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70s
Funny Cars: Round 53
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by Danny White
There were only a couple of dual-engine funny cars in drag racing history. These
included the Phony Pony of Junior Brogdon and the American Bandstand of Don
Hampton. Joining these was the A&W Root Beer Nova of Dean Dillingham.
Dillingham from Oklahoma had famed chassis builder Don Hardy build the car. He
had engine builder Louis Boyd of the Boyd & Griffiths Top Fuel team build
the twin small block Chevrolets. Dean raced the Nova in AHRA races and match
races without much success, running an 8.23 best at Oklahoma City and 177.51 at
Martin, Michigan. (Photo courtesy from Roger Stanke; information from Draglist
Files)
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Blower manufacturer Mert Littlefield began his fuel funny car career in this
little Dodge Dart. The Rapid Transit was purchased from Northwest racer Mike
Miller in 1970. Thayne Portier had built the car for Miller in 1968. Littlefield
repainted the car as the Rapid Transit and stuffed a Chrysler Hemi in the frame
rails. Mert raced the car at Lions, OCIR, Irwindale, and other tracks. In 1971,
Littlefield put a new Charger body on the chassis, and suffered a severe fire
that burned the car to the ground. (Photo courtesy of Bob Plumer/Drag Race
Memories; information from Draglist files)
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Andy Clary began his fuel career in a front engine dragster in mid-sixties
Southern California, but in 1969 built this funny car called the Brown Crown.
The Barracuda was standard fare for 1969; it came complete with a space frame
chassis, 392 Chrysler Hemi, and an automatic transmission. The candy brown
Plymouth was a favorite of photographers because of its wheelstanding antics
like this shot at Lions. The Barracuda ran sevens in the 200 MPH range and was a
moderate success. During the 1970 season, Clary had the car repainted as Andy
Clary's Torque Master. He built a new Maverick in 1971 to finish out his funny
car career. (L&M Photo courtesy of Bob Plumer/Drag Race Memories;
information from Draglist files)
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In the late 60s and early 70s, Bob McConnell raced the McConnell & Manusar
series of Corvettes out of Illinois. The first Corvette was a square tube
chassis powered by a Chevy. The Corvette in the photo is the team's second funny
car, which was much more state-of-the-art (despite the unique two-port
injector). The McM Corvette was a regular at Rockford during the time, the home
of the “other” Manufacturer’s Funny Car race. (L&M Photo courtesy of
Bob Plumer/Drag Race Memories; information from Draglist files)
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Jim Adolph may be more famous as a car magazine publisher and as a hired gun in
other people's cars, but Jim once fielded his own car, this beautiful Camaro.
The Adolph Brothers & Green team raced for only a couple of years on the
West Coast. The Camaro was powered by a venerable 392 Chrysler Hemi and the team
was sponsored by B&M Transmissions. Before retiring, Adolph went back to
driving for other teams, including Jim Glenn’s series of Shady Glenn cars,
Bert Berniker’s Hindsight rear engine funny car, and RJ Trotter’s Top
Fueler. In 2008, Adolph returned to the cockpit, renewing his license in the
Nitro Charger Dodge Daytona nostalgia funny car. (Photo courtesy of Tom West/
Replicas West; information from Draglist files)
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Merek Chertkow was a Michigan native when he got a ride in Ed Taylor's dragster.
The problem was that the car was in California. In 1966, Chertkow got his most
famous assignment, shoeing the Ramchargers dragster during the 1966 season after
Don Westerdale went to work for Ford. After a year with the Ramchargers, Merek
moved to California and started building various kinds of racing engines. In
1974, he made his return to nitro racing with this Ford Pinto powered by a SOHC
Ford motor. Chertkow's partner Rick Watson built the chassis in his shop. The
team did not race for long and the car soon disappeared from the So-Cal scene.
(Photo courtesy of Rich Hernandez; information from Draglist files)
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Alabama racer Ralph Bradford jumped into the funny car wars with one of Billy
Holt's former Alabamian Vegas. Satan's Angel was a local legend and match raced
the likes of Dee Simmons, Johnny Davis, Ernie Duckett, and others. Bradford ran
both injected & blown in the Don Hardy built Vega. Bradford was a regular
on the IHRA circuit with Vega in Pro Comp. (Photo courtesy of Phil
Burgess and NHRA files; information from Draglist files, Dennis Doubleday, and
Bret Kepner)
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The choices for alcohol funny racers in mid 70s Australia were slim. You could
race in the Comp class on an index and Pro Comp was still in its infancy. The
last choice was to race heads up against the quicker and faster nitro cars, but
that’s the choice Chris Sirinotis made. Running a Plymouth Cuda on alcohol,
Chris raced against the more powerful nitro cars. Sirinotis ran an 8.02 at a
whopping 192 MPH in 1976. He raced the car through the 1978 season before
retiring from funny car racing. (Photo courtesy of Steve Thomas; information from Draglist files)
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Cleveland, Ohio, racer Tom Liddy ran The Dragon Plymouth Satellite funny in the
late seventies. The machine was better remembered for the mural of Bruce Lee on
the side of the car than for its performances. The Plymouth was powered by a Sid
Waterman built Hemi. This photo shows the car’s best appearance; a run in with
a guardrail resulted in permanent primer spots thereafter. Liddy would later add
Kung-Fu to the name and the car became the Kung-Fu Dragon. Tom soon retired
from racing after renaming the car. (Photo courtesy of Brian Robinson;
information from Bret Kepner and Draglist files)
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In 1978, the Rampage team of Vacca & Semchenko added this Monza funny to the
team's well known Top Fueler. The funny car has been forgotten with time it
seems. The Rampage team won the 1976 NHRA Division One Top Fuel title with Grant
Stoms at the wheel. John Camamis took over the wheel of the New Jersey based
fueler in 1978 as well as the funny car. Draglist records show that the team did
not race after 1978 in either car. (Photo courtesy of Big Bob Snyder and www.vintagedragclub.com; information from Big Bob Snyder, Bill Dee, and Draglist files)
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