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70s Funny Cars: Round 47
Text by Danny White
Ezra Boggs was a funny car racer from Oklahoma. Boggs raced funny cars from coast to coast during the years 1969 to 1985. The first funny car Ezra raced was the Colt 45 machine of the Martin Brothers. The Martin Brothers were the third owners in the line of cars bearing the Colt 45 name. The first owners were the successful Ingram and Davis team out of California who built the first Colt 45 in 1966 to race in the NHRA AA/A class. The team then raced early funny cars with the blown steel body car. Davis and Ingram sold the car to Frank Reinauer, who bought the car to match race in the Oklahoma area.
Reinauer extended the front end 24 inches and replaced the small block with a 396 Chevy. The car never handed well so Reinauer had local funny car racers Gitthens and Allen build a new chassis from 2 x 4" square tubing. A new '69 Mustang body was ordered from Ron Pellegrini's Fiberglass, Ltd., shop outside Chicago. Frank drove the new car a couple of times but still did not like the feel of it. He sold the car to fellow Oklahomans Don and Jack Martin and Reinauer asked Ezra to drive the car for the new owners. Boggs drove the 480 cubic inch Chevy powered Mustang for two years with best times of 7.70 at 198 in 1970. (Photo courtesy of Ezra Boggs and www.mobydickaafc.com; info from Ezra Boggs and Draglist files)
Here is a Corvette funny car that beat the Corvette Curse. Leonard Christianson ran the Northwest Nite Corvette out of Washington with his brother. The 392 Chrysler Hemi ran from 1968 to 1971 with a known best of 7.61, 185. The body for the Northwest Nite was used by Jim Nourdhaugen in the late-nineties on a late model alcohol funny car chassis. (Photo courtesy of Terry Kong; information from Draglist files)
Here is another "Super" funny car from the seventies. The Michigan-based Super Camaro is unrelated to the southern-based Super Camaro of Frank Huff & Clare Sanders. The Michigan Super Camaro was owned by Ray Gallagher and Perry Wyatt from the Detroit suburb of Lincoln Park. Famed Michigan chassis builder Tom Smith of Wolverine Race Cars built the Camaro to replace the team’s Super Bear Barracuda. The Camaro featured a 427 Chevrolet backed by a
Hemi-Torqueflight
three speed built by Perry Wyatt. The team split after racing the 1970 season when Ray Gallagher quit driving to build the first of the Trader Ray series of Mustangs driven by Dwane Ong. Wyatt retired from racing but not before getting the Super Camaro to run a 7.83, 200.89. (Photo by Gerry Kalenjecki courtesy of Perry Wyatt Jr.; info courtesy of Perry Wyatt Jr. and Draglist files)
Dick Lagno and Dan Sachs ran this ex-Dick Harrell/Clyde Morgan Camaro out of New Jersey in 1971. The car started life as Morgan's Dick Fletcher-chassised "Experimental Javelin” before Clyde teamed up with Harrell mid way through 1970. Lagno only raced the car for about six months in the Northeast. This body ended up on the Don Hulse Camaro in the early-mid 1970s. (Photo courtesy of Big Bob Snyder; info from Dennis Doubleday and Draglist files)
Casey Powell is known by younger drag racing fans as the father of former fuel racer Christen Powell, but Casey made quite a name racing dragsters and funny cars himself. The Dead End Kids funny car that Powell drove for Red Lang and Jerry Busse was featured in Round 11. The New Yorker Plymouth Cuda came before that car. Powell, Ed Akam, and Fred O'Rourke out of Port Washington, New York, owned the cast iron 426 Hemi powered machine. The New Yorker featured a transitional style of chassis that would soon be outdated, but also used the 12 spoke American mags used mostly by altered racers. Casey raced the car until 1971, when he moved to a newer Dead End Kids machine. Powell ended his driving career in the Clark & Co. Top Fueler in 1973. (Photo courtesy of Big Bob Snyder; info from Dennis Doubleday and Draglist files)
Kenny Achs began racing Top Fuel dragsters in Saskatoon, Canada, in 1967. Then, like several other dragster drivers of the era, switched to funny cars. Achs began racing the Midwest Express Dodge Challenger out of his Mid-West Automotive shop in 1971. Kenny later renamed the car the Black Sheep Squadron under the sponsorship of the Black Sheep Boutique. Achs retired from racing when business commitments began to take too much time. Kenny was recently inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame where he has his 1967 Top Fuel Dragster on display. (Photo courtesy of Vern Scholz; info from Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame and Draglist files)
Here is a very obscure funny car racer running in 1973 at Beeline Raceway in Arizona. It is thought to be Bob Williams from Springfield, Illinois (note the shoe polished 346 competition number on the back window). Williams also had a '70 Challenger which was thought to be Tom Hoover's ex-White Bear Dodge. That car only made a few passes and, apparently, so did the Mach I since it was seen very rarely. Little is known about Bob or his funny cars. According to Draglist files, Williams ran a known best 6.73, 206.72 in 1973. (Photo courtesy of Big Bob Snyder; info from Bret Kepner and Draglist files)
The “New Original Bad Bob” Dodge Dart AA/FC had to have one of the longest names ever in funny car racing. Californian Bob Williams stepped away from racing Top Fuelers to field this largely forgotten funny car in 1976. Clarence Bailey parked his own King Boogaloo funny car to drive the Donovan Hemi powered Bad Bob machine. The team raced during the 1976 season before putting up the car for sale in Drag News. Williams went back to racing Top Fuelers and Bailey went back to racing the King Boogaloo. (Photo courtesy of Big Bob Snyder; info from Dennis Doubleday and Draglist files)
The Chicago Fire series of racecars has been around for more than three decades now. Mike Faser and Ken Hoctor bought the Monza from Dick Bourgeois to replace a very short Vega that the pair raced on the UDRA circuit. Faser drove the Monza at first on alcohol with the UDRA circuit but soon switched over to nitro. The Romeo Palamides built car featured a stock stroke cast iron block 426 Chrysler Hemi that was ideal for match racing. The Chicago Fire Monza was raced for several years and as a matter of fact the chassis is still used by Faser today in the Chicago Fire AA/FA with a new front half! (Photo courtesy of Ray-Mar Photos; info from Ken Hoctor and Draglist files)
Chuck Flores raced Top Fuelers all the way from the fifties into the seventies. The Northern California based racer took a diversion from racing fuelers when he built this Monza. The swoopy Chevy was standard fare of the day with a late model Hemi for power. Flores did not race the Monza for long, going back to racing fuelers to finish out his long career. (Photo courtesy of Big Bob Snyder; info from Dennis Doubleday and Draglist files)
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