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Round 41: More
obscure machines, featuring John Speelman's Blue Bayou Vega, Bob Simmons'
Purple Magic Vega, Al Baldwin's Barbarian Arrow, Ken McLean's Cuda, the Pryor
and Narramore Camaro, Clay Miller's Vega, Al Segrini in Charlie Scott's Highland
Bandit Mustang II, Nick Harmon's US Marines Arrow, the Kirby Bros. & Kocela
Camaro, and Jim Thomas' Genuine Suspensions Mustang.
John
Speelman’s "Blue Bayou" series of fuel funny cars is best
remembered for pristine appearance and good performances. John had teamed
with Les Cottrell to run the "Chicken Chokers" dragster. The
team had great success in Pro Comp and decided to step up to Top Fuel in
1977. The Maryland team lasted a year in the more expensive class before
splitting up with Cottrell going back to Pro Comp and Speelman
building a nitro funny car. The first "Blue Bayou" AA/FC was
built in 1978. The car was named after a quarter horse that John’s wife
Zoelle raised on their farm. Speelman chose a Ken Cox Vega to run with
Keith Black power. Speelman wisely hired famed tuner Bill Barrett to
handle the tune up. The "Blue Bayou" Vega was regular mid-six
runner second over the next couple of years. Two more "Blue
Bayou" funny cars were built; one was a Challenger and the last was a
Firebird. Speelman’s last fuel funny car was the beautiful, but seldom
scene "Sunrise Sizzler" Corvette. Ironically, Speelman teamed up
again with Les Cottrell to run an alcohol dragster to end his racing
career. (Photo handout courtesy of J.W. Last’s archives; info from Draglist
files)
The
"Purple Magic" Vega is thought by many to be the worst
looking funny car of all time. The car did not start out this way
when Bob Simmons built it. Simmons, a former Junior Fuel racer, built the
"Purple Magic" in 1973, choosing a 417 Donovan to power the
Vega. The car was damaged in a minor accident at Englishtown. Simmons
rebuilt the car, adding a new 1974 slant nose Vega front end. The car
needed to repainted after the front end was replaced. According to Bret
Kepner, the paint job and lettering was done for free. Thankfully, the
"Purple Magic" ran better than it looked. Simmons got
the Vega to run 6.41 at 227 before he parked the car. Bob next drove the
"Nor’ Easter" for Bill Dee and later began his long
partnership with Rhea Goodrich to field the ‘New Englander"
funny cars and dragsters. (Photo courtesy of Gary Hojnacki; info from Bret
Kepner and Draglist files)
Here
is a good photo of a rare funny car. West Virginian Al Baldwin raced the
"Barbarian" Arrow. Baldwin was a car dealer from Pineville, West
Virginia who raced a Hemi Cuda in Pro Stock when that class started.
He retired from racing for a few years, then built the
"Barbarian" funny car in the late seventies. The Hemi powered
Arrow raced mostly in the South in IHRA, NHRA, and match races. The
"Pineville Flash," as Baldwin was known, had moderate success
with the car. He ran 6.41 at 225 in the Arrow before retiring from drag
racing in the early eighties. (Photo courtesy of Tom West/Replicas West;
info from Draglist files)
Ken
McLean was a partner in the "Beck, Lawrence, & McLean" Top
Fueler that won the 1972 U.S. Nationals. McLean left the team to race on
his own not long after the season was over. Ken built himself this black
Cuda for the 1973 season. McLean raced mostly in the Great Northwest.
The Hemi powered Cuda ran high sixes and held its own against tough
Northwest competition like Jerry Ruth, Gordie Bonin, and others. McLean
raced the car throughout the mid-seventies before retiring. (Photo
courtesy of Herman Marchetti; info from Draglist files)
This
car was featured on 70s Funny Cars Round 10, but with the car’s second
owner. Jim Narramore built the Camaro as a team car to his Top Fueler.
Bill Pryor drove both cars for Narramore. The Camaro ran a known best
time of 6.51 in Midwest funny car battles. Pryor finished number five in
NHRA Division Three in 1977. Narramore also used a Mustang body on the
chassis with Top Fuel racer Pat Dakin listed as driver at Byron Dragway.
Narramore sold the car to Chris Eckert in 1978, who renamed it the "High
Plains Drifter.” (Photo courtesy of J.W. Last archives; info from 70s
Funny Cars and Draglist files)
There
were many funny car drivers named Miller in 1970s, like Sammy Miller, Mike
Miller, and Clint Miller. But there was also little known Clay
Miller. Clay raced this beautiful 1974 Vega out of California. The pure
Chevy powered car was only around for a year or two. Miller soon
retired from driving. By the mid-seventies real nitro Chevy powered were
becoming rare. There were several problems with running a cast iron Chevy
on nitro, including crank support, block strength, and inferior
cylinder heads. Clay returned in 1982 as an owner of the gold
plated "Red Baron" Charger. (Photo from J.W. Last files; info
from Draglist files)
Charlie
Scott of Highland, Maryland owned the "Highland Bandit" Mustang
II, hence the name. Scott built the first "Highland Bandit"
Mustang as an injected nitro funny car. Scott and driver Jim Wigglesworth
raced the car on the East Coast Funny Car Circuit with moderate success.
In 1975, Scott had a brand Mustang II built that he ran as a blown alcohol
funny car with a new driver. Scott converted car to nitro in 1976 and
hired Al Segrini to drive the "Bandit.” Segrini's tenure as the
driver of the "Black Magic" had ended when Jim Beattie parked
the operation. Al had some success in the "Bandit," running a
good 6.28 at 215. The car was not without controversy, as the team had to
prove the car was not too low and dragging the starting beams. The
"Highland Bandit" was raced on nitro until the end of
1976. (Photo by Norm Newgord, courtesy of Gary Newgord; info from Draglist
files)
Here
is one of the forgotten U.S. Marines funny cars. Two other teams ran the
U.S. Marines banner besides the famous Mickey Thompson cars. One was the
Burkhart & Harrison entry from Texas and this one from Washington
owned by Nick Harmon. "Nitro Nick" Harmon began his funny car
career in California and moved north in the mid-seventies. He went through
a series of funny cars including a Camaro, a Mustang, a Vega, and a Monza.
In 1978, Harmon built an Arrow with U.S. Marines backing the car. The car
was a standard match race combo of the era with a KB aluminum block with
cast iron heads topped with a small blower. Nick did not enjoy
success on the NHRA tour with the car, but did have some good outings
in local match races. Harmon ran a known best of 6.68 at 208 with the car
before selling it and losing the sponsorship. Harmon finished his nitro
career in one of the former Pacemaker funny cars of Gordie Bonin. He later
ran a jet funny car before retiring from racing. (Photo courtesy of Mike
Ditty; info from Draglist files)
Don
Kirby not only was one of the most famous funny car painters of all
time, but he raced them, too. Kirby is best known for his series of
"Beach City Corvette" funny cars. He used many well-known
hired guns to handle that series of funny cars that could not escape the
so-called Corvette Curse. Don’s last funny car was this Camaro. The
Kirby Bros. and Kocela owned Camaro was built in 1970 to replace the final
Corvette. Don Kirby's brother Bud drove the car instead of one
of the well-known names he had hired in the past. Bud Kirby had
no previous experience in a funny car, but learned to drive the car
quickly. This is Bud in the photo smiling for the camera. Kirby Bros. and
Kocela did not run very much before the car was sold and became one
of the "Jungle Jim" team cars. (Photo & info courtesy of Bob
Plumer)
When
Jim Thomas and the original "Genuine Suspension" funny car team
split up after running the "AMX-1," Thomas was left on his own.
The next car Thomas built was this almost forgotten Mustang. The Mustang
was quite unlike the "AMX-1" because it was long and low. Thomas
hired Gary Read to be the car's usual driver, but it also appears
that Dean LaPole of "King Camaro" fame might have driven the
car, too. The Mustang was not raced for long before Thomas built the Top
Fueler for which he is best remembered. (Leonard Maxwell photo
courtesy of Bob Plumer and Drag Race Memories)
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