2003 Funny Car Reunion
by Bill "Badco" Ott
© 2003 Bill Ott
Sunday July 27
‘A FUNNY THING HAPPENED….”
All that is now
All that is gone
And all that’s to come
And everything under the Sun
is in tune*
‘Chain Lightning’ was
sounding real crisp as Shirl slowly inched the Mustang bodied racer towards the
starting line. The burnout and dry hop ritual have been completed… now it’s
up to him to guide this NITRO burning missile down the track. A track that has
seen the bright Texas sun beat down on it for the past few hours, leaving it at
best, suspect. Oh, and then there’s these other factors… the August
afternoon air temperature is somewhere in the low the 90’s, the humidity
reading about the same.
Hey, back up! Did I say
Texas sun? Hell… I meant to say North Jersey sun, must have forgot where I was
for a minute. See, it was thirty years ago (damn near to the day) that I spent a
hot, muggy afternoon at the old Houston Raceway Park checking out an NHRA
Divisional meet. And the two most impressive racers I recall from that event?
Shirl Greer and his ‘Chain Lightning’ fuel coupe and the AA/FD of local
favorites Stephens and Venables… who had already established themselves as
perennial Division IV Top Fuel champs. While Shirl, on the other hand, was on
his way to becoming NHRA’s first ever Funny Car World Points Champion… much
to the shock to a whole lotta racers.
But, you know, sometimes it
really hits ‘ya, that ‘ol déjà vu thing Yogi’s mentioned before. As I
was leaving the house Saturday morning, I grabbed a few music Cds and threw them
in the car. Next thing I know, I’m eastbound on the Turnpike with Pink
Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ oozing from the speakers. It’s safe to
assume I listened to the same album** (or at least a cut from it on the FM) the
day I drove out to Houston Raceway. Probably stood in just about the same spot
(about sixty feet down track - left lane side) diggin’ on the NITRO fumes with
a number by the Floyd running through my head. ‘Breathe’ or better yet
‘Brain Damage’ comes to mind.
But it wasn’t all quite
the same today. ’Chain Lightning’s big Hemi came to life but wouldn’t stay
fired. On the second attempt it floundered and stalled again. Word was, it
coughed the blower right there on the starting line. Buy whatever went wrong, it
ended Shirl’s day. Too bad. The guys made the long drive from down south and
didn’t even get in a run. And I was looking forward to the short trip back to
Texas too.
But you know what? There’s
been a hell of a lot of other things going on here at Raceway Park this
afternoon. Hey, did I even mention that we’re here at the 2nd
Annual Boninfante Racing Clutches Funny Car Reunion? If not… it’s time I
did. We’re at the 2nd Annual Boninfante Racing Clutches Funny Car
Reunion right here at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Englishtown New Jersey.
Judging by the number of
people in the seats… and the number of cars in attendance, ’ol Berserko Bob
and crew did a good job of ‘getting the word out’. Speaking of which, I
spent a lot of time last week driving around the North Jersey/Metropolitan New
York area. Yeah, I know, lucky me, but most of it was in the middle of the
night. Anyway, I heard the radio ad for the Reunion over and over on 101.5 FM,
complete with the legendary ‘Screaming Mouse’. Damn good ad, and it was fun
to hear that frantic ‘Sunday-Sunday’ style of announcing again.
This whole event got off to
a good start Sunday with a repeat of a long standing Englishtown
tradition…lining up all of the Funnies down both sides of the track, hoisting
up the bodies, and firing ‘em all up at the same time. This year’s ‘VP
Racing Fuels Funny Car Fire Up’ featured no less than thirty four cars… all
cackling’ in unison.
I was fortunate enough to be
out on the track during this year’s Fire Up.. what a sight! C’mon, it’s
kicking off right now, let‘s ‘walk the gauntlet’ right down the center
line of the track, cars cackling’ on both sides of us. Earplugs optional.
Sitting first in the left
(pit side) lane, cackling’ on 90%, and bringing tears to everyone’s eyes is
Rocky Pirrone and the whole gang from Philly (Donna, Tom, Bill, et al) with the
way cool, flamed ‘Nitro Charger’. Directly across the track, Bob Alford’s
patriotic looking ‘Flaming Eagle’ Vega. Original owner Jim Maybeck was also
seen hanging around the red, white, and blue beauty.
Next on our right sits the
blue ‘Skull Crusher’ Mustang… I’ll assume the name comes from the fact
that when the body is lowered the drivers head sticks through the roof just the
slightest bit. Scary! Next to ‘Skull Crusher’ another gang from Philly. Paul
Gold’s ‘Good Vibrations’ Vette was puttin’ out lots of good vibes with
it’s colorful paint and cackling’ motor. Good Vibrations is the former Dave
Sano car, which means it’s also the former John ‘Brute’ Force
Wendy’s/Pepsi car. Whole lotta history sitting here and this car gets
raced…a lot.
Talk about history… on the
other side of the track we find the beautifully restored red Dick
Harrell/Courtesy Chevrolet ‘68 Camaro now owned by Tom Clary. Accompanying Tom
and the Camaro was none other than famous funny car shoe Dale Pulde and the late
Mr. Harrell’s daughter Valerie. The blown Big Chevy sounded sharp. Parked
directly to their right sat another Camaro. Matt Murphy’s red, white, and blue
‘Fascination’. Matt towed this jewel all the way up from Georgia and put on
a good show later out on the track during exhibition runs. Thanks Matt.
In front of the guys from
Georgia sat another team from down South. The Burris Brothers ‘Widowmaker’
82 Charger from somewhere down in the Carolina‘s… more on these guys later.
Crossing over to the right side of the track again, you found K.G. Underwood’s
‘Feed The Children‘ Vette making noise.
Continuing our walk down
track we find the ‘Fuelish’ Monza to our right while over on the pit side
sat the Conlon Brothers ‘Boston Monkey’ flip top Fiat Topolino. I know, I
know, it ain’t a Funny Car, and it was running 17” slicks, but it looked
cool anyway.
New Jersey’s own Leroy
Blackman’s ‘Blue Moon’ (sporting a new moonish and flamed paint job) sat
directly across from Leonard Pope’s wild green ‘Hippie Hemi’ 70 Plymouth
Arrow. The ‘88 Dodge Daytona of Chuck Exton, appropriately named ‘Wild and
Crazy’ was next in line while Tim Hansberry’s Blown big block Ford powered,
GT-40 bodied whatzit named ‘Finagler’ idled over on the pit side… it
sounded cool!
Next on the pit side is
Brian Bennett’s beautifully restored early seventies ‘Rambunctious’
Charger formerly campaigned by Gene Snow and Jake Johnston. Shirl Greer’s
earlier mentioned ‘Chain lightning’ sat directly across from the Gene Snow
car cackling‘ on NITRO. Again… a lot of history goin’ on here. The
‘Southern Gentlemen’ 79 Mustang was next in line. Couldn’t find out much
about this one, but it was sporting a ‘For Sale’ sign.
Back across track Willie
Johnson and crew had the popular ‘No Money - No Funny’ Chevy II fired up.
Willie is almost a shoe in for the best dry hops at any event he attends, and
everyone loves to see them. Everyone except the starting line crew at Maple
Grove that is. Seems Willie was attempting to polish his dry hop technique a few
weeks ago at the ‘Geezers At The Grove” and was threatened with
excommunication after his first hop. Some people just don’t get it!
The team cackling’ in
front of Willie’s car is know for being a little more laid back than the ‘No
Money - No Funny’ crew. I’m talking about ‘89 NHRA Funny Car World
Champion and one of the most popular guys in the sport… the pride of Dauphin,
Pa… Bruce Larson. Bruce and crew had the beautiful ‘USA-1’ 68 Camaro on
hand, much to the whole crowd’s delight. Bruce would be back out on the track
later to make some 1/8th mile passes. The Camaro is exactly like it
was when it ran back in ’68 and therefore it can’t be certified for full
quarter miles passes because it’s not sporting the latest safety gadgets. The
boys from Dauphin also brought along the USA 1 Corvette F/C that sat on display
by the Hussey Copper Custom Head Gasket Autograph Tent all weekend. Bruce is
also this year’s Funny Car Reunion Grand Marshall following the footsteps of
last year’s Grand Marshall, Jungle Pam Hardy. Speaking of following Jungle
Pam’s footsteps, she’ll be backing Bruce up after his burnouts later in the
day.
And one other thing while
we’re discussing Ms Hardy. Saturday night I found my way to the legendary
Vitale’s Restaurant and Bar and was lucky enough to share dinner (and hoist a
few) with Jungle Pam , Freddie Frye, Bob and Dottie Plummer, Joe and Vicki
Jacono, J.J. (who’s last name I don’t know) and his girlfriend, and some
others I still don‘t know. Had a great time and I highly recommend the lasagna
and the house salad dressing. While we were busy raising hell two guys at
another table bought us all a round. Don’t know who they were, but again,
thanks a lot, whoever you are.
Where to hell were we? Oh
yeah, the Funny Car Fire Up, let’s see, we stopped at….. Larson, yeah,
that’s right, Bruce Larson. So let’s see, that would make next in line…
Bob Gibson’s black primer American Racing sponsored ’79 Mustang. Don’t
know what happened to Bob’s ’Tom and Jerry’ Duster, but I personally love
any car finished in ‘suede’.
As we continue along we find
on our right the Giovinazzi Racing Team’s ‘79 Plymouth Arrow called
‘Nightmare’ with the ‘New York Twister’ Challenger across the track.
Immediately in front of the ‘Twister’ sits the Sweetman Bros. Chevy
Citation. And across from them Rob Bundy is stabbing the throttle on the Fliptop
Industries blown big Chevy powered ‘Shellshock’ Vega. Fliptop Industries
makes fiberglass Vega body parts. Man, Vegas are cool! Next up… Greg
Jacobsmeyer and the beautiful Westport Dodge ‘Hemi Challenger’. Before all
of the smoke would settle by Sunday night ‘Jake’ would run a very impressive
7 flat at 190.24. Might have been low ET for the alky cars?
Damn! There’s a lot of
cars here. But before we’re done we’re gonna mention every damned one of
‘em! Like the Barone Racing Family… that’s the way it’s lettered on
sides of their trailer, gotta love it! These guys (and girls) are next in line
with their Pennsylvania based ‘War Horse’ 78 Mustang II. Bob Barone handles
the driving chores.
And while we’re on the
subject of chores. This next team has got to be the hardest working crew in ALL
of Drag Racing. I’m talking about Lou Sgro and Colleen Mahoney. These guys
just LOVE to get dirty. But, by God, come time to race and they’re both
squeaky clean… and so is the ‘Action Man’ Challenger. This is the former
Kenny Goodell car campaigned in the Northwest in ‘71. Lou and Colleen both
‘cleaned up nice’ for the Fire Up. Hey, I ran into Rocky Roxlau (of
Rocky’s Rod Shop) with a cool front engine digger later in the day, and he
told me the digger was formerly owned by Lou. Rocky was making some licensing
passes and ran an earlier best of 8.53 @ 153. The ‘94 Heads Up chassis kind of
resembled a Woody car in the back.
OK… back to the Funny
Cars. Across from the ‘Action Man’ was Jake Crimmons with the TASC sponsored
late model Camaro, looked like a Carbon Fiber body to me. This one competes in
Division I Top Alcohol Funny Car on the Big Circuit. Very Hi-Tech.
This next one, I’ve been
looking forward to mentioning. Rick ‘Surf’ Stambaugh and the beautifully
flamed red ‘New Generation’ Corvette. New Generation is more than an
appropriate name for this one. Surf’s son Matt and daughter Robin make up one
of the most energetic pit crews you’ll ever encounter. Hell, this whole bunch
loves this stuff and their enthusiasm just kinda ‘rubs off’ on you after a
while. Surf’s been a little under the weather lately so Craig Beckner is
handling the driving duties this weekend. This one’s got some history too. The
chassis is from the former Phil Castranova ‘Mini Charger’ that crashed at
the Gators years ago and the body (if I got the story right) was campaigned out
West as the ‘Moby Dick’ F/C. These guys eventually took home the bucks for
the best burnout AND top speed for alcohol cars. And yes, their burnouts were
bitchin’.
Across the track is the
“Saturday Night Fever” 76 Monza formerly owned by the late ‘Broadway
Freddy’ DeName. It’s been quite a while since this Funny Car Fire Up started
and some of the crews are starting to get a little ‘antsy’ about their cars
idling for so long. There’s been a marked increase in activity around quite a
few of the cars by now. But not at the next car. No sir. Everyone on Bob
Rosetty’s team is cool. The big Keith Black hemi is just purrin’ away under
the beautiful burgundy ‘Rollin Stoned’ Cuda body. And why not? They’ve got
the man himself, former owner/driver Joe Jacono hanging with them this weekend.
And if you’re gonna hang around with Joe - you gotta be cool - or else!
We’re getting close to the
end of the ‘gauntlet’ now, and none too soon I might add. Sounds like maybe
one or two of the participants have shut their engines down already and we’re
gonna try and be back down around the starting line before the last one does.
So… turning away from the ‘Cuda we focus our attention next on the plastic
bodied Pinto of Jim White, appropriately named ‘Plastic Fantastic’.
Underneath the colorfully lettered pink and blue body sits a rare injected 429
Ford ‘Shotgun’ Hemi.
I can hear that another car
or two has shut down, but, we’re just about finished now. In fact there’s
only one side by side pair left. On our right side is the cool Corvette of John
Kippin. John and crew towed their ‘Maine Event’ car all way down from, you
guessed it, Maine.
That leaves only one car and
what could be more fitting than ending our journey just like it started, diggin’
on NITRO! Frank Jonkman’s ‘Nitromare’ Mustang is still cackling’ away,
much to the approval of the now roaring crowd. Frank and the boys towed this
beauty all the way down from Canada and despite the best efforts of the U.S.
Customs Service, plan on putting on another great show later in the day, just
like they did last year.
OK, we’re done checking
out the Funnies, (yep, all thirty four of em) but now comes a real dilemma. I
did want to head back to the front of the line of the cacklers, BUT, I’ve got
the sound and the scent of a NITRO burner right here in front of me. What should
I do? I mean, who would want to walk away from this? After just of few more
seconds of indecision, Frank ‘The Tank’ and crew shut the Hemi down. At
last, someone has made my mind up for me.
As I’m walking along at a
brisk pace I hear another engine go silent, there goes one more, and another.
Each time one shuts down the sound from the crowd grows louder. By now they’ve
just about all shut down, except for maybe two. Now one of them drops away,
leaving just one car still cackling. And by now I’m standing right next to the
Burris Brothers ‘Widowmaker’ as it falls silent. But not the crowd, no sir.
They’re not holding back at all now that all of the Funnies have finished. I
stick my head under the body of the Charger, lean across the blown Hemi, and
congratulate driver Mac Burris on a job well done and also to tell him that the
‘Widowmaker’ was the last car to shut down. I ask if that was part of the
plan and Mac says “No, they just hated to shut it off… but it was getting
warm.”
So, it looks like another
E-Town style Funny Car Fire Up is history but before moving along there’s
something that has to be mentioned. On June 1st of this year, Mary Jo
Grant, wife of Funny Car racer Justin Grant and mother of two adorable girls,
Jordan and Morgan, passed away. Before all of the cars were fired up today, the
reciting of those immortal words “Gentlemen, start your engines!” was
delivered by those two girls. A very moving way to start this deal, and a class
move by Berserko. To quote Rocky Pirrone “Life is too short”. Pass it on.
More old B.S. later.
P.S. Hope to have some
coverage of the rest of the event finished shortly.
Badco@comcast.net
*© 1973 ‘Eclipse’
Words and music by Roger
Waters/Pink Floyd ASCAP
** Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark
Side Of The Moon’ was released March of 1973 and was an immediate hit. It
stayed on the Billboard Top 100 albums for an unprecedented 741 weeks!
THANKS BUD!
