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Round 18: Featuring
Roger Lindamood, Jack Maroney, John Luna, Bob Simmons, Al Tschida,
Motta & Williamson, Bob Barry, Nasty Nick Cougar, Climax Mustang,
George Cox's Banzai Charger, Gene Conway, the Sopwith Camel Cuda, and Dale Creasy.
 One
of the true legends and sometimes referred as the "dean"
of funny car racing, Roger Lindamood's efforts dated back to the
earliest A/FX days. Lindamood worked for Chrysler before getting
into drag racing in the early 60s; car's name came from "The
Coloring Book" song. Not a regular major event competitor,
Lindamood made his name match-racing and on the Coke circuit in
the 70s... was team captain for a period. Following a long association
with blue Mopar bodied floppers Lindamood debuted a red Monza
in 77 and tackled national event competition... took runner-up
at 77 Gatornationals in only his second national event final round
appearance with the Color Me Gone series (64 Nationals, Top Stock
honors). (Photo from 72 Lindamood Handout, courtesy of Jim White)
 Jack
Maroney from Sierra Vista AZ ran this 427 Rodeck powered Ken Cox
built Challenger beginning in 78... Car was primarily
a AA/FA, doubled as F/C when bookings dictated. F/C efforts were
mostly restricted to local events and regional AHRA competition.
Prior to building this car Maroney's efforts included an AHRA
record holding B/FA Vega panel wagon which became a AA/FA when
AHRA abolished B/FA class. Pictured car was later rebodied as
a more power plant correct Vette in 84… Car was last run
in 86 at Las Vegas as a AA/FA. Today Jack and son Jim are running
an Olds bodied car on the California Independent Funny Car Association
(CIFCA) circuit. (Photo and info courtesy of Jim Maroney)
In
the mid-70s Phoenician John Luna joined the nitro funny car ranks
with a Hemi motivated Vega previously owned by Tom Hoover. In
75 Luna debuted the Lil' Moon Mustang II, went on to be the #1
qualifier for AHRA Nationals at Green Valley but blew the engine
in first round on starting line. Luna confined his activities
to the south central US, was a regular at Alamo Dragway in San
Antonio where he won 5 local shows in a row and held both ends
of the track record early in his career. Short lived Sun Devil
Hustler Mustang II followed in 78 before Luna joined the small
list of flopper drivers converting to rocket funny cars in the
late 70s when he fielded the "Star Wars" Arrow R/FC.
(Photo by Don Eckert)
The
aptly named New Englander Monza of Rhea Goodrich and Bob Simmons
was a northeast match race and divisional race regular in 78.
In the mid-70s Simmons campaigned the "Purple Magic"
Vega AA/FC before teaming with Goodrich on this effort. Car finished
third in Div 1 points in 78, was replaced by a Challenger bodied
car in 79 that promptly burned to the ground at Epping NH early
in the season. Team rebounded with a New Englander T/F effort
in 80, but another fire/crash at Epping left Simmons with serious
injuries. Simmons recovered and fielded yet another "New
Englander" T/F car in the mid-80s. Pictured car was purchased
at the end of the 78 season by Bob Caruso who campaigned the car
as the "Tasmanian Devil" alcohol flopper. (Photo by
Dave Milcarek, info courtesy of David Hapgood)
 Al
Tschida from MN campaigned the "Cheetah" line of funny
cars from 72 through the early 90s. After moving up through the
gasser ranks, first Cheetah Vega flopper went "east"
with Al when he moved from CA to MN in the early 70s. Vega, with
body and chassis updates, was run through 78 when this Firebird
debuted. Unique feature on this car was the adjustable wheelbase... could
be moved a total of 3" in 1" increments to suit track
conditions. After a brief stint at the wheel in the early 70s,
Tschida vacated the cockpit to Carl Swanson in order to concentrate
on wrenching. It must have worked... team only broke one connecting
rod and windowed one block through the Cheetah years!!! Cheetah
line was driven by Steve Gladieux from 80-82 and 86-92. Firebird
was run through the early 80s, went on to become the "Blind
Faith" flopper of Dave Edstrom. After a few years off, ex-Tom
Hoover Firebird followed in 86, was run through 92 when Al called
it quits due to the time and $$$ involved. (Photo courtesy of
Jan (Tschida) Sanchez, info courtesy of Al Tschida)
 From
1972 comes the rear engined Dave
Motta &
Don Williamson Challenger campaigned out of NorCal. Only a handful
of RE F/Cs were built... short list included Dave Bowman's California
Stud Vega, Robert Contorelli's Mustang, Ken Riehle's Hell Fire
Camaro, Ed Mullins' Duster, Burt Berniker's Hindsight Duster,
the sidewinders of Jack Chrisman (and later John Force) and Ed
Lenarth, the one pass only Gary Gabelich 4WD Vega, Alabamian Vega
and Trojan Horse Mustang... most successful of the breed was the
Dunn & Reath Cuda which won the 72 NHRA Supernationals. In
probably the only match race of it's type, the Motta driven Challenger
took on Bowman's RE Vega at Hawaii Raceway Park in the fall on
72, won the best out of three challenge with low et of 7.28 to
claim the "Hawaii State Funny Car Championship." By
74 most of the RE F/Cs had disappeared. (Photo by John Shanks)
 NY's
Bob Barry's "Rolling Thunder" Monza debuted in mid-76.
According to Bob he wanted an Arrow body for the car, but none
were available at the time of construction so a Monza shell went
on. The Youngblood designed, Keith Black powered entry went to
Suffolk Div 2 final in only it's 2nd week of competition, then
deservedly won best appearing car at 76 NHRA Summernationals.
In 77 car continued to be competitive; won Budds Creek and Blaney
WCS events. Barry's "under construction" Monza was featured
in the late 70s video classic "American Nitro"... was
featured during a tour of Jamie Sarte's chassis shop. For the
78 season Barry moved west and the car was sold to Frank Mancuso
who campaigned the car as the Travel Agent, won Div 1 F/C title.
Car was crashed at mid point of 78 season in collision with jet
car, but Mancuso still had enough to clinch the Div title. (Photo
courtesy of John Farr)
 Cougar
bodies enjoyed great popularity in the late 60s with the likes
of "Dyno Don" Nicholson, "Fast Eddie" Schartman,
Kenz & Leslie and Pete Gates running the shell on their F/Cs... but
not too many transitioned into the 70s. One exception was the
Nick Varough owned "Nasty Nick" Ramchargers powered
Cougar from the early 70s. Paul Aray did stint in car in early
72 while awaiting new Maverick to be finished, before Paul Smith
took over the ride full time in Feb. Ohio based car was campaigned
extensively in southeast match race competition... in the mid-70s
Varough debuted a Satellite bodied flopper driven by Chuck Finders
that took the team to it's first NHRA event win at the 76 Division
1 WCS show at Maryland International Raceway. (Photo by Ted Pappacena)
 Before
Paul Smith drove the Nasty Nick Cougar he got his start wheeling
nitro floppers at the helm of the "Climax" Barracuda
from the southeast. Cuda, owned by Dick Heinemann, debuted in 69
and was a regular on the Florida/Georgia funny car match race
and booked in scene. In 71 Cuda body gave way to the pictured
Mustang shell shown here at Warner Robins Dragway in GA. 392 powered
entry was campaigned through 71 and into the early 72 season by
which time the car's older technology had it running a little
over a second off the pace. Best showing was a runner up finish
at late 71 NHRA Miami National Open. Other rides for Smith in
the 70s included the Sir Wells Charger, Fireball Vega, and his
own line of Entertainer F/C's. Today Smith still wrenches on nitro
F/Cs. (Photo courtesy of Franklin Amiano)
 The
Austin, Tx., based team of Sconci, Angell and driver George Cox
fielded this Don Hardy built, Ed Pink powered "Banzai"
Charger in 72. Car traced it's lineage back to Banzai T/F cars
that ran the Texas Pro Fuel Circuit through the late 60s/early
70s. Car was Cox's second F/C ride... spent part of 70 at wheel
of Engine Master's Cougar campaigning the car with Kenny Bernstein
in TX. Team confined Charger's activities to Div 4 and the Texas area... had the car as high as 6th in Div 4 standings in
72... best
finish was runner-up at Lubbock WCS race but team finished out
of the top 8 at season's end. Following an illness which forced
Cox to vacate the cockpit, car was campaigned by Jim Robbins in
Div 4 in 73, finished 4th in season end standings, won final race
of season at LaPlace. Robbins also ventured in to Div 5, won final
divisional race of 73. (Don Eckert photo)
 Winner of the first
funny car show of the 70s, SoCal's Gene Conway took honors at
OCIR's New Years Day F/C bash over Charlie Allen to kick off the
decade. Conway raced the C&O Destroyer Jeep and a Firebird
flopper in the 60s, went on to run a series of Corvette F/Cs through
the mid-70s. Conway ran the pictured topless car, then ran a white
and red flamed Corvette coupe after NHRA outlawed the topless
body style. He stuck pretty close to his SoCal home, but did tour
back east in 71. Considered one of the "killer" cars
in SoCal in the early 70s, he was also one of the few to not get
bitten by the "Corvette Curse" which saw most Vette
bodied floppers destroyed during their campaigns. In fact, in
early the 70s Conway won the "fate tempting" All Corvette
F/C Invitational at OCIR over such entries as Marv Eldridge, Beach
City, Don Hampton's twin engined flopper, etc. In the mid-70s
Conway went Pro Comp racing with the Martin and Conway AA/DA.
(Photo courtesy of Drag Racing Memories)
 From
early 70s comes the Sopwith Camel Cuda owned by Mike Thermos and
Jim Terry... Thermos supplied the body and chassis, Terry the
engine and Gordy Swearingen drove after a short stint in the cockpit
by Ron Rivero. According to Gordy, the Fletcher chassised car
qualified at all the events it entered, but "didn't set the
world on fire." Team stuck pretty close to it's SoCal home;
furthest trip from home was AHRA Winternationals in Phoenix. During
this same time period Thermos was trying to get Nitrous Oxide
Systems (NOS) up and running... the car was campaigned less
frequently than the rest of the team would have liked so in 74
Terry and Swearingen left the Camel camp and debuted a Mustang flopper... Camel was sold to Div 6 racer Joe Clement, ran with
a Cuda body through 75 before being rebodied as a Monza. (Photo
by John Shanks, info courtesy of Gordy Swearingen)
 Photographed
at Michigan's US 131 Dragway is Dale Creasy's Tyrant Mustang.
A perennial Div 3 contender in the early 70s, Creasy entered the
decade in the T/F ranks before switching to F/Cs... Al Marshall
driven entries won the division crown in 71 and 72, took second
in NHRA Eastern Conference standings in 72 and runnered-up at
the Grandnationals. Prior to the pictured "more high dollar"
effort, Creasy's were know for getting the most out of their aged equipment...
in fact 71 division winner car featured a ex-Phil
Bonner Torino body from 69, a ex-Fred Goeske chassis and a stroked
392! In 73ish Creasy's became Coke circuit regulars... in 75 Al
Marshall fielded his own Cuda flopper and Gary Bolger took over
the helm of the Tyrant, continued to wheel Creasy floppers into
the 90s! (Photo by Rick Howard)
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