My pick for Racer of the Week is Jon Webster, from Northampton, Northamptonshire, England. Jon was recommended to me by our friend Andy Cowen. Thanks, Andy!
Jon’s car is a 1964 Mercury Comet. It came in to the UK from Arizona in 2011. Jon built the car during the winter of 2011 into 2012. Jon ran it a few times in 2012 at test and tune days at a couple of events. In 2013 Jon had an ambition to try for the Street Eliminator national championship, and managed to finish as runner-up. He’s subsequently finished as runner-up in 2014 and now in 2015, it’s a bit of a pattern ( always the bridesmaid:-)).
The car has a 25.1 WRE ( Webster Race Engineering) chassis and weighs 2630 lbs with the driver. Powered by 377 Small Block Ford with Yates heads and a dry sump Fontana block, Single 104mm Bullseye turbo, Motec engine management ignition and power distribution module, an ATI Superglide with a Protorque converter. The car has Moser rear axle internals in a WRE 9"casing. Strange GT struts, WRE Ladder bar rear suspension with Penske shocks.
Jon’s Best performance to date is 1.18 second 60ft, 3.16 seconds at 330ft, 4.80 at 153mph at 660ft, and a 7.41 ET at 188 mph at the stripe. This is a 100% street-legal car, by the way.
Jon’s goal is to win the championship eventually and keep going quicker and faster. He has won championships in Super Gas and Super Comp as well as Runner-up in Super Pro dragster. Jon’s been a hired gun in other class such as import and 9.50 bike and he has wins in both classes. Jon also has had a couple of drives in TopFuel Dragster, good success throughout his time including winning the 2009 European Finals.
Jon feels very fortunate to be involved in the sport of Drag Racing, both in competing and professionally contributing and he is very grateful that his customers have entrusted him with producing their cars, resulting in numerous race wins, championships and national records. ( He said “Hey, its better than working for a living:-) “). You got that right, Jon! He thanks us for giving him this feature as well.
That’s Jon Webster, Racer of the Week. Jon, we wish you good luck, safe racing and the best of times in the future!
The 10th annual DragList.com Nationals weekend was another fantastic success. It came and went so fast it was unbelievable. There were a couple hundred instances I could relay here, but what I plan to do is to do a write-up and post it on DragList of my experiences over the weekend. It was great to see Bill, Denise and Jason, who gave me the best hospitality I’ve ever had, and to get to hang out with our DragList Super Crew members: Daryl and Heidi Arnold, who ran a personal best 8.74 at sunset on Saturday, which Zappy predicted accurately, of course Zappy’s wife Linda, Gary and Jeff Spear, who brought t-shirts, decals and an awesome banner for the event, Boyd and Sue Wylie, who flew out from Langley, British Columbia, Jack and Sharon Garl who drove out from Ohio, Ohio Dave Oakes took pictures all day on track as did Gary, BP’s neighbor Wayne and his son and daughter-in-law were with us all day, BP’s friends Tia, Greg and Will. And thanks to the great folks at MIR for their awesome hospitality to us.
I was pleasantly surprised that Tod Mack dropped in with his grandson and we exchanged contact info for a graphics project he has in mind. Dale Broderick and Ellen McAuliffe ran Dale’s gorgeous A/Competition coupe to an 8.50 win in his 3rd round after Daryl made his historic run. We went down to Bunny Burkett’s pit and got kissed, hugged and photographed with her, and it was an awesome time that night. Bunny’s nostalgia alcohol funny car ran a 6.11 at 225 on its 3rd pass after making its half-track burnout with an American Flag flying from its chassis. It was over too soon, and I got home in time for cake and ice cream for my birthday here Sunday. What can I say…Life is good.
I was going to talk about Jimi Hendrix tonight. He died 45 years ago Friday and I had him on my mind all week, but today I had a long talk with Danny White about Gary Richrath, the often troubled but brilliant guitarist for REO Speedwagon who died on September 13th at the age of 65. Danny knows a lot more about the Wagon’s history than I do, and his take on the story of the band and the love/hate relationship between Richrath and Kevin Cronin took its toll on both of them, but what really mattered was the awesome American Rock Music that came out of that tense and challenging relationship. Some of the best heavy rock that now stands as classics was produced by those 2 guys. They headlined a major festival here at the Astrodome in 1981 as I recall.
Gary Richrath ended up having some hard years after the High Infidelity album, which was an international smash hit and put REO on top of the heap, up there with the most popular and best-selling artists of the 80s. He blurred it and didn’t really come home from the party for a long, long time and he ended up out of the band. Richrath finally did leave the party and he got back with the band, but even Cronin had left for a while, yet the two of them made amends, reunited and were playing shows up into this year. It ain’t easy being part of a 2-man songwriting and performing team like that. You can ask Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but Lennon isn’t available for an interview…Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham…it’s never easy to do, but it often yields incredible results.
I was a fan of REO Speedwagon in the early 70s, when they were huge in the Midwestern region of the US, and when I played in the Young Brothers band in Kansas City in the summer of ’73, we were doing a couple of their songs, which were faster and harder than anything this side of Deep Purple. In the late 70s and early 80s, I was playing with a band here in Houston that did some of their material from that era as well.
It was the combination of Gary Richrath’s heartfelt guitar and Kevin Cronin’s outstanding talents as a vocalist that gave them the instantly recognizable sound they had that put them on top. They gave us some of the best times we ever had. Rest in peace, Gary. Your legacy is intact, your unforgettable guitar licks will live forever, and your struggles here are over.
I’ll get back to Hendrix next week. I have some thoughts about him that I’d like to share with you.
Y’all be sure to tune in tomorrow evening at 7 PM Eastern on Racers Reunion Radio for Racing Through History. It’s Thee Goat Rodeo you don’t want to miss. Thanks, I’ll see y’all next week.