Best Pontiac Powered Super Stockers

[oldskool]

At the div 2 race, Jack Good has his '78 Bird. It's the same Bird that Ken Shawver & Monte Howard won class at Indy with. That old Bird has made lots of passes.

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

[oldskool]

Panning thru the Nostalgia section & found this nugget.

I suppose everybody here besides me already knew where to find this info.

It's a list of NHRA Nat event results from 1955 thru 2000. Of course, the 1998 & later results are listed on DRC.

But, a quick scan thru some of the years revealed some Pontiac powered wins & RU's I was not aware of, as far as I know.

Now I'm not familiar with every driver name that ran a Pontiac powered car in all those races. So, there could be some Pontiacs on some of these lists I miss. Also, as we all know, LOTS of guys have raced different brands of cars, during their driving career.

So, for some of you guys who were there back when a particular race was run, I need ya'll to point out any Pontiac powered car I might miss, AND any name I list as having been driving a Pontiac, who was actually driving some other brand, at that race.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/resultslist.html

I'll post this on the Pontiac Stock thread, then start going up thru the years & listing all Pontiac wins & RU's I find, listing the SS cars on this thread & the Stock cars on the Stock thread.

[oldskool]

1st Pontiac SS nat event wins I see are in 1975. This list shows that Jack Mullins won the Spring Nats, the Sports Nats, the US Nats, & was RU at the Summer Nats. I've never read of him winning the Spring Nats race, before. So far, I can't verify that win.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1975

Jack won the Sports Nats again in '76, and was RU @ the Spring Nats & World Finals.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1976


May have seen this before & it just didn't register. I'd mentioned the Larry Pacey SS wagon that held a record for 14 years. Well this post says that the wagon won 37 points races, in a row. That's real hard to believe. Can anybody verify this ?

http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...&postcount=175

Anyhow, those were 2 bad Pontiac SS wagons !

[oldskool]

In '77, Pontiacs picked up 3 nat event wins. Bob Michael won the Spring Nats. Sonny Ray won the Sports Nats, & John Herslow won the Canadian Grandnational.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1977

In '79, Sonny won the Cajun Nats.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1979

In '80, Phil Szupka got RU @ the Grandnational, & Bob Michael got RU @ the Summer Nats.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1980

In '81, Sonny got RU @ the Gators.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1981

In '82, Bob Michael got RU @ the Spring Nats.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1982

In '83, David Rampy won his 1st nat event, @ the Cajun Nats, in Sonny Ray's '72 GTO. John Angeles was RU @ the Golden Gate Nats.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1983

In '85, Sonny Ray got RU @ the Spring Nats.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1985

Now I got a question for you guys who were racing in '85. At the Northstar Nats, Jerry Stealy is listed as SS RU. I know he had a '69 GTO, then a couple of Pontiac wagons. Does anybody know if he was driving a Pontiac at this Northstar Nats race ?

[oldskool]

Gonna break in here with some info about the Nemisis 2 Pontiac wagon.

I think I've mentioned this already. But, after Jerry Stealy's "Nemisis" '69 GTO was destroyed in a towing accident, Jerry bought a wagon & put the GTO running gear in it.

Because it was a RAIV engine, he couldn't run the wagon in NHRA. So, he ran it in IHRA & AHRA, setting several nat records. That explains the hood scoop, which would not be legal in NHRA SS.

In '78, he sold it to his buddy, Jerry Heiser, who raced it thru '92. One account says that he set a SS/KA NHRA record with the car. But, I've never seen a pic of it without the hood scoop on it.

Newbie from IA.

So, any of you guys see this car race, in NHRA SS, without the hood scoop ? Anybody have any pics, without the scoop ?

http://torqueaddict.com/junkyard-rec...pontiac-wagon/

[oldskool]

In '86, and later, there are some names that were associated with Pontiacs at some point during their racing careers. But, I don't know how many, if any, were driving a Pontiac in any of these races. One or these is Ray Stover, who drove the Kathy's Clown Pontiac GTO.

So, I need help from you guys who were racing back then, in identifying the Pontiacs.

On this '86 list, Ray Stover is listed as SS winner @ the Spring Nats. So, was he driving a Pontiac ? Glen Tinsley was RU @ the Northstar Nats. But I'm pretty sure he was already racing under the Ford factory deal.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1986

In '87, Mike McKinney won SS, @ the Southern Nats, & the Keystone Nats. Assuming he was still driving a '68 Bird.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1987

Just learned that Sonny Ray quit driving his GTO, at some point, probably 1982, and began driving Mopars, for others. This article says that he gave the GTO to his son Chuck, who apparently was not a serious racer.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/?cl...oBGoHpyl7icD7U

[oldskool]

In 1990, Sal Biondo got his 1st nat event win, at the Summer Nats, in Phil Monteith's '76 Bird. All the Biondo guys won races in Phill Monteith Pontiacs. Mick Leiferman won the Keystone Nats, & was RU @ the Mid-South Nats.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1990

The only Mick Leiferman cars I've seen pics of were a '71 & a '73 GTO, both Stockers.

But, this article says Mick was driving a Firebird that ran a 9.51. Don't think any Pontiac powered GT cars were running that quick, in 1990, were they ? Just found where it said he was later running a '92 Bird in SS/AX. So, what are/were the rules for SS/AX ?

https://www.tulsaworld.com/archives/...0fbe42343.html

So, maybe every reference to Mick, in SS, is in a Chevy powered car. Anybody know ?

On the '91 list, the only car I'm pretty sure of is Art Peterson. Assume he was driving his '69 GTO. He got RU @ the Winston Finals race.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1991

In '92, Mike McKinney got RU @ the Mid-South Nats. I assume he continued to drive Pontiac powered SS cars.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1992

In '94, Art Peterson won the Winter Nats. I'm glad to see that. Most everybody seems to think Art & his wife are real nice folks ! And, it doesn't hurt that he drives my favorite Goat, a '69. As mentioned, there are names on these lists of guys who drove several different brands of cars. Sal & Peter Biondo are a couple, who drove Pontiacs, sometimes. Peter is shown winning a race in '94. Sal has been winner & RU on several of the lists. I know that Peter began driving the Hatari Bird, at some point, (both the 3rd gen & the 4th gen) & won some championships in it. But, there is no way for me to tell what they were driving, just from lookin at these lists. Any help with that would be appreciated.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1994

Peter & Sal picked up some more wins & RU's in '95 thru '97. Don't know what they were driving. Peter won his first SS championship in '96. I think he was driving the '82 version of the Hatari. Not absolutely sure.

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1995

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1996

http://www.nhra.net/50th/results.asp?mYear=1997

Then of course, DRC has '98-up results.

[oldskool]

Somebody just sent me these pics. It's an early '70's Firebird Formula. It's what I call a "small tire" Super Stocker. Also had slapper bars. I suppose you could call it "period correct".

I think the tire rule back then was that the tire could be the biggest tire that would fit into the stock wheel well, without the tire tread being outside the body line, at the top of the wheel opening.

Anyhow, I think this was a cool lookin Bird.

It was gold colored & apparently either sponsored by Golden United life insurance company, or one of their agents.

So, any of you guys know the history of this car ?

[bob3240]

Thanks for all the Pontiac stuff Old School!
The gold Firebird was my '72 455 HO Formula. I later painted it black and updated it to a '73 455 SD, raced it until 1980 and sold it to Don Kennedy. It was my brother Jerry's Insurance Company. Those were the days!!

[oldskool]

Thanks for that info Bob !