Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves

[Bruce Fulper]

After my brother blew up his 376 hp 421 Grand Prix, and got plenty tired of being beaten by Roy Dean alum front end '62 Catalina every weekend, he built this '67 Mustang coupe. But, it fell into the same class as Dean and he continued to get his butt beat every weekend in Class. On the back of the pic it says, "beat the Camaro 13.08 to 13.22." Pretty sure this was just a time trial.










The world is the grindstone and life is your nose.

[Bruce Fulper]

Ron Hutter - Modified Camaro is what I remember him driving. He was a bad man. (very fast) He eventually went Pro Stock with a partner didn't he?

Here's my very first finals run in my own car. L/SA Class final.
(two cars in the Class.) heh, heh...Ford was set up for the Class. 289, headers, probably gears etc. I put a little holeshot on him then he buried me. I still have the ET slip. 18.85 at 76.20 mph. I think the Ford went low 15's. My '56 had the Power Pack option. Hot 265 eh? It WAS fun.





The world is the grindstone and life is your nose.

[Bruce Fulper]

I know some of you remember Hart Automotive. Micky Hart sponsored several cars. Here's the 48 Austin during Elims.

Polaroid instamatics - gotta love em. Don't forget to go back to page two to see the fist pics.






The world is the grindstone and life is your nose.

[Bruce Fulper]

Hart Automotive 48 Anglia and a brand spanking new Vega gasser. Also sponsored by Hart. I believe this was the same weekend I ran my brothers Mach 1.









The world is the grindstone and life is your nose.

[novassdude]

Better get the information on old races quick. All the archives go with the sale.

[Len Imbrogno]

Red,
I bet you wish you still had that 55 Ford. I know I wish that I still had my Chevelle.

Bomber,
It's a small world. I currently live in Vermilion, Ohio and I know right where Fulper Auto Parts was. They are now out of business and the building is for sale. I don't remember the Vette, but I do remember them having a gasser of some type.
In 1970, I was in south east Asia. Between late 1968 and 1972 I missed a lot of good racing.
Mickey Hart was a very good friend of mine. He just passed away last year. Yes, he had a lot of good cars running out of his shop. I worked at a speed shop in Lorain, Ohio and Hart did all of our machine work.
Great pictures! The black gaaser in one of your pictures was actually a 48 Austin owned by a Big Wilson out of Cleveland, Ohio. The car was called "Hart and Soul". Big is an African-American and Mickey thought the name was kind of catchy. Occasionally I still see Big at some of the old gasser meets.
The Vega in another of your pictures was Kenny Mott who worked for Hart.
Ron Hutter is still around and does a lot of circle track engine work. He did have several partners on the Camaro, "Hutter, Carver and Valerio".
Mike Valerio started a company called Competition Engineering which he eventually sold to Moroso.

[T Janes]

Mickey Hart had a 52 Ford called "Sextoria"

[bill dedman]

This isn't pertinent to the Dragway 42 discussion, and I don't have any of the old National DRAGSTERS to back up what I say, but I remember that in the period from 1961-'62, the NHRA national records page had records for the Gassers listed something like this:

A Gas Coupe/Sedan: Not in my "database" any more...sorry.
B Gas Coupe/Sedan: Ed Schartman
C Gas Coupe/Sedan: Ron Hassel
D Gas Coupe/Sedan: Hrudka Bros.
E GasCoupe/Sedan:: Dave Koffel
F Gas Coupe/Sedan: Ferd Napfel

F Gas Coupe/Sedan may have come along a year or two later, but the point I wanted to make was, that every car I've listed here called OHIO home.

California may have been the cradle of drag racing, but the fastest Gas Coupes in the country all lived in Ohio.

Anybody remember who had the record in A Gas at that time? I just can't "bring it up." LOL!

I've slept since then...

Bill

[T Janes]

From Hot Rod Magazine March 1961, NHRA Record Runs: Petersburg, Virginia Nov 1960 Ron Hassel set the D/G record at 13.33 103.32 1956 Chevy Sponsored by Jackshaw Chevrolet in Cleveland. Joe Hrudka was also ther with his blue 1957 Chevy Bel Air Hardtop E gasser sponsored be Neil Motors of Cleveland. Hrudka and Dennis Coker had a real battle of letter writing in Drag News in the mid sixties. A Gas Record as of April 1961 Gulfcrest Special, Puducah, Ky-Chevy 120 MPH set at Detroit Dragway sept 1960, Delozier & Ramey Oklahoma City-Pontiac 11.93 set at Oklahoma City Dragstrip

[bill dedman]

Thanks, Tony!

That "Gulf Crest Special" was a blue '40 Willys with a 352 CID, carbureted, small block Chevy (half-inch stroker motor) owned and driven by W.R. Sanders.
That car was the first door-slammer I ever saw run 120 mph, and I was literally awe-struck! It had a 3-speed manual transmision, and he drove it very conservatively (no power shifts.) It went 120mph and 12.0's at Halls, Tennesee, when I saw it in about 1958. He had the record, then.

I THINK that car got sold and was re-created as Junior Garrison's "Wicked Willys", which was the B/Gas NHRA Nationals class winner and maybe won Little Eliminator, in '62 or '63 at Indy. Junior ran a used car lot in Murray, Kentucky. The new engine for B/Gas was a 339" (3/8ths stroker) SBC, now, with Hilborns. The team of Coleman/Taylor (TCI?) in Memphis bought the car from Junior in '63 or '64.

I watched it run some 12.60s at Lakeland Dragway, in Memphis, at a points race that year. Coleman/Taylor owned the SS/AA record with their Stage II '63 Max Wedge car, and they had a "just for fun" grudge race with the "Wicked Willys."

The Mopar won, going away...

I 'bout cried, seeing a "Factory Hot Rod" STOCKER outrunning a national champion B Gasser...

Drag racing was never the same for me again... sigh...