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Round 8: Featuring Randy Lackey, Ron
O'Donnell, Al Hanna, Mountain Monza, Super Shops Arrow, Bob Banning
Dodge, Frank Oglesby, Bob Sullivan, Pee Wee Wallace, the Okie
Smoker, Tommy Grove, Rodalyn Knox, and Larry Arnold's King
Fish.
From
beautiful Muleshoe, TX., came cotton farmer Randy Lackey and his
Monza. Lackey started flopper racing in the alcohol ranks in 75,
won Pro Comp at AHRA Southwest Grand American at Tulsa that same
year with early F/C effort powered by a 460" Kelly Chadwick
prepped motor. In 76 Lackey upgraded the alcohol car to nitro
status, continued to run a Chevy mill, later replaced the Chevy
with Hemi powerplant. Race efforts were pretty much confined to
around the south central region; finished 2nd in Div 4 pts in
76, 8th in 77, campaigned sporadically through 78 and 79, finished
decade with 79 Mustang bodied flopper. (Photo courtesy of Jim
White)
Chicago's
Ron O'Donnell at the wheel of Don Cook's beautiful Damn Yankee
from 71/72. Cook built this car after T/F efforts and a Corvette
flopper. Pat Foster was the first to shoe this car, gave way to
O.D. after 71 NHRA Nationals. Car held both ends of the NHRA record
for a period at 6.41/228. In 73 O.D. stepped out on his own and
fielded "The Big Noise From Illinois" Cuda, a name which
soon gave way to O' Donnell fielding his own "Damn Yankee"
Vega painted nearly identically to the car above. In 77 O'Donnell
built a Damn Yankee Mustang II, but the car was destroyed before
the paint was even dry after chute failure at US 131. O.D.'s accomplishments
included taking runner up at the 73 IHRA Winternationals, winning
the Byron Dragway 32 car show in 75. (Photo art courtesy of Tom
West, Replicas West)
 Al
Hanna's Eastern Raider F/C line started as a full size
supercharged Charger in 70, an injected Pinto around 72, then
a blown Pinto. After Hanna split with teammate Joe Mundet in 75,
Mundet campaigned a Dale Pulde driven Eastern Raider Mustang II
(which won Bakersfield) and Monza on the West Coast for the first
half of the year, while Hanna and Bill Dee campaigned the "Original
Eastern Raider" Pinto back east. By 76 Hanna was running
the sole Eastern Raider entry, confined activities mainly to the
East Coast, but did tour for a short period with the Coke Cavalcade.
In the 80s Hanna moved on to jet powered funny cars, which he
still races today. Pictured flopper is Hanna's 79 entry. (David
Hapgood photo)
Division
5's
Clint Miller debuted the Mountain Monza at the 76 Phoenix Winter
Classic, is shown scorching the paint at 76 NHRA Winternationals.
Many other flopper teams during the decade weren't as lucky as
fire was the most serious and common disaster F/C drivers had
to deal with. Following a rash of fires, NHRA mandated on board
fire extinguishers in 71 which, due to early teething problems
with the set-ups, didn't always produce the hoped-for results.
Few teams escaped the carnage during the 70s. In fact, SS&DI
reported that between 1 Jan 73 and late March 73, 18 nitro floppers
had been destroyed by crash and/or fire. A nowhere near all inclusive
list of floppers lost to fires in the 70s includes Al Bergler's
Vega, MT's Grand Am, Frantic Ford, Eastern Raider Pinto, Trojan
Horse Mustang, Brutus Mustang, Fred Goeske's Duster, Sam Miller's
Mustang, King Camaro, Custom Body Arrow, Bruce Larson's Camaro,
Bad Habit Pinto, etc, etc, etc. (Photo by John Shanks, used with
permission)
 The
Super Shops Arrow at the AHRA Winternationals, 78. Car debuted
in 77 at the NHRA World Finals for shake-down passes with Super
Shops' AA/FA shoe Dave Hough at the wheel. Hough drove the car
through mid-78 when Pat Foster took over the helm. Foster became
the third member of the Cragar 5 Second Club with a 5.99 in Apr
79 and won the 79 Div 7 F/C championship in this car. Ed McCulloch
took over the reins of a new Super Shops Arrow in 1980, won the
NHRA Nationals that year. Car was well known for it's "Win
This Car" front spoiler although rumor has it this car was
not the car given away. In fact, this car showed up for sale in
the Jan 81 issue of National Dragster... being offered by Super Shops... mmmmmm?!?! (JW Last Photo)
 Like Mr. Norm, Maryland's Bob Banning believed in the "Win on Sunday,
sell on Monday" philosophy. Like many east coast floppers
of the early 70s, the team came up through the gas injected F/C
ranks in the late 60s, moved up to a supercharged nitro burner
in 1970. But unlike most teams, driver Tom Sneden and wrench Dave
Reitz didn't seem to have too much concern with painting their
race car green; a superstitious, undesirable color. While strictly
an east coast performer, this flopper was built using west coast
expertise; Gilmore chassis, Keith Black stroker, paint by Kirby,
Youngblood lettering. Biggest event win came at the 8th Annual
Cars Magazine Championship at Atco, NJ., in 72. Bob Mayer drove
the car in 73 to close out its career. (Photo courtesy of Drag
Racing Memories)
 Atlanta,
Georgia's, Frank Oglesby campaigned nitro F/Cs throughout the entire
decade of the 70s. After wheeling "Dyno Don" Nicholson's
Cougar, Oglesby stepped out on his own with the "Quarterhorse"
series of Mustangs. Unfortunately Oglesby was one of the many
victims of the 70s race car theft trend when one of his early
Mustang efforts was stolen (and recovered 2 months later in NJ
minus transporter) from the 72 IHRA season opener at Lakeland,
FL. Blue Max was also stolen at same event Friday, recovered by
local police, qualified #1 and won the event with borrowed Don
Schumacher parts. Other high profile funny car thefts in the 70s
included the Hawaiian, Custom Body Dodge, Ron O'Donnell's first
Vega and Billy Graham's "new for 79" flopper. Oglesby
finished the decade wheeling the "Mellow Yellow" Mustang.
Best finish was R/U at 78 IHRA Winternationals. (Photo courtesy
of Don Eckert)
 From
1970 comes Kansas City's Bob Sullivan's cherry red Pandemonium
Camaro. Sullivan was a "heavy hitter" in the mid-60s
T/F wars, titles included the 65 AHRA Winternationals championship.
In the late 60s Sullivan moved to the flopper ranks and fielded
a "Pandemonium" Barracuda (which has been restored by
Bob Gibson & Ken Chase) and a "topless" Camaro prior
to this effort. Sullivan didn't make too many national events
with his floppers, seemed to do little match racing and soon "faded
away." This car was based on a Fletcher chassis and powered
by a 400 inch 57 Chrysler backed up by a Torqueflite. (Photo courtesy
of Bob Gibson)
Richmond,
Va's., Pee Wee Wallace at the wheel of the "Virginian"
Cuda in 1971. Wallace's resume included a square tubed chassised,
direct drive Cuda in 69-70 that held MPH records up and down the
east coast and was one of the first floppers to consistently break
the 200 mph barrier. Following the above pictured Lindblad chassised
effort (which went on to become the "Big Red" injected
Cuda of Don Teague), Wallace drove the "Alabamian" Vega
(73) and Satellite (74), the Black Stang (75), returned to Virginian
name in 76 with Monza flopper. Wallace was Div 1 champ in 74,
75 and 76... a difficult enough task made even more impressive
by the fact he did it with 3 different rides!!!! (Photo courtesy
of Drag Racing Memories)
 From
Oklahoma City, OK., came Larry Brown and the aptly named "Okie
Smoker" Firebird photographed at Green Valley Race City,
TX., circa 1979. Brown was a NHRA Division 4 regular and regional
AHRA competitor with his flopper's from 76-79, had previously
shoed T/F efforts. Okie Smoker name was carried on a Monza, Satellite,
Arrow and the above Firebird. Brown was always in the Div 4 hunt,
often was low qualifier or ran low et, but never won a division
event with a flopper. Best overall division finish was a close
second to Gene Snow in 1978, fell to sixth in 79 with Billy Meyer's
Arrow winning the title. (Jim White photo)
 "Mr.
Ford" Tommy Grove's last Mustang bodied flopper circa 1973.
From the mid-60s through this car, Grove exclusively ran Mustang
F/Cs, all but this one Ford SOHC powered. Grove jumped into the
Barry Setzer Vega in late 74, continued to campaign the pictured
car simultaneously for a short period into 75 before concentrating
on the Setzer car full time through approx 77. Although an NHRA
national event victory eluded him, Grove did win several AHRA
races with the Fords. In fact Grove won the first flopper show
of the 70s at the 70 AHRA Winternationals. In a strange irony,
Grove won Beeline Dragway's "Mr. Chevrolet" title in
75 with the Setzer car. (Photo by John Shanks, used with permission)
 New
Hampshire's Rodalyn Knox made the gradual evolution from stockers
in the late-60s to a BB/FC Cuda & Duster in mid-70s to a nitro
flopper in the late 70s. In 78 Knox and her husband acquired Bill Leavitt's low-slung "Mighty Monza," renamed the car "Country
Girl" and reconfigured the body as an Olds Starfire. During
78, Knox, who confined her racing activities to the northeast,
was the only active female flopper driver in the country. However,
the summer of 79 saw Utah's Jo Ann Reynolds, wife of T/F driver
Mike Reynolds, obtain her nitro F/C license and spend the next
couple seasons driving floppers off and on. At the midway portion
of the 79 season Knox called it quits, put entire racing operation
up for sale. Today, Knox is a many time NTPA National Champion
in the Unlimited Modified Class. (Photo from Amalie Handout, courtesy
of Rodalyn Knox)
 Larry
Arnold bounced around in the late 60s shoeing the Chapman Automotive
Camaro, the Super Cuda, the Super Ford Torino, etc. In 1970 Arnold
took over the reins of TB Smallwood's "Kingfish" Cuda
and took runner-up at the 70 Supernationals to all conquering
Gene Snow. When Smallwood retired at the end of the 70 season,
Arnold bought the car, went on to win 71 Supernationals. Above
car debuted for the 72 season and early on took runner-up at 72
Gatornationals, won IHRA Pro-Am at Rockingham. Ad for this car
appeared in Aug 73 National Dragster saying "everything must go... must devote full time to business." In the mid-70s Arnold
did stints at wheel of M/Ts Grand AM, Pete's Lil' Demon and the
Hawaiian. (Photo courtesy of Drag Racing Memories)
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