That's Benner and Iaconio in the Sunday final at the York Super/Stock Nationals in 69. Iaconio won a new 69 Mercury Cougar Eliminator at this event. The semi finals were Tom Neja verses Benner and Bob Burch verses Frank. Neja was a no-show, giving Benner a bye and Frank downed the Canadian N/SA. And the rest as they say is history.
Yea Verne, him and many others, but it amazes me just how many old racers are still 'normally aspirated.' *For example ... See--> http://www.butchleal.com/home.html ... and this guy is at the top of my .... 'stillbreathinalltimegreats' list--> See more 'Grump' stuff @ ... http://www.nhra.com/50th/top50/B_Jenkins08.html
... and yet another ('Gas Ronda' ) 'livin legend' havin a very 'pleasant' time! Plus (bonus pic) ... yeaIknowI'tsOfftopic. The Snake and The Mongoose ... together again! *Looks like Don has (maybe) gone 'Vegan,' while Tom has mostly been 'BurgerKingin'! ** See LOTS more (ifUcanhandleit!) @ http://www.wediditforlove.com/2008-Winternationals-1.html
The pic with DA GRUMP in the yellow shirt, what's that hanging around his neck? One of those medic alert/call for help gadgets? Help, I've fallen, and can't reach my cigar. Butch/56sedandelivery.
... and one for the 'other' coast. In case you missed his passing, here's a nice "Dyno" Don Nicholson: (1927-2006) tribute piece. See--> http://www.hotrod.com/thehistoryof/hr_0601w_dyno_don_nicholson/index.html
My favorite in this era will always be Fred Borcherdt. Fred had a 57 Pontiac that won a CARS magazine meet at Cecil county once, but because he never wanted to spend the money for fancy paint, they refused to put it's picture in the magazine. He was doing the Hydros for many cars, as seen by his name on several in this post. Someone earlier mentioned his International KB pick up with Pontiac power and one of his dual range hydros. He also had the D/SA record with Rocky's Goat, a 69 GTO sponsored by Rockhill Pontiac.
That reminds me of another guy from Delaware, though not a stocker driver. His name is Danny Bastianelli from Georgetown. When he was 16, I used to prep 4 speeds for his Mustang. When he grew older, he got into faster cars and built a throttle body injected 400 Ford powered dragster that he ran in NHRA Super Comp on alcohol. The car was VERY fast for Super Comp's 8.90 index and Danny had it throttled way back. At the Gatornationals, one of his opponents bulbed and Danny made a full pass and startled the announcer when he read Danny's time of 7.58 (or something close). Danny figured that he could run IHRA Top Sportsman ( I think that was the class, owned at the time by Bill Kuhlman) so he took the car to Bristol and defeated Kuhlman in the final. The dragster could not have been more "basic" as it had only enough body to enclose the driver and looked like something out of the 1950"s. I think IHRA was embarrased to include the winner's circle photo in their paper. While searching the net for a photo to include with this post, I see that Danny won a "Rain Delay golf cart challenge" at this year's Bracket Finals at Maple Grove. Seems he had nitrous on his cart!
Heres a picture from an article I found today while going through some of my old magazines. Its from the November 68 issue of Rodder and Super Stock. Does anyone remember this car? Its Charlie Cason from Lakeland Fla. Its a J/SA car and it talks of him running Nascar Drags as well as NHRA .
Bob, I don't remember the car, but it could be the same person since it is a Div. 1 car. K&G and Radar were just up the road.
I was just about to say that it was the first Jr Stocker I ever saw from Lakeland that didnt have a Waible Cmpetition decal on the back quarter panel
A little 'Po$tscript' to the Truppi / Kling saga ... *Steve Perrault Photo In case you missed this (from Hemmings 1/26/06) http://www.hemmings.com/newsletter/newsletter.html?volume=1&issue=33 Ex-racer Chevelle rakes in $1.2 million <TABLE cellPadding=2 align=right><TBODY><TR><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align=left width=150> This original LS6 Chevelle, an ex-drag car fetched a whopping $1.15 million at the recent Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>By now the dust has settled after the craziness at Barrett-Jackson, but the prices paid for muscle cars remain crazy. When will it end? Nobody knows. One thing we do know is a car that once was setting record prices, then kind of fell off the cliff years ago, is back. Several world records were set on Saturday, and it seems that people with tons of money are buying muscle cars. Recently, hoopla has centered around Hemis in any form of Chrysler product, but probably the biggest surprise was what was paid for the 1970 LS6 Chevelle sponsored by Truppi and Kling, who built the engine with sponsorship from South Amboy, New Jersey's Briggs Chevrolet. The blue LS6 had but 61 actual miles and a very famous 322,080 feet, a quarter foot at a time. We cannot confirm whether the $1.15 million paid for this car is a world record, but it is safe to say that most likely it is the most money to ever change hands for a 1970 Chevelle, be it an LS6 or a gold-plated job.
And, if I remember correctly, Frankie had to rerun that final a couple of times because the clocks weren't set correctly. Ah, those were the days. (PS, Frankie never had a wagon)
Yep, it was a Jim Waibel prepped car. Both Waibel and Cason were from Lakeland and competed in NASCAR and NHRA events. The NASCAR Winternationals were held in Florida.[/QUOTE] ...whats that other '57 poking around the corner in that pic? -Dean
Prolog: Re: Truppi / Kling Chevelle: (from http://www.dragracecentral.com/drcstory.asp?ID=110765 ) ... "The star of the auction for drag fans was the former Truppi & Kling Chevelle. This is the car that Ray Allen drove to wins at the US Nationals, The Super Nationals, The World Finals and most of the division races that he entered in 1970. The car has received a frame-off restoration that was mostly supervised by Ray himself and had just 61 miles showing on the odometer. The Chevelle was sold with its original New Jersey title still in Truppi & Kling's name. It also came with its original build sheet and various magazine and National Dragster articles. Surely the most expensive Chevelle ever sold. With Ray himself providing commentary from the auction block it sold for $1,242,000 including buyer's fee." Now, I'm just 'Wondering' ... I'm sure T/K prepped other cars that were successful in the Junior Stock ranks, other than ... Terrible Tangerine* * ... which I 'thought' was was actually owned/raced for a while by (Philadelphia) Jack 'Doc' Doughtery, before going to Baltimore racer Bill Niedercadaus(sp?). Anyone remember its history ... ??
Prolog: Re: Truppi / Kling Chevelle: (from http://www.dragracecentral.com/drcstory.asp?ID=110765 ) ... "The star of the auction for drag fans was the former Truppi & Kling Chevelle. This is the car that Ray Allen drove to wins at the US Nationals, The Super Nationals, The World Finals and most of the division races that he entered in 1970. The car has received a frame-off restoration that was mostly supervised by Ray himself and had just 61 miles showing on the odometer. The Chevelle was sold with its original New Jersey title still in Truppi & Kling's name. It also came with its original build sheet and various magazine and National Dragster articles. Surely the most expensive Chevelle ever sold. With Ray himself providing commentary from the auction block it sold for $1,242,000 including buyer's fee." Let's see here ,if my memory serves me well. Truppi sold the 70 car to one of his customers, (the late ) Claude Urevig, who raced it well into the 70's. I believe Claude was the one who had it painted white. Somewhere along the line, it was converted to a 71 model for the more advantageous hp rating. Then it went to another Truppi customer , (the late) Tom Camperlengo who raced it well into the 80's .Tom moved to Savannah to manage the track down there. I think the track owner may have been Mark Milboer who bought the car next. That's the last I remember of it, but the car was in pretty rough shape by then. The convertible top was all shrunk up and bowed on the sides, as I remember. I don't doubt the actual street miles, or the fact that the car could have been restored to what we saw. My question is, ...How could the original title still have been in Truppi's name?
The original title 'surviving' was most likely a natural result of Claude Urevig* (*see his '57 @ E-Town in '72 below) not bothering to get a (new) title in his name. A Truppi-Kling (signed!) title and bill of sale would have proved ownership and been sufficient to race the car. Then, I'd think, the subsequent owners realized the potential resale 'provenance' that original document provided and followed suit, using bill-of-sales to transfer ownership. *Note: I took THIS pic the VERY-SAME day as the one I took ( 1139 ) of the T-K Chevelle! And thanks for your additions to the 'Million Dollar Chevelle' saga Mark ... now I wonder who (smart fellow!) restored it and who (Jay Leno?) bought it. Shame they 'over restored' it and added wheel-well trim ... it was sans mouldings 'as raced.'
Thanks Bill ... Do you have any more images of--> This is the ONLY one I've seen so far! ... and by the way, wasn't there a '57 Chev 4-dr Wagon called the ORANGE CRATE? ... I may very-well have the two names mixed up!
The Jalopy Journal
