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Round 14: Featuring
Arnie The Farmer Beswick, Abe Ayoub, Roger Guzman's
Assassination, Pete's Lil' Demon, Sidney Foster, Steve Hodkinson,
the Lonestar Longneck, Frank Pitt's Warlock, Jim Paoli, Shirley
Muldowney, Animal Al Marshall, and Omar the Tentmaker
Carrothers.
One
of the true legends of drag racing,
Arnie
"the Farmer" Beswick ran the last blown Pontiac powered
nitro funny car with the pictured "Boss Bird" from 1971.
Arnie's relationship with Poncho power dated back to 1958 with
S/S entries. In 68 Arnie had his first fliptop funny car... a front- hinging,
rear opening GTO. 1969 saw "the Farmer" in the unique
"Super Judge" GTO F/C (along with a Pro Stock version
of the car). Pictured Firebird debuted in 71 along with a nearly
identical companion Firebird flopper with Hemi motivation. 1971
also saw Beswick wheeling a leased ex-Ramchargers Challenger.
In 72, Beswick retired following a disastrous fire on his farm
that destroyed or badly damaged all his racing equipment. He returned
in 87 driving Jake Howard's 63 Lemans and is still active today
in nostalgia racing with his "Tameless Tiger." (Photo
and info courtesy of Drag
Racing Memories)
If
this car looks familiar it's because it won the NHRA World Championship
in 1971 with Phil Castronovo at the wheel! Fellow Utica, NY.,
resident Abe Ayoub purchased the car at the end of the 71 season.
Ayoub ran the car in Division 1 in 72, called it quits at season's
end to concentrate on "personal stuff." Prior to this
ride, Ayoub's only other drag racing experience was in the early
60s with a D/S 55 Chevy!!!! According to a Funny Farm column in
Dragbeat, Abe's Modus Operandi was "Brings race car to strip
in dilapidated school bus so potential thieves and vandals who
saw the thing saying "Valley Tremor" on it thought it
was not a funny car, but in reality a Dodge shaped lawn mower."
True or not, it's a humorous image! (Photo from Amalie Handout,
photo and info courtesy of Abe Ayoub)
Roger
Guzman's "Assassination" Duster photographed at the
1975 Div 5 WCS points meet at Denver Intl Raceway. F/C Assassination
line began in 69 with the Dekker and Guzman Corvair which, along
with the Kenz & Leslie entries, was the killer car in the
Rocky Mountain region at the time. Div 5 winning Cuda followed
in 70, held NHRA national record for a period at 6.81. Vega followed
in 72 and by 76 Art Ward was teamed with Guzman on the Assassination
F/C. In 77 Guzman teamed with Ron Kerchal on the Super Rat Monza
and won the Div 5 title with Rob Williams driving. Williams driven
Kerchal & Guzman Arrow followed, and in 79 Assassination name
reappeared on Div 5 winning Arrow. Cars rarely ventured out of
Div 5... played the role of "local spoiler" when touring
pros came to town. (Photo courtesy of John Bergener)
From
Pete Everett's Chevron in So Cal came the "Lil' Demon"
flopper from 73/74. Everett's early involvement with F/Cs dated
to 67 with a semi-fliptop half steel/half fiberglass Firebird
called the "New Breed." In 69 Everett purchased Dee
Keaton's Cougar F/C, installed a blown 392 Chrysler and renamed
the car "Wild Breed." First Demon bodied Lil' Demon followed
in the early 70s with Dr Leroy Hales handling the team's driving
chores. Following Hales departure Bob Pickett spent 3 years at
wheel of the Lil' Demon prior to stepping into MT's Grand Am in
75, taking Larry Arnolds place when he moved over to the Demon.
Final shoe was Dennis Geisler who drove the car through 76. Lil' Demon entries were So Cal regulars, could always be counted on
to be in the hunt at local fuel shows. (Photo courtesy of Drag
Racing Memories)
Flying
the FOMOCO flag was the "King Cobra" Mustang of the
Foster Bros, Gerald and Sidney. Sidney gained his early flopper
experience driving Larry Coleman's Super Torino F/C in the late
60s (which was the first Ford bodied flopper to exceed 200mph)
and did a stint at the wheel of the Super Cuda. When Coleman retired
at the end of the 69 season, Sidney returned to Louisiana and
with his brother Gerald's financial support the team built a SOHC
powered, Grabber Orange Mustang flopper (which ironically enough
was later sold to the "retired" Coleman). Following
moderate success in the 70 season, team took 71 off and returned
in 72 with the pictured Hemi powered Mustang. Following this ride,
Sidney retired and the Mustang was sold to Tom Smallwood from
TN. (Photo courtesy of Sidney Foster)
Oklahoma's
Steve Hodkinson got his start wrenching Marvin Graham's Indy winning
T/F effort in the mid-70s. Following a couple seasons with Graham,
he moved on to nitro floppers with his own Donovan powered Monza
and Vega, then purchased the ex- Dickie Williams "Spirit
of 76" funny car pictured above in the late 70s. Hodkinson
moved back to T/F cars in the early 80s. He drove the #2 TR-3
Resin Glaze car behind Lucille Lee, took runner up at 82 Southern
Nationals in an all TR-3 final. Following loss of TR-3 sponsorship,
Hodkinson went on to wheel Larry Coogle's "Sting" funny
car, then ran a series of his own low buck independent F/Cs with
limited success through the 80s. (Photo by Don Eckert)
Pictured
doing a burnout in front of the Lone Star Brewery in San Antonio
is the "Lone Star Longneck" Astre. Car debuted in 75,
was originally owned and driven by Ken Mott. Write-up in Green
Valley race paper said of the car "In the state of Texas,
the expression "Lone Star Longneck" brings two things
to mind; The finest beer sold in the state, and one of the most
popular AA/Funny Cars in the Lone Star State." Car's performance
with Chevy power was in the 6.80/215 range. In 76, Alamo Dragway
owners the Martinez Bros took over the operation and the car became
a mainstay in the track's frequent Texas based flopper shows.
Driving chores were shared by Buddy Cortines (who in the 60s drove
for CKC, Carroll Bros, etc) and Jon Barrett. Car disappeared in
77. (Photo from Lone Star Handout courtesy of Gary Osborn, info
courtesy of Jim White)
Ex-AA/FA
owner Frank Pitts' Warlock III Dodge Aspen at OCIR in 1978. Pitts
debuted the ex-Bill Spevacek car as the "Warlock" at
a Fremont match race early in 78, had previously run the car in
partnership with Joe and Chuck Pacini of "Showdown"
AA/GS Anglia fame. Team started running the car in late 76 with
ex-owner Spevacek at the wheel, but in early 77 team split with
Pitts going on to campaign the F/C solo. Car is pictured at OCIR
with the ninth member of the Cragar T/F Five Second Club Pete
Kalb at the helm. The guy in the back ground is the crew chief
on the car, Jim Mac Monagle. He is currently announcing some NHRA
events and just finished doing some shows with Big Daddy Don Garlits.
Car only made sporadic appearances during the 78 season under
Pitts ownership. Pitts was one of the later AA/FA converts to
the flopper ranks; Dave Hough of Super Shops fame also switched
to AA/FC about the same time period. Other fuel altered converts
earlier in the 70s included Don Green and the Rat Trap, Bob Palmer
and the Bad Habit, Willie Borsch, Leroy Chadderton moved to the
Hawaiian then to the Chadderton & Okazaki Vega, the mid-west's
John Schumacher with the Altered Ego Grand AM, Sush Matsubara,
etc. (Photo by John Shanks)
Springfield, Illinois'
Jim Paoli campaigned this "Yankee Packrat" Vega funny
car in the 73ish time frame. Trivia fodder: this was Paoli's second
flopper ride. He did a short stint at the wheel of the Ramchargers
Demon F/C prior to building this Gilmore chassised, 480"
Black powered car. Paoli had been a Division 3 T/F "strongman"
in the early 70s, winning the division title in 71 with a Garlits
built front engine "Yankee Packrat" car. In 72 he joined
the rear engine T/F revolution while doing temporary duty with
the Ramchargers, went full time flopper racing with this car in
73. Paoli later sold this car which was campaigned in the mid/late
70s as a BB/FC in the Midwest with same paint scheme, new owners
names on side. (Photo by David Ray)
From
1972 comes funny car racing's most successful female shoe; Shirley
"Cha Cha" Muldowney. Starting out in the 60s with gas
dragsters, Shirley moved up to floppers in 71 with an ex-Kalitta
Mustang, won her first national event with the car and became
the first female flopper driver in the sixes. This Buttera built
Stang followed in 72, but the car was lost to a fire and flip
during the season. Ex-Schumacher Cuda was used to finish the season's
obligations. A Logghe built Satellite followed in 73 which burned
at the NHRA Nationals, the same year Shirley earned her T/F license
at the wheel of Pancho Rendon's Frito Bandito T/F car. Shortly
thereafter Shirley moved to T/F fulltime. (Photo from Amalie Handout
courtesy of Randy McGinnis)
 "Animal
Al" Marshall started out in T/F in the late 60s, switched
to funny cars in 1970... a ride in Don Schumacher's Stardust
Barracuda came first followed by stints in Dale Creasy's Tyrant
Torino and Mustang in the early-mid 70s (NHRA division 3 champion
1971 and 1972. Coca Cola Cavalcade of Stars 1974 and 1975). Following
his job with the Creasys, Marshall struck out on his own with
the pictured car which was a ex-Schumacher body on a Woody chassis
he purchased from Don Wiley. Marshall confined his activities
to match racing; car ran as fast as 6.40 at 240 mph in 1976. According
to Marshall "Things got very expensive and I had no sponsor,
and called it quits in face of extreme financial woes." Car
was sold to an individual who made an alky flopper out of it.
(Photo by Michael Beach, info courtesy of Al Marshall)
Photographed
at Kansas City Intl Raceway in May 72 was Omar "the Tentmaker"
Carrothers' Mustang. This car was his second flopper; earlier
Cuda was destroyed at OCIR on one of it's maiden outings. Carrothers
rebounded with this Gilmore chassised, Pink powered, Kirby sprayed,
Youngblood lettered flopper. Omar was somewhat of an enigma; according
to Drag Racing magazine, Circuit Riders, Jan 1990, "... It
was rumored that "the Tentmaker" often climbed behind
the wheel in an emotional condition and mental state best described
as a scene from the movie "Altered States." In 72 National
Dragster called Carrothers "Our traditional long shot….the
Tentmaker is once again the meets dark horse" as the publication
gave Omar 100-1 odds at Winternationals that year. Following the
pictured ride, Carrothers drove Terry Ivey's Charger in AHRA competition
in the mid-70s. Today he works on circle track dirt cars in Florida.
(Photo courtesy of Brad Anderson)
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