Jim Dunn vs. Pisano & Matsubara in Hawaii

By Brian Amuro

I wanted to share one of my many memories with you. This one took place in June of '72 when Jim Dunn and Sush Matsubara came to Hawaii to put on an exhibition show for the Drag Racing fans here. The drag strip was called Hawaii Raceway Park. It was built in the James Campbell Industrial Area. Anyway, the first time I saw Jim Dunn's rear engined Plymouth Barracuda was at the Honolulu International Center exhibition hall. Man, I fell in love with that car. I thought it was the coolest thing in the whole car show, and I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, I would get a chance to talk to him. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to. 

But that was okay because I got to see Jim and Sush run their cars the following Saturday night. Boy did they put on a show for the fans. I was 18 and had graduated from high school the year before, so I was really excited to see two legends come to Hawaii and put on a very loud and enjoyable show. I wished that a model car company would produce a model of Jim Dunn's rear engine Funny Car, but alas, that was not to be. I often wondered what became of that car. Well, thanks for letting me share one of my treasured memories. 

Brian Amuro
AmuroBrando4998@aol.com