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Round 19: Featuring
Wild Wilfred Boutilier, Gitthens & Humphrey, Joe
Clement, Keeling & Clayton, Jeff Courtie, Wendall White, Nelson
Carter, the Super Duster, Earl Binns VooDoo Pinto,
Mart Higginbotham, Gas Ronda, Frank Federici, and the Southern
Bros.
 Whatever
happened to "Wild Wilfred" Boutilier? One of the early
heavy hitters in Pro Comp, in 74 Wild Wilfred won the first Pro
Comp event at Irwindale, ran 6.98 in the process with his BB/FC
Vega to become the first Pro Comp car in the 6s. Vega eventually
gave way to a Mustang II, and he moved from CA to GA in 75. Pictured
Arrow debuted in 76, was his Mustang II rebodied and lengthened.
With the pictured entry Boutilier would step up to nitro (15 to
20%) from alcohol at selected NHRA divisional events or IHRA races
to get into the nitro F/C show, then go back to running alcohol.
By the late 70s Wilfred was confining his activities to southern
match-races against touring nitro pros... but interestingly doing
it on alcohol. He finally called it quits in 82 due to the $$$
involved. Arrow was sold to an individual in MO. (Photo and Info
courtesy of Wilfred Boutilier)
 Mid-way
through the Gitthens & "Partner" line of floppers
came the Elvis Humphrey driven Gitthens & Humphrey Vega circa
74/75. Campaigned out of Oklahoma, the "Indian Country"
Vega took R/U at 75 AHRA Nationals at Green Valley. Lost in first
round to Tom McEwen, got back in on break rule and defeated Bob
Taylor's Hemi Hoss Mustang, then defeated Al Vanderwoude in the
semi-finals, lost in final to Jim Nicoll's Vega, 6.91/192 to 7.21/208.
Line started with the Jerry Gitthens and Joe Allen Camaro funny
car which debuted in 68 and was a Midwest/Div 4 regular through
the early/mid-70s when the pictured Vega debuted. Following the
partnership with Humphrey pictured Vega was run as the Gitthens & Jefferson entry with Jerry Jefferson at the helm. Jefferson
eventually split to run his own "Oklahoma Landrush"
Arrow in the late 70s while Gitthens teamed up with Jim Roberts
on ancient "The Okie" Vega. (Photo courtesy of Don Eckert)
 From
the Great Northwest came Joe Clement. Joe got his nitro funny
car start wheeling the ex-Sopwith Camel Cuda from 73-75, then
rebuilt the chassis and put a Monza body on the car. Car was lost
to a fire after being campaigned for 3 years... pictured Vette
replaced the Monza. In Clement's words "The Vette was a new
piece, a copy of a Swindle car I built in my shop." Pictured
car was run from the late 70s into the early 80s when an Omni
body was dropped on to the chassis. Omni revived the "Engine
Masters" name when, according to Joe "I purchased Engine
Masters from Ray Alley after I sold my auto parts and machine
shop near Seattle." Joe confined his activities to the West
Coast because "... a very low budget (no budget) keep me
close to home." Following a stint in the Sno-Town Shaker
Arrow and a Fuel Altered he called it quits, returned last year
to the CIFCA circuit with a Tempo bodied car... 2002 plans call
for returning to nitro flopper wars?!?! (Photo and info courtesy
of Joe Clement)
 One
of the most immaculate series of funny cars to grace the quarter
mile was run by the California based team of John Keeling and
Jerry Clayton. Team was known for their "California Charger"
T/F car that won the inaugural Supernationals in 70 and held the
NHRA et record for a period... first flopper, a 392 powered
Pinto, debuted at Lions 17th Anniversary Race in 71 with Rick
Ramsey (also the teams T/F shoe) driving... later gave way to
ex-John Hoven flopper driver Tom Ferraro. By 74 team was concentrating
strictly on their funny car effort and campaigning the pictured
Mustang with ex-Snow shoe Jake Johnston at the wheel. Billy Meyer
did a short stint at the helm in 75 as did Pat Foster and Neil
Leffler. Car was run through 77 when team debuted a Leffler driven
"California Charger" Trans-Am. That car closed out the
K&C legacy, ended up competing in European Pro comp wars out
of Norway in the early 80s. (Photo by Dave Milcarek)
 SoCal regular Jeff Courtie
began his F/C career at the wheel of a self-built (as were all
his cars) Mustang flopper in 1970. 392 powered Cuda followed in 71... body on that car was shed at OCIR in 72 following a big
wheelstand, lowered Cuda body replaced it and 426 mill was installed
in mid-74. On a qualifying pass at the 74 NHRA World Finals quote
"I blew the Cuda body into orbit... switched to pictured
Mustang II body for the 1975 season." Courtie was thought
of as a "low buck, do it yourself" (all the chassis,
alum tin work, body work, mounting, engine, mechanical work, etc.)
type racer, yet his floppers were always noted to be as sanitary
and competitive as the "big dollar rides" of the era. Jeff reports "I raced up until
July of 78, had a good offer to sell the car, (car went to Australia)
and with an all volunteer crew it became harder to staff the crew
at the races (guys were getting married, starting families, full
time jobs, etc.) I also changed jobs in 76, which began taking
up more of my time, leaving less time for racing; it was a hard
decision to quit..." (Photo by John Shanks, info courtesy
of Jeff Courtie)
From
Oregon came Wendall White's "Whites Lightning" circa
1975. White had a varied background from racer to track owner... ran
Bonanza Raceway in Walla Walla, WA., during the early 70s prior
to going flopper racing. In 74 he purchased the 73 version of
Kenny Goodell's F/C, put Goodell in the seat for the 74 season
before taking over the reins in 75. Silver and black Demon crashed
at Boise Idaho in 77... chassis was front halved and a Corvette
body installed. White campaigned the Vette as a AA car through
the 78 season, then converted the car to alcohol for the 79 &
80 seasons due to the escalating cost of nitro racing minus a
sponsor. White reports that during his last season on nitro (78)
he spent about $60,000 to make $45,000! At the end of the 80 season
White sold everything and retired from the funny car ranks. (Photo
from Handout courtesy of Jim White, info courtesy of Wendall White)
 Starting
life as the Imperial Kustoms Charger out of Oklahoma in the late
60s was this 71 version of Nelson Carter's "Super Chief"
Charger. Car Craft, Sep 68, reported Super Chief name was a adopted
after Carter held a "name the funny car contest" at
strips where the car was appearing. Green laced and red/purple
multi-hued full size Chargers preceded pictured entry as did a
mini-Charger in 70. Among the drivers Carter utilized were original
co-owner Ron Perau, Steve Bovan, Dave Beebe, Tim Grose, Bob Pickett.
According to photographer Tom West "Last entry had the Okie,
Steve Bernd, driving it for it's only outing. It got a little
light on the front end, going into a wheelstand at OCIR and the
car spun into the guard rail... crash was immortalized in the
movie "Funny Car Summer." Carter hung it up after that."
Super Chief
name reemerged on a Henry Harrison owned/driven Camaro in mid-78,
won the Division 7 Funny Car crown. (Photo courtesy of Tom West)
 The
1972 version of the Memphis based Bill Taylor and Stanley Wolff
"Super Duster" is shown at York US 30. Super Duster
name debuted in 1970 at the AHRA Winternationals with a young
Bobby Rowe at the wheel who was shoeing a nitro flopper for the
first time... 14th pass in the car netted an unreal (for the
time) 7.18/203 at the Gatornationals. Don Hardy built car's were
a booked in and match race regular for the most part... arguably
biggest national event win was the 70 AHRA 1/8 mile championship
at St Louis where Rowe had the 16 car field covered with a 4.78
best. Gary Henderson replaced Rowe in the pictured ride and followed
into the all red 73 version of the Duster. Following an accident
with Billy Grooms at the wheel the car disappeared, although a
BB/FC version of the car was campaigned for a period. (Photo courtesy
of Drag Racing Memories)
From
Iowa came the VooDoo Pinto owned by Ralph Rowe and Al Albright,
driven by Earl Binns, circa 1975. Binns came to floppers from
T/F were he got his start in 1964 and continued to campaign rails
before jumping into this ex-Bill Schifsky Pinto in late 74. Team
made one trip west to Irwindale and Bakersfield in early 75 to
get Binns his F/C license, then concentrated mostly on mid-west
match racing, attended a few divisional events and traveled as
far north as Canada and as far east as Detroit for booked in events.
In mid-75 VooDoo name was replaced by "Albright & Rowe"
on the billboard. Car lost a wheel at the 75 NHRA Nationals, suffered
minimal damage, but team chose not to rebuild the Pinto... car
was sold to individual from Des Moines and the team came back
in 76 with another T/F effort, but called in quits shortly thereafter
due to other commitments. (Photo by John Shanks, info courtesy
of Earl Binns)
 Carrying
the dragon theme was Mart Higginbotham's "Drag-On" Vega
pictured here at the rain plagued 73 NHRA Winternationals. Probably
one of the few Certified Public Accountants wheeling a funny car,
Higginbotham got his start in the late 60s at the helm of Mike
Burkhart floppers before striking out on his own in 71 with a
Racing Fuels Inc. (RFI) Drag-On Vega; was elected to the Cars
Magazine Top Ten Funny Car Drivers of the Year list after his
inaugural solo F/C season. Pictured entry was Higgy's third Vega
flopper, a 119" inch WB Don Long "laydown" creation
that was one of Long's first F/C projects to feature a semi-reclining
driver position to help lower the car. Although Higginbotham retired
in the mid-70s and a national event win eluded him, he might best
be remembered as the money manager for the ill-fated, breakaway
Don Garlits lead Professional Racers Organization (PRO) of the
early/mid70s. (Photo courtesy of David Ray)
 Blasting
past the tree at Irwindale in very early 1970 is Gaspar "Gas"
Ronda. Ronda was a pioneer on the west coast funny car scene,
was first injected funny car driver in the 8's in 66, AHRA driver
of the year in 67, won the prestigious 69 OCIR Manufacturers Race
running as quickly as 7.26/200 with pictured car. Shortly after
this photo Ronda was burned in a blower explosion/oil fire at
the AHRA Winternationals and retired from driving. Car was rebuilt
and Ronda returned mid-season with his Mustang cloaked with a
identically painted 70 shell, wrenched by ex-Mickey Thompson "Blue
Mach 1" mechanic Amos Saterlee and driven by former A/FC
record holder Dick Poll. Dave Bowman later purchased the Mustang and ran it as the California
Stud before building his rear engined Vega panel wagon F/C of
the same name in 72. (Photo courtesy of Pat Smith @ Turbos' Racing
Photos)
 After
racing Corvette bodied cars in the "sportsman classes"
in the early 60s, Rhode Island's Frank "The Beard" Federici
debuted one of the first Corvette bodied funny cars on the east
coast in 1967 with a 426 powered "Shark" at the tender
age of 21. Car was one of two "competitive" Vette bodied
cars on the east coast in the late 60s/early 70s along with the
George's Corvette Shop entry. Federici also ran the east coast's
only topless Vette (ala Beach City, Gene Conway) for a period... Shark
entries didn't seem to suffer the same "crash-itis"
as west coast bodied Vettes although this 71 version was lost
in a crash at Suffolk. Federici was a match race and open competition
regular in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states through the mid-70s... was
known for his occasional wild antics; at a show at Conn. Dragway,
he did a quarter mile burnout, pulled the chutes, and did burnouts
in front of each set of stands on his way up the return road!!
(Photo by Ted Pappacena)
 The "Southern Comfort"
Vega owned by George and Dan Southern debuted in Div 5 in early
78. George was a firefighter in Denver and drove the car while
brother Dan eventually went on to drive the Jungle Fever and Mile
High Express nitro floppers in the 80s... and is still active
today as an alcohol flopper shoe. Car is shown at the Div 5 race
at Pueblo, Co., in Apr 78. Southern Comfort car didn't venture
too far from home, was a Div 5 regular... car placed 3rd in Div
5 competition in it's inaugural season. In 81 chassis was lengthened
and an Omni body replaced the Vega shell. Car was campaigned through
82 as a nitro car before team switched to alcohol. (Photo courtesy
of John Bergener, info courtesy of Bob Gibson)
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