Question,,,,, Did Frank Ioconia run his 1957 'Banana I' Chevy 150 Series in M/SA in 1970. I know it ran in H/S in 1969 with a 283/283HP Fuel Injection combination. There are photos of his car at Dover Drag Strip, classed in M/SA.
When NHRA outlawed the use of a 4 speed transmission in '57 Chevrolets he changed pistons and camshaft and raced the car as a 250 HP with a powerglide. He set the M/SA record at E-Town. Surprisingly enough he never held a NHRA record when the car had a 4 speed / 283 HP combination.....By the way last name is Iaconio
Thanks for the info, and name spelling correction.......Iaconio. When he showed up at Dover for a big 'stockers meet', there was a question whether it was a 283 HP engine, instead of the 250 HP. Some 'out-of-towners' like to pull that trick. No matter, he was upset by a local guy.
Bob Dennis and a partner bought the '57 from Frank in about '71 while Bob was stationed in Texas. He had the car when he moved back to Montgomery in '72 or so and raced it in SS for a while and then changed over to later model 283 cars. The car was still lettered "Banana" when Bob bought it and he has used the Banana name since. Bob sold the car to someone in the Alabama, Georgia area but I can't remember who bought it but I'm sure Bob remembers. Jimmy Parker
Jimmy, Different Bob but former Modified racer Mike Cook told me that he owned the '57 after Bob Dennis. Bob Rice
In 1970 when Frrank Iaconio was running in M/SA...he set the record mostly for points. I recall one day when he purposely just "nipped" it and was happy. He probably could have run well under the record at the time. I also recall him not liking an automatic trans. as he was much more used to a clutch.... I worked for him for a very short time at the end of his Pro Stock career. His home and shop is just a few miles away from my house. I don't know what he's doing these days. He was very dedicated and driven and worked his butt off in the old days.
Thanks for the 'Banana 1' info. 1970 Stockers Meet at DOVER. The M/SA 'Banana 1' fouled versus Joe Kenney's H/SA 'Trick Tank'. Several photo's of the two cars running down the track.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Well here you go guys...Tension & Good in Tension, late 60's, Omaha Dragway, Don Stephonson in 3rd photo, middle of the frame (back to camera), Fred Anderson behind the wheel of Good Intention.
That green-painted 'Good In-Tension', a very sharp looking car. L/S in 1969,,,,,,,,,,what was that engine combo a 283/245HP dual-quad.
Great forum. Brings back many good memories. Was surprised to see a picture of our 69 Camaro, J/Stock at Indy from 1971. My brother who was a partner at one time in that car is still racing today in Super Stock. Has been going non-stop since way back when. These guys are spending a lot more money, and I bet are not having near as much fun! Mike
Look close here... It looks to me like they are running the same deep dish wheels (possibly with slicks) on the Front as they were on the rear.... Musta needed some additional roll-out? Larry
Paul Joe's Trick Tank was a favorite of mine.He raced South Glens Falls a few times.Frank knew the Tank was no slouch.Joe ran real good and could hold his own with them all.We had some good running locals,didn't we.
I noticed those front deep-dish Cragars on that Olds earlier. I NEVER liked that look----can't imagine why that would help on a drag car. The 4" wheel and tall tire (7:10 or 7:60) was the hot set-up and that's currently what I have. I'm considering some 7:10 Firestones that have a close resemblence to the old Stahl tires. I hate spending $400.00 on something that I don't really need----my tires are like new, but that's the problem, they just LOOK new.
This thread keeps getting better and better! It was lots of fun racing Project Six pack in the 70s. Mike Smith and Terry Welsh were great partners and those national record certificates will be on my office wall until they carry me out of here. But my favorite time was 10 years earlier in the heyday of the junior stock era. I remember in 1964 in the back room of the Berwyn Sunoco station leaning on the fender of Monster Mash while Grump tuned it. Bill was my first hero, and I think he shaped our beloved junior stock more than any other single individual. When I was in high school, Bill was still known as Jiggs, and my buddy's older brother had a street-driven 55 Chevy with a Jenkins tuned fuel injected 283 and three speed Hurst. It wasn't quite as fast as Jim Stafford's Gold 409, but it really screamed, especially for a sleeper. I ended up owning Jim's 409 engine for about 40 years, then sold it to Ronnie Evans, and I understand it's now going in a replica of Old Reliable one. Bill Jenkins tuned it in 1964, and just recently went over it. Small world! We don't have anything remotely resembling nostalgia racing or Junior stock out here in Colorado, and I realize that Chevys pretty much dominated many classes, but the thread got me all fired up, and I wanted to do something that at least resembled a junior stocker. The lettering exists only in Photoshop for now, but it is a good way to test how the car would look. I would have liked a two-door, or a wagon, but they wanted too much money and most of the affordable stuff was more rust than car. This thing ran like a top, with 63,000 original miles, bought it for $400. Sold engine and trans to a buddy for $300.00 for his rat rod, and the body and paint is excellent. I wanted to do a Max wedge, but my leftover Project Six Pack engine is a low-deck, not a raised block, and the Max wedge manifold won't work. I thought I might do a tribute 343 hp "383"; (sort of a F.A.S.T. engine) treatment with the in-line dual quads. I believe that might have been a C/stock combination back in '63. Does anybody know what the most recent classification for that combo was? The times I spent at Vargo with Jim Stafford, Kenny and Jack Gunning, Courtney Nelson, and the rest of the bunch were the best times I've ever had. I hope that my mini project can help promote in some way what you're doing on this thread. Long live "Monster Mash", "the Fugitive","Northwind", "The Jolly Green Giant", and Tony Pizzi's shop in the middle of the night doing articles on 520 heads. Keep up the good work. Best to all! Ted Struse former Field Editor Super Stock And Drag Illustrated magazine
Actually that blue biscayne was owned and raced by Butch Leal throughout 1962. Leal sold it to Tom & Linda Jacobson in '63 when Leal took delivery of his new 1963 Z-11 Chevrolet from Del Munson Chev in Pixley CA. Tom raced it under HP enterprise Garden Grove CA. (Hayden owned and operated that shop in '63 after he gave up his '62 bubbletop 409 and Z-11 '63 when GM bailed on racing). Tom Strunk also had a red 409 Impala SS 380 HP job he ran out of HP enterprises.
Thanks Ted, for the memories!! I, Too remember being in that Berwyn Sunoco garage bay "chatting it up" with " JIGGS" and Tony Pizzi - only in my case, Jiggs was leaning over the fender adjusting valves on the "666" car A/S Chevy II as it was in '66 when i was at that gas station --- BTW - Tony's 62 409 car was "laying" out back without a motor that day - he was in process of building a new one!! Jiggs did an 327/250 engine for me but it was Tony that did most of the work. I just wrote the check! I remember well looking at that cancelled check when it was returned to me from my bank -- remember when they sent you your checks back? LOL --- The endorsement on the check was a rubber stamp Jenkins had made to stamp checks. The endorsement stamp had included several names, all by which Jenkins went by at one time or another -- heres the list : William T. Jenkins, Bill Jenkins, Jiggs Jenkins, W.T. Jenkins, and last but not least W.T "Jiggs" Jenkins!!! Try as i might, I had saved that check for nostalgia at one time and i just cant find it now - I had shown it to several people over the years but when I tried to find it for Doug's Jenkins book -- I just couldnt come up with it. Someday Doug, I will find it!! LOL Thanks again Ted, for the memories, and good luck with your project!! Tweed
Colesy, I just knew you would know what combination was in that car.....!!! Bucksnort, Joe Kenney, lived near me,,,,,,,he was out of Hopewell Junction, NY. Bought that car out of barn in Minnesota.
Matt, I sent you a PM. The 1968 Ford Cobra-Jet Mustangs ran in C/S in 1968, or SS/E. They did participate in the 1968 NHRA Winternationals and all National Events. The 1968 Hurst/Olds 455/390HP also competed in the same class in 1968. And yes Paula Murphy did run an Olds 4-4-2 in C/SA in 1966.
Got my preregistration for the Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green and Dave Boertman is one of the honorees this year. Congratulations.
Anyone know whatever happened to McVickers? Been trying to track him down for a couple of years. I arranged a picnic for Al Olster at his house two years ago, which was a sort of Patch Reunion. would have loved to have had Pat's contact information! Maybe there'll be another Albertfest in the future.
Hey guys... maybe you can help me out. On Jan 28, my Facebook account was hacked, my email address changed to a Yahoo address. and a fraud money scam email was sent out to my entire Gmail address book, resulting in both FB and Gmail disabling my accounts. After much trouble, I finally regained access to my FB account, but not my Gmail. If given the choice if I could have only one, I would have chosen to regain access to my Gmail account because in it was a lifetime of contacts. 1700+ names and addresses of old racing friends, new racing friends, former coworkers, Indian program contacts, etc. 90% of those contacts I will never be able to reconstruct without help. Does anyone have contact info for some of the old gang... Island, Englishtown, Atco, Indy etc. I am sick to death over this situation. If Google had been as diligent in preventing my account from being hacked as they are now being in keeping me out of my account, it would be one thing. I have filled out their freakin' form 100 times at least. Here's some questions they want the answers to. Month, day, year I opened my gmail account, google tool bar, google calendar, google alerts. All I know is that I've had that gmail address for probably over 10 years. Back when it was an invitation only account. I had a "send old pix distribution" list of old racing friends with so many people in it that I can't even remember all of them. All my distribution lists are in there. And stupid me, I didn't know how to save my contacts before...NOW i do! Any help anyone can give me will be most gratefully appreciated. Jackee
I raced Mike and Terry many times with my Z/S vega they are the BEST. We will miss Mike forever...........and Terry is still a great guy.
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