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80s Funny Cars: Midwest, Part 2
Text by Danny White
Joe Godwin raced the only Lincoln Mark VI AA/Funny Car. The unique machine certainly stood out among the crowd. Godwin & Capps built the gold Lincoln as a BB/Funny Car, but later converted the car to nitro. The car featured a vinyl roof, opera windows, and a narrowed Lincoln grill. Godwin raced the beauty from 1975 to 1981 with minor success. He ran a 6.30, 218 known best before parking the car. In the early 2000s, Top Alcohol racer Jim Phillips created a new Mark VI body from Godwin’s original. The team made a splash in the new nostalgia funny car scene before destroying the car in an accident. (Info from Draglist files; photo courtesy of Auto Imagery)
Larry Gould's Mustang II was the last Ford Cammer powered AA/FC racer, period. Gould built and raced the flamed Mustang from 1977 to 1982 running the fastest speed ever for the the SOHC Ford motor with a 236 MPH blast. Larry was such a master of the 427 SOHC that he built his own Cammer design in his backyard foundry. Gould has the largest known collection of Ford SOHC engines in the world. He later converted to a Keith Black Hemi in this car and a later Ford EXP, but he eventually built a front engine dragster and stuffed the Cammer into it. Gould kept this car into the new millennium, selling it after building the new dragster. (Info from Draglist files; photo courtesy of Dave Ferrin)
Stan Bowman was an ex-Competition Eliminator racer who fielded a series of blown gas and fuel altereds. Bowman went funny car racing in the 1970s with a couple of Vegas and Camaros. This Dodge Omni was the last of his Flying Dutchman funny cars. Fellow Ohioan Larry Sikora built the chassis for Bowman in 1981 (it was said to be Larry's last creation). Stan raced the Omni in local Midwest match race action. He did not race the last Dutchman for long, and sold the car to emerging alcohol star Mark Thomas.
In 1981, Tex Cooper fielded the Tex's Twister Plymouth Arrow with Rich McNutt at the wheel. In the 1970s, Cooper had raced a BB/GS pickup truck in Competition Eliminator. The Arrow was the former Spitzer & Goodman/McKinney & Goodman macine built by Mark Spitzer. The team raced in Division 3, Regional, and NHRA National Events. McNutt ran a known best of 6.77, 216 with the nice silver and black machine. Cooper eventually returned to drag racing with a blown 55 Chevy. (Info from Tex Cooper and Draglist Files; photo by Dave Farley)
In 1980, Frank Hawley got the chance of a lifetime: driving the famed Chi-Town Hustler of Farkonas, Coil, and Minick. Prior to 1982, the Hustler had been primarily a match race machine, making only infrequent national event appearances. Hawley gained experience in a series of Top Fuel, alcohol funny car, and altered rides. In 1980, Frank began the season in Nelson Lengle's Sno-Town Shaker, but then jumped at the opportunity to drive the Hustler.
Hawley drove the Chi-Town Hustler with two different bodies from 1980 to 1983, but retained the same chassis that fit on the team's tried and true ramp truck! The team won NHRA World Championships in 1982 and 1983 behind Austin Coil's deadly consistent 5.80-5.90 tuneup. Hawley ran 5.82 at 247.25 at Indy 1982 with this paint job and 5.70 at 249 in 1983 with the new Team Strange paint job. The team built a totally new 1984 Daytona and Frank drove it through
the Gatornationals in 1985. He then announced his first retirement from driving to create his world famous drag racing school. (Info from Draglist Files; photo by Hector Leal/www.racingandrodding.com)
Tim Grose was a crew member for several teams in the seventies. He followed that with an aborted stint in the Super Chief AA/FC before starting his own team. In the early eighties, Grose had risen in prominence with his series of Spirit funny cars. The Grose, Reed & Engler owned Spirit III pictured here was one of the best looking cars of the era in this writer's mind.
The 1983 Corvette featured a Larry Engler built chassis (Engler was a renowned tractor puller). The Spirit III also featured vinyl lettering unlike the painted cars of his day. Tim's wife Barbara Hogan was also heavily involved in the day-to-day operation of the car. Grose ran a known best of 5.87 at 247 in 1984 before building a new Trans Am. Tim moved to California from Michigan and continued to race funny cars throughout the decade. (Info from Draglist Files; photo by Bob Strait)
Ken Veney is an esteemed driver, crew chief, and cylinder head builder. In 1982, Veney began a short but impactful two-year stint in nitro funny cars. The Veney's Vette, his second nitro car, did not reach the success of his 1982 Trans Am. The candy apple red Chevy ran a known best of 5.92 seconds before being sold to a tractor puller. Ironically, Ken later joined that crowd. In 1984, Ken went back to racing a more economical Top Alcohol car before retiring from driving to become a crew chief. Veney is now one of the premiere tractor pullers in the country, competing in the Unlimited Modified category. (Info from Draglist Files; photo by Mike Beach)
Jim Head is one drag racing’s leading free thinkers. He has a long history of using radical cars and parts. Among many unique efforts, his 1987 Oldsmobile Firenza was perhaps the most controversial. The odd-looking car was one of the so-called "Batmobiles," built in the wake of Kenny Bernstein's Budweiser King Buick LeSabre. The car featured almost unrecognizable dimensions when compared to a stock bodied Oldsmobile Firenza. NHRA outlawed the Head Batmobile and similar cars after 1987. The one-of-a-kind funny ran a known best of 5.53 at 261 at the Texas Motorplex before fading into drag racing history. (Info from Draglist files; photo by Rick Oldfield)
Another funny car to create controversy in the 80s was Carl Fumerelle's Awesome Force Corvette. The controversy centered around the engine's unique 24-Valve CJ Batten heads. The Batten motor joined other overhead cam motors being designed around this time like the McGee, the Sainty, the Eagle, and Tom Dicktoris's wild design. Gordie Dollar designed the Batten B-24 by mating the unique heads to an Arias block. Fumerelle, a former Supercharged Outlaw racer, offered his new Hal Canode built Corvette as a rolling test bed.
The team began running on alcohol (pictured here at the IHRA World Nationals at Norwalk). The Awesome Force was not allowed to run NHRA events, and then was bumped into AA/FC by the IHRA, forcing the team to convert to nitro. Tosti Asti came aboard as a sponsor in 1989 and Shirl Greer was tapped as the driver. Lack of experience and testing time with the unique motor limited the team's success. Fumerelle went back to racing alcohol funny cars and achieved moderate success before retiring from drag racing. (Info from Draglist Files; photo by John Kilburg)
Current NHRA Top Fuel star Terry McMillen started nitro racing in the late 1980s with this Corvette. The Rinker Boats machine made infrequent appearances on the IHRA circuit with limited success. McMillen ran a known best of 5.92 at 223.11 at the 1990 IHRA Norwalk race before converting the car to alcohol. Terry became a star on the IHRA alcohol circuit in the 1990s and later graduated to Top Fuel. (Info from Draglist files; photo by John Kilburg)
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