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Round 16: Featuring
Paul Aray's Illusion Maverick, Bill Spevacek, Lil' John Lombardo,
Ron Leaf & Frank Mancuso, Don & Roy Gay, Green Elephant
Vega, KC Charger, Jim Nicoll, the Centurion Firebird, Ronnie Umbach, and the Tonti Metal Craft Mustang, Henry Harrison, Raymond Walker, and the Seifert & Moyers Agitator Vega.
One
of the few Maverick floppers of the era was the Division 2 based
car of Paul Aray. Aray won the Div 2 F/C title and the NHRA Eastern
Conference title in 71 with the pictured car based on the strength
of winning 2 division events and doing well at the remaining 3
events. New Illusion Maverick was built for 72; car was infrequently
campaigned, dropped to 5th in Div 2 points and was sold at season's
end to Div 1 racer Keith Smith. Other Maverick bodied F/Cs in
the early 70s included Al Vanderwoude's "Flying Dutchman,"
MT's short lived effort, Danny Miller's "Plastic Fantastic,"
Terry Ivey, LA Hooker, Atlas Oil Tool Special and Larry Fullerton's
Galpin Ford effort complete with real door handles and radio antenna!
(Photo by Ted Pappacena)
 Coming out of the great
northwest in the early 70s is Montana's Bill Spevacek. Spevacek
got his start with an A/Altered, then graduated to nitro floppers
when he purchased the wrecked Beatty & Dabler Challenger and
put a Cuda body on the car. He ran the car for two seasons, then
ordered a Twig Zeigler look alike Dart which burned at the 75
Supernationals. Car was rebuilt with another Dart body, ran another
season before he gave up his own operation to drive the UAP Monza
in 77. Career highlight was taking runner up at the 80 AHRA World
Finals at Spokane wheeling the Monza. UAP Corvette followed in
81, and in 83 Spevacek retired to devote more time to his family
and ranch. (Photo and info courtesy of Bill Spevacek)
 SoCal's Lil' John Lombardo
first hit the asphalt in the mid-60s with a modified production
55 Chevy, graduated to a topless AA/Gas Supercharged Corvette
before going flopper racing in the early 70s. Charger bodied car
gave way to this Camaro (which was lost in a fire) which later
gave way to a Vega in 74. Due to business commitments Pat Foster
drove and toured the Vega, and in early 75 Lombardo returned to
the cockpit of a Mustang II. 1976 saw Lombardo make his first
tour of national events, although continuing business
commitments kept him off the match race trail. Arrow bodied car
followed in 78 and Lil' John continued to race his own self sponsored
F/Cs through the early 80s... Lombardo's biggest national
event victory came at a mid-80s NHRA Nationals wheeling Raymond
Beadle's red Blue Max Mustang. (Photo by John Shanks)
 In 1972 Ron Leaf and
Frank Mancuso teamed up on the pictured Vega in Div 1. In 73 team
hit the road... season highlight was qualifying 3rd at the NHRA
Grandnationals and taking the runner-up spot to Dale Emery in
the Jeg's Camaro. In 74 Bob Lagana took over the reins of the
Vega with Mancuso and Leaf getting back together in 77. In 78
they bought the ex-Rolling Thunder Monza and nicknamed the car
"Travel Agent." Team got off to an unceremonious when
car flipped over the guardrail at the Gatornationals; came back
to win the Div 1 flopper title later in the year despite an accident
at Englishtown that knocked the team out mid-season. An Omni bodied
"Travel Agent" carried the team into the 80s. In Mancuso's
words "We continued on until 1984... qualifying, and going
a few rounds now and then..." before calling it quits.
(Photo courtesy of Drag Racing Memories, info courtesy of Frank
Mancuso)
 Texan
Don Gay ruled in the early 60s with a Pontiac stocker while still
a teen, later campaigned an altered wheelbase blown "exhibition
stock" GTO in 65 that started the "Infinity" line.
Don retired to the family auto business in the late 60s and turned
the cockpit over to bother Roy. Pictured GTO debuted in 69 with
Pontiac power, emerged in 1970 with Keith Black Hemi power, set
low ET at AHRA Winternationals with then-blistering 7.23 during
qualifying, lost in first round. Firebird shell soon replaced
GTO body but at the end of 70 the "Infinity V" appeared
for sale in the Dec issue of National Dragster... car went on
to become the "Hemi Under Glass" flopper of wheelstand
king Bob Riggle, was campaigned during the 72 season by Dale Emery.
(Photo courtesy of David Ray)
 The Green Elephant Vega
ran out of the Jim Green Performance Center in western WA. 73
Elephant was NHRA World Champion with Frank Hall at the wheel.
Mike Miller took over reins of Green Elephant in summer of 74
while Hall moved on to handle Jerry Ruth's Mustang. Car took runner
up at 75 NHRA Winternationals but was getting a little long in
the tooth. Green took 76 off, returned with pictured car in 77
with Rob Bruins at the wheel, who gave way to Norm Wilcox, later
replaced by Rich Rodgers who took runner up at the 77 NHRA Nationals.
At the end of 78 entire Green Elephant operation was put up for
sale (Truck, trailer, car, etc). Car reappeared in 1980 with Mike
Cyr (ex-Skippers Fish and Chips floppers) sponsored by Coast Crane
& Equipment running in Div 6. (Photo from Bardahl Handout
courtesy of Gary Osborn)
 Bill
Vance and Vern Hill ran the "KC Charger" Charger shown
at Kansas City International Raceway in May 72. In 73 car became
known as the Fenton Charger after the team secured sponsorship
from Fenton, a company that made aftermarket wheels, shifters
and mufflers. Paint scheme was changed along with the name as
the car adopted blue & white colors with the single word "Fenton"
emblazoned on the side accompanied by a 3-D airbrush rendering
of a huge wheel! Car was build using pretty much standard fare
for the day (Ed Pink stoker, B&J transmission, Fiberglass
Ltd. body, etc)... two notable exceptions where the use of relatively
known Dick Easterwood to build the chassis and later the use of
rare (for nitro racing) Fenton Gyro wheels. (Photo courtesy of
Brad Anderson)
 "Superman"
Jim Nicoll's 76 Monza photographed at the Gatornationals. Nicoll
developed the Superman nickname after surviving some horrific
mishaps including the 70 NHRA Nationals T/F final finish line
clutch explosion that cut his car in half. Nicoll's first F/C
effort was the ex-Setzer Vega sponsored by Speed Equipment World
that burned at the 73 Gatornationals. Another Speed Equipment
World Vega sponsored by Revell followed before Nicoll struck out
on his own in 74 with a Vega. Nicoll's greatest F/C success came
in AHRA competition... won 73 AHRA Gateway Nats, would have been
winner or r/u at 73 PRO National Challenge, but broke, allowed
Don Schumacher back in on break rule (remember that!?!?), won
the 75 AHRA Nationals, also numerous runner-ups, etc, etc... (Photo by John Farr)
 From
Ohio came the Thornburg & Little "Centurion" Firebird,
1979. Team started the season with the ex-Detroit Tiger Monza,
debuted the pictured replacement Firebird shell mid-season. Driver
Len Imbrogno got his fuel license at the beginning of the 79 season,
replacing Chuck Finders who had teamed with Thornburg on the Midwest campaigned "High Speed" Vega and Monza entries in 77,78.
Firebird was a Div 3 regular during the 79 season, finished 2nd
in division points, being barely edged out for the top spot by
Tim Grose's Monza. Car crashed at 80 Gators, was replaced by identically
painted Omni bodied flopper for the remainder of the season. (Photo
by Don Eckert)
The
wildly painted Tonti Metal Craft Mustang came out of New Orleans
in 1970. Car was owned by Ray Perschall and shoed by Ron Umbach.
The Exhibition Engineering built flopper was 426 Hemi motivated
and interestingly (for a Ford bodied F/C) was initially sponsored
by Clearview Dodge! Car was later destroyed in a fire at Kansas
City and Umbach moved on to shoe such other Cajun floppers as
Frank Huff's Super Vega and the King Fish Cuda. Umbach also did
time driving Foster's King Cougar (ex-Dyno Don Eliminator) before
moving on to shoe alcohol dragsters and funny cars in the 80s.
(Photo and info courtesy of Shirley Umbach)
Midwest
transplant Henry Harrison got his nitro start in the early 60s
with AA/FD and AA/FA entries, got his first funny car ride in
70 wheeling one of Mickey Thompson's many funny cars of the time,
held both ends of NHRA F/C record for a time in 71 at 6.54/227
wheeling M/T's Mustang. Ride in M/T Vega followed in 72 before
Harrison took over the driving chores of the AZ based Vulture
Cuda which took runner up at the 74 OCIR Manufacturers Meet to
Pat Foster wheeling Lil' John Lombardo's Vega. Harrison owned Super
Chief Camaro was debuted in 77, won Div 7 F/C crown the same year.
Harrison continued driving floppers and AA/FAs through the mid-80s... rides
included the LA Hooker Corvette, Sheepherder AA/FA, etc, etc.
(Photo by John Shanks)
 From
a rare B&W handout comes the "Sunshine" Vega of
Raymond Walker from Kentucky campaigned in the mid-70s. Very much
a "bucks down, back woods" operation, the car was usually
campaigned as a BB/FC. According to Robert Flitsch, who worked
on the crew, the team's red and white 421 CI Pontiac powered Hardy
built early 70s Vega "played with nitro occasionally... mostly
southern match-races, a lot of 8th-mile tracks! Not too much, though... those steel Pontiacs didn't like a heavy dose, I think
65% is the highest it got!" According to Robert "Walker
wasn't bucks-up by any means, the guy was a drill-sergeant at
Fort Knox, as was his crew-chief..." (Handout and info courtesy
of Robert Flitsch)
 The
"Agitator" Vega of Maryland's Seifert and Moyers, circa
1979, was a Division 1 match race and booked in event regular... was
preceded by a Seifert and Moyer alky Vega flopper that ran divisional
events in the mid-70s before the team moved up to the nitro class.
Agitator name attached to a F/C actually goes back to the early-70s
on Paul Day Vega alky flopper out of Div 3. Pictured rather "bucks
down" looking Vega gave way to immaculate Agitator Arrow
funny car in 1980.
Team was
one of the last independent flopper acts traveling the northeast
division through the mid-80s on the evaporating nitro funny car
match race/booked in circuit. (Photo courtesy of Dave Milcarek)
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