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In 25 years of fuel coupe racing, Harlan always gave his trophies away,
apart from this traditional handmade wooden Dala horse (Dalahäst) from
his win at the 1982 Swedish Pro Fuel Championships at Pitea, the same
year that Linda Vaughan visited with him at the Mantorp races. In 2007
the Dala horse was joined by a Christmas tree trophy from his visit to the
Emirates Motorplex. “I fell in love with the place,” Harlan told me,
“they’re so polite and so friendly, I’d j’st love to go back and help form a
Middle East Top Fuel team, train ‘em up and race on the FIA tour.”
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Dot Thompson photo
As August began, Harlan had just finished working on a ’65 T- bird he’s going to drive to Seattle, with
“the top down all the way,” so he can check out the Armed Forces Funny Car before the annual parades.
Not a posed shot, Harlan was off to the beach to prepare
for a fund raising swim off the Jersey shore as part of the
Wall High School Team, like his daughters did before.
Today, they’re all grown up; Holly, left, works for a
Chicago based nonprofit organization helping people in
need, and Jill is a geophysicist with Shell Oil.
Tog Eurodragster
Photo courtesy Dot Thompson
Arguably the most travelled and longest running fuel coupe on the planet is Harlan’s final Budweiser car. After winning
two Cannonballs it thrilled thousands of troops for more than a decade when he fired it up during tours of US bases in
Europe and the Far East. Since 1996 it’s been displayed between tours in Germany’s famed Auto & Technik Museum at
Sinshiem. Next year Harlan hopes to make a final tour of US bases and bring the faithful machine home to the USA where
it will be put out to stud at My Girl Drive In. Personally I found his story fascinating, and hope you too have gained
pleasure from reading it. Still an unassuming guy, Harlan lived the American dream; came from a home where he put pans
on the floor to catch the water when it rained, served his country in Vietnam, quit college to make a living as a sought after
driver for hire on the lucrative match race circuits in 1970s America and changed the face of British drag racing forever. A
huge success, he then became an unsung legend with thousands of US military personnel he inspired around the world.
Mike
Mike Collins
EDITORIAL
Just Wondering… Where have all the racers gone?
The total number of entries for the entire NHRA
Western Swing (including pro teams) was way under
400 at each stop, with under 300 total cars at Denver.
Managing Editor, COO Kay Burk
Editor at Large Bret Kepner
Editor at Large, Emeritus Chris Martin
Bracket Racing Editor Jok Nicholson
Just Wondering… Which has the highest profit
margin for NHRA and the tracks, the spectator’s ticket
or the racer‘s entry fee? If it is a spectator ticket the
NHRA and their partners probably made a decent profit
on the Western Swing, as all three tracks appeared to
have at least two days of excellent spectator
attendance.
Just Wondering… Since the track owners/operators pay a majority of the costs
(including a flat fee to NHRA) to cover the NHRA’s cost to do a race, plus they are
responsible for the entire purse at a Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series race, what is the
money that Lucas Oil pays the NHRA to sponsor the series used for?
Just Wondering… Why doesn’t the NHRA allow one or two tracks in each division
to add one or more pro classes to a Lucas Oil race? Here’s the twist: No pro cars
entered could have run at an NHRA national event in the last six months.
Just Wondering… How come NHRA national events don’t give away premiums at
selected races as other major sports do? Why not give a John Force, Warren
Johnson, or Bob Frey bobble head doll for the first 20,000 ticket buying spectators?
Nostalgia Editor Brian Losness
Contributing Writers Jim Baker, Darr Hawthorne, Dale
Wilson
Australian Correspondent Jon Van Daal
European Correspondent Ivan Sansom
Poet Laureate Bob Fisher
Cartoonists Jeff DeGrandis, Kenny
Youngblood
PHOTOGRAPHY
Senior Photographer Ron Lewis
Contributing Photographers Donna Bistran, Adam Cranmer,
James Drew, Todd Dziadosz, Don
Eckert, Steve Embling, Debbie
Gastelu, Steve Gruenwald, Zak
Hawthorne, Rose Hughes, Bret
Kepner, Jon LeMoine, Tim
Marshall, Joe McHugh, Dennis
Mothershed, Mark Rebilas, Ivan
Sansom, Jon Van Daal
PRODUCTION
Creative Director/ Webmaster Matt Schramel
Production Assistant Clifford Tunnell
Just Wondering… If it is true that insurance companies are demanding that drag
strips have concrete guard walls as a prerequisite for getting insurance, why do I see
so many tracks still using steel/fence post barriers? Who is insuring those tracks?
Just Wondering… If there were suddenly to be a rash of rear-tire failures such as
the one that the Force team had at Seattle (and Force later said in an interview it
would cost him $100,000 to replace the body), would the racers force Goodyear to
come up with a more durable tire? A $100,000 body - YIKES! Let’s hope John was
exaggerating a little when he said that.
Just Wondering… Is there a more philanthropic supporter of drag racing these
days that Kenny “Captain Chaos” Koretsky? He uses his Nitro Fish apparel to back
many teams throughout drag racing who couldn’t race without his support. I can
guarantee he doesn’t begin to sell enough Nitro Fish stuff to break even on the deals.
His support of the bracket racing “Million Dollar Race” is a prime example of his
largess! A big tip of the Burkster’s hat to Captain Chaos!
Just Wondering… Since, according to the figures in the NHRA’s tax returns, the
salaries of the top management increased as the NHRA’s gross income increased, will
those salaries recede if the gross drops (as I’m fairly sure it has)?
My thanks to the following for their help with these features; Steve Reyes, Nick Pettitt, Jerry Cookson, Dick Parnham, Eric Sawyer, Tog, Jason
Editor & Publisher, CEO Jeff Burk
ADVERTISING
Director of Sales Darr Hawthorne (818-424-6656)
FINANCIAL
Chief Financial Officer, Accounts
Casey Araiza
Manager
Agent 1320
At the Back Door
(caption contest)
Letter to the Editor
(for publication)
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Just Wondering… Since the NHRA is now calling the last six races of the
year the “Playoffs”, why not go all the way with that concept and only allow the
teams that made the Top Ten in points in all categories to participate in the six
race Playoffs? The NHRA could end the “regular season” at the U.S. Nationals,
then go to eight-car qualified fields in all the categories for the last six races of
the year. Racers could negotiate sponsorships for a sixteen race season that
would include the sport’s major races at Indy, Gainesville, Pomona, and E-Town.
There could be bonuses for making the playoffs. With smaller fields, live TV from
those last six races might become more of a possibility.
Harlan’s “office” for 25
years was a blown an’
injected fuel coupe!
Harlan’s greatest win came at Santa Pod’s World Finals in
1980 when he drove Tre Kronor to victory over the toughest
and largest field of fuel coupes ever seen outside the USA.
Just Wondering… Where have all of the beer and liquor sponsorships that
were once a big part of the NHRA gone? And while I’m on the subject of
beverage sponsorships, why doesn’t the Coca-Cola Company sponsor a
professional category team?
Just Wondering… Will the so-called Million Dollar Bracket Race ever actually
pay one racer a $1,000,000 to win? I put the odds of that happening at
1,000,000 to one against!
Just Wondering… What are the odds that Goodyear Tire Co., or any other
tire manufacturer involved in drag racing that has a tire explode, declares after
an investigation that their tire was defective? Same odds as above for that ever
happening!
Just Wondering… If the Western Swing is such a big deal, why not a
Southern Swing? They could race at Atlanta, Charlotte, and Bristol on
consecutive weekends and get Bruton Smith to put up big bucks for a sweep.
Just Wondering… How much longer will Pontiacs be the predominant body
style in NHRA Pro Stock competition? Couldn’t the car builders repaint the GXP
body so it at least looked like some brand of Chevy or any active GM brand?
Just Wondering… When was the last time a highly successful and profitable
race like Carl Weisinger’s World Street Nationals was canceled or postponed
without bombing at least once before the shutdown? Answer: Never!
Just Wondering… On that same subject, is it just a matter of time before
some promoter announces a “Street Legal” race to be run on the same October
weekend the postponed World Street Nationals was scheduled to be on?
Just Wondering… Isn’t it weird that a barrel of racing oil or traction
compound costs the racer more than a barrel of nitromethane? Oh, and
whatever happened to the nitro “shortage”?
When told of his award Harlan said, “Budweiser were very good to me. It turned into a pretty good deal towards the end - I
felt like a robber without a gun and I'm probably the only person who ever retired on racing in Europe! They were good
times and you couldn't get better funny car racing. This is probably the biggest honour I've ever had because it was voted
for by people who know drag racing. I very much appreciate what you guys have done. Thank you.”
His office décor changed little since he first climbed into the driver’s seat of his own AA/FC back in 1970, then spending a
decade at the helm of a string of first generation fuel coupes. He moved up to the gorgeous Tre Kronor in 1980, followed a
couple years later by a string of powerful Budweiser cars which arguably secured his place as the most successful
International drag racer ever. “Just a job,” perhaps, but one thing stayed constant during those 25 magical supercharged,
fuel injected, nitromethane powered years, and was that he had fun! No day was complete without charging down the
quarter mile, nitro fire blazing from either side of his “office” as he thrilled fans with his driving prowess. Sometimes he
blew up, sometimes he was beaten, but during his years as a fuel coupe pilot Harlan racked up an 85% win record, and
that’s impressive in any language. As well as Santa Pod, he raced the length and breadth of North America, Sweden,
Norway, Germany, and Italy, and turned on thousands to nitro power with demonstrations throughout Europe, and in the
Far and Middle East. When he fired up his own fuel coupe for the first time waaaay back in 1970, he’d never in his wildest
dreams imagined such incredible success, with major corporations like Anehueser-Busch and Chrysler actually offering
him sponsorship! Budweiser’s support for Harlan spanned almost thirty years, from his first visits with Tom Doherty to
US bases, thorough his unique visits to wounded warriors of the US military during the first decade of this century and
that’s pretty damned amazing. As is the fact that, during three decades of Budweiser sponsorship, Harlan never drank a
Bud or any other alcoholic drink; "I quit smokin an' drinking on the day Dad passed away, cos that's what he wanted me
to do." More than a healthy ambassador of goodwill for Budweiser and Chrysler, Harlan spread the drag racing gospel
like no one before or since and truly deserves his place in the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
During a visit to Seattle in 2010 Harlan went to the Northwest Nat's,
meeting old racing pals Jerry Ruth and Herm Peterson and later
talked with NHRA’s Bob Frey, a friend from his days at Atco. Bob
asked Harlan, "What d'you consider to be your home track,
Englishtown 'cos you spent so much time there, or Seattle where you
began?" "Neither" chuckled Harlan, "Santa Pod's my home track, I j'st
loved it, the weather wasn't always the best, but the fans were just
great." The shot at right is a favourite with both Harlan and I of
smiling young Santa Pod fans who just loved their own Budweiser
King. The crystal Hall of Fame trophy was shot by Ian Messenger, a
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Harlan wore Budweiser decals for the first time when he drove
the Protector car to victory over Lee-Anders Hasselström in
1982. “We dominated in Sweden,” Harlan told me, and as he
won four straight years at Mantorp’s Sko Uno Drag Fest I have
to agree. His last win at this track came in 1987. Sadly, it was
the final time fuel coupes raced side-by-side in anger down that
famed quarter mile. Following the tragic death of Lee-Anders at
Pitea in 1988, nitro Funny Car racing came to an end in Sweden.
Photo courtesy Harlan Thompson
On the lead spread of this piece I wrote about Harlan’s jeans and tee shirt days with his first fuel coupe, which was true,
until one weekend when the team decided to try for the Best Appearing Crew award – and they got it! After Budweiser,
Harlan’s greatest deal was his contract with Chrysler which ultimately led to his three car nitro team, with this matching
pair of fuel coupes that also won a similar award, the team’s second at Santa Pod. Around that time legendary
automotive giant Lee Iacocca was visiting England to check out the Formula One circus at Silverstone but wasn’t too
impressed. When an aide spoke of Harlan’s mighty Budweiser sponsored Mopar fuel coupe, Lee brightened up and the
group made a low-profile visit, stopping at the gate to buy tickets! Few, if any, knew of this trip as Lee just hung out with
brother Bob, learning about fuel coupe racing as Harlan worked. Oh, and Lee also bought drinks for the team.
Words and photos by Jay Roeder
Hi, everyone, and welcome back! Wow, time flies! I can’t apologize for being MIA the last number of months because I had to do what had to be done, but I
sure am glad to be getting back to some level of “normal.” At least what qualifies for normal in my world!
In the last article my wife, Amy, and I had just been getting settled in with our spankin’ new daughter, Sarah, and I was getting ready to take delivery of my
new Stuska Track Master Gold engine dyno. I was in a mad thrash to convert what was my work area for Muscrate into a dyno cell.
A winning smile from four major International
titles and a 100% win record in 1987.
I actually got a lot done on the car and it rolled out on its own M/T wheels and tires in a semi finished form for the first time since it went in for surgery in
2007! That’s the good news. The not so good news is it rolled right into its tomb, err, trailer and has been there ever since. It appears it takes a LOT
longer to build a proper dyno room than I had figured and trying to spend a couple hours at night after work and every weekend was what it took. But the
dyno is now functional and Roeder Performance Machine and DYNO Service is open for bidness!
The next project is to build a new garage dedicated to the completion of Muscrate. In the meantime it is a process of unloading and loading the car from
the trailer into the front stall of my shop and then repeat. What a PITA! Anyway, let’s journey back a few months and cover what I actually did get done. On
to the ‘taters.
Harlan’s Hall of Fame career ran
from his 1980 “open trailer”
debut with Tre Kronor to the
mighty, factory backed Mopar
powered Budweiser Racing team.
The trial fitting and pre-assemblies are a thing of
the past! The first thing I did was to completely
disassemble the entire car, again, and get all the
various parts and pieces ready for powder coat
and paint. Being the supreme do-it-myselfer that I
am, I have always painted everything on all my
projects. But I really wanted to save some time
and my labor, and end up with a more durable
finish for the parts than any type of paint can
provide. The logical choice is a process called
powder coating.
But his legend began with this fuel coupe. A
historically significant photo perhaps, but
I’m still laughing from the first time I saw it!
Sorry ’bout that guys.
Basically, the parts are grounded and then an
electrically charged form of dry paint known as
powder is applied with a spray gun. The powder is
actually drawn into every corner and around
every bend, assuring complete coverage. After
coating, the parts are literally baked in a large
oven and the dry, dull, powder miraculously turns into a brilliant, smooth, shiny, extremely durable finish.
There are DIY kits available for doing this, but it honestly seems like something that should be done by a professional with the right equipment and the
experience to get it done right the first time. After asking a few friends who did the powder coat on their cars, the cars that look good, I was directed to
Brian Hermann and H&S PowderCoating in Rockford, IA. A couple of phone calls later I dropped off my parts and discussed what colors I wanted and then
I gave him a impossible deadline for getting it done and he came through! Thanks for the extra effort, Brian.
I decided to keep the colors
simple and clean: black and silver.
The silver actually has a pearl
look to it and really gleams in the
sunlight. Everything came out
great and actually even made my
work look good! The price was
great too. Honestly, if I had known
that powder coating was this
affordable I would have done it a
long time ago on many other
projects.
While I was waiting for the
powder coating to get done I
prepped the rest of the car for
paint on the underside and roll
cage. I basically made sure any
oil or grease was removed,
touched up a few of my “booger welds” and masked off any areas I didn’t want painted. I first applied some caulk
around all the joints where the new floor met the old and the new rear frame rails.
Even though I have all of the equipment to prime
and paint with professional spray guns I sprayed
all the bare metal with a self-etching primer right
out of the aerosol can. I decided that using “spray
bombs” would be easier to maneuver around bars
and corners, would create less overspray, and
would also keep the theme of this entire project
intact, which is using tools and products nearly
anyone can use. I then sprayed one light coat of
black rubberized undercoat onto all the surfaces to
give it a nice uniform texture. Once the undercoat
dried I sprayed everything with three coats of
semi-gloss black. This leaves the surface easy to clean and easy to touch up for many years of service.
Next up was the roll cage. I’m
here to tell you that I have
painted quite a few cages over
the years and they never suck
any less than the last one! This
time though I once again used
spray bombs and it was slightly
less difficult than trying to keep
an air hose from rubbing and
getting wrapped around tubing. I
went with a product from
Rustoleum called
Hammertone Bronze. Now to me
it looks more like a charcoal but,
hey, who am I to argue? I think it
came out great. The Hammertone
look is pretty cool. It gives the
finish a slightly dimpled look like
what you may see if you hit a
piece of steel multiple times with a ballpean hammer. It ended up taking five cans and a very worn out set of fingers,
but it looks good and should be fairly easy to touch up.
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Back in the saddle again with some nice throttle
control from Harlan in late 2010; maybe not quite
AA/FC power, but brother Bob had put together a
bitchin’ Armed Forces Funny Car, based on a 1970s
Mustang. Generally it ran on alcohol, but sometimes
Harlan would tip the can ‘cos he just loves the smell
of nitro in the morning - and don’t we all. Here he’s
checking things out on My Girl’s Ruby’s Drag Strip
after an engine rebuild prior to the annual Armed
Forces Day parade. Harlan would also usually fire the
beast up following the Memorial Day and Labour Day
parades. Lately it’s been warmed up by Kayla, 14 year
old granddaughter of John Blanchard, owner of the
record holding Gladiator Top Fuel car which famously
Bob Thompson photo
set a record of 5.85 at 239 mph at Lion's Drag strip in
1972 with a 392 iron motor. (data from nhra.com)
There’s video of a full-bodied back yard burnout on the next page.
Back in February this year I was thrilled to hear that my pal Harlan had been inducted into our British Drag Racing Hall of
Fame, and more than happy when DRO wanted to publish his story – but I’d no idea of the amount of work involved given
how broad his lengthy career was. Shortly later, while talking with Harlan about his early years I asked of his feelings on
stateside tracks. Not surprisingly, he liked ‘em all, but when pushed chose Maple Grove Raceway as a favourite because he
loved the way it was run by the likeable Mike Lewis, now Senior VP with Don Schumacher's mighty nitro army. And as for
ones he didn’t like? First came the warm chuckle before, “I was getting paid, I was having fun, what’s not to like?”
It’s this attitude which has kept Harlan strong for so many years, and it continues to this day. During our hours of telephone
conversations, his laughter has kept me going on many a late night while working on these features.
Earlier I mentioned Harlan not being able to recall races, but just lately, thanks no doubt to my endless pressure, a few tales
have come to light which I hope you’ll enjoy as we near the end of this final feature.
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While driving the Fireball Vega for Gary
Philips, Harlan fell in love with this
classic Rolls Royce, but Gary wouldn’t
sell. Then he quit racing and Harlan
moved to another ride. A few weeks,
later Gary changed his mind, phoned
and asked Harlan to drive a new car.
“Okay, I’ll drive if you’ll sell me the Rolls,” Harlan chuckled before adding,
“at a good price....” Harlan got the deal on the Rolls and, as readers know,
did indeed drive the new car to glory. That Fireball Monza was Harlan’s
favourite race car, the last in a long line of Phillips & Shores Florida based
fuel coupes and was voted into the top ten of “prettiest funny cars of all
time” on draglist.com back in 1997.
It’s shown burning out at Atco Raceway with Bob Gerdes’ paint job gleaming in the New Jersey sunshine. The armed
Deputy on the left looks like the same guy who chastised me for taking this shot during my first visit to Harlan in 1987
when he actually called the track to tell ‘em I was coming. (I got lost and chased by state troopers - but not captured!)
Now, 30 odd years after Harlan posed with his “new” Rolls, he’s almost finished restoring it back to its original glory.
It was now time for some final assembly! Whoohoo! Brian had done a great job
of masking off some of the areas I didn’t want coated such as threads and axle
bearing housings, but the thickness of the coating was a little more than I had
planned for in some areas such as the holes in the four-link brackets and the OD
of the anti-roll bar, so a little “persuasion” was needed to get the bolts through
the holes and I actually had to remove the coating from the roll bar to get it to
slide through the attaching arms. I found out firsthand just how tough the powder
coating is when I was trying to remove it from the tubing. Holy cow! No worries
on that anymore!
Harlan was still spreading goodwill amongst troops as the first
th
decade of the 21 century drew to a close, visiting hospitals and
drawing huge crowds with his power displays at US bases.
Recently I spoke with Tom Doherty, now retired from Anehueser-Busch and said how stunned I was to discover
the effect Harlan had with injured military personnel over the years. I mentioned the above photo where you
can almost feel empathy between Harlan and the wounded warrior. “Harlan’s a wonderful guy,* Tom told me.
“I’m glad we’ve stayed friends,” he said, laughing before adding, “Y’know Mike, when we made the deal back in
the early eighties I didn’t know who the hell he was or what a funny car was, but I gave him the go ahead to put
our name on (his car) and I’ve always been happy and very pleased with what he did. Also, being a wounded
Vietnam vet the troops could really relate to him, especially when they found out he drove a nitro funny car. I
can honestly say he was a great representative for Budweiser and a wonderful morale booster for our troops.”
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I installed the anti-roll bar first because it was nearly impossible to get to with
the housing in the way. I installed the heim joints into the four-link bars outside of
the car, first making the two uppers and two lowers the same lengths as they
were before teardown. I then positioned the bare housing under the car on a
couple of jack stands and started attaching the bars to the housing and then to
the appropriate holes in the chassis brackets.
I basically worked my way from there attaching the coil over mounts and
coilovers to suspend the housing and allow me to remove the jack stands.
Before I attached the wishbone locator I decided to install the Strange
Engineering Ultra Center. I removed the old housing studs with a hammer and
pressed in new studs I got from Competition Engineering with a “C” clamp and a socket. The Ultra Center popped right in with a new housing gasket and I
retained it with the hex nuts from the kit. One of the nuts at the top, however, needed to be replaced with a 12-point version because I couldn‘t get a
wrench between the nut and the Strange case. I then installed the wishbone locator and the roll bar links to the housing.
Next, things got a little more fun when I installed the Strange 40 spline gun drilled axles after wiping some oil on the O-rings that seal the OD of the
bearings to the housing ends. I opened up another box of goodies that contained the Strange Engineering rear drag disc brakes and grabbed the axle
retainer/caliper mounting plates. I was going to use fine thread ½” bolts to thread into the holes of the Comp Engineering housing ends I used but after my
previous experience of not being able to remove one of the bolts during pre-assembly I decided not to chance it and reamed out the holes with a ½”
reamer and used the Strange supplied factory style “T bolts” that came with the brake kit.
Next up I decided to install the wheelie bars and
that turned into a bigger than expected project,
once again because I hadn’t planned on the
thickness of the powder coating being what it
was. A little scraping of the inside of the clevis
fittings and the bars assembled to the housing just
fine.
Tre Kronor, a true giant killer in 1980.
Warming up before a
run, Harlan clenches
his hand tight and
then stretches his
fingers for a few
minutes to give a firm
but flexible grip on the
helm – just in case!
Lena Perés photo
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In 2009 Harlan Thompson and
Knut Soderquist were reunited at
Mantorp Park. Harlan made many
new fans when he drove Johnny
Nilsson’s recreation of the famed
Tre Kroner fuel coupe.
I then moved to the front of the car and my
custom three-piece cross member and factory
control arms. I borrowed a tool to install the new
ball joints and also used it to install the new
urethane bushings I got from Energy Suspension.
The cross member and control arms attached to
the factory sub frame using my previously drilled
alignment holes for proper placement. I
re-installed the newly coated factory spindles and
Strange Engineering single adjustable struts and used the factory caster/camber plates for now until I get aftermarket plates.
Well, that’s it for now. Next month I will continue with the chassis assembly and maybe even get into the beginning stages of the engine assembly. It’s
going to be a “bullet”!
Harlan gave Knut an earful with good strong burnouts
before launching hard, then clicking the power off 1000
feet out and popping the chutes early. There’s video of
his final strong sounding pass on the next page.
Although shot from behind the track’s bridge, the nitro
cackle lets you feel the power. Sadly, there’s still no
news about Santa Pod’s proposals for Harlan to race
the famed fuel coupe at their track again!
Until next time, always remember. There is always hope, REAL hope.
And, when in doubt… DO A WHEELIE!!!
Andy “Nitro Nostrils” Willsheer photo
e visited by members of the US Navy Marketing department
d
who thanked
A couple days later the Thompsons were
them on behalf of the troops on the carrie
er and asked about Harlan’s funny car. He show
wed them some photos and
a couple of clips featuring his fuel coupe
e burning out and then making a night time pass with nitro fire shooting
from the headers. Asking to borrow a cou
uple of photos, they said thanks and took their le
eave, and then a few days
later the brothers received this photo wh
hich’d been approved by the ship’s Captain Bradlley Johanson.
Yeah, I know it’s an obvious fake and tha
at Big Daddy had the idea first, but who’d
have thought we’d ever have an image lik
ke this put together by the US Navy!
Words by Jeff Burk - Photos by Jeff Burk and Donna Bistran
One problem, maybe the major problem,that many so-called nostalgia races have is that a
majority of their “nostalgia” Funny Cars and Dragsters simply aren’t. Most of the vehicles we
see racing at nostalgia races are at best a period-correct body painted to resemble a famous
vintage race car, bolted on an up-to-date chassis. Other than the body style often there is
nothing nostalgic about most these so-called nostalgia Funny Cars.
But over the Aug. 6th weekend I actually had the opportunity to see a few authentic vintage
Funny Cars race other real nostalgia funny cars. I mean cars that were built back in the day
(30-45 years ago from 1965-1979) race each other at historic Marion County International
Raceway in Ohio.
Aircraft Shooters give the
e signal to launch the Thompson Brothers Armed
d Forces
Funny Car off the flight de
eck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis!
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Com
mmunication Specialist 3rd Class Jon Hyde
Although it does most of its duty at the museum, that gig wasn’t a one-off.
art in regular parades; Harlan
The Armed Forces Funny Car now takes pa
does the burnout “chores” and brother Bob
b keeps the big block in shape.
The car and rig are seen in Bremerton’s A
Armed Forces
Day Parade in June 2008, with the gorgeo
ous trailer
carrying a whole bunch of goodies for th
he kids and
families. In November 2009, a serving solldier enjoyed
“driving” the funny car at the My Girl Driv
ve In museum.
0\*LUO'ULYH,Q
Shortly after his 2001 US bases tour in the Far East, Harlan suggested
to his brother Bob that they put up a building to store some classic
cars. Later came the idea of a museum, then Bob had a brainstorm –
why not build a ‘50s style diner? Why not indeed! After much hard work
it was ready, not for public use but as a party place for family friends.
Then someone said it’d be a good idea to make it available for public
use as a fully catered private party venue.
And that’s where it stands today, very
much an ongoing concern with all
proceeds from the many hirings for high
school reunions, weddings, and the like at
My Girl Drive In and Museum given over to
the Supporting Our Troops charity.
My Girl’s fifties rock an’ roll décor makes it a great place for car clubs to party, but everyone’s welcome - especially
the US military. Some folks such as hospitals and seniors groups are also entertained free, and when I rang there was
a Celebration of Life function taking place which sounded more than a little fun. The venue is always open for any
troops who wish to stop by and visit and view the cars on display – but they can’t buy a burger. Sorry ‘bout that guys
and gals, but you could always visit www.mygirldrivein.com and arrange your own private function.
The Thompson brothers’ Armed
Forces Funny Car is a popular vehicle
with visitors, but it’s far more than
just a display piece! Boy Scouts of
America enjoy gravity racing down
Ruby’s drag strip during their annual
free visit to My Girl Drive In.
:HOFRPHKRPHVDLORU«
Big things happened
in 2007 when Harlan
and Bob took their
Armed Forces Funny
Car to welcome the
USS John C. Stennis
aircraft carrier after a
tour of duty in the
Arabian Sea.
Each year for the last four Dennis Salzwimmer and his Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny Car
Circuit have joined with the owners of MCIR to host an event just for these cars and their
fans. This year DRO was invited to cover the event by race organizer Salzwimmer. When he
said there would be 30-35 injected and supercharged nostalgia Funny Cars in attendance, I
knew I had to be there.
The spill plate on the spoiler carries the legend “The Price of Freedom is
Never Free”. The Armed Forces Funny Car display is “a small way of
thanking the men and women who support our country,” Bob said, adding
with a touch of pride, “The whole bottom line is to support our troops.”
They even had the ol’ Bud’ Mini Funny Car decked out with Armed Forces decals for the kids! And they loved it, as did
the troops when Harlan fired the Funny Car up on the dock before it was taken onto the flight deck of the carrier.
So I opted to hitch a ride with my racer pals, car owner John Troxel, driver Chris Schneider,
and their crew, Justin Craig and Noah Sommers, who were taking Craig’s absolutely period
correct 1970 Della Woods Challenger to the event. To make the event more interesting
legendary owner/tuner Roland Leong was flying in to tune the alky-burning ancient Donovanpowered flopper.
7RS)XHOURRNLH
After a couple of years of struggling to find the combination, driver Chris Schnieder finally put
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John Troxel’s ex-Della Woods Mopar into the seven-second zone with a 7.88/171 lap. The
Troxel crew had the benefit of having their pal, the legendary Roland Leong, supervising and
tuning at this event. The Mopar has a Donovan 417 as a powerplant with a 6-71 supercharger
that has been massaged by Darren Mayer of DMPE.
We arrived at the track bright and early on Friday morning and the first thing I
noticed was that the track struck me as being just as nostalgic as the event it
was hosting. Marion County is a little jewel of a track located smack in the
middle of rural Ohio. It is surrounded by cornfields and pristine farms with red
and white painted barns and buildings. It is so remote that on your first trip to it
you better have a local racer guiding you or a GPS. The facility itself was built in
1971 to host an AHRA Grand American race in which Don Garlits beat Steve
Carbone. (Garlits later lost to him at the ’71 U.S. Nationals in the famous
“Burndown” finals.)
I don’t think the track has changed much since other than scoreboards and a
concrete launch pad. I would almost guarantee that the rest of the track surface,
aside from the concrete, is the original track. To say that from 200 feet to the
end the track surface is a bit deteriorated is an understatement. The track ends
at the edge of a cornfield where there is a big sign with an arrow pointing the
direction you must turn the car. As for the guard rails they are definitely
“nostalgic,” being made of telephone poles with double Armco rails about 18-24
inches high bolted to them. The track lighting wasn’t the worst I’ve ever seen but
it was dark in spots. But it was a safe enough track for the Funny Cars, most of
which were hard pressed to make a sub eight-second pass.
The format for the race was unique. All of the eight injected cars would make two
passes with the quickest and quickest Midwest car and East Coast car coming
back to determine a winner. The same deal applied to the 24 supercharged cars.
I would have to say that the track surface was prepped just perfectly for these cars. Even though the track personnel sprayed the track with VHT and they
ran a few bracket cars before the Funny Cars there was little traction to be had. I suspect the track had about the same amount of bite as it had when
Garlits and Carbone raced on it in 1971. For example, in 1971 at the U.S. Nationals Ed McCulloch won Funny Car with an ET of 6.64. The quickest pass
by a Nostalgia Funny Car at this race was a 6.78/206 by Mike Klontz in his ’79 Mustang.
Knut Sòderquist asked Harlan
to drive a top fuel dragster in
1980 and was told “no
thanks.” In 2006 Knut asked
again and Harlan said yes to
the chance of visiting Bahrain
in the Middle East for an eight
car Top Fuel race and he’s
never regretted it.
Bahrain photos courtesy Tog
Eurodragster
Could you imagine getting a
vase filled with Rosewater at
an NHRA press conference!
R
t !
Harlan had briefly driven Herm Petersen’s AA/FD back in the day, but Bahrain
was his first time out in a modern Top Fuel car - yet he set a 5.23 track record!
The following year Harlan was
invited to drive at the Emirates
Motorplex in Umm Al Quain,
being welcomed here by track
owner and race organiser
Sheikh Marwan Bin Rashid Al
Mualla and Dr. Al Bin Abdullah
Al Kabb, far left.
Young kids who visited the dragster kept calling him “Lawrence,” even though
he told them, “No, I’m Harlan.” Later, when he drove to the line, all he could
hear was kids chanting, “Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence,” repeatedly. When he
asked why the explanation was simple, “blonde hair, blue eyes make you look
like Lawrence of Arabia....” Fans loved the power filled passes which, because
of sand and moisture on the track, saw Harlan driving on the throttle stop. Even
so, the explosive displays of ground pounding nitro fire brought forth ecstatic
yells from locals who’d never experienced such awesome power before.
This nitro fire
poster’s got to
be the biggest
ever seen on a
double decker
bus anywhere!
They raced at night, but having the car’s engine
in a garage kept Euro mechanics from the heat.
$QGWKHEHDWJRHVRQ«
During his time with the military in Vietnam, Harlan was hospitalised, and
when fresh conflict began he’d asked Chrysler for more base visits; again
they agreed heartily and soon he was a regular sight at military hospitals.
Although Harlan quit racing in 1995, his dedicated relationship to the troops
continued with support from Budweiser, Chrysler, and Coca-Cola allowing
him to spend three to four weeks touring the US bases with his fuel coupe
each year. No longer did it arrive in a big tractor unit, but would be carried in
a smaller trailer like you see top right. While visiting injured service members
during a tour of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center he told a reporter, "I
know what it's like to be in a hospital and far from home. It can get boring just
laying there, alone. People like looking at the car an’ climbing in it, plus we
always have free food and drinks for them."
Early in 2001, Harlan joined
Budweiser’s Racecar and
Sweepstakes tour of a dozen
military bases in Japan, South
Korea, and Okinawa, and naturally
he had his Budweiser fuel coupe in
tow to entertain the troops.
One of the many Pennsylvania cars on hand included Rob Bundy’s “Shellshock” Vega. According to Bundy the engine is an original L-88 Chevy. Bundy says the best lap on the car
The tour began in Yokosuka, Japan. and military personnel and their families
were able to sit in the race car for photos and also enter a sweepstakes at
each location visited for a chance to win a new Dodge Neon! There were also
official Bud Racing jackets hats and t-shirts to win.
Then it was back to annual tours of the bases in Europe with his Budweiser
funny car. Since 9/11, security reasons precluded him running on nitro, yet
troops thronged the car and were still impressed when he fired ‘er up on
alcohol. No cackle perhaps, but the sound of horsepower would send tingles
through young veins and perhaps remind them of their freedom.
One of his many visits was reported by a military nurse, Sgt Oz, who wrote “We
have a lot of dignitaries visiting the hospital, but this is the first time that one
has actually invited soldiers to visit them. Harlan Thompson came by with his
drag racer, and gave out gifts to patients and staff here at Landstuhl. I was
impressed when he took the time to talk with the patients on my floor, and even
invite them to stay with him and his family back in the States.”
Harlan became so well known at Landstuhl he was
invited to the flight line (right), and recalls one
soldier, his stomach in a bag alongside with tubes
and catheters hanging from his body. “Wow,
thanks,” the guy said when Harlan gave him a
Budweiser Racing T shirt, trying to sit up and pull
it on over his shoulders, getting more than a little
tangled with all the tubes. ”Hold it,” said an army
nurse; “you’ll have to save that for later.”
“No way,” grinned the soldier. ”some son of a bitch’ll steal it when you guys put me under....”
“Okay,” the nurse replied with a smile, leaning in to help the wounded warrior pull on the shirt.
Another poignant moment at the hospital was the first time a soldier who’d lost both his legs asked if he could sit in the
car. “I guess,” Harlan responded, “but....” “No problem,” he’d grinned, lifting himself almost easily into the driver’s seat,
spending the next few minutes wearing a huge grin as Harlan talked him through a burn out and the excitement of a quarter
mile pass. Getting back out took a tad longer, the soldier still smiling as he shook Harlan’s hand, “thanks,” he said, “ that
felt great,” laughing out loud as he added, “but even before I lost these I don’t think I’d have driven one. You must have
balls of steel.” It wasn’t easy getting these stories from Harlan, but from his voice I knew how proud he was to have been
able to bring a small amount of joy to military personnel who’d given their all to protect the ideal of freedom for all.
is a 7.41/188. His best effort at this event was 7.56/179.32.
Most of the cars spun the tires instead of dead hooking and that undoubtedly contributed to the fact that not a single Funny Car oiled the track in more than
32 side-by-side laps.
There is one thing, though. I had
forgotten how long a seven- or eightsecond Funny Car pass takes
compared to today’s “big show” car. The
engines seemed like they were running
forever before the drivers shut them off.
After a while, though, I had to admit that
I liked the race lasting longer and the
cars being on the track for a longer
period of time.
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The tickets to watch this race was a
smooth $20 and I would have to say
that the approximately 1,000 fans who
attended this event (which was less
than last year due in no small part to
rain on and off all day Saturday) certainly got $20 worth of entertainment. The teams and drivers did an excellent job and the show went off pretty much on
schedule.
The variety of cars at this Funny Car “happening” was nothing short of amazing. There were perhaps a half-dozen cars that were absolute restorations of
real cars. Atlanta, GA’s Russell Davis brought the Huston Platt “Dixie Twister” 1970 Camaro complete with a spring-equipped front axle, no front brakes
and a supercharged iron 427 big block Chevy burning 85-percent nitro. Both Bob Rosetty’s “Rolling Stoned” and John Troxel’s Cuda were 90% originalequipment “survivor” cars with original bodies, tin work, and drive train, and there were more cars like those in attendance.
Were the cars quick and fast by today’s standards? No. Seven-second and higher ETs were the norm and there was just one six-second car. After
listening and watching NHRA Funny Cars running low four-second passes on 1,000-foot tracks it was actually a treat for me to watch funny cars that were
on the throttle for eight seconds or more.
So, if you want to see 32 Funny Cars at one race actually racing or show your kids what Funny Car racing used to be when the cars actually had
recognizable factory bodies, then you have to attend this race next year -- and at just $20 for a ticket it is one of drag racing’s great bargains!
....
Santa Pod still carried Budweiser signage, but
change was in the air with the heavily promoted
European Top Fuel Championship being pushed
into the limelight to the detriment of fuel coupes.
At Santa Pod’s 1994
World Finals Harlan
was “booked in” for
a “demonstration
pass” on Sunday,
but went K’boom
big-time on the
burnout.…
Mike Klontz had low ET and Top Speed of the meet with a 6.78/206. Klontz was the only car in the 6s at the meet. Klontz’s Mustang was built by Mike
Spitzer and is a twin to the ’79 Mustang that Spitzer build for Paul Romine. A lot of people in the pits did not like the body style of the ’79 Mustang.
7KHODVWSDVV« Times they were indeed changing, especially for
Harlan Thompson, who didn’t hit the track in 1995
until the annual Budweiser Cannonball which, as
readers know, is not a regular drag race.
At its best it was the toughest of them all as drivers
needed three full pulls to score the lowest elapsed
time aggregate in order to reach the finals.
Jerry Cookson photo
Harlan was doing fine with an easy 6.07 check out and a stronger 5.80 both clicked off early. The weather was looking
dodgy as he was suiting up to make his third pass when an official approached and said, “Okay Harlan, this is the
money run....” Harlan recalls sitting in the car thinking, “okay, it’s the last time I’m gonna drive down this track,” then
standing on the throttle and storming to low ET of 5.79, his aggregate a whole second ahead of any rival. Had there been
an actual race for the title, it would’ve been with TAFC stalwart and 1994 finalist Micke Kågerad, but rain stopped play.
Custom Car magazine reported “Thompson was judged to be the winner on the strength of his quicker times.”
Canadian racer George Monohan brought his injected Mopar wedge-powered ’79 Plymouth Arrow down to MCIR for this race. The “Rainmaker” ran a best
of 8.70/150 in the injected class.
Custom Car magazine October 1995
The money run indeed; many drivers have blown six figures with ease
whilst drag racing in the UK, but few ever received a similar size
reward. However, on more than a few occasions after a sunny
weekend at Santa Pod, Harlan did just that, including this last race
because, as Harlan recalled with a chuckle, "we made three clean
runs and never took the heads off.” And then it was over….
Fifteen years after arriving as an unsung hero, a lone gun who drove
Tre Kronor to victory over the largest and toughest field of fuel coupe
racers ever outside the USA, Harlan Thompson hung up his guns and
rode into off the sunset. Sadly that old cliché won’t quite work as it
was “pissin’ down with rain,” as we Brits often say.…
One of my favourite
images from Santa Pod,
“Rainy day dreamer,”
but it’s not from 1995.
%DFNLQWKHJURRYH
New sponsors were still coming onboard and, after two years of mechanical
woes, Harlan Thompson was back on form in 1994. As ever, when the chance
arose, he thrilled fans with huge ground pounding smoke filled burnouts.
Chicago racer Mike Johnson’s “Illinois Patrol” ’79 Dodge Omni “cop car” had the lights flashing on every lap. He ran
a best of 9.20 with his injected flopper.
Eric Sawyer photo
Russell Davis and his
1970 Camaro were
the only racers at the
event that were
burning nitro. Davis’s
all-iron 427 rat was
burning an 85% nitro
mixture. This was
DRO’s vote as the
best car because it
was period correct
and most important it
was burning NITRO!
The car did awesome
“dry hops” but couldn’t
get down the track
after that.
Harlan’s favourite Santa Pod memory is racing fellow American nitro legend Tom Hoover side-by-side in his own pair of
Budweiser fuel coupes. Even the great Kenny Bernstein never managed that! Harlan’s low ET and top speed of 5.63 at 264
easily took care of Tom Hoover who went up in smoke. Andy Willsheer photo scanned from photocopied Chrome & Flames
In the final, Harlan got the hole shot, then he smoked the tyres and got way out of shape before a masterful pedal job
saw him smoke his way to victory with a stout 5.89 at 261 mph ahead of Micke Kågerad’s 6.22 at 223 mph in the
Quaker State car. Harlan’s fifth Budweiser Cannonball was a record setting win.
The “Damn Yankee” BB/FC Vega driven by Mark Horvath ran a best number of 7.37/177.27 using a blown Hemi for
power.
The car Harlan bought from Al Segrini
was a strong, straight running car but,
“both Tom Hoover and Cory generally
put too much into the car,” chuckled
Harlan, “overpowering the track most
of the time,” and Al Segrini agreed
heartily. But Cory Lee ran it through at
251 mph and UK racer David Wilkerson
also drove it to get an AA/FC license.
Harlan ran low ET of 5.80 at 248, and a
5.94, and then broke at the Cannonball.
At the World Finals he stepped up to a
strong 5.59 at 250 and was hoping to
set a record. More than that, Santa
Pod’s highly touted Nitro Funny Car
Series title was on the line and Knut
was anxious to race for all the glory.
John DeCort drops the hammer and pulls the wheels as he drives his supercharged BB/FC ‘Vette to a best of 7.45/178.40
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Once again Harlan got the holeshot, lighting the tyres before something broke and he clicked it off as
Alan Bates pedaled his way to the win with a smoky out of shape 8.40 in the Chablik Brothers’ Vauxhall.
Harlan’s Top Fuel dragster looked ready
to rumble, but it was strictly a photo
opportunity for VIP visitors and never ran
again. He later gave it back to Darrell.
Bobbie Lee from Southwick, Mass., wheels this injected big block- powered ’71 Demon called “Little Miss Behaven.” It has run a best of 8.02/173 but
could only manage an 8.88/147.38.
Budweiser also gave all the track marshals new
team jackets, seen here modeled by Bill Schultz....
....while a real marshal
wonders why his jacket is
only black and white!
Venolia Pistons had been an
associate sponsor with Harlan’s
fuel coupes for a couple years
and, when they celebrated their
th
40 anniversary in 1994, Harlan
decided to invite along his old
racing pal Tom Prock, now head
honcho with the company, to
check things out. Tom’s
another quiet spoken man
who’s gone a long way, and
done much to support the sport
in the USA and also the UK by
paying contingency money to
our drag racers. He even put a
big smile on my face saying,
“Harlan tells me you collect
th
pins,” gifting me with a rare 40
anniversary Vee pin.
A thundering 5.72 at 240 mph put the Budweiser Chrysler way ahead of Rune Fjeld’s 6.04 in his Mobil Trans Am.
That full bore power pass hurt the Budweiser motor and Harlan was in the thick of things helping the crew put the
engine back together. Giant beer cans had long been the norm at US tracks, but they’d never been seen in the UK.
Long time pals Jerry Cookson, Eric Sawyer and Dick Parnham all provided photos for these features.
Side-by-side burnouts helped fans forget a
lack of Cannonball nitro thunder in the rainshortened event. Then, with his Mopar set
on kill, Harlan got the holeshot, but the car
made a violent move left and he lifted, while
Spuffard took his first Budweiser
Cannonball with a 5.96 at 224.
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7ZRFDUEOXHV
Eric Sawyer photo
Cory Lee (left), was back driving with Harlan in 1993.
Eric Sawyer photo
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The DRO best dry hop vote goes to
Pocono, Pennsylvani,a racer Kevin
Johnson. He got the wheels of his all
Chevy ’69 Camaro “Glory Daze” way
up. This was another car that appeared
to be absolutely period correct.
:DOOWRZDOO%XGZHLVHU
Eric Sawyer photo
Words and photos by Geoff Stunkard
The legendary York US30 Drag-O-Way, on the former Jackson Township airport west of York Pennsylvania, has been gone for over 30 years, having last
felt slick-sidewall rubber grappling for traction in 1979. NHRA’s former Division 1 Director Darwin Doll, who worked at the track itself from 1959-1961, has
hosted the York US30 Reunion and Musclecar Madness event for the last ten years in its memory. As always, the two-day show brings a lot of neat stuff
out of the woodwork, and the 2011 version was no exception. As we went to press, Doll told us he has a potential sponsor lined up to help out next year,
when the show will occur on July 13-15 (the final day being the Nostalgia Nationals at Beaver Springs covered in Drag Racing Online recently).
Incidentally, this date also moves the event off of the same weekend at the Carlisle All-Chrysler Nationals, freeing up some vendors and owners from that
responsibility. We say – BE THERE!...
Nancy Bracey, a powerhouse executive
who’d taken over marketing of Budweiser
across Europe in 1989, knew nothing of
drag racing, but when she met Harlan at the
Budweiser backed Irish Derby she was
more than just impressed with the modest,
soft spoken American.
Sometime later she visited with the team at
the track and was totally in awe at the
sound and fury of nitro thunder – naturally!
She couldn’t believe the noise and
acceleration, loved the fact the team were
touring US bases, and decided to increase
Budweiser’s presence at Santa Pod.
As we know, drag racing explosions make highlight reels. The UK is no exception, and Harlan’s horrific fireballs were
featured heavily on primetime TV. However, thanks to Nancy, British drag racing’s best ever exposure came about before
the season began in 1992, when she managed to get a BBC a crew to visit Harlan’s Budweiser team at a pre race media
gig at Santa Pod. Mind you, she had nothing to do with the finished product, but the powers that be at the Beeb (as the
world’s biggest and best non commercial TV channel is affectionately known) loved their short film so much they
showed it three times each day through the bank-holiday weekend! It’s a funny clip, as you can see from the video on the
next page. It’s good plug for drag racing, and I’m sure you’ll all agree it was massive for Budweiser! Nancy rang Tuesday
morning saying, “thanks, that was great Harlan; you’ve already made your sponsorship worthwhile.” She also sent out a
press release stating “Harlan gave us more prime time media exposure than our budget in Europe could ever buy,” and
also expressing her thanks to Harlan “for giving Anheuser-Busch the opportunity to sponsor the race-car.” Wow!
Nancy Bracey really came good in 1992
with Bud signage dominating the Pod and
Harlan’s unique factory backed two-car
fuel coupe team was looking good! Yep,
he’d worked some real magic with
Anheuser-Busch and Chrysler to get
himself a matching pair of fuel coupes!
He’d also gained a new Budweiser Drag
Series for Santa Pod on top of the long
standing Budweiser Cannonball. And the
new Budweiser VIP stand was filled with
employees and lucky fans thrilled to be so
close to awesome nitro powered action.
Rarity only begins to describe the two Pontiacs that collector Nick Smith brought up from Florida. One was the original Mickey Thompson 421 Catalina
shown here; the other was the only surviving transaxle AFX Tempest wagon.
Despite this step up, Harlan still went to the
store to collect his own G-Max nitro.
Sadly, wet weather curtailed the show and
the fuel coupes only made one pass each
with the quickest two making up the finals.
Budweiser photo courtesy Jerry Cookson
David McCreedy photo
Steve Moxley photo
Thankfully there was far less carnage than Harlan’s
1990 fireball, although the motor was too badly
damaged to continue. The good news was that a rule
change for this year allowed the use of another car, so
Harlan went and talked with Rune Fjeld…
There was a lot of rumbling and grumbling in the pits,
but the fans cheered as Harlan made a good smoky
burnout in Rune’s good looking Mobil 1 Trans Am.
Rune purchased it from Tom Hoover earlier that year,
qualified at the Gators with a 5.58 at 257 mph, and ran
the afore mentioned 5.57 at Santa Pod later.
You can almost feel
Bob Jarrett’s glare
as he waits for Knut
Sòderquist to stage
Harlan in the Mobil 1
fuel coupe.
Harlan took the holeshot, thundering to Europe’s second
th
quickest AA/FC pass, a 5.578 at 245 mph, (1/000 behind Rune’s
best!) to win his fourth Budweiser Cannonball..
Pro machines came in the form of the just-completed 1965 Arnie The Farmer Beswick Comet (painted to match early
ownership despite changes) and the recreated Frantic Ford Mustang of Frey-Liebmann- Reidnauer, which
unfortunately cooked during an Englishtown match race not long after…
Sideways at half track with the RT clocks showing .61
for Harlan - pretty good for a fuel coupe, and one
he’d never driven before! Harlan later expressed his
gratitude to Rune during a TV interview.
Photographer
Dave Bishop of
East Coast Drag
Times, Mike
Strickler (son of
funny car and pro
stock ace Dave
Strickler), and
Jack Penn, digging
through a box of
prints, enjoy a few
moments in
Bishop’s vendor
display.
Photo courtesy Harlan Thompson
Reaching the top end of the track, the blazing car billowing black smoke
as it shuddered to a halt. The smoke was so thick Whelan didn’t see
Harlan come out the roof hatch, ran in to assist him, and was hit by an
exploding fire bottle, ending up going to hospital! Harlan was unhurt,
and Jim Whelan’s father asked him to drive their Ford; and he did, to a
round winning 6.04 at 227.84. Some complaints from other racers led to
officials telling Harlan his race was over! Micke Kågerad won the
Cannonball in his TAFC Ford Tempo when Rune Fjeld smoked the tyres.
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Model cars abounded around a display of the York track; this was in the alcove between the two halls and was
created by members of the Central Pennsylvania Model Car Club.
Eric Sawyer photo
Harlan’s warm and friendly demeanor with US troops had led to Anheuser-Busch’s
Tom Doherty offering a Budweiser sponsorship and Harlan’s dedication to the
troops had grown. On signing with Chrysler, he requested “more stuff for the
military,” and they came good, especially with this world wide promotion to win a
Mini Funny Car, or even a real car and a big deal to any serviceman or woman! A
great promotion, not just for troops, but for his sponsors, and of course Harlan
was happy with the extra international exposure for drag racing!
Talking of which, early in 1991, after racing at Santa Pod they removed the Bud decals and
took the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta by storm. Fans had never felt AA nitro power
before, surrounding the car after his eighth mile burnout - stroking it as Harlan backed up!
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Bunny Burkett and long-time crew member Bear Pritchett were on hand with autographed souvenirs and momentos;
Bunny is presently running her old Corvette as a nostalgia-type funny car in east coast exhibition events.
Harlan’s runs are now
legend and Maltese drag
racing thrives.
Top end shots Eddie Muscat
A total of 15 funny cars turned out for the 1991 Budweiser Cannonball,
with nine of them fuel coupes. Again the format changed; each car
made a pair of qualifying runs, the top four racing in eliminations.
Harlan Thompson ran the only five second pass, 5.9 ahead of John
Spuffard’s 6.04, Norm Wilding and Swiss racer Urs Erbacher’s TAFC.
Spuffard put Showtime in the final, then Harlan lined up to race
Wilding. Scantily clad fans wilting in the hot summer sun at Santa Pod
had it was easy compared to wearing a full body fire suit inside a fired
up fuel coupe! The Budweiser car launched, looking good until half
track when it grenaded the motor and took Harlan on another fiery ride.
Photo courtesy Harlan Thompson Fire photos courtesy Jerry Cookson UKDRN
Harlan got a holeshot and after a good
close race Al Segrini took the win with a
5.73 at 242 to Thompson’s 5.79 at 230.
Harlan was ahead all the way, but said
later “you can’t have a funny car beat a
dragster, not when it’s y’r pal….” So he
clicked off and Al got the nod – just.
,QWRWKHQLQHWLHV« During the off season Harlan continued his hard work and, having had success
with his Budweiser Top Fuel car, decided to try and get Darrell Gwynn back to
race in the UK, this time with a Coors car. I had the good fortune to visit the 1990
Gatornationals and met up with Harlan and Al as they visited with Darrell between
rounds, no doubt checking that things were going smoothly with the deal.
Interview by Darr Hawthorne
At 93 years of age, Ed Iskenderian is one of the very last hot
rodders who was around before there was an NHRA. Although not
directly involved in the formation of the NHRA, his status as a
racer, innovator, manufacturer, and race car sponsor makes him
an integral part of the history of drag racing. The camshaft
business he founded, Isky Cams, is famous, both in the racing
and high performance worlds. Although it is now run by his sons,
Richard and Ron, Isky himself is as active in the field as he ever
was, and he can be found there almost every day. We thought it
was well worth the time to sit down and talk with a man who has
seen it all.
Darrell took the pole with the tracks first four, a 4.98, set top speed at 281.95 then won with a 5.01 over Eddie Hill’s 5.08.
Darrell returned to Santa Pod for the
Easter 1990 meeting and, sadly, during
the run which followed this burn out, the
dragster broke in two. This tragic crash
left Darrell paralyzed from the chest
down with the loss of an arm.
The news shook members of the drag racing world, who rallied to support him through his lengthy recovery period. Darrell
went on to win races as a team owner, and is now happily married with a daughter. A 20th anniversary 1990 Coors Extra
Gold Top Fuel dragster replica, donated back several times, raised more than a million dollars for the Darrell Gwynn
Foundation when it was resold again at the 2010 Barrett-Jackson 40th Annual Scottsdale Auction.
+RWWLPHV«
Apart from that bummer, Harlan’s 1990 season began well when the
team won a best appearing crew award - with a long legged lass
from the Sun newspaper to present it! Things weren’t quite so
pretty at the Budweiser Cannonball. Norwegian Rune Fjeld drove
his freshly imported (ex Tom Hoover) Pontiac wearing Pepsi/Mobil
1 colours to a 5.57 and 5.58, the best ever numbers from a fuel
coupe in the UK. Jim Whelan ran the first five in his Ford Probe, a
5.98, and then sat back to watch Harlan Thompson make his pass.
The Bud car was charging hard when the fuel pump shut-off valve
began to close - oops! Then the motor leaned out, pistons melted,
and the rods went to churning like a chainsaw and K’boom!
: Where and when did you see your first
drag race, either on a street on a strip?
Ed Iskendarian: Well that would be on the street. We didn’t have
drag racing before the war. So we would meet at Hugo’s Hot Dog
Stand or places like that on Pico Boulevard (in Los Angeles), and
first thing you’d know, we’d try our cars out against somebody else.
It was comical, in a way. We used to think that this fella, Morlan
Visel, he had a nice ’32 Roadster, I had a Model T with a V-8
flathead in it; came just to race me out on Venice Boulevard. We
used to think that he only hung out (and raced) around our
neighborhood, west Los Angeles, but by golly, we found out later
that he used to go clear to Santa Ana (to race) ! We found that out
only a few years ago and this is almost sixty years later. He must
have traveled all over the southern California area looking for
racers
: Just looking for racers?
EI: Yeah. And I thought he was just a local guy, but no, he went to
Santa Ana and raced other places. So anyway, that’s the way it
was. We started out with bicycles of course, and we saw our first
hot rods zip by every now and then. It would be a stripped down
Model T, or maybe a Chevy, four cylinders you know. Of course
they had to be lightweight cars because we didn’t have very much
power, but they’d be hopped up a little bit, these four cylinder
engines. We learned from the older fellows, there weren’t any
magazines to learn from then , so we learned from the older fellows.
Then we found out that if you really wanted to see a lot of these hot
rods, or ‘go jobs’ we called them then. Or ‘hot iron’. Well you’d go to
the dry lakes a hundred miles from Los Angeles and there we’d see
hundreds of them.
Eric Sawyer photo
An exciting race for the fans saw Gary Page drive around Harlan’s 6.05 to win with 5.94.
Shortly later Fjeld and Page were called to the line for the final round. Harlan had already decided he’d go out
and make a power pass for the fans, but then an official suggested that as first alternate he should get down
there – fast. Not wanting to miss any opportunity, the team moved out, reaching the start area to find the
Showtime crew having problems firing their car – and that’s when the fun began. With Fjeld’s car already up
and running, a track official gave Harlan the “fire it up” motion with his arm and the Bud car roared into life.
Displays of anger came from Page, his crew and their fans, this despite the fact that Showtime wouldn’t fire!
: At El Mirage?
Ed: No it was Murock then. We had the best lake of all, Murock. So that’s where we’d learn more by seeing what the
guys had done, picking up certain parts from the junkyard. There was a big variety of cars in those days in the
wrecking yards, and by picking this and that. You could get Franklin front axles and Essex frames, Cadillac gas
tanks, an Auburn dash. All this kind of stuff, you know. Buffalo wheels and this and that.
: What was the first drag strip you went to?
Following his burnout, Harlan thrilled fans with a classic dry hop that had the front wheels in the air. The cars staged and
some said the lights never ran, but when Harlan saw the Camaro move he stomped the throttle and raced to victory.
EI: Well let’s see. I always wanted to go to Santa Ann but I was too busy making cams. Let me see… Lions, of
course, but before that? Gosh, I can’t think of it right now.
: Personally, what is your favorite kind of racing?
EI: Oh gee. Well really, I guess sprint car or circle track racing because drag racing’s over so fast, but with circle
track racing, you have a chance to make mistakes and still be in the race, and it lasts quite a while, half an hour
sometimes. And another fun thing is that if you’re a slow car, you can kind of back off a little bit until the leader
comes by, then try and keep up with him a bit! I always thought that would be fun. I never did get on the racetrack
because I was always afraid of being hurt.
: Do you prefer dirt or asphalt?
EI: Dirt. Because you get the sliding and all that.
: Back in the fifties, did you race at all?
EI: Yeah. We did most of my racing on the dry lakes. I did 120 (MPH) with my Model T and I think Edelbrock, with his
V-8 ’32 Roadster, was going 124 or so. We hung out with the guys in the Bung Holer Club, but we weren’t in it. So
we grew up there. We weren’t in the time trials, but we’d wait until Vic took his car out and then we’d see if we could
stay with him. He’d be trying it out on the side of the lake before he made an official run. We noticed that we were
lightweight compared to him, so we could stay with him on acceleration but he’d run away from us on the top end.
However the race was declared
null and void! Harlan suggested
that if Page could beat his ET
he’d give him the win, but they
never did get Showtime to fire!
Harlan returned to Hockenheim in 1989, with the event
now being run the other way and over the full quarter mile.
This year’s visit to Germany saw the Budweiser logo
replaced with Skoal Long Cut sponsorship - and there was
a crowd of more than 100,000 nitro hungry fans!
Back at the Pod for the World Finals, Harlan got way out of
shape and was DQd for crossing the outside line. Having
helped long time racing pal Al Segrini get a top fuel
license, Harlan suggested they have a match race. “Yeah,
let’s give ‘em a touch of Jungle Jim magic,” chuckled
Segrini, “y’know, burn out, swap lanes and burn out back
down the track – it’d be fun…” Harlan liked the idea but
the Race Director dismissed it as “far too dangerous!”
Photo courtesy Harlan Thompson
: That’s the only kind of race car you’ve driven?
EI: Yeah. Well, one day I fired up one of the Top Fuelers. I never did make a run with one. I made just a slow burnout. Little burnout, you know?
: There are a lot of people who doubt that Chris Karamesines was the first person to go over 200 mph in the quarter mile.
Do you think the 204 at Alton, Illinois was real?
EI: Well, I do doubt it a little bit, but they played it up as much as they could so.... Yeah, it was kind of a publicity stunt, you might say. It might have been a
little mistake, who knows for sure? What were they running at the time, 190? Yeah, that… that remains to be seen.
Darrell also gave fans their first string of nitro powered five second quarter miles with a best of 5.66 on this
solo run. Mrs. Gwynn loved this family portrait, as she very rarely saw photos of Jerry and Darrell together.
: No way of ever proving it.
EI: That’s right.
: What promoter or drag racing executive, in your mind, was most
responsible for drag racing?
EI: Well I guess Jack Hart did the nicest job, and Wally, yeah. He had the Safari and went back east
and planted dragstrips in lots of little towns to keep the kids off the streets, so that did help a lot.
: Did you have a good relationship with him?
EI: We had some fallings out, but yeah. That’s a long story there.
: Is there a race car or type of racing you wish you’d gotten involved in?
EI: Uh, Formula One is pretty exotic, elite stuff, you know.
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The deal with Mopar came together quickly, and Harlan
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and a cute lil’ funny car go-kart! Most folks were impressed
with Harlan’s latest step up the ladder to international
success, and you gotta admit it’s a good looking rig.
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Following an earlier crash, the Cannonball format was cut, leaving four cars to run
a straight eliminator. After Rune Fjeld drove his ex-Bruce Larson Camaro to
victory, the Budweiser car came out to face Gary Page in Bob Jarrett’s Showtime.
: But you’ve been in
boats….
EI: Yeah, well when you start making cams, anyone
who wants to hop up an engine… You’ll have drags
and boats and sprint cars and midgets, everything,
even airplanes sometimes, swamp buggies.
: Who’s the most underrated
or forgotten person you know of in racing
history?
EI: Oh there’s quite a few. I always admired Mickey
Thompson, Fritz Voigt and Art Chrisman. There’s so
many. I’d have to think about that for a while
because there’s so many fellows who never got
true recognition.
: The drivers tended to get
more recognition.
EI: I’d say that’s true, yeah. Sometimes just the
driver would get mentioned. But the pit crew or top
tuner sometimes wouldn’t get into the limelight.
: What do you think your
greatest achievement is, as a hot rodder and
manufacturer?
But there was little time to dwell on this as the car had to be
moved to its next location, and then it was time to head for
Hockenheim in Germany. Harlan was amazed that they had
over 49,000 people filling the stands. Eagle eyed readers will
notice Budweiser missing on the flanks of the Trans Am. St
Louis’ Anheuser-Busch and the Czechoslovakian Budweiser
Company, who brewed Budvar in Europe, where feuding over
rights to the name so no Bud decals were worn in public
places. No problem, just slap on a set of Coke and Cope
decals! Copenhagen was so impressed with Harlan’s visits to
US bases and his professionalism, they were happy to come
on board when he couldn’t wear his Budweiser decals.
The team also visited Austria; “The track was beautiful; it's about a mile, mile an' a half high, way up in the Alps. They
had an eighth mile track there an' we ran a four flat.” At altitude, that’s none too shabby, as they say.
“Were you racing or demonstrating?”
“In between,” Harlan chuckled, “it was really nice there, but I never thought about the high altitude, and then I got up at
five for my early morning run and was soon puffing and pantin' like a freight train and had to stop. This kept happening
and in the end I had to walk back to the hotel,” Harlan laughed as he added, “when they reminded me we were more than
a mile high I felt kind’ve silly....”
“Yeah, I know what you mean Harlan, I had the same problem driving over the Rockies – every time I got out of the car
I’d almost fall down!” Mind you, Harlan runs three to five miles each and every morning and has done so since forever,
which is just one of the reasons he was always so sharp on the lights! He even entered, and finished, a couple of New
Germany photos courtesy Harlan Thompson
York Marathons – I’ve got a problem j’st walking through the pits!
When I found out only three rounds of fuel coupe racing took place before rain stopped
play at Santa Pod’s 1988 World Finals, I’d no regrets that I’d returned to Fl’w’dah for
some more fun in the sun! The weekend’s final race featured a pair of swoopy Pontiacs,
with Harlan’s Bud car taking on Gary Page in the ex-Tom Hoover Showtime.
EI: Probably when I came up with the 550 High Lift
Super Le Gerra Cam, the high lift-soft action cam
for the Chevrolets which brought the engine to life and way up to the 8500 rpm. Because even Frank McGurk, who
was a good friend of mine, he raced Indianapolis even before World War II, and when I advertised a 550 Super Le
Gerra Cam… Dave Zeuschel gave me the idea for the Super Le Gerra Cam. I said, “Gee, that sounds good. What
does it mean?” And he said, “I don’t know but it sounds good and we’re using it.” So I called my cam the Super Le
Gerra. Later on, we found that it was Italian, meant ‘light and fast’, or something like that. Oh there’s a man that
could use some more recognition; Dave Zeuschel. As for the question, my greatest achievement, you see in the
beginning, Ed Winfield was the first cam grinder, born in about 1901, and I hadn’t ground my first cam. He showed
me how he’d built his machine and I was fascinated by it. I bought my cam from him and after the war, we’d been in
the Army and had been exposed to airplane engines and learned a lot more, why I decided that I’d like to try grinding
my own cams. I made my own cam grinding attachment like he did.
Most people that went into the cam grinding industry probably copied Winfield’s cams. Now he had a very soft action
cam that would rev way high, and when I laid out my first cam to try out my machine, I made a very simple cam with
just three arcs and three radii, one flank, the other flank, and the nose radius. I left off the clearance ramp and I
made it a real fast action noisy cam. It was just a practice cam, but I went ahead and made a few and put them in
stock. I didn’t know I had anything until they called from NASCAR. Without asking if I had much experience or
anything, they bought two by airmail and then they started ordering more and more because, and I didn’t know this at
first, but they had a lot of mid-range torque because of their sloppy action and no clearance ramps, which you could
get away with on a flathead, because it had such a lightweight valvetrain. So it was really good for passing cars on
the circle tracks. It had a lot of mid-range power and good top end too. Now you can’t get away with that on the
overhead valve push rod and rocker arm engines, there’s too much weight and mechanisms. That helped a lot,
getting into the NASCAR business. That all came from putting a two inch ad in Hot Rod magazine, which only cost
ten dollars. Five dollars an inch, you know.
A great hole shot, but Harlan overpowered the track and badly out of shape as Gary Page thundered to victory with
low ET of 5.89 at 229 mph. There’s video of this race, and others from the event, on the next page. Eric Sawyer photo
0RSDU0RYLQ·
During the off season, Harlan bought one of Darrell Gwynn’s Budweiser Top Fuel cars, with the proviso that Darrell
came to Santa Pod to race when available. Then a couple weeks later Harlan got a call from Chrysler, “we’d like you
to come up to New York so we can get your contract sorted out and signed.…”
The Gwynns arrived for the 1989 Easter meeting and, with Darrell having just signed up for Coors, Harlan had the car
re-branded with Coca-Cola lettering. Santa Pod fans were ecstatic, especially when he raced Norway’s fast lady Liv
Berstadt in Santa Pod’s first Top Fuel side-by-side five second race, with his 5.78 winning over Liv’s close 5.84.
Which reminds me; Harlan once again carried much excess baggage in the form of fresh parts for the
news season, and this time HM Customs at Heathrow took a real interest in the large load, opening all the
packages, then asking if he was selling parts, and if not, what was he using them for? It’s easy to
imagine Harlan trying to explain the explosive ramifications of overloading an engine running blown and
injected on nitro. They listened intently and said, “Okay,” waving him through with a “have a good race.”
Some weeks later, having just thrown a couple rods, Harlan saw a familiar face among fans close to his car – took a
second look and recognized a senior Customs officer from Heathrow! So he went over, said hello. HM Customs had taken
more than an interest in his large load and.…“Well, you understand sir; I just had to come and see what was going on.”
"He was a real nice guy," Harlan recalled, “a hard timer, and I said “you’ve come at the
right time," bringing him into the pit so he could take a close look at the holed block,
burnt pistons and twisted rods. Almost instantly, with a wry grin on his face, he’d
expressed his sorrow at Harlan’s bad luck.
“No problem’s, it goes with the territory,” Harlan had chuckled, “ with a nitro car you can
start j’st burning stuff up like pistons an’ valves at the drop of a hat....”
In fact, drag racers generally burn up everything put into their cars at some time – but
you wouldn’t expect Joe Public, or a Customs Officer to know that! After chatting awhile
about fuel coupe racing, he shook Harlan’s hand, gave him a card and said “Okay sir,
after last time I had to come and take a look, but next time you’re coming over, just call
me and I'll leave them a note....” Harlan never really had any problems when passing
through HM Customs, but after that it was always smooth sailing. Unlike the annual
Budweiser Cannonball where rain stopped play before things even began....
Happily, Harlan had no problems at all during tours of
US bases where his awesome looking Pontiac
entertained members of the US military and their
families, who also enjoyed hotdogs, burgers and
beverages thanks to Coca-Cola’s Jake Jacobson. Coke
was always happy to help with the military, and more so
now they were a sponsor on Harlan’s fuel coupe.
Tom Doherty, the Anheuser-Busch man responsible for Harlan’s Budweiser sponsorship, spoke to me about those
visits. “We had a lot of bases in Germany and Harlan would often visit 30 to 35 on any given trip; he’d be on a different
base every day from first thing in the morning. The schedule was tight, with arrangements made so the car could be
moved around easy and parked wherever it was needed - you know, the Enlisted Men’s Club, the Base Exchange and the
Officers Club. He’d be there all day, his uniform (fire suit) on, answering questions and he’d keep at it with a smile on his
face.” “Yep, that’s Harlan, I don’t know that I ever saw anything but a smile on his face, even when he blew up!”
Harlan caused considerable interest during his high profile tours of 1988, and we’re not just talking US servicemen and
women. On one such visit he noticed a couple of civilians who stayed back in a small group, chatting together until the
crowd thinned out before coming over to express interest in the drawing power of the fuel coupe, and especially
Harlan’s involvement with Budweiser and Coca-Cola. Harlan talked about his racing and military visits and eventually
one introduced himself as a senior executive with Chrysler AAFES and asked, “Would you be interested in driving a
Chrysler?” “Sure,” Harlan answered with a grin, “J’st what d’y’ have in mind?”
It seems they were happy with Harlan’s agenda, but
suggested using a Chrysler product, finally asking
Harlan, “and what exactly would you want?” The
answer was simple, funding, Mopar Performance bodies
and parts, support vehicles for the race team, “and I’d
like you guys to do more for the military, y’know
barbecues, give-a-ways, tee shirts, ball caps an’ stuff for
the troops…” The executive was all smiles as he
agreed, suggesting everything sounded fine and, “I can
see no problems,” thanking Harlan for his time and
adding, “We’ll be in touch,” before taking his leave.
: You got your money’s worth! You’re a California native, right?
EI: Yeah. I was born in the grapevine country up near Fresno.
: Can you think of another part of the country that’s had as much
racing development as southern California?
EI: Well big car racing and midget racing.... The weather was so good out here that you could
run so often with hot rods and gow jobs, but that caught on back east too, once they found out
about it. I remember one time we heard about Sheffler. He had an Offenhauser race car and he
was going to go race it back east. He would rebuild it during the winter months here in Los
Angeles. And boy were we excited to check it out when he fired it back up again. We wanted to
be there and hear it run. And then we found out he was already gone. We asked if he’d tried it.
“Oh no, he don’t have to start it up. That’s an Offenhauser racing engine.” So he didn’t even
start it up out here, he just took it racing. It was a professional piece of equipment. We thought
he’d have to try it out, make sure everything was okay first, but he went east and raced out
Legends collide: Don Garlits and Ed Iskendarian
there all summer long.
: Did you ever get a chance to see it?
EI: No, just in the garage where he would rebuild it each year.
: You were one of the founders of SEMA. Is that organization the way you envisioned it today?
EI: You know, the toy company over in Venice… Mattel. They called us all in one time, all of us speed equipment manufacturers, and said, “Are you guys
organized?” I said, “What do you mean organized?” “Well,” he says, “you know we’re in business making these plastic toys, and we all chip in to have a
lawyer, all of us in the toy business. That way, if there’s any legislation against us, he represents all of us and stops it right now.
It seems like if someone, some congressman, wants to get old cars off the street”, it’ll go through because there’s no opposition. ‘Well, yeah, that sounds
like a good idea.’ But there’s another lawyer there who says, ‘Don’t you know what you’re doing here, this is a million dollar business, restoring cars, and
people like to see these old cars in parades and things like that and in Museums… and they’ll stop it.” So that’s what he said. He said that in their case,
they’d tried to get them to stop putting the glue in the kits because kids would sniff the glue and get high or something. And they put a stop to that with our
attorney.
So we did start that Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association, and they found out it could be bigger if they changed it to ‘Specialty Equipment’. No, first
‘Manufacturing’ came off and it became ‘Merchandisers’. That meant a lot more people joined up and paid dues. And then ‘Speed’ became ‘Specialty’, and
that made it bigger yet too.
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7UDYHOHUV·WDOHV
: But it was originally started as a way to
collectively fight legislation that might have hurt your
business?
1987 was a fantastic year which I’d begun with Harlan, putting together parts fo
the new season, with more than enough for just a complete new engine by the
time we loaded our “limo” to the airport. A regular front wheel drive sedan, it
only just kept the front wheels on the ground! The parts put Harlan’s baggage
allowance 1000 lbs over the top, but a couple of Bud’ jackets, some caps and
tee shirts took care of things! Harlan breezed through Customs in the UK and
those parts helped give the Bud team their best season ever.
EI: That was the idea. So it grew. They made me first President. I
wasn’t at one of the meetings they held and originally it was
very… Well Ed Elliot, the advertising man, would get us together.
He did a lot of work on it in the early days, getting us together and
talking and voting, and this and that. He helped a lot, getting it
going, until they got in more people and got more dues and hired
more people. So that’s what made it grow.
After the ‘87 Cannonball, Bill Schultz and his friend Joyce had joined Harlan and I for the airport trip – three sixfooters and baggage in my Camaro made for an interesting journey! Bill and Harlan shared the back seat with a
suitcase, riding with their feet out the window the whole time - luckily we never saw a policeman, but boy did we get
strange looks! Not wishing a repeat, I’d arranged a Ford Scorpio sedan, but it ended up in the ditch on Saturday
night - not my fault, honest! Luckily we were flying out of Gatwick and I knew we could get the train all the way.
: So you’re still a member of SEMA, but
the way that it’s evolved is really positive for the industry still,
right?
But first we had to taxi to the station - an even tighter squeeze! Suitcases
filled the trunk and front seat with the four of us somehow fitting into the
rear of a small English sedan! However, it only cost about five bucks so it
was a good deal! The Hoovers were in hysterics when they saw us fall
out of the car – me too; after all this wasn’t the way for the newly
crowned Budweiser King of Europe to travel! Being a commuter train it
was packed, and we had to stand all the way down to London! No
problems, we just chatted and joked as the high speed express carried
us through the grey English countryside. Soon we’d reached the airport,
said farewell and were flying back to the Jersey shore….
EI: Oh yeah. They have their attorneys and they help a lot.
: I’ve seen you at hot rod reunions. Do
you follow modern drag racing on any level?
EI: Yeah, as much as I can. I used to go back east a few times in
the old days, but now I just go to Pomona twice a year when they
race.
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enjoyed the excitement
7LPHRXWIRUIXQ« Harlan
of racing a fuel coupe and got a
buzz as Budweiser’s goodwill
ambassador to the US troops.
However, his biggest thrill was
being able to spend a lot of
time with his kids as they grew,
and the next few weeks were
spent playing happy families.
Then suddenly it was over; the kids went back
to school, I hit the boardwalk again before
driving my wagon off to California, and Harlan
got back to work on sponsorship deals for 1988.
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Harlan’s winter work paid off and
new sponsors came along for the
ride in 1988, but it was a troubled
year for the Budweiser team, and
the weather didn’t help. However, as
Harlan once said, “for most racers,
if you went to a couple races and
you won, that’d be a good year.”
Watch and hear Harlan doing his
stuff, sideways and never lifting,
with film of a full bore thunder run
on the next page.
Isn’t technology wonderful!
Eric Sawyer photo
: Do you still have relationships with a lot of the drag racers?
EI: Yeah, we still do. Some of the new guys, but a lot of the older guys mostly. It’s quite interesting to notice that some of them made it into the big time,
like Prudhomme, who’s retired now. And there were a lot of others who just didn’t have the right… I don’t know if they needed publicity, an agent, or
something, but they needed big sponsorship. It takes big sponsorship for the top Top Fuel and funny cars.
: have you followed nostalgia racing at all?
EI: Oh yeah. That’s a lot of fun. It’s gotten so expensive for the big time racing that
nostalgia’s getting bigger and bigger, ‘cause they can buy old cars and keep running
them and running them. Resurrect old cars.
: It’s a really great way for a lot of racers to burn nitro still.
EI: And get started. That’s right. It’s good, and it’s getting bigger and bigger.
A ground pounding burnout, then Harlan thundered to 235 mph, top speed of the meet, and the number two spot with a 6.26.
Harlan was now matched against his old adversary Tom Hoover and, with Hoover’s aged Showtime Corvette packing a
bunch of fresh goodies (including twin mags and fuel pumps topped by a huge 14-71 blower), Harlan did what he does best
and got a holeshot. The Trans Am pulled away as the power laden Showtime went up in smoke; Hoover pedaled it and gave
chase just in case. But there was no second chance as Harlan sped to low elapsed time of the meeting, a 6.10 at 231 mph.
: It seems to be getting bigger every year. Do you still
advise on cam and lifter design? Do you still have ideas for that?
EI: Yeah. I’ve got some ideas that I haven’t been able to get around to. All the easy stuff I’ve already done. Where do the ideas come from? Well, a lot of
them come from old antique engines. There were a lot of good ideas on those old antique engines, that didn’t make too much difference then, but now
every little bit helps. A lot of those old ideas I like to resurrect. They seem like new ideas, but they’re really old ideas I’ve picked up from here and there.
: Do you pay attention to things like the LS engines out of General Motors, or Ford modular engines, or the new Hemis from
Dodge? What do you think of them as compared to the engines of the ’50 ‘60s and ‘70s?
Sequence courtesy www.timetraveldvds.co.uk
Gary Page ran a 6.34 at 214, the quickest Panic had ever gone, in beating Ragnor Nordli, but broke. This allowed Nordli back
in to try his luck in the final, but he went up in smoke at the hit as Harlan took victory with a 6.34 clicked off at 210 mph. This
win gave the Budweiser team more than just another World Finals crown: it was their fourth straight major International title,
and Harlan was in fact unbeaten during the season! Such a feat would be remarkable in any class, but in the awesome world
of blown and injected nitro funny cars it was more than just unique, it was AA amazing!
EI: Yeah I do. Well, the thing I’ve been wondering is I’ve noticed now that the new Corvette LS series engines are pretty highly developed now. I
personally own about three of the Northstar Cadillacs with four cam - four valve engines, and I notice that they’re hard to work on. After 100,000 miles,
you might expect a little trouble with them, and I notice you can buy a new Cadillac now with the supercharged LS engine, and I’m wondering if Cadillac will
drop that four cam Northstar and go strictly with the LS Corvette engine, because it’s a very practical pushrod engine. I’ve got a hunch that it can hardly be
beat for racing and general use. It’s easy to work on and practical.
End of part one. In the next installment, Mr. Iskenderian gets technical about the five cycle cam and other innovations and talks about his favorite
racers, among other things.
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The final race of the season was an extra bonus for fans. Ludwig Bjornstad
brought his Top Fuel car out to match race Tom Hoover making a last outing with
the legendary Showtime Corvette fuel coupe, and hoping to take it out in style.
“He’d love to run another five,” Harlan said, adding with a chuckle, “or at least beat my time.” Instead Hoover got the best
seat in the house as Ludwig’s engine let loose and lit up the track on a 5.95, the first five for a Norwegian. Hoover was
charging hard but, as he told me later, “I saw he was going to blow, so I hit the chute early and watched. It was a good run.”