"The" F/C Meet of 67

[Lionsdsisbest]

In my view the 1967 Manufacturers Meet at O.C.I.R was the greatest flopper meet of all time(NON NATIONAL EVENT). Here is my story of that day. My dad and I had gone on opening night in August and was "wowed" by the facility but we were Lions regulars so it was hard to pry us away but the radio ads sucked us in and I am glad to this day we went. When we drove in about 2 pm. you could just feel the electricity. We walked in and were greeted by Jack Christmans GT-1 Mercury at the line. He took off and proceded to blow the roof off the car in a big blower pop.
This was a unique format for a race,six teams of 5 racers ea. Dodge,Plymouth,Pontiac,Mercury,Ford and Chevy. On team Chevy were Doug Thorley,Seatons Shaker,Dick Harrell Kelly Chadwick and Ron o'donnell in the "Chapman Camaro. Ford had,Gas Rhonda,Tom Grove,Psycho mustang,Larry Fullerton and Michigans Dick Loer. Mercury had a real tough team in Dyno Don,Fast Eddie Shartman,Jack Christman,Pete Gates and Dee Keaton. Plymouth had Butch Leal,Clare Sanders,Fred Goeske,Cecil Yother and Larry Reyes in the "Super Cuda". Dodge team had the "Flying Dutchman",Charlie Allen,Rich Hammons,Roger Lindamood and "Mr. Norms" with Gary Dyer at the helm. And finally Pontiac with Roy Gay,Don Sappington,Steve Montrelli's "New Breed" and the two Brutus cars,the trust yGTO and the new firebird. Some line up huh? That is 30 cars plus they had 15 alternates for a total of 45 cars!!!
On to the race that was attended by cars from 14 states. All cars were intoduced on the track at 5:pm and at 6 six the race started. It was 3 killer rounds of racing with the 2 low e.t. cars that won their races in the finals. Each winning team member got 1 point for a round win while a alternate got half a point.
I thought round 1 and 3 were the best. After all that racing Chevy and Ford were tied so they went to total Elapsed Time and Chevy Won the team title. Low E.T. was Fast Eddie at 7.85 and top speed was Doug Thorley at 191.88.
The place was packed to "Zoo" porportians to say the least. I think the final round between Fast Eddie and Roy Gays new firebird was at about 1 am. I managed to stay awake as i downed massive amounts of hot Choc. In total there were 45 races in the show. To this day some 39 years later I still get goose bumps over that race. Some say the 1970 race was best but not to me, there were door funnys and injected nitro flops in 67 powered by real chevys and pontiacs and so on. As a side note that same night at Lions they had a 8 or 16 car funny car show too!!
This race is very special to me as it really put O.C.I.R. on the map and floppers on the west coast. Oh yeah, Tommy Grove also made his car into a convertable with a supercharger KaBoom. Hope you enjoy this story as it is very accurate.

[jim sanders]

now that is a post that i wish never had an end to it !! thanks Lions

[WildcatOne]

Wow, what a night that was...I felt like I was there with y'all...thanks, man...these stories are great. When you said the first car...Jack Chrisman's GT-1 Comet...I set back in my seat and hung on for the ride...a few of those cars ran here (Houston) back then and they were awesome hot rods. FUNNY cars...in fall '66 I went to a big funny car show at the strip here, Houston International Raceway in Dickinson. The Melrose Missile was there, the Ramchargers, Bud Faubel, Kelly Chadwick, (Don Gay was blown so he raced separately), Hubert Platt, Phil Bonner, Color Me Gone, Gas Ronda and Preston Honea. There were surely more but my memory chip ain't what it used to be, ya know. They'd do at least 4 burnouts in this rosin powder they'd put about a hundred feet in front of them and do as many burnouts as they wanted until they'd race. They were running in the 8s back then (injected on nitro with altered wheelbases, left-side steering, roll cage in a gutted interior, etc) But man...5 teams of 6 cars each!? That's incredible...Those were the days...WC1

[Lippy]

Excellent post Lion, those were the days alright, excellent!!

[wheelzman]

Lion, you have just been inducted into the story tellers hall of fame here on the board. You now are obligated to entertain us with at least one story a week or you will suffer the consequences. Those are that we will unmercifully beg you for more till you comply or we will send the Baker man over to eat all of your cakes and baked goods. Fair warning friend.

[Bob Kraemer]

Lion, you have just been inducted into the story tellers hall of fame here on the board. You now are obligated to entertain us with at least one story a week or you will suffer the consequences. Those are that we will unmercifully beg you for more till you comply or we will send the Baker man over to eat all of your cakes and baked goods. Fair warning friend.

Yea what wheelz said. Me and Rapid know some rather unscrupulous people. We had Slick the Hit man Vic and others after us and ProZ, Lippy and others were in this to on our side. So we know how to get things handled. If this doesn't make any sense to you and I'm sure it doesn't go read the post I helped start called Quizzes & Surf Boards it is about 12 pages or more long and I guarantee you will be thoroughly entertained.

[hotrodsigns]

O man wish I coulda been around in those days. Awesome story pleeeeze keep em coming!!

[pro70z28]

Lion, you have just been inducted into the story tellers hall of fame here on the board. You now are obligated to entertain us with at least one story a week or you will suffer the consequences. Those are that we will unmercifully beg you for more till you comply or we will send the Baker man over to eat all of your cakes and baked goods. Fair warning friend.

Yea what wheelz said. Me and Rapid know some rather unscrupulous people. We had Slick the Hit man Vic and others after us and ProZ, Lippy and others were in this to on our side. So we know how to get things handled. If this doesn't make any sense to you and I'm sure it doesn't go read the post I helped start called Quizzes & Surf Boards it is about 12 pages or more long and I guarantee you will be thoroughly entertained.

We no' peoplez' dat' ken get thingz' done.

[Mike-Casella]

Very cool story! What's next?

[Lionsdsisbest]

I will keep them coming cuz i have a load of em'.