Dragsterfes


	Welcome to Dragster Fest From time to time we like to open up the scrap book to take a look at some of the cars we use to love watching from the grandstands! Some of these guys are the best most professional drivers ever to race the quarter mile while others are some of the roughest, craziest characters found in drag racing and would risk jail time just to keep racing. Which ones? You decide! The cars will be added frequently so please visit this site often to see who's next. Photo by Larry McFarland Return to capracing.com Roger Primm Ever hear of Primm Nevada? Sure you have, it's the little town right on the California Nevada border named after the Primm familey who owned New York-New York in Las Vegas and had their own casinos on the state line for Californians who just couldn't wait to get to Vegas to pull a lever. Roger Primm also had a side business racing dragsters. Roger did the driving himself driving a Top Alcohol car before going to Top Fuel. When he went Top Fuel racing he hired who else but Ron Capps who drove the car pictured here. The team won in Seattle before Ron left to drive for the Snake. Tell Ron, Fat Schlagg said hello. DragsterFest! Bonus More Rare Racing Photos Uncovered! Cory Mac in the McDonalds car loses a tire at the World Finals in Pomona but comes to a safe stop. Don Prudhomme Here is the final time that Don "the Snake" Prudhomme ever climbed in the cockpit of a race car in drag racing competition. This photo was taken at the NHRA Auto Club Finals in Pomona which concluded the highly successful "Final Strike" Tour in 1994. Prudhomme was red hot that year and finished his final season second in points only to smoke the tires and lose in a giant upset to Vandergrif driving the Fruit of the Loom car. It was unfortunate to see the great drag racing legend have such a great final season only to lose that way. Part of me died that day as my all time hero hung up the gloves for good and made good on his promise to never return as a driver again. Prudhomme continued on as a very successful car owner for more than two decades before retiing from the sport this year when he was unable to aquire any more funding. Photo by Rich Bailey Al De Boer Al De Boer was anything but boring when he was suited up and strapped into his "Oregonian" Top Alcohol Dragster. Al De Boer, from Ashland of all places is part of a powerfull car dealer family based in Medford which has dealerships all over the country. If I remember correctly, De Boer's biggest day came at the NHRA World Finals in 1982 where he made it all the way to the final round. One problem though was that just prior to the finals they realized that their gage was showing no oil preasure. Was it the engine or just a faulty oil gage? I don't remember for sure, but they chose to fire the car in the event it was the engine. If anyoene remembers the rest of the story please write in and let us know! Butch Blair One of our first subjects was Dancas and Graham. Well, here's their ex-TR3 Resin Glaze Special Top Fuel Dragster later purchased and driven by California's Butch Blair. The car was named after the Lost Tribe - the "Fugowie" Indians. This was my dad's favorite car after hearing the "we're the fugowie" joke on the Johnny Carson Show with Ed McMahon laughing in the background. YES! Blair raced Top Fuel until he saw the hand writing on the wall and moved on to Nostalgia Top Fuel where he has been active ever since. This pic was taken in 1984 at Spokane where he was a regular at the AHRA World Finals. Gary Ormsby Gary Ormsby, who was an Auburn California Toyota dealer started his career racing Top Fuel in Northern California in the 1970's. Ormsby later landed Castrol Motor Oil which made him a major player overnight and regularly battled Joe Amato in the late 80's for Top Fuel supremacy. Ormsby eventually broke Amato's streak and won the Top Fuel World Championship before getting cancer. Ormsby continued to race as his health would allow and came back one last time to match race Lori Johns at a special event in Topeka. Not long after that race Mr. Ormsby sadly passed away, Pat Austin took over the driver seat and nearly won both the Top Alcohol Funny car class and Top Fuel in his first race driving both cars at the US Nationals. There is now a street named after "GO" in Topeka. Jim Bernard Jim Bernard of Portland, Oregon suprised everyone in 1981 by going from a non-contender to a national powerhouse with the help of crew chief Lee Beard and some new found money in additon to funding from his ABC Machine Shop on Columbia Blvd. Barney as people like to call him won the IHRA Winternationals in 1982 and then capped off a dream season by winning the NHRA World Finals at Orange County International Raceway, finishing 7th in national points. The suceessful venture all came to a screaching halt in the spring of 1983. Now Bernard lives a "quiet" life in his hometown. Denver Schutz This was his last car which he sold to California Rasin farmer Denver Schutz. Schutz ran a limid schedule with the car before getting involved in Nostalgia racing. It was a nice piece for sure and a shame that Bernard seemed to run it every where but the Northwest when he had it. This photo was taken at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona CA. Whiting and Markley Earl Whiting took over the driving chores of Gaine Markley's Top Fuel dragster a year after he became a partner in the car and just two seasons after Rob Bruins won the Top Fuel World Championship. The late Gaines Markley is a super wrench and former Division 6 Champion while Whiting was in the logging business. Known as the "Likable Logger" Whiting later went out on his own with help from Valvoline and raced for a couple of seasons until the logging industry went south. In this picture he's seen racing Ernie Hall at the division 6 event in Seattle. Kaiser and Rice From Colorado comes the Kaiser and Rice Top Fuel team. Their car is shown here at the 1985 Winternationals. Note the wet pavement, and yes the race did get into the books that weekend. This was kind of an unusual car compared to today's 300 inch long cars as back then you could get away with a lot more than you can now. Kaiser and Rice competed part time, mostly in the Rocky Mountain region of the country. Seattle Assassin Steve and Margie Stoughten's owned this car out of where else but Seattle of course. I learned about self sacrafice when they raced this car. I lettered it so I got to know them well and learned first hand that racing isn't a bowl of cherrys for some who step up to the top alcohol ranks. It was obvious to me at the time that every penny they made went in to the car. They raced the car for several years and then quit likely because of funding but at least they go to say they did it. Ol' Rattler Not much is known about this car but lucky for us Richard Huffman remembered since the car came from Monatana where Richard resides. The driver's name is Larry Klinger and the car flew too as it won the poll at the Woodburn division race and as everyone knows that's one tough race to even qualify for as the top cars from California are always there. This picture was taken by me at the divisional event in Seattle around the mid 1980's. Bob and Paula Gage Hey, hey, Paula. As far as we know Paula Gage was the first woman to race a blown alcohol car in the Northwest. She was a bank teller while her husband Bob worked as a machinist at Custom Machine in Seattle. Bob drove the dragster until moving over to drive Walt Austin's funny car leaving the driver seat to Paula. Like Bill Edwards who was our last victim...uh subject, Paula's biggest win of note happened in Spokane at the AHRA World Finals. Bob and Paula slowly faded away from the drag racing scene but their impact was big on Northwest drag racing while they were involved. This photo was taken at Woodburn back in the early 80's. Bill Edwards A lot of drivers we have been profiling are Northwest legends. Most folks will agree that Bill Edwards is certainly no exception. Bill is a NAPA dealer from Sumas WA which is close to the Canadian border. Bill has been racing Top Alcohol Dragsters for years and compted mostly in Portland, Seattle, Woodburn, Spokane and of course Mission BC. In fact, the photo above was taken in the mid 80's. A few years ago, Bill's son named who else "Bill" took over the driving chores and the team won the big Spokane race two years in a row in the tough Pro Alcohol Dragster class. Cory Mac Before Cory Mac raced in Top Fuel, almost winning the Championship as an independent, he raced in Top Alcohol. And before that, he was constantly on the cover of Hot VW Magazine with his Mac Attack VW powered dragster and funny car. He started racing Top Alcohol in 1989 and ended up winning the first race he ever entered: the Mile High Nationals. At the time, National Dragster picked Cory to do their "Boys of Summer" feature which followed around a team through the western swing. they were looking for a team that would struggle a little which is always interesting. One would have thought that would have been the case but the Mac Attack team surprised everyone by winning right out of the box. Obviously they were well funded. Corry raced it Top Alcohol for two years before switching to fuel. Here's Cory Mac racing in front of a full house at the Woodburn Points meet. Photo by me. Hansen Bros. Dave Hansen of Hansen Bros. Racing drove the Coors Light sponsored Top Alcohol Dragster from the Seattle area at mostly divisional events but the family team could also be seen at such tracks as Pomona. The Hansen Bros. are nice guys for sure and we all hated to see them quit, which meant less beer for all. Just kidding on that one but they always ran good and were one of our favorite teams back in the mid 80's. Later son Brad drove a top alcohol funny car minus a brewery sponsor. The Hansen Bros. still visit the races now and then and it's always good to see them out there. Eddie Hill & Frank Bradley Eddie Hill is a true Texas gentleman, who raced around the country with wife Ercie. Hill is best known for being the first driver to break the 4 second barrier and did it at the Texas Motorplex in in 1988 at a time when the track was sanctioned under IHRA which likely didn't make the NHRA too happy at the time. Hill went on to win the Championship in NHRA a few years later and had some spectacular crashes a long the way including a cartwheel crash at the top end at the Winternationals that made the AP wire. Hill's career ended when Pennzoil eventually pulled the plug on the pair. Today they live a quiet life in Texas. Fans may even remember their wennie dog named "hot dog" that attended each RFC service along the NHRA trail. In the the near lane is "the Beard" Frank Bradley, a scrappy Bay Area racer that did what ever it took to keep racing including running match races and was a heavy hitter on the AHRA trail where the drivers were paid to show up. That was good work if you could get it at the time as top fuel teams didn't get the bookings that the funny car team enjoyed as often. This picture shows a round from the 1989 NHRA California Nationals where Bradley beat Hill. The rest of the story was that Bradley had just got married and won the race on his honeymoon. I remember a very happy bride riding down the return road to pick up her hubby who just won all of the marbles. He won the race in front of his home town too! Gordie Bonin Of course we all know about "240 Gordie" Bonin's funny car career but here he is driving a fueler that debuted the California Nationals in Somona in 1989, where this picture was taken. Gordie raced this Ron Hodgson owned car at a few events that year including Seattle, Indy and Spokane. Gordie had a good showing at this race going to the semi finals in his top fuel debut beating Shirley Muldowney and Dick LaHae along the way! Joe Amato Thanks to this new scanner I got at a garage sale, you will be seeing some photos never seen before that I shot throughout the years up and down the coast before I started racing myself. By the way, you don't want to know what I paid for that bad boy do you? We will start with Joe Amato. You know Joe, the guy that made it big in the auto parts biz and wore that Snoopy underwear on race day? Yeah, that guy. I know, I know, TMI! That lucky underwear (sorry) must have worked too as he won five NHRA Top Fuel Championships at a time when his competitors weren't exactly chopped liver. Awe, those were the days, Amato, Muldowney, Gywnn, Garlits, Ormsby, Hill and Dunn. In fact, Amato is the winningest Top Fuel driver in NHRA history. So, where is the respect for Joe? It's long over due I say! Amato won more than even Garlits. Amato called it a career when he was forced to stop driving as the G's were having an impact on his eyes. Darrell Russell was his driver of choice but sadly he died in a horrific crash which lead to the eventual demise of Joe Amato Racing. Check out the little air plane tires that the heavy hitters were using at the time! Thank goodness they all went back to the taller wheels. This pic shows his wife Jeri backing him up in Seattle. By the way I tried those lucky shorts too (sorry) last weekend, except mine are Miller Lite. but the whole concept didn't work for me. I picked them up in a Wal Mart in Boise where we were number 1 qualifier at the Classic but oh well. Terry Capp Terry Capp from Edmonton, Canada, drove and owned the Wheeler Dealer Top Fuel Dragster and made many appearences in the lower 48 including Woodburn Dragstrip and in Portland. Like Jerry Ruth and Hank Johnson, Capp had both a dragster and funny car so he could stay racing racing full time in the summer months. His biggest win was at Indy in 1980 when he was one of the first drivers to compete in an Al Swindle built car which was wider, safer and feaured the tri-pod front end. His most recent venture was driving the Bubble Up nostalgia funny car. Terry Capp is a very nice guy and one of our all time favorites! Photo by Gary Grant Craig Smith Craig Smith of Washington State has had great success in drag racing starting out with a Top Alcohol Dragster before moving up to his current Top Fuel Dragster pictured above. Smith, won the AHRA World Finals when Top Fuel was contested in Spokane. He has also made numerous NHRA and IHRA appearances and scored a final round appearance driving a Pioneer Stereo sponsored car in Phoenix. These days he's been working to get his daughter on the fast track and could return to Top Fuel anytime. Photo by Rich Carlson. Ernie Hall Perhaps no other driver in Top Fuel was more well liked or better respected than Oregon's own Ernie Hall, driver of the Western States Fire Apparatus Special. Hall built fire trucks in Cornelius Oregon when he wasn't rocketing down the track in his trademark red and yellow car. Even at a time when semi trailers were a familiar site in the pits, Hall worked out of a trailer so small that it could fit in the trailers of his more well financed competitors. Hall regularly raced at Northwest tracks along with Bakersfield, Pomona and Orange County. Hall's best weekend was in Seattle when he was a semi finalist at the NHRA Fall Nationals and in Spokane where he was runner up at the AHRA World Finals and upset Garlits in the semifinals. Hall's life was tragically taken from us in 1989 when he died of a heart attack while packing the chutes at the Northwest Nationals after making his best run ever. A tribute to Ernie can be found on capracing.com by clicking on Ernie Hall. Alixander & Omlin Gary Omlin has been a once-a-year racer for decades starting out as a privateer out of Eastern Washington. The first car of Omlin's we saw was a rear engine dragster without a rear wing but spewed lots of flame. Omlin then shifted gears and began driving for highway department manager and all around good guy Dean Alexander. Together the two ran the first ever four second run on a non-concrete track at Spokane in 2006. The following year, Spokane stopped racing Top Fuel and the pair haven't been racing since although Alexander helps Craig Smith any time he races his fueler in Seattle. Photo by Larry McFarland Jerry Goddard Olympia's Jerry Goddard drove the Mr. Rags LTD entry back in the day when designer jeans were all the rage. Mr. Rags was a popular Seattle based clothing store with mall outlets all over the Northwest. Goddard raced primarily back in the days of Pro Comp, a class we would like to see return to drag racing where alcohol funny cars and dragsters mixed it up like the photo above. When the AHRA tour came though the Northwest in the mid 80's, Goodard join the frey and won the AHRA Championship by racing and winning at tracks as far east as Kansas City and Tulsa Oklahoma. Goddard's program was always a modest family operation. Today, Goddard assists his son-in-law and daughter, Brian and Mindy Hough who have a successful top alcohol funny car operation of their own. Ray Salter & Chuck Pinney By Chuck Pinney's own account, the Quality Rock Top Fuel Dragster may be the most under funded car of them all. Perhaps it was. But more than likely this Seattle based dragster was one of the least ran cars of all time running a total of four times in both Seattle and Spokane. The car was purchased by Northwest drag racing figure Ray Salter from logger Earl Whiting and then updated by Brad Hadman, by the time nitro journeyman Chuck Pinney and Dean Capps got involved. Capps later dropped out due to health concerns but the team marched forward anyway funding the car and doing all of the labor themselves. Around this time, the economy went south and as a result they were unable to secure additional funding. Pinney and Salter enlisted "240 Gordie" Bonin, who recently won the FIA World Championship to drive the car. The team's best outing was qualifying 14th at the Northwest Nationals under the watchful eye of "traveling tuner" Ron Capps. Pinney's sons Brian and Scott as well as a neighbor rounded out the crew. The car ran in the low fives at just under 300 MPH. Danakus & Graham In the pros anyway, winning at Indy can make your career. And back in 1973 a TV repairman from Oklahoma City came out of nowhere to win the prestigeous NHRA US Nationals. This was at a time when the Big Go was on ABC's much watched Wide World of Sports program and Indy was the race to win. It was then that Graham earned the now famous nickname "Marvin Who". Later Graham teamed up with Top Fuel bad boy Marc Danakus. The pair briefly expanded to a two car team and brought in then TR-3 Resin Glaze secretary Lucile Lee to drive a second car. Pretty soon the team concentrated on the one car that Lee drove. Lee made headlines the next year by defeating Shirley Muldowney in the first ever all female Top Fuel final which happened at the famed Bakersfield March Meet. Coincidentally Graham later became a stunt driver in the film Heart Like a Wheel about the life of Shirley Muldowney. The team later closed up shop and Danakus teamed up with his brother to race a Top Fuel Dragster appropriately called "Adversity" which made one run and crashed. In the mid eighties, Mr. Danakus was found dead in an alley in San Bernadino when a "business" deal went bad. And most recently Lee sadly died of natural causes. Photo by Tom West Rob Bruins & Gaines Markley Federal Way's Rob Bruins is the only northwest driver to ever win an NHRA Top Fuel World Championship. Bruins teamed up with the late Gaines Markley in 1978 after driving the Green Elephant funny car in 1977 and his own alcohol funny car before that. Bruins had the distinction in 1980 to be the first and only driver to win the world title without winning a single national event. They won a lot of divisionals and were runner up at a pair of national races which gave them enough points to win the Winston World Championship. The following year in 1981, NHRA stopped awarding professional points at divisional events. That same year, Markley teamed up with Earl Whiting but the team didn't have the financial resources to defend their World Championship and insteaed raced a soft schedule. Markley who was also a great driver in his own right and won a divisional title, then retired from the sport and sadly passed away last year. Bruins also retied but returned a few years ago to race the Byron Bros. dragster in Comp Eliminator. Photo by Richard Huffman Jeb Allen The day Jeb Allen came to Woodburn In 1976 Woodburn Dragstrip held a mid summer funny car race and headlining the show was none other than Tom the Mongoose" McEwen (well his no.2 car with John Collins driving), 240 Gordie Bonin, Kenney Goodell and Richard Rogers. They were some of the best funny cars the west coast had to offer at the time. One little problem though. Collins driving McEwen's car had a fire the week prior and couldn't make the race so he contacted Jeb Allen, who was based in the Bay Area time and Allen came up as a replacement for Collins even though he drove a top fuel car and not a funny car. To us young pit rats that was just as good because Jeb Allen who drove the famous Praying Mantis was a big time racer and at the time you could buy Revell models of his car at just about any store that carried model kits. But more importantly, he was the youngest driver to ever win a national event when he won the Summer Nationals in Englishtown in 1972. Not only that but he seemed to own the track winning there three times! Allen took on Goodell in round one (above) and beat him to face Bonin in the Bubble Up Monza in the finals. Bonin beat Allen despite the weight advantage the dragster had. It was unusual to see a top fuel dragster take on a funny car but it was a rare treat indeed. Allen went on to win the NHRA World Championship in the early 80's and then dropped out of site. Vern Hanson, Jeff Eden and Roger Scharff, Here's a rare bird for you and I'd venture to say this is the ONLY place on the net....or the only place period where you will ever see this car. In fact, when this pic was snapped it was one of the only times this car ever ran! Vern Hanson, a former oil man i.e. Pennzoil jobber, and just about the nicest guy you will ever meet owned this dragster along iwth Jeff Eden and Roger Scharff. Vern who lived in Portland is the gentleman in the background with the black t-shirt on. The car was driven by Jeff Edan and it was pretty cool in it's day, The car was painted by Gary Lewis and was one of the first to feature the tall wing which was developed by Joe Amato and Timmy Richards. This pic was taken in the early 1980's and so far is the only non-blown car we have highlighted.

Welcome to Dragster Fest

From time to time we like to open up the scrap book to take a look at some of the cars we use to love watching from the grandstands! Some of these guys are the best most professional drivers ever to race the quarter mile while others are some of the roughest, craziest characters found in drag racing and would risk jail time just to keep racing. Which ones? You decide! The cars will be added frequently so please visit this site often to see who's next. Photo by Larry McFarland

Return to capracing.com

Roger Primm

Ever hear of Primm Nevada? Sure you have, it's the little town right on the California Nevada border named after the Primm familey who owned New York-New York in Las Vegas and had their own casinos on the state line for Californians who just couldn't wait to get to Vegas to pull a lever. Roger Primm also had a side business racing dragsters. Roger did the driving himself driving a Top Alcohol car before going to Top Fuel. When he went Top Fuel racing he hired who else but Ron Capps who drove the car pictured here. The team won in Seattle before Ron left to drive for the Snake. Tell Ron, Fat Schlagg said hello.

DragsterFest! Bonus
More Rare Racing Photos Uncovered!

Cory Mac in the McDonalds car loses a tire at the World Finals in Pomona but comes to a safe stop.

Don Prudhomme

Here is the final time that Don "the Snake" Prudhomme ever climbed in the cockpit of a race car in drag racing competition. This photo was taken at the NHRA Auto Club Finals in Pomona which concluded the highly successful "Final Strike" Tour in 1994. Prudhomme was red hot that year and finished his final season second in points only to smoke the tires and lose in a giant upset to Vandergrif driving the Fruit of the Loom car. It was unfortunate to see the great drag racing legend have such a great final season only to lose that way. Part of me died that day as my all time hero hung up the gloves for good and made good on his promise to never return as a driver again.

Prudhomme continued on as a very successful car owner for more than two decades before retiing from the sport this year when he was unable to aquire any more funding. Photo by Rich Bailey

Al De Boer

Al De Boer was anything but boring when he was suited up and strapped into his "Oregonian" Top Alcohol Dragster. Al De Boer, from Ashland of all places is part of a powerfull car dealer family based in Medford which has dealerships all over the country.

If I remember correctly, De Boer's biggest day came at the NHRA World Finals in 1982 where he made it all the way to the final round. One problem though was that just prior to the finals they realized that their gage was showing no oil preasure. Was it the engine or just a faulty oil gage? I don't remember for sure, but they chose to fire the car in the event it was the engine. If anyoene remembers the rest of the story please write in and let us know!

Butch Blair

One of our first subjects was Dancas and Graham. Well, here's their ex-TR3 Resin Glaze Special Top Fuel Dragster later purchased and driven by California's Butch Blair. The car was named after the Lost Tribe - the "Fugowie" Indians. This was my dad's favorite car after hearing the "we're the fugowie" joke on the Johnny Carson Show with Ed McMahon laughing in the background. YES! Blair raced Top Fuel until he saw the hand writing on the wall and moved on to Nostalgia Top Fuel where he has been active ever since. This pic was taken in 1984 at Spokane where he was a regular at the AHRA World Finals.

Gary Ormsby

Gary Ormsby, who was an Auburn California Toyota dealer started his career racing Top Fuel in Northern California in the 1970's. Ormsby later landed Castrol Motor Oil which made him a major player overnight and regularly battled Joe Amato in the late 80's for Top Fuel supremacy. Ormsby eventually broke Amato's streak and won the Top Fuel World Championship before getting cancer.

Ormsby continued to race as his health would allow and came back one last time to match race Lori Johns at a special event in Topeka. Not long after that race Mr. Ormsby sadly passed away, Pat Austin took over the driver seat and nearly won both the Top Alcohol Funny car class and Top Fuel in his first race driving both cars at the US Nationals. There is now a street named after "GO" in Topeka.

Jim Bernard

Jim Bernard of Portland, Oregon suprised everyone in 1981 by going from a non-contender to a national powerhouse with the help of crew chief Lee Beard and some new found money in additon to funding from his ABC Machine Shop on Columbia Blvd. Barney as people like to call him won the IHRA Winternationals in 1982 and then capped off a dream season by winning the NHRA World Finals at Orange County International Raceway, finishing 7th in national points. The suceessful venture all came to a screaching halt in the spring of 1983. Now Bernard lives a "quiet" life in his hometown.

Denver Schutz

This was his last car which he sold to California Rasin farmer Denver Schutz. Schutz ran a limid schedule with the car before getting involved in Nostalgia racing. It was a nice piece for sure and a shame that Bernard seemed to run it every where but the Northwest when he had it. This photo was taken at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona CA.

Whiting and Markley

Earl Whiting took over the driving chores of Gaine Markley's Top Fuel dragster a year after he became a partner in the car and just two seasons after Rob Bruins won the Top Fuel World Championship. The late Gaines Markley is a super wrench and former Division 6 Champion while Whiting was in the logging business. Known as the "Likable Logger" Whiting later went out on his own with help from Valvoline and raced for a couple of seasons until the logging industry went south. In this picture he's seen racing Ernie Hall at the division 6 event in Seattle.

Kaiser and Rice

From Colorado comes the Kaiser and Rice Top Fuel team. Their car is shown here at the 1985 Winternationals. Note the wet pavement, and yes the race did get into the books that weekend. This was kind of an unusual car compared to today's 300 inch long cars as back then you could get away with a lot more than you can now. Kaiser and Rice competed part time, mostly in the Rocky Mountain region of the country.

Seattle Assassin

Steve and Margie Stoughten's owned this car out of where else but Seattle of course. I learned about self sacrafice when they raced this car. I lettered it so I got to know them well and learned first hand that racing isn't a bowl of cherrys for some who step up to the top alcohol ranks. It was obvious to me at the time that every penny they made went in to the car. They raced the car for several years and then quit likely because of funding but at least they go to say they did it.

Ol' Rattler

Not much is known about this car but lucky for us Richard Huffman remembered since the car came from Monatana where Richard resides. The driver's name is Larry Klinger and the car flew too as it won the poll at the Woodburn division race and as everyone knows that's one tough race to even qualify for as the top cars from California are always there. This picture was taken by me at the divisional event in Seattle around the mid 1980's.

Bob and Paula Gage

Hey, hey, Paula. As far as we know Paula Gage was the first woman to race a blown alcohol car in the Northwest. She was a bank teller while her husband Bob worked as a machinist at Custom Machine in Seattle. Bob drove the dragster until moving over to drive Walt Austin's funny car leaving the driver seat to Paula. Like Bill Edwards who was our last victim...uh subject, Paula's biggest win of note happened in Spokane at the AHRA World Finals. Bob and Paula slowly faded away from the drag racing scene but their impact was big on Northwest drag racing while they were involved. This photo was taken at Woodburn back in the early 80's.

Bill Edwards

A lot of drivers we have been profiling are Northwest legends. Most folks will agree that Bill Edwards is certainly no exception. Bill is a NAPA dealer from Sumas WA which is close to the Canadian border. Bill has been racing Top Alcohol Dragsters for years and compted mostly in Portland, Seattle, Woodburn, Spokane and of course Mission BC. In fact, the photo above was taken in the mid 80's. A few years ago, Bill's son named who else "Bill" took over the driving chores and the team won the big Spokane race two years in a row in the tough Pro Alcohol Dragster class.

Cory Mac

Before Cory Mac raced in Top Fuel, almost winning the Championship as an independent, he raced in Top Alcohol. And before that, he was constantly on the cover of Hot VW Magazine with his Mac Attack VW powered dragster and funny car. He started racing Top Alcohol in 1989 and ended up winning the first race he ever entered: the Mile High Nationals.

At the time, National Dragster picked Cory to do their "Boys of Summer" feature which followed around a team through the western swing. they were looking for a team that would struggle a little which is always interesting. One would have thought that would have been the case but the Mac Attack team surprised everyone by winning right out of the box. Obviously they were well funded. Corry raced it Top Alcohol for two years before switching to fuel. Here's Cory Mac racing in front of a full house at the Woodburn Points meet. Photo by me.

Hansen Bros.

Dave Hansen of Hansen Bros. Racing drove the Coors Light sponsored Top Alcohol Dragster from the Seattle area at mostly divisional events but the family team could also be seen at such tracks as Pomona. The Hansen Bros. are nice guys for sure and we all hated to see them quit, which meant less beer for all. Just kidding on that one but they always ran good and were one of our favorite teams back in the mid 80's. Later son Brad drove a top alcohol funny car minus a brewery sponsor. The Hansen Bros. still visit the races now and then and it's always good to see them out there.

Eddie Hill & Frank Bradley

Eddie Hill is a true Texas gentleman, who raced around the country with wife Ercie. Hill is best known for being the first driver to break the 4 second barrier and did it at the Texas Motorplex in in 1988 at a time when the track was sanctioned under IHRA which likely didn't make the NHRA too happy at the time. Hill went on to win the Championship in NHRA a few years later and had some spectacular crashes a long the way including a cartwheel crash at the top end at the Winternationals that made the AP wire. Hill's career ended when Pennzoil eventually pulled the plug on the pair. Today they live a quiet life in Texas. Fans may even remember their wennie dog named "hot dog" that attended each RFC service along the NHRA trail.

In the the near lane is "the Beard" Frank Bradley, a scrappy Bay Area racer that did what ever it took to keep racing including running match races and was a heavy hitter on the AHRA trail where the drivers were paid to show up. That was good work if you could get it at the time as top fuel teams didn't get the bookings that the funny car team enjoyed as often.

This picture shows a round from the 1989 NHRA California Nationals where Bradley beat Hill. The rest of the story was that Bradley had just got married and won the race on his honeymoon. I remember a very happy bride riding down the return road to pick up her hubby who just won all of the marbles. He won the race in front of his home town too!

Gordie Bonin

Of course we all know about "240 Gordie" Bonin's funny car career but here he is driving a fueler that debuted the California Nationals in Somona in 1989, where this picture was taken. Gordie raced this Ron Hodgson owned car at a few events that year including Seattle, Indy and Spokane. Gordie had a good showing at this race going to the semi finals in his top fuel debut beating Shirley Muldowney and Dick LaHae along the way!

Joe Amato

Thanks to this new scanner I got at a garage sale, you will be seeing some photos never seen before that I shot throughout the years up and down the coast before I started racing myself. By the way, you don't want to know what I paid for that bad boy do you?

We will start with Joe Amato. You know Joe, the guy that made it big in the auto parts biz and wore that Snoopy underwear on race day? Yeah, that guy. I know, I know, TMI! That lucky underwear (sorry) must have worked too as he won five NHRA Top Fuel Championships at a time when his competitors weren't exactly chopped liver. Awe, those were the days, Amato, Muldowney, Gywnn, Garlits, Ormsby, Hill and Dunn. In fact, Amato is the winningest Top Fuel driver in NHRA history. So, where is the respect for Joe? It's long over due I say! Amato won more than even Garlits.

Amato called it a career when he was forced to stop driving as the G's were having an impact on his eyes. Darrell Russell was his driver of choice but sadly he died in a horrific crash which lead to the eventual demise of Joe Amato Racing.

Check out the little air plane tires that the heavy hitters were using at the time! Thank goodness they all went back to the taller wheels. This pic shows his wife Jeri backing him up in Seattle. By the way I tried those lucky shorts too (sorry) last weekend, except mine are Miller Lite. but the whole concept didn't work for me. I picked them up in a Wal Mart in Boise where we were number 1 qualifier at the Classic but oh well.

Terry Capp

Terry Capp from Edmonton, Canada, drove and owned the Wheeler Dealer Top Fuel Dragster and made many appearences in the lower 48 including Woodburn Dragstrip and in Portland. Like Jerry Ruth and Hank Johnson, Capp had both a dragster and funny car so he could stay racing racing full time in the summer months. His biggest win was at Indy in 1980 when he was one of the first drivers to compete in an Al Swindle built car which was wider, safer and feaured the tri-pod front end. His most recent venture was driving the Bubble Up nostalgia funny car. Terry Capp is a very nice guy and one of our all time favorites! Photo by Gary Grant

Craig Smith

Craig Smith of Washington State has had great success in drag racing starting out with a Top Alcohol Dragster before moving up to his current Top Fuel Dragster pictured above. Smith, won the AHRA World Finals when Top Fuel was contested in Spokane. He has also made numerous NHRA and IHRA appearances and scored a final round appearance driving a Pioneer Stereo sponsored car in Phoenix. These days he's been working to get his daughter on the fast track and could return to Top Fuel anytime. Photo by Rich Carlson.

Ernie Hall

Perhaps no other driver in Top Fuel was more well liked or better respected than Oregon's own Ernie Hall, driver of the Western States Fire Apparatus Special. Hall built fire trucks in Cornelius Oregon when he wasn't rocketing down the track in his trademark red and yellow car. Even at a time when semi trailers were a familiar site in the pits, Hall worked out of a trailer so small that it could fit in the trailers of his more well financed competitors. Hall regularly raced at Northwest tracks along with Bakersfield, Pomona and Orange County.

Hall's best weekend was in Seattle when he was a semi finalist at the NHRA Fall Nationals and in Spokane where he was runner up at the AHRA World Finals and upset Garlits in the semifinals. Hall's life was tragically taken from us in 1989 when he died of a heart attack while packing the chutes at the Northwest Nationals after making his best run ever.

A tribute to Ernie can be found on capracing.com by clicking on Ernie Hall.

Alixander & Omlin

Gary Omlin has been a once-a-year racer for decades starting out as a privateer out of Eastern Washington. The first car of Omlin's we saw was a rear engine dragster without a rear wing but spewed lots of flame. Omlin then shifted gears and began driving for highway department manager and all around good guy Dean Alexander. Together the two ran the first ever four second run on a non-concrete track at Spokane in 2006. The following year, Spokane stopped racing Top Fuel and the pair haven't been racing since although Alexander helps Craig Smith any time he races his fueler in Seattle. Photo by Larry McFarland

Jerry Goddard

Olympia's Jerry Goddard drove the Mr. Rags LTD entry back in the day when designer jeans were all the rage. Mr. Rags was a popular Seattle based clothing store with mall outlets all over the Northwest. Goddard raced primarily back in the days of Pro Comp, a class we would like to see return to drag racing where alcohol funny cars and dragsters mixed it up like the photo above.

When the AHRA tour came though the Northwest in the mid 80's, Goodard join the frey and won the AHRA Championship by racing and winning at tracks as far east as Kansas City and Tulsa Oklahoma. Goddard's program was always a modest family operation. Today, Goddard assists his son-in-law and daughter, Brian and Mindy Hough who have a successful top alcohol funny car operation of their own.

Ray Salter & Chuck Pinney

By Chuck Pinney's own account, the Quality Rock Top Fuel Dragster may be the most under funded car of them all. Perhaps it was. But more than likely this Seattle based dragster was one of the least ran cars of all time running a total of four times in both Seattle and Spokane.

The car was purchased by Northwest drag racing figure Ray Salter from logger Earl Whiting and then updated by Brad Hadman, by the time nitro journeyman Chuck Pinney and Dean Capps got involved. Capps later dropped out due to health concerns but the team marched forward anyway funding the car and doing all of the labor themselves. Around this time, the economy went south and as a result they were unable to secure additional funding.

Pinney and Salter enlisted "240 Gordie" Bonin, who recently won the FIA World Championship to drive the car. The team's best outing was qualifying 14th at the Northwest Nationals under the watchful eye of "traveling tuner" Ron Capps. Pinney's sons Brian and Scott as well as a neighbor rounded out the crew. The car ran in the low fives at just under 300 MPH.

Danakus & Graham

In the pros anyway, winning at Indy can make your career. And back in 1973 a TV repairman from Oklahoma City came out of nowhere to win the prestigeous NHRA US Nationals. This was at a time when the Big Go was on ABC's much watched Wide World of Sports program and Indy was the race to win. It was then that Graham earned the now famous nickname "Marvin Who".

Later Graham teamed up with Top Fuel bad boy Marc Danakus. The pair briefly expanded to a two car team and brought in then TR-3 Resin Glaze secretary Lucile Lee to drive a second car. Pretty soon the team concentrated on the one car that Lee drove. Lee made headlines the next year by defeating Shirley Muldowney in the first ever all female Top Fuel final which happened at the famed Bakersfield March Meet. Coincidentally Graham later became a stunt driver in the film Heart Like a Wheel about the life of Shirley Muldowney.

The team later closed up shop and Danakus teamed up with his brother to race a Top Fuel Dragster appropriately called "Adversity" which made one run and crashed. In the mid eighties, Mr. Danakus was found dead in an alley in San Bernadino when a "business" deal went bad. And most recently Lee sadly died of natural causes. Photo by Tom West

Rob Bruins & Gaines Markley

Federal Way's Rob Bruins is the only northwest driver to ever win an NHRA Top Fuel World Championship. Bruins teamed up with the late Gaines Markley in 1978 after driving the Green Elephant funny car in 1977 and his own alcohol funny car before that. Bruins had the distinction in 1980 to be the first and only driver to win the world title without winning a single national event. They won a lot of divisionals and were runner up at a pair of national races which gave them enough points to win the Winston World Championship.

The following year in 1981, NHRA stopped awarding professional points at divisional events. That same year, Markley teamed up with Earl Whiting but the team didn't have the financial resources to defend their World Championship and insteaed raced a soft schedule. Markley who was also a great driver in his own right and won a divisional title, then retired from the sport and sadly passed away last year. Bruins also retied but returned a few years ago to race the Byron Bros. dragster in Comp Eliminator. Photo by Richard Huffman

Jeb Allen

The day Jeb Allen came to Woodburn
In 1976 Woodburn Dragstrip held a mid summer funny car race and headlining the show was none other than Tom the Mongoose" McEwen (well his no.2 car with John Collins driving), 240 Gordie Bonin, Kenney Goodell and Richard Rogers. They were some of the best funny cars the west coast had to offer at the time. One little problem though. Collins driving McEwen's car had a fire the week prior and couldn't make the race so he contacted Jeb Allen, who was based in the Bay Area time and Allen came up as a replacement for Collins even though he drove a top fuel car and not a funny car.

To us young pit rats that was just as good because Jeb Allen who drove the famous Praying Mantis was a big time racer and at the time you could buy Revell models of his car at just about any store that carried model kits. But more importantly, he was the youngest driver to ever win a national event when he won the Summer Nationals in Englishtown in 1972. Not only that but he seemed to own the track winning there three times!

Allen took on Goodell in round one (above) and beat him to face Bonin in the Bubble Up Monza in the finals. Bonin beat Allen despite the weight advantage the dragster had. It was unusual to see a top fuel dragster take on a funny car but it was a rare treat indeed. Allen went on to win the NHRA World Championship in the early 80's and then dropped out of site.

Vern Hanson, Jeff Eden and Roger Scharff,

Here's a rare bird for you and I'd venture to say this is the ONLY place on the net....or the only place period where you will ever see this car. In fact, when this pic was snapped it was one of the only times this car ever ran! Vern Hanson, a former oil man i.e. Pennzoil jobber, and just about the nicest guy you will ever meet owned this dragster along iwth Jeff Eden and Roger Scharff. Vern who lived in Portland is the gentleman in the background with the black t-shirt on. The car was driven by Jeff Edan and it was pretty cool in it's day, The car was painted by Gary Lewis and was one of the first to feature the tall wing which was developed by Joe Amato and Timmy Richards. This pic was taken in the early 1980's and so far is the only non-blown car we have highlighted.