Best Pontiac Powered Stockers

[oldskool]

"... Harry raced the car for quite a while. When he was done racing it, the car was turned over to their good friend Dave Reuland from the Mitchell area. Dave also raced the GTO pictured with Axemaker and Reuland on the door. Dave and son Sam raced the Firebird for several years..."

So, who would be the best contact to tell us what races, if any, these cars won, other than the one I mentioned, and their best ET, with different engines ? Or, to ask it another way, who can give us the best account of both car's performance & accomplishments.

:...Dan Johnson of Mitchell,...and his grandson are now racing the car in F/SA with the low h.p. 455. Plans are to do a 455 H.O. engine in the future..."

Anybody have contact info for them, or know where they may have raced it, where I might could see race results online ?

[Dave Ribeiro]

Kyle bought a Cherry white Grand Am ( liked Danny Ashley's car ) from my son Dean and picked it up at the LV, NY .. The car & trailer got rolled over outside
of Rochester,NY …. Kyle & his brother were OK but the roof & car was Totaled,
he found a 1977 lemans and put the complete drive-line in it ?? Dean's car was a mint street car that would run 1.10 under in the heat .. Kyle, was a very good Driver and Won several races including a Div. 3 Championship !!! I think Kyle went heavy into bracket racing after that ?? I almost bought it back about 8 years ago, but the deal wasn't right so I passed ? Later , I bought Bob's Michael's
car and that worked out much better !!!

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by Lyn Smith

My vote goes to Todd Hoven's G/SA 72 GTOs performance at the 2008 US Nationals. Todd qualified in the top 10,but there was 4 other G/SA Barracudas right there with him. He took them out one by one,and put away Chuck Beach in the final. As the story goes he had one of those special metric transmissions shipped into Indy from California to help him. Quite a sight seeing his big old boat run down the Mopars that day.

OK, I count 15 cars in G/SA. Here's the class elims, round by round.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2008#indextop

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2008#indextop

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2008#indextop

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2008#indextop

Thanks for mentioning that. It was very interesting. The highest qualifier took himself out with a red light. The next highest qualifier took himself out with a slow light. And, thankfully, Todd's GTO had his final round opponent covered by a hair, @ 1.278 under. Very exciting stuff ! Great job Todd ! I know that is an experience of a lifetime, you'll never forget !

[oldskool]

OK, continuing with '68 Bird Stockers. Right now, I suppose Chris Stephenson has the hottest '68 Stocker. It's quick & he has won several big races. Usually qualifies strong.

There's a lot I don't understand about qualifying. It seems that some love to qualify near the top. But some really sandbag during qualifying, at certain races. I suppose some don't wanna call any attention to their car's performance, for fear of a hit. I don't fully understand the whole system, other than the 1.2 under deal.

Anyhow, I'll just point out a few of this car's achievements. The first time I noticed his name on a qualifying sheet, he was #18, at the '17 Southern Nats. Had never heard the name & didn't know the car. So, does anybody know the history of this car, before Chris got it ?

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...UMMIT#indextop

I suppose it was at Norwalk, in 2017 that I 1st saw Chris as the highest qualified Pontiac Stocker.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

The 1st big win I have recorded for him was at a div 3 race in Aug, '17.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...UMMIT#indextop

He made the Indy field @ #85 with a .997 under 10.553.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

He won the NMCA Stock/SS combo class at this race.

https://www.nmcadigital.com/2017/09/...-lsx-shootout/

And here's a little treat. It's a video of the final.

https://www.facebook.com/Gary.West.7...4863431408187/

At the last Pomona race of '17, he qualified #8 @ .969 under.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

And, he made it to the final, but had to settle for RU. But hey, he had a great year, I'd say.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2017#indextop

At the '18 Virginia Nats, he qualified #3 @ .981 under.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...UMMIT#indextop

At Norwalk, he was #3 @ 1.027 under.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...UMMIT#indextop

He was .937 under @ the '18 US Nats.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

He won the big fall race at Vegas !

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

Hey, if you can run a sec under & win a Nat event, I suppose you can say you had a pretty good year.

[oldskool]

Chris had another good year in 2019.

He qualified #3 at the gators @ .982 under. It was the quickest carb car on the list. Randi Lyn was 2nd quickest, and won the race !

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2019#indextop

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...UMMIT#indextop

He ran .942 under & got the F/SA win, at the 4-wide Nats.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

Was #4 at theTopeka race @ .840 under.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2019#indextop

Ran 1.055 under @ Indy !

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

Also made it to the 4th round, where his opponent made a near perfect pass.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

He was 1.004 under at this Vegas race.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...UMMIT#indextop

Also won the D/SA class, over Randi Lyn. There's no doubt about it, they're the top Pontiac Stockers in the country, today. They go to a lot of big races. They go rounds. And they occasionally win a big one.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r=100#indextop

How 'bout this for a way to finish up the season. At the Pomona finals race, he was #1 qualifier @ 1.174 under !

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...UMMIT#indextop

I don't understand all about how the hp factoring system works. But, from what little I've read, you don't wanna have many 1 sec under runs, in a certain time period. So, I assume that's why Chris(and LOTS of others) was so slow on so many Q-lists this year. I suppose that's why the 330hp engine got 5hp removed, instead of them adding some.

It seems that some wanna go fast & set records, and some just wanna keep their combo competitive. I suppose it's been that way for a long time.

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by gsa612

Danny Ashley had a fast '74 GTO in the early 90's which went to Sweden.Mike Macdonald (Q-jet perf.) also had one which was sold to Richard Desmond from Minn.I'm not sure if Brad K's black car was owned at one time by the Nelson's also from Minn.There was also a guy from Montana Chuck Salerno (sp).The car was blue and called "Git-Go" and was a top q'fier back then...gsa612

Here's the Git-Go. Also found a better pic of the Greg Krause '74 GTO. Looks like he has John Force riding shotgun. Don't know if that makes his car go quicker or not.

The little 350 powered GTO's have done good, over the years. But I figure the huge hp hits have stopped others from building one. As Bill Rink said, it got so high he switched to SS. 277hp is ridiculous for that little low compression engine, IMO.

[oldskool]

OK, back to '68 Birds. Leo Glasbrenner has one that has done good. I assume he has mostly run the round port Ram Air II engine, since he runs C/SA a lot.

But some of the '68 guys swap over & run the D-port engine. I assume that most guys stay with the 330hp D-port 400, because the round port heads are so expensive.

Not sure what Leo's best ET is, in competition. I'll look up some past results & see what I can come up with. I do have a pic showing a 10.53 dial.

Last year he raced a late model in Stock, but still ran his Pontiac powered 4th gen in SS. Don't know his plans for this year. He's won some big races in Stock & SS. I'll check some results & see what I can find.

He won the Arizona Nats in 2012. Needed a real good package to win that one.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2012#indextop

He won the Pomona, Nov 2015 race. Ran a 10.339 one round, on a heads-up C/SA run.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2015#indextop

Here's an All-Pontiac final he won at the spring Vegas race, in '16.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...UMMIT#indextop

He won the Sonoma race in 2018.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

In the 2016 Sonoma race, he got treed & had to settle for RU. His opponent cut his best light of the whole race.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2016#indextop

Here's a nice article about Leo.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCStory.asp?ID=271343

[oldskool]

Another nice '68 belongs to Tim Gillespie. He drove it for a while. Now Julie Biermann drives it. Not sure of it's best ET. But it usually runs in the upper 10's. They run a lot of events in div 3. And they usually take it to Indy.

I'll look up some of the numbers & post 'em.

OK, she made the field at Indy this year, with a .901 under, 10.799.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2019#indextop

Last year, the bump spot was an .889. She missed it, with an .849.

She got the E/SA class win at the SPORTSnationals, in 2015. Pontiacs also picked up the G/SA & O/SA class wins. Both cars in the O/SA finals were Pontiacs.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

At the 2017 Midwest Nats, she was the highest qualified Pontiac at #15, with a .919 under, 10.781.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2017#indextop

She was #15 at this race, with an .853 under, 10.697, in D/SA.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...UMMIT#indextop

She won a div 3 Lucas Oil Series race in 2016, in a heads-up E/SA final. Nice to have the quicker car, when it's heads-up.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2016#indextop

[Mark Yacavone]

See post #8

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by oldskool

Here's a wagon that was a Stock record holder. Don't have any info on it. But, It was in HPP mag. So, those who have that issue could tell us more.

I'm posting another wagon on the SS Pontiac thread, that was a MANY time record holder.

Ron Sanders (Lumley & Sanders) Hardcore Pontiac racers