History NHRA Junior Stock

Stiles Performance



Thumper

 

...Or how about complete electric water pumps that don't look anything like the originals?

 

The Stiles Valiant was run by LaVerne Benner, then by Ronnie Evans (of Wildfire fame)

Verne
Ronnie Evans, Randy Wilson, LaVerne Benner

 

Fermier Bros. Note the hard to see LOOONNGG Traction bars. (enlarge the photo to see clearer)

 

Yes but they did keep a lot of water out of the staging lanes !

 

Some I pulled off the internet from John Pierce.

Pat

 

Fermier Bros, this time short bars

 

Does anybody know where the Stiles car is

 

Having a brain fart maybe Chuck Norton will chime in with the answer LOL. How far down the alphabet does one have to go to be in Junior Stock? I Think I remember E/S as the start but was it always the same?

 

Earliest pic of Gliddens 65 that I've seen. Don Turner driving who was also an Ed Martin employee.

 

Later one now B/S

 

Button Motors

 

Sorry, can't help shed any light on that question. Don't think that I ever saw that car. personally. Perhaps Paul Wong would know? He runs the 273 in both 4-barrel and 2-barrel combination in several cars to this day.

Almost missed this question because I was trying to figure out if the "Nancy's Nemesis" '62 Dodge wagon was the one that was owned by Ken and Nancy Dodgion from Division 6. I know that they had a '62 wagon and the name sounds familiar but I don't recall having seen it in that paint scheme.

Also, I'll be looking forward to the return of the "Kentuckian" to this thread to help me figure out how Glidden's Galaxie fit into AA/S with a flat hood at 425 horsepower. Most of the AA/S 427 FE cars had the tell-tale "bubble hood" that was part of the "Lite-Weight/Hi-Riser" intake system. I think that Mike Schmidt had '64, '65, and even possibly a '66 versions with bubble hoods that typically started the season in B/FX but the '65 and '66 cars with the light body components are not currently in the Classification Guide. The '64 "High Riser/Lite-Wt." cars are still eligible to run in Stock and the '65 cars with the weight reduction package were seen in FX configurations but not in Stock. The '64 high riser carries a horsepower factor that, even today, is higher than the standard '65 version.

By the way, for those who do not follow the current happenings in the world of NHRA racing on www.classracer.com, long-time Division 3 tech guru, Travis Miller ("Kentuckian"), very recently suffered the passing of his wife. Hope he returns to H.A.M.B. eventually. His contributions to our favorite topic are invaluable.

c

 

Sorry to hear about Mr. Miller's loss. His contributions in this thread and the T Bolt thread are very knowledgeable.

 

Tom Crutchfield. DIV III.

 

LB , the class designations were constantly changing during the Junior Stock era. As new combos were added at the top, the letters changed all the way down through Jr. Stock . So, the same car and engine combo could have a different designation in different years. I don't save that old paperwork and rule books, etc. . I just work from memory , the best I can. Mr. Miller has all that info saved, so maybe he'll fill us in when he returns. Tony Janes might be another source.

 

Tommy, thanks for that picture. Extrapolating from the "Bill Swad" lettering on the quarter-panel, I'm going to guess that is a reference to an Ohio car dealer, the only real link that Google can supply. Further research also shows that Ken and Nancy Dodgion's Mopar was not a Dodge wagon but a Savoy two-door that he ran in Super Stock. I'm adding this bit of information to the ever-expanding list of things that I'll know at the end of the day but didn't know when I got up this morning. Learning never stops!

 

And, the mostly unseen Plymouth wagon in the far lane is the original car that led me into this mess in the first place! In that picture, the Plymouth was being driven by the second owner, Rod Phillips of Arcadia, CA. After informally digging through the memories of other racers and various historians, I've only been able to verify only three factory-built examples of the '63 Mopar wagons of that genre, two Plymouths and one Dodge. A substantial number of wagons were built by racers and the late Mopar history buff, Paul Cesarine, suggested that as many as twelve may have been produced but the rest have been largely unseen. I'm pretty sure that the Ramchargers and Golden Commando teams had factory cars and I have pictures of those. The third example was the wagon that Crutchfield was racing against in that picture. My good friend, Ron Mandella, bought it, showroom fresh, off the floor of Milne Brothers Chrysler-Plymouth in Pasadena during the spring of '63. I have pictures of several others including Dave Duell (possibly Crutchfield's car), Tritak and Morgan (reportedly a racer-built example), Al Corda (Al confirmed that he built his own car), the McKenna Plymouth. None, other than the Ramcharger and Golden Commando cars, seem to have a verifiable pedigree. It is always a red-letter day when new possible information related to those cars emerges.

c

 

That's some series of photos.

 

Good history. I had forgotten Jim Waibel was part of the Smothers Bros effort.

 

These photos were taken by Dave Strickler's father and are part of the Strickler Family collection. These are from the 1962 Indy Nationals. Luckily Daves's father and uncle were both photo buff's and made numerous trips with Dave and his team to the races. Everything was put on 35mm Kodachrome slides which has now been digitized. I have seen the full collection from 1961 on up and it is amazing. Normally when you see a "behind the scenes" photo of Dave Strickler is is from this collection.

 

Trouble thanks for the info, I was sent them from a friend of mine who forwarded them to me from John Pierce. I thought they where his.

Pat

 

Those 59 Chevy's must have owned the Q/S class, I see and know of so many. That 63 is pretty cool also.

Pat

 

That '63 Belair 327/300, I like, a lot...in my head it's for sure a 4sp.