History Stock-S/S-F/X 1959-1966

A famous Z-11 for sale ... too bad the ad is over 40 years old!
Joel

 

Joel,
According to Phil, Ford made him turn in the '65 Falcon before he could get his longnose Mustang. They felt it was to "dangerous" to be raced by by anyone else. He feels it was crushed. It may have survived but it is doubtful.

 

Joel,
I have several videos from the old days at Island and E-Town. I also have some Bowling Green and Indy footage from the early 60s.I would be happy to loan them to you if you want. Contact me on my e-mail and we can make arrangements to get them to you.Thanks for posting the shot of JT&J. Bob

 

I don't think I took any shots of it that day; I had a really bad camera and I was too young and excited to miss racing looking through a view finder. I had given Mike Guffey a few of my old Eastern Drag News papers that I had duplicates of a few years ago. As it turns out, that might be all that survives now as the movers have lost almost all of my good pics from back in the day during my move from Tulsa to here.

 

...oh screw that I'm calling the number ......man low 11's, they really knew how to get those cars to move.
-Dean

 

Actually, I don't. The only one I have is this one of the Bullet back then. Still waiting on that Jay Howell interview I did. My publisher is sending it to me. I know I have a copy somewhere, but my office/studio is like 70 lbs. of crap in a 3 lbs. bag!

Bill

 

Here's the Bullet as it is today. This was taken in mid-2005 a few months before Jimmy died (January '06).

Bill

 

.I got to play gofer for Dyon Don at cecil during a 3 day meet in '66 he needed a freeze plug in the cammer and couldn't find one anywhere. Hubert offered one but for some reason don turned it down .Bonner was there with the longnose 'stang I think he went 2-3 rounds on sunday .I beleave Nicholson broke the driveshaft in Eliminator 1 Him and Butch Leal tied for low e.t.-8.03

 

Looks like melting frost. Some of the folks have jackets on in the stands.

 

The Orange Blossom was from Las Cruces, New Mexico and owned by Rex Porter and John Simms. Started as a normal Hemi car and then lightened and altered wheel base done. Don't know what ever happened to this car though, just sort of disappeared.
Larry

 

Joel,
This is Phil's car. He told me they put the teardrop scoop hood on the later in its life. My guess is it is later in '63. The teardrop scoop came along late in '63. I've been told that not all of the first 11 T-bolts had cloverleaf hoods. Some actually had teardrops when first built. I've heard that there actually were cloverleaf and teardrop hood cars parked next to each other at DST waiting delievery.

 

Too cool, the Silver Bullet back in the day. I've seen plenty of articles about the car but never a photo from it's glory days. Thanks for that one.

 

Thanks Larry. Good to see you on here ... have any snapshots from Dick Harrell's early days?
Joel

 

Back in the day one of the magazines had a few pictures and a little bit of copy about Addison's car ... maybe Popular Hot Rodding? I seem to recall something about street cars at the drags in the Detroit area.
Joel

 

It was Car craft that ran a feature on the car. Plenty of photos. Don't know for sure, but I think it was in 1970

 

This is interesting ... earliest shot I think I've ever seen of a '63 with a teardrop hood. Does it look like it's in primer? It's VERY hard to tell but it doesn't look like Phil driving. Wish I had the original snapshots to scan at a high resolution.
I've seen pictures of Bonner, Ronda, Brannan, Ritchey and Richter running the cloverleaf hood with the cars all lettered up so at least they must have taken delivery of them that way. Then there's the Butch Leal/MT story about them getting the teardrop hood at the famous debut of the T-Bolts at Ford. I think it on Leal's website.
Joel

 

Anyone know anything about "The Ford Boys" '65 Mustang Fastback? Ran C/Stock with a 289 out of Colorado I think.....it's shown in the "Ford Drag Racing in the '60s" book....just trying to find more information or photos of the car or even what color was it? Looks red maybe in the black and white photo lol...
-Dean

 

another '66 biscayne, 'agent 007'

 

I believe that car was medium/dark blue. Contact Pete Garramone for pictures of the car and others from the CO region. 1comet1966@comcast.net
Joel

 

Hi Joel, Mark, Verne, Jody, Wally and others, long time no see. great thread that you know i am interested in. just read all the pages and am sad to discover Vernes distaste for the way i email replied to his final "Mousie Brown" inquirie. i called all around to the old guys who knew him like Jack Weller, Chick DeNinno and Harry Maddox and found out he had passed. sorry for my bad choice of words to describe that. didnt mean to be "terse and uncaring" I have a pic of my mom sitting in my dad's car at aquasco that none of you have ever seen. oops...the "Bounty Hunters" 63 dodge. i'll post it another day.
PS: Chick told me has a website now chickdeninno.com

 

Hi Bob,
Glad to see you here, and yes haven't seen you in a long time! I'm looking forward to your input and pictures if you have them.
Don't take Verne's or anyone's comments here as made in a negative way ... we're a wide open bunch here. Sometimes what one writes in an email comes out not as intended. We all want to focus on digging up more missing history here.
Love to see the photo you describe.
Joel

 

Joel
In 61 Dick Harrell used the bucron tires as did a lot of people. They worked pretty good but if you ran them on the street they were so soft that they would not last long. Some time in 62 he started getting tires from Casler to test on the tracks in the SW. Lots of sand on most of them. I remember going to the truck lines terminal several times and picking up several sets of Caslers. When we mounted them, the first thing we did was take them to a local Front End shop/Tire store and they would true them. They had a machine much like a brake lathe, that would scrape rubber off the tires until they were perfectly flat at a certain tire pressure. I was on some web site the other day and saw some reproductions of several different brands of Cheater slicks but can not remember what site it was.
One other note. When Dick set the NHRA record in early 63 in El Paso, Tx. he was running Bruce's slicks. They were big, hard and heavy. On the record run a chunk of rubber came off the right rear tire. They were retired to the shop and I used them to set parts on that needed cleaning.
Larry

 

Joel
As I have stated on some other sites, back in the day I did not take pictures. I was living the dream and did not think it would ever end. Besides, I could not afford a camera or the cost to develop the pics.
Here is one I took in summer of 62 at Hobbs NM of the light weight 62 of Dickies before I moved to Carlsbad to work for him. They were changing the third member.

Larry

 

Larry how long did you work for Harrel?Were you with him during the 65-67 period?

 

Right, Gary. Here are some pics of Jimmy and The Bullet from the Car Craft article.

Bill Stinson

 

Do you remember my dad, Ted DeTar? He used to race dickey before he moved to kansas city. When Jim Tice became president of AHRA, Dickey and my dad used to match race alot. Steve

 

Saw that car run many times ... medium metallic blue and white as I recall ... am I right Verne? I always loved the big body-big motor cars. Here in the NJ-NY-PA-MD region there were a number of the big Chevies. I'll scan a few that I have once I can find them.
Joel

 

I was hoping you'd post that shot and tell us about it Larry, thanks.
Here's another ... this one of Dick Harrell in late '61. This car was a light blue was it not? The race report will follow.
Joel

 

The race report from Amarillo Dragway in TX 12/1/61 issue of Nat. Dragster. The race was 11/12/61. Some tracks ran O/SS in stock Elim. others in Street Elim.
Joel

 

Joel,
Norm Fryer's Biscayne was a medium blue on the sides, white on top and either red or dark orange stripes down the top. He ran a Camaro in '69, then stopped racing. I believe his son might still race.