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1970s Florida Funny Car Holidays
by David Hapgood
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| The Phillips & Shores "Fireball Vega," shown here at Lebanon Valley Dragway, September 1975. Photo by David Hapgood |
Like most kids, for me a Florida vacation was one of the best things in life. In fact, it was the very best thing apart from drag racing. I had family in Boynton Beach and we were down there in Jan 1976. One day on our way to the beach, as we approached the intersection at the Sunshine Square Mall, I could see a 5th wheel parked in front of a Shell gas station on a lot kitty corner. 'Looks like a funny car trailer,' I thought. When I was a kid I used to see drag racing references everywhere, even when there were none. It was just second nature. As we got closer my jaw dropped, real hard as I read the words "Fireball Vega" on the side. What the hell?! I had seen this car race several times at my home track in upstate NY. But because I was just 12 years old at the time, I had no idea where some of the teams were from. Apparently this one was from from HERE!
Well, I couldn't wait to get back from the beach and stop by the gas station, which my dad and I did. That was the day we met Gary Phillips, who along with Jim Shores owned the “Fireball Vega.” He was really friendly, answered all my questions, showed us a bunch of framed photos of the car (my first look at professional race car photography) and sent us off with some handouts and instructions on how to find the gas station where they housed the car, several miles away. "Tell them Gary sent you."
It was great. We drove inland to the intersection of Boynton Beach and Congress boulevards, and there it was, the “Fireball Vega," in the repair bay of another Shell station, body up and parts spread out on the floor around it. It was kind of like unexpectedly bumping into someone you knew in a faraway place.
The next winter I stopped by their Shell station closer to the beach, where they kept the trailer, and Gary told me the car was 'up north' receiving its new Monza body and getting painted. I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't be seeing a funny car on my vacation. But later that week my mom and I were at the Boynton bus station waiting for a friend of mine who was coming over from his grandparents' place in Bradenton, when a crew cab dualie pulled up alongside us. "Just like a funny car hauler," I thought, again making drag racing references where there were none. Then two guys stepped out of the truck and one of them was wearing a Gary Burgin Tee Shirt. I just about lost it. When they returned I asked where they were keeping their car, not knowing who they were or what the car was (though in 1977 most sportsmen didn't have crew cab dualies, at least not this nice, and fewer still would have been wearing Burgin Tee Shirts -- I knew I was onto something). "Industrial Avenue," the guy said.
We had to figure out where Industrial Avenue was. Once we had located it on a map, we went out there and found a large metal warehouse with perhaps six enormous garage doors in the side, all of them open, with racers working on their race cars. One of these cars happened to be Paul Smith's "Entertainer" Vega. Just then they were cutting a square out of the roof to conform to NHRA's new escape hatch requirement for '77. I did not see Paul Smith on this trip, just his crew guys. I was told they would be running an 8 car show at Miami-Hollywood later that week. I could not miss that, could I?
Well, the reason I was in Florida that year was because my grandmother was dying in the hospital (thankfully she survived) and though there were a lot of relatives down there to say goodbye to her, I was there alone with my mom, and as you can imagine she did not want to drive down to Miami for a night drag race, and none of my uncles offered. So I missed it.
The kicker was, later that week we stopped by Paul Smith's shop again to see how the race went. "We went to the semis and Ivo won." Tommy Ivo, my all time favorite drag racer. I never did get to see him win a race.
-- David Hapgood
hapgood_d@hotmail.com
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