|
Legends of the Quarter-Mile |
||
|
Presented by The Drag Racing Heritage Foundation |
||
|
Alvin “Mousie” Marcellus |
||
|
The Driving Force Behind the “Winged Express" Editors Note I consider myself very lucky to have gotten to know Mousie Marcellus and to be able to call him a friend. He is truly a living legend in drag racing and some one I could talk with for hours. He works tirelessly at keeping the “Winged Express” in front of the fans and always has the time to stop and talk with the people and sign autographs. He unselfishly gives his time to take his great car to charity events and will help out children or anyone else in anyway he possible can. If drag racing ever had a spokesperson it is with out a doubt Al Marcellus. He gets little or no help from anyone to keep the ‘Winged Express” in front of the fans and even though he lives on a fixed income, he still manages to have the car ready to run. I for one just want to say “Thank You, Mousie” and I hope I get to spend more time with him and record some more of his great stories to help document the history of drag racing. George Crittenden Nitrogeezers.com
Mousie at home with Willie 2004 (Photo Courtesy of Mousie Marcellus)
In drag racing circles, the name of the “Winged Express” bring to
mind the image of a fire breathing, tire-burning fuel altered driven by the
infamous “Wild Willie” Borsch. However there has always been another man,
just sort of standing in the background, that was the driving force behind this
historic car. Al “Mousie” Marcellus was the man that made it all happen for
the famed Marcellus and Borsch team. They were always the team to beat whenever
the most exciting class of cars to ever make a pass down the quarter-mile met to
do battle. In this article I will attempt to tell the story of the man behind
the man, so to speak and try to give you a better understanding of a true legend
in the sport of drag racing.
Born June 1, 1931 in Denver, Colorado it wasn’t long before his father,
Art Marcellus moved Alvin and his mother to Southern California. Mousie’s
father drove a truck to support his family so he was away from home quite a bit.
It was on one of these over the road trips, that in his attempt to help what he
thought were some stranded motorist, he was robbed and murdered. This left Alvin
as the man of the house and he started helping out by running a paper route. It
was while be was working as a paperboy that he got the nickname of Mousie and it
has stuck with him even today.
It seem that up until that time his nickname had been “Beaver”
because of the way his front teeth were but when he worked for the newspaper, he
would have to go down real early every morning to fold the papers and get them
ready for delivery. There was a large wooden table that the used to fold the
papers on and underneath it was an old physiatrist type couch. Being small he
could climb under the table and lye on the couch, where he would go to sleep.
One morning the “paper boss” couldn’t find him and after searching for
quite a while, Al came crawling out from under the table. At this point, the
paper boss looked at him and said “Your no beaver, you’re a damn mouse. So
from that day to this he has been “Mousie” Marcellus. While in the second grade he met-up with another boy that became his best friend and would go on to be one of the best-known names in drag racing, “Wild Willie” Borsch. From the time they first meet they did most everything together and by the time they were teenagers, of course the budding hot rod craze was at full bloom in Southern California and they were determined to be a part of it. Willie’s mother was killed in an auto accident when Willie was only sixteen so Willie more or less lived with Mousie and his mother and became just another member of the family.
Their
first car together was ’29 Model A roadster that they channeled and put in a
hopped up flathead. They were soon into racing at the lakes and of course the
occasional street race was not out of the question either.
It was in 1951 while discussing the possibility of one such street
race that an incident occurred that for all practical purposes put an end to
Mousie doing any of the driving. While stopped to talk with the Peterson
brothers about needing to have a running start for the race because of the fact
that Mousie had his lake gears in the car. Mousie looked up and saw the cops
beside him with his gun pulled. Immediately, the fact that a few days earlier
the police had shot and killed a handicapped man involved in a street race. Ran
through Mousie’s mind. When the man started to get out of the car, his
artificial leg “snapped” and the police, thinking it was a gun shot him. The
thought of this scared Mousie and he blasted out with the cops in pursuit.
Mousie roadster was of course much faster than the cop car but after jumping a
cross street, he lost control and hit a tree at high speed. The steering wheel
had his fingerprints embedded in it and his legs straightened the gearshift out
from the force of him hitting it. He was the thrown another 50-100 feet. This
put Mousie in a body cast for months and also got him an outrageous, for the
time 118.00 fine. By coincidence the 250.00 that he was carrying to pay for the
birth of his daughter disappeared when he was taken to the hospital. While still
in the body cast, he was drafted but because of the injuries he wasn’t
accepted so he did not have to go to the Korean War.
After his recovery he and Willy teamed up again to build a 1929 Model A
Highboy on ’32 rails. While running it with a flathead for power the car would
run 13.00 @ 101.61 on every run. If it slowed down to 99 they knew it time for
new plugs and sure enough it would go right back to 101.61. On one weekend they
went out to Saugas on Friday night and ran 110 then on Sunday the drove it out
to the Dry Lakes and set a class record at 140 mph. The meet was over early so
the climbed in and drove to San Fernando where they won yet another trophy. It
was quite a weekend and they drove the car wherever they went. Soon they added
Willie’s Chrysler and started running at Santa Ana and other tracks around
Southern California. It was on one of their trips to Bakersfield he first met
Ernie Hashim. They had driven the car to the track and were getting under it to
keep out of the hot sun. Ernie asked them what they would do if the car broke,
but that thought had not entered their mind. So after giving it some thought
they decided they should tow the roadster with Mousie’s 50’ Olds, just in
case. The car ran a best of 129 mph. In 1958 they built another ’29 Ford
roadster, again with Willie’s Chrysler for power and started to run as a fuel
altered. This was the first altered to utilize a rigid mounted rear-end but was
a very heavy car.
When, in 1959 Willie decided the car was too heavy the “Winged
Express” started to be constructed. Mousie would cut and shape the .049 wall
exhaust tube for the chassis during the day and Willie and Phil Johnson would
weld the pipe up at night. As they built the chassis, the other partners, Jim
Harrell, Don Reynolds, Dale Young and Jerry Hyatt were working on the rest of
the components at Harrell Engines that would become the most famous Fuel Altered
in drag racing. It was during the building of the car that Mousie decied to get
out of the partnership. He was more or less
a silent partner but accidentally discovered that Jim Harrell, who was suppose to
be their sponsor, was charging them full price for the parts needed for the car.
The car was completed by the others and was
run under the name of Harrell & Borsch.
After Mousie left the group, Don Reynolds became the financial backer but this was short lived as well so John Muse joined the team and the car was ran as The Harrell, Borsch & Muse Altered. It didn’t take long for Muse to get tired of throwing money at the car and he step down as well. In 1965, Jim Harrell decided the car was his and told Willie he was going to sell it.
The "Harrell, Borsch & Muse Altered
( Photo by Charles Strutt)
Mousie had been hanging around the shop of Howard Johansen and Howard and
Liz told Mousie that if he would buy the car they would help him out. This was
the real beginning of the Winged Express, as we know it. With the car being so squirrelly at speed, they started looking for a way to stabilize it. This is when Al Barnes, who was the cam grinder at Howard’s Cams convinced them that a wing would do the trick. Working with Phil Johnson and Bob Sorrel they went through several designs and the best placement for the wing be fore settling on it being mounted on top the roll bar with some shock absorbers made from tubing with springs inside and old Crosley connecting rods. As they say, the rest is history and the car start really running some numbers. In 1967 they set their first record at Carlsbad with a run of 8.39 @ 186. The car was the first Altered in the 7’s as well as the first to run 200 so their stereotype as just a bunch of backyard racers soon disappeared and they began to get the respect they deserved.
The
"Winged Express" circa 1969 Note the Dodge trick that still
pulls the Wing
Irwindale Raceway 1969 They must have been
getting ready to run the valves.
The team of Marcellus & Borsch became one of the most feared and
respected competitors in the wild and wooly Fuel Altered class and while
Willie’s one handed driving style and his ability to control the nitro
belching beast became legendary it was still Mousie Marcellus that kept the team
together and the car in shape. Mousie, who was working, as a Quality Engineer at
Hughes Helicopter Co. would blueprint all the parts in the evenings and Willie
would assemble them the next day. However, due to Willie’s narcolepsy, Mousie
would sit and watch so he could tell him what he was doing when he would wake
up. The friends worked well together though and in 1968 went on their first
nationwide tour. With Mousie handling the bookings it was a fairly profitable
tour with him sending money back to both his family and Willie’s wife every
month while they were on the road. However when they returned Mousie had money
in the bank and Willie’s wife had not handled his share as well and Mousie had
to bale him out of financial trouble. Even after all that they still showed a
profit of 6000.00 from the tour. In 1969, Mousie could not take off work again to go on tour so Willie went on his own and it was not quite as successful. After blowing 5 motors, Mousie sent several hours on the phone with Willie going over every detail of putting the engine together only to find out that he had not been changing the oil filter after the engine failures to try to save money. Needless to say that after correcting this oversight, the engine problems stopped. While the match race circuit was their bread and butter finiancly, they ran some of the NHRA national events. Winning the Winternationals back to back in 1967 and 1968. But it was the 1969 race that really showed what the car was capable of. Willie and the “Wing” qualified at a new record at the time, of 7.29 for the bump spot in a 32- car Top Fuel field. This run had bumped Don Garlits from the show and within minutes, a petition was signed by the other 31 Top Fuel qualifiers stating they would not line up against the altered. NHRA then reinstated Garlits and pushed the Wing into Super Comp. It was on the next pass the famous sideways shot was captured by the great Bob McClurg, which would become his signature photo and is still available in poster form from Mousie and others.
The now infamous Bob McClurg shot.
Winternationals 1969
The original Winged Express met its demise at Martin, Michigan when
Willie hit a pylon at mid-track, bent the frame and put the car on it’s top,
sending the wing into the parking lot where a spectator got themself quite a souvenir. When Mousie got word of the accident, he immediately started looking
for a replacement car to fill the contracts that they had for match races. He
got wind of a Logghe built altered that was stored in a warehouse in the L.A.
area. Keith Black made some calls and found that Goodyear had impounded the car
when they discovered that one of their dealers had ran it through the books
without their knowledge. They offered to sell the car for the attorney’s fees
so Mousie picked up the brand new car for only 2300.00. The drive-train from the
old car was removed and with the help of John Mazarella and Frank Huzar, was put
in the new one and they were soon back to racing. The car new was very quick and
fast and ran a best of 6.96 @ 213, but according to Mousie, it just never felt
the same as with the old car. To quote Mousie, “the old car was put together
with love and care”. This seemed like someone else’s car and after running
it for about 1½ years, Willie wanted to go Funny Car racing. Again in 1972 it was Mousie who secured the sponsorship from Revell to go Funny Car racing but for some reason Willie was determined to run a Chevy for power instead of the tried and true Chrysler so the car was never successful. The rife between Willie and Mousie began to widen and while at a photo shoot for Revell, Willie refuse to put on his team shirt and this was the last straw for Mousie, who gave the entire operation to Willie and went on his way. Sadly the funny car was a failure and both Willy and Mousie faded from the drag racing spotlight. Willie then went east to Detroit where he teamed up with Walt of Walt’s Puffer fame and repainted his Funny car with the ‘Wild Man” logo. Willy ended up back on Mousie’s doorstep with the entire rig but when he would not get out of bed to help mow the lawn, Mousie’s mother kicked him out. He then went to Gasoline Alley on Normandy,which was a group of shops owned by Bill Simpson and housed several race shops.It was there that the trailer was broken in and most of the parts stolen. He eventually sold the car, truck and trailer.
Willie working on the "Walt's
Puffer" car. Still no shirt and ironically it is a
The two did not see much of each other for several years but in 1990 when
Willie was inducted into the Drag racing Hall of Fame in Ocala, FL, they started
talking and discussing the possibility of building another “Winged Express for
the growing Nostalgia racing movement. Willie’s health was not the best but he
said he could drive the car during the day, but his eyesight would not allow him
to drive at night. So one again they teamed up and with Mousie financing the
deal the new car was started.
Mousie was in the process of moving Willie in with him so he could help
take care of him and the old friends could be together again when Willie’s
wife was going to have surgery. Willie was out in the hot sun getting he luggage
out of a storage building when he started to hemorrhage. After waiting on the
EMS to get there he was finally taken to the hospital and the hemorrhaging
gotten under control. He decided to stay an extra night at the hospital so he
could be there when his wife had her surgery but during the night, he rolled
over and his other lung filled with blood and he drowned. On October 10, 1991
the drag racing world lost one of the most exciting drivers to ever get behind
the wheel and Mousie Marcellus lost his lifelong friend.
After giving it a lot of thought, Mousie decided to complete the car and
run it in memory of Willie. Tom Medley at Specialty Cars started the project,
but when it was taking too long to complete, it was taken to the shop of Frank
Aldonna to be completed. The plan was for Frank Zendejas, who was the Curator of
the NHRA Museum to drive the car but he was stricken with lung cancer and passed
away before the car was completed. Mousie tells a great story about having the
car at Pomona before he had a driver for it when Funny Car Champion, John Force
who had hung around the pit of Mousie and Willie when he was just a kid, came up
talking with Mousie. Mousie ask him if he would like to make a pass in the car
and john said “sure”. After putting on his gear he climbed in the ‘Wing”
and checked out the controls, looked around the blower and then climbed back out
saying, “Mouse, I just don’t have the stones for this thing”. In the mid-nineties Mousie and his daughter took the new car on the road to display it at NHRA National Events such as Maple Grove and Indy. The crowd loved seeing the car and talking to Mousie. Soon after, Mousie teamed up with his present driver, “Iron Mike” Boyd. Mousie is convinced that Mike is Willie reincarnated as his driving style and dedication to the car is just the same as Willie was in the hay days of Fuel Altered racing. Again the “Winged Express” started showing up at tracks across Southern California for special events and wherever it appeared it was the hit of the show. The crowds loved the long smoky burnouts and the 200 mph, on the edge runs that Mike and the car did on every trip to the starting line. Mousie has hauled the car all over California to display or run it and has done it mostly out his own pocket with very little help from anyone else.
Mousie is all smiles at NHRR 2003 in Bowling
Green, KY In 2003, Mousie and a group of friends took a page from the history books and once again took the “Wing” on tour. They drove cross-country in the same old Dodge pick up that had took Willie and Mousie on tour 30 + years earlier hauling the car on an open trailer just as they had in 1969. They first stopped at Indy for the GoodGuys event there, where they had the misfortune to hurt the nitro burning 392 that powers the famous altered. It was then on to Bowling Green, KY for the first National Hot Rod Reunion. The team thrashed all week to get the car backing running condition and just as they would in the 60’s, friends joined in with parts and shops to work in to help them out. After working feverishly all day in the hot June sun they rolled the car to the line at sundown on Saturday evening and firing it for the first time, Mike laid down a 200 mph run that had the sellout crowd on it’s feet and cheering over the sound of the mighty Hemi. For a brief moment it was if they had turned back the hands of time to 1969.
The crew readies the car for it's pass at
Bowling Green (Vic Cooke Photo) While I in no way want to diminish what the great "Wild Willie” Borsch accomplished and he certainly deserves all the awards he received over the years but I truly feel that Alvin “Mousie” Marcellus deserves more recognition than he has received. He should be in the Hall of Fame along with Willie for there would have been no Winged Express with out him. He is with out a doubt the best ambassador that nostalgia drag racing has and takes the car to all kinds of events and charity functions, doing it all out of his pocket, while living on a fixed income. For what it is worth, in my opinion, it is a shame that someone or some company won’t step up and fund this piece of history so more people can have the distinct pleasure of seeing it make a pass and of getting to meet and talk with this living legend.
Mousie will be the Grand Marshall of the Goodguys Pomona event
CONTINUE To More Photos of "Mousie"
|
