The Plunkett & Meinel Story

Part 2: The Funny Car Years

By Tim Plunkett

Start of a killer burnout!

The Gremlin funny car was purchased from Paul Smith, who brought the car up from Florida. Smith acquired or sold the car on behalf of Lou Azar. Apparently, only three Gremlin bodies were made (maybe four). Lou had two of the bodies and Shirl Greer ran the other. The body was bad about forcing the car to spin around at the end of the track and go through the traps backwards. The other two bodies were thought to be crashed. Lou wrecked one at Blaney, South Carolina. It pulled the chute through the blower belt, I assume after getting flipped around. Shirl Greer told Frankie at 170-180mph, the cars just started to spin around after the air picked up the back end of the car.

The Gremlin in the pits.

The team bought the car and body for no other reason that it was available at the right time at a good price. When they bought the car, Frankie narrowed the frame down to 24 inches wide. They also set up several squirrel cage fans in the shop and made a homemade wind tunnel using smoke. It became clear that the air was wrapping up under the back of the Gremlin body. Based on this research, the team added the rear wing and moved the parachute down low. The first passes with the body were with the wing, which eventually got longer as they continued to spin the wheels through the traps. The wing was extended out to 20-22 inches later. The car also ran the front wheels offset 1.5 inches for a long light. The frame was pre twisted without the motor to have the right front wheel up in the air one inch. Thus, it transferred more weight biased to the left front wheel. This was necessary to get the car to come straight off the line. The car had a solid frame with no suspension other than a couple of rubber biscuits.

Staging at the premier track -- Bristol, TN.

The team eventually bought a Keith Black Hemi that was sized at 495 cubic inches. I believe the first run with this motor was at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, in the pits. They had just spent ten grand on the motor. The first run was at night. A valve spring broke down the stretch and blew the blower. Witnesses stated that the car looked like a Roman candle and lit up the whole speedway like it was daytime. Dad stated that he felt as if it was burning his crotch off. He was able to get out of the car but still felt like he was on fire. One fire crew guy got one leg and another got the other. The two firemen flipped him upside down and bounced him up and down to get his pants off!

The "Mischief Maker's" fogbank at Suffolk.

Frankie and Dad had to borrow a lot of parts in the pits, but were able to get everything they needed to get it all back together that same night. Everything except for the windshield, that is. Dad remembers this because of how mad he got at Al Hanna of "Eastern Raider" fame. Al had the only extra window that he could borrow, but would not let him use the windshield. Al said he was crazy for wanting to run after a fireball like that and refused to offer him the windshield for use that same night. Shortly after this, a rocket dragster got out of control and killed three in the shutdown area. That ended dragging in the pits at Charlotte.

Lean mixture equals flames!

Frankie remembers the fastest times being with the cast iron Hemi and not the aluminum Keith Black. He said that with the Black motor, they just wouldn't punish it as much with the nitro and overdrive. With the iron blocks, he remembers the car reaching 6.50s in the high 220-mph range. Donnie remembers that Frankie's theory was to put more nitro and overdrive. He remembers clearly running more overdrive on that car than other racers at that time on the iron blocks. They had a back up motor called the "Kamikaze" that ran as high as 11-12 to 1 compression with the blower. He stated that most people would back up from the line when they knew that engine was in the car! The car had a totally different sound. On one run at Warner Robbins, Georgia, the dome pistons were concave at the end of the run. Dad states it was clearly one of the fastest runs until the last 2/3s of the track, when it melted.

Plunkett at the Rock!

The car had some good runs, but never made it that far through the field. They usually advanced only 1-2 rounds and most advancement in the upper rounds was off others’ misfortunes. They ran the Southern NHRA Divisional events, but only went to the IHRA national events. They never went to the NHRA national events. Some of the guys Donnie remembers racing were Tommy Ivo, Jungle Jim, the Blue Max, the Trojan Horse, the Alabamian, the Tennessee Bo Weevil, the Powers Steel team, the Black Magic, the Ramchargers, Shirl Greer, and Dee Simmons. He took part in a lot of promoter paid match race events where eight or ten cars would go and run off for the crowd.

Note the chassis ahead of the engine, no uprights!

Apparently in 1976 or early 1977, IHRA dropped the field from 16 to eight cars. The team did not have the sponsorship that the top pros did and most of the time had qualified in the last eight cars. This, plus the fact that the last barrel of nitro the team purchased had eclipsed 1,000 bucks for a 55-gallon barrel, ended the team’s participation. It was just too much money. Dad was working for the railroad full time since he was 22. During race weekends, he would leave town on Friday and get back on Monday morning in time to go to work. Now with one child (me) and another little girl soon behind, the demands and costs were just too high. In 1978 or 1979, after sitting in the garage for several years, the car was sold to a guy in Bedford, Virginia, that put a Model T body on the chassis and ran some lower classes. The body is still thought to be somewhere in Bedford, VA.

The Hartsoe Bros. Chevy powered Monza funny car.

After parking the Gremlin, the Hartsoe Bros. (Elmer and Gwynn) approached Donnie to run their Chevy powered Monza AA/FC. Dad’s best ever finish came behind the wheel of the Hartsoe car in Ohio. Donnie took a runner-up position, out running the Hawaiian to get there. All the other teams were highly upset. The Hartsoe Bros. never pulled the heads or plugs between rounds. They only changed the oil and fuel. It was running too good to screw with and for whatever reason, decided to run the car out. This was the furthest Donnie had ever made it up the bracket and his first final round in AA/FC. He does not remember who he matched up against, but Frankie remembers dad losing a blower belt in the final.

Donnie drove for the Hartsoe Bros. for half a year. They ran in Ohio, Bristol, and Atlanta. He stated that he couldn't get the Hartsoes to let him drive his according to his style. He felt that the Chevy had a quicker response than the Hemi and would lean out and kick the blower. He told Hartsoe Bros. to allow him to feather it a hair out of the gate to keep the blower on. Hartsoe said, "Hell, no -- stomp it at the light!" It blew three blowers. Frankie and Donnie eventually sold the car and that was the last drag racing of any kind for them. They eventually got back into racing by running a NASCAR Late Model Sportsman car in the 1980s and a NASCAR Late Model Stocker in the 1990s.

Thanks to Timothy Plunkett for compiling this story for us. Thanks also go out to Plunkett and Meinel for giving the story to Timothy. Photos came from the Plunkett Family collection and from Delmas Brown.