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Flying Race to Race through the Southwest
By Tommy McNeely
In late 1965 I went with Dick Harrell to Phoenix to Frank Sanders (S&S Headers) to have headers built for the new rat motor in his Chevy II. Not many people know it but Frank flew air shows and had a P-51 Mustang. Frank took us to the airport. He took Dick up (Dick said Frank made him pass out). He did a steep dive then went straight up and leveled off. He dived again and Dick said the next thing he knew they were flying upside down at 400 mph a couple of feet off the ground. I heard on TV Frank was killed while flying an experimental jet at an air show.
Frank built the headers and we left for Green Valley to run Phil Bonner. We were pretty proud of ourselves, expecting to run Bonner's A/FX Mustang. When we got there, Phil had brought his AWB Falcon. The joke was on us. Bonner had taken the SOHC out of his Mustang and built a Falcon at Holman Moody. The rumor was that Ford wouldn't sell Phil an engine but they would give him a car. He ran it for awhile the then built the Falcon. The car was really fast. Bonner won three straight and burst our bubble. In all fairness to Dick, we had zero test time with the new motor in the Chevy II. We were trying to work the bugs out of it all night.
I had stopped in my hometown of Monahans, Texas, and picked up my 63 Chevy. It was the Formula 4 E/S record holder. In those days that meant one four bbl. and hydraulic lifters. I ran one of the first Iskenderian hydraulic lifter camshafts. I had to run Bill Hielscher’s Mr. Bardahl ‘57 Chevy. He had just won Middle Stock eliminator at the nationals. I beat him, which was a big deal at Green Valley because it was his home track. The crowd went wild because he was supposed to be unbeatable.
The next day we stopped in Abilene, Texas, an NHRA track. I had to run B/G because I was set up for AHRA. In the final for Street Eliminator, I had to run an injected C/Gas ‘55 Chevy. I beat him by about a foot or two. Of course, we made sure everyone knew my little Chevy was a single four barrel car!
Tommy McNeely
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