second/150.50 mph (242.21 km/h) pass, breaking both his and Jenkins' records..."

Anybody know how the Stephen Stockers did ?

According to this information, the Stephen Pontiac Pro Stockers best was a 10.35


STEPHEN PONTIAC CADILLAC INC, Bristol, CT (Pontiaction 68 GTO RA II/ 69 Firebird RA IV/ 70 Firebird RA V drag racers sponsor)
Stephen Pontiac Cadillac Inc. was located at 1097 Farmington Ave in Bristol, Connecticut during the 1960s and 1970s.
The dealership sponsored cars named Pontiaction. The service technician at Stephen Pontiac Bill Eckstrom had already been an avid drag racer prior to the dealership involvement in 1968. Bill became their driver and did very well campaigning the Stephen Pontiac cars. The 3 dealer sponsored cars were named Pontiaction I, II and III and competed in NHRA and even Indy.
The first Pontiaction racer was a 1968 Pontiac GTO RA II 4 with a speed steel bumper (Endura delete) that ran in D stock.
Pontiaction II was a yellow 1969 Firebird Ram Air IV 4 speed that ran in C stock at 11.93 E.T. at 118 MPH in the quarter mile.
Pontiaction III was a pro stock 1970-73 Firebird RA V that was rebodied according to the year it raced. This car was raced at Indy as well as posting 10.35 second E.T.s in the quarter mile.
The Pontiaction II Yellow 1969 Firebird was raced for the 1969 season as a Stephen Pontiac team car. Bill Eckstrom believed the car was converted for street-legal use and sold after that. In researching the car Jeff Palazzo found no evidence of the car ever being registered during that time period. It is suggested that Pontiaction II was raced in 1970 now named Yellow Bird by the new owner.
Jeff Palazzo of Simsbury bought Pontiaction II in 1989 showing only 15,000 miles on the odometer. Palazzo raced Pontiaction II for 12 years. He quit racing it because of it's rarity and difficulty finding parts.
Pontiaction III was retired after 1973. Pontiaction III lives on as the RA V engine from that car is being used in a 1969 Trans Am racer. Howard Block bought the body and is restoring the car.
Stephen Pontiac later became Stephen's World 'O' Wheels and then Stephens Automall and Stephens Toyota.