Ken Kull

This is a letter of apology to all those fine AA/GS cars from the West Coast. My brother, Bill, and myself are embarrassed and ashamed of ourselves for the way we USED you boys. Taking such a fine name as Kohler Bros. and grinding their names in the asphalt. By blowing their doors in at six, yes, six different strips, week after week after week. Not to mention poor Ray Cook, of the famous Stone, Woods & Cook team. He took up leaving on the second yellow, even though we were embarrassed to tears, Pete Hill drove by on the other end. Imagine the shame we put him through. Ron Mondello, of Shores & Hess, flew his engine builder from Hawaii, to Raceway Park, New Jersey with a new Rat Motor. After beating him two straight in Connecticut the Sunday before, this was his chance (Quote Drag News: "Shores & Hess were no match for the Hill Bros.). Think of the red faces and embarrassment when once again, Pete Hill soundly and firmly blew the trick Anglia away. Think of the torment and sleepless nights, Jack "The Bear" Coonrod suffered after soundly defeating him on five occasions, two of those times his driver was so beside himself, he couldn't find the parachute ring and ran off the end of the strip! Perhaps he was just trying too hard. Now, they're going West where they can hide their heads and tell their friends and families, "East Coast strips are bad and that's why Hill Bros. did this thing to them." Perhaps they will all build Funny Cars like George, that's what he did to escape a terrifying gasser. But, before you resort to anything as foolish as that, we want to show our apologies by coming to the West Coast on November 1, where, on your strip there will be no excuses, like Ray Kohler's "missed a shift," or Ray Cook's "no bite," or that old favorite of Ron Mondello's "wrong jet."
What will Big John Mazmanian and Junior Thompson use for excuses??
Again, gentlemen, we are embarrassed to tears the way we USED you up!

The above is a challenge issued by the Hill Bros. in Drag News before going to California

FOUR FOR THE PRICE OF TWO
by Ross Martin

Ok, trivia buffs...I'm not going to give you the year that the following race took place until the end of the article. No cheating by looking, just see if you can guess the year from the nostalgia.

That year there was 'Monterey Pop' and some very strange music on 'underground FM'. The AM stations were playing 'White Rabbit' by The Jefferson Airplane' and 'Soul Man' by Sam & Dave. For the free spirits of the country, who couldn't afford a Corvette, GM introduced a brand new car. The Camaro had everyone under thirty (or at least the Chevy lovers) buying.

On television, a new comedy show was introduced that fall. It was 'Laugh In' and gave us the phrase "Sock it to me". Remember? There was plenty of action on the little screen as well, with shows like 'The Wild, Wild, West', starring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin (no relation) and 'Lost In Space', starring Guy Williams and June Lockhart.

But back to drag racing. The NHRA schedule consisted of four National Events; the Winternationals at Pomona, the Springnationals at Bristol, the Nationals at Indianapolis and the World Finals at Tulsa. At the Winternationals, Ed Kohler won Super Eliminator in the Kohler Brothers Chevy powered 'KING KONG' Anglia. In Top Gas, Gordon 'Collectin' Collett went to the winners circle and in Top Fuel, Connie Kalitta drove the 'BOUNTY HUNTER' to his first major win.

At the Springnationals, Ronnie Sox won Super Stock Eliminator in his SS/B Plymouth. Bob Muravez, alias Floyd Lippencott Jr., took Top Gas in the 'FREIGHT TRAIN', and Don Prudhomme took Ford to another Top Fuel win.

At the Nationals, the Funny Cars were finally allowed to compete, but had to run in the C/FD Class. Gene Snow won Super Eliminator in his original 'RAMBUNCTIOUS' Injected Funny Car. Bill Jenkins won Super Stock Eliminator with his SS/C Camaro. In Top Fuel, Don Garlits won with an unbelievable 6.77 second run @ 220 mph.

At the World Finals, the big news was Ed Miller winning Super Stock Eliminator in his SS/A Plymouth and receiving more than $16,000 in prize and contingency money. That was the largest payout for any Eliminator, up to that time. In Stock Eliminator, George Cureton took the title with his 'TOKYO ROSE' Chevy Sedan Delivery. The winner in Top Fuel was Bennie 'The Wizard' Osborn.

On June 24, our local drag strip held a race that was the first of its kind in the Northeast, a four way AA/G Match Bash. We couldn't believe it when we received the flyers in the mail announcing the race, especially when we read that the cost would be the same as for a two car show, only $1.50 per person.

The accompanying ad for the race doesn't do the cars justice, because it was printed in black and white. 'Gentleman' Jim Oddy was there with his electric blue '48 Austin, before it was chopped. Jack 'The Bear' Coonrod's lemon yellow, chopped '33 Willys coupe was there, driven by Chuck Finders. The Hill Brothers showed up with a new 'RED BARON', beautiful red, chopped '33 Willys. Rounding out the field was the Brockman's Speed Shop, candy apple purple '41 Willys, driven by Paul Frost.

The cars were all parked in a special show area, beside the tower, so that everyone in the stands could watch all the action. The gassers fired up in this area and then slowly drove to the starting line. The racing was first class and each run had the spectators, both in the stands and in the pits, on their feet.

The match was run in round robin fashion, starting off with Paul Frost facing Pete Hill. The cars pulled into the burnout area, and then approached the line in a series of tire spinning bursts. On the green, Hill's '33 shot from the line, with Frost's '41 yanking the front wheels off the ground and surging forward, in pursuit. Hill had too big a lead though, and took the win.

Next up were Oddy and Finders. After a couple of tire wrenching lunges, the cars approached the line. As they sat there on the line, it looked like a match between beauty and the beast. Oddy's car always look beautiful, in a classical sense, while Finders' car just sat there and looked mean, as did all chopped '33 Willys. The Austin lifted slightly on the green, then went straight as an arrow, or at least as straight as a AA/G car could go. The '33 was just as fast, but Oddy had beaten Finders off the line and there was no way that he could catch up.

In the second round, the first round winners were paired against the two first round losers. Oddy's Austin was pitted against Frost's '41 Willys. Both cars left the line together, and it looked like it was going to be close until the '41 developed engine troubles and Frost had to shut it down.

Then came the race that I had been waiting all evening for, the two '33s against each other. Watching the cars approach the line sent shivers up my spine. They slowly staged, like two mythical beasts of prey, and waited for the lights to count down.

GREEN! Both cars pulled the front wheels up, hazed the tires and were gone. In midrange, the 'RED BARON' started to pull away, and at the finish line took the win by a car length. This meant that Pete Hill and Jim Oddy would square off for all the marbles and of course, a little bit of cash.

In the first run of the third round, Chuck Finders strapped a hole shot on Paul Frost that he couldn't overcome. The final run to decide the AA/G Champion took place around 10:30 p.m. and no one had left, except those that had 9:00 p.m. curfews or cared more about getting the best necking spots than watching a good drag race. It didn't take the fans long to choose a favorite in this last race. Who other than the local racer, Jim Oddy? Both cars carefully staged and as the lights counted down, in what seemed like hours, the crowd went completely quiet. The green light finally came on and the cars left the line like they had been fired from cannons. The gassers were dead even through the entire quarter mile, but the old Kohler V win lights lit up in Pete Hill's lane. The crowd cheered wildly, because we had all been treated to one heck of a race and one heck of a show. None of the drivers had played games (because of guaranteed appearance money) and every car had run flat out during each round and the crowd knew it. Because of the tremendous support for this race, a rematch was arranged for two months later, which was almost unheard of back then, and even more spectators came.

While we were being entertained by these shows, the Midwest and West Coast fans were watching similar races involving; Jack Merkel - 'Ohio' George Montgomery - K.S. Pittman, Jr. Thompson - 'Big John' Mazmanian - Stone, Woods & Cook - The Kohler Brothers - Prock & Howell - Shores & Hess - Ron Bizio - Bones, Dubach & Pisano and many more.

One last thing before I close the typewriter case, the race that I just wrote about took place in 1967.

HILL BROTHERS