ROBERT 'PANCHO' RENDON RIP

DRO is sad to report that legendary Texas Fuel racer/owner Robert "Pancho" Rendon has passed away. Rendon owned and raced both Top Fuel and Fuel Funny Cars with his friend Tom Prock over a long career.

He had his own Top Fuel cars including the "Frito Bandito" shown here that Shirley Muldowney drove to get her license. Dick LaHaie and Connie Kalitta also drove Mr. Rendon's cars. He also had a Barracuda Funny Car known at the "Desperado." Rendon teamed up with Prock in 1977 and they raced a variety of Fuel Funny Cars including the famed "Detroit Tiger" Monza. DRO has no other information concerning services for Rendon but will pass that information along when we get it. (DRO file photo by Tim Marshall) [9-29-2005]

TEMPLE ACADEMY RE-OPENS

The Agent is happy to report that the death of Temple Academy Dragway has been greatly exaggerated. The track announcer called the Agent today to let him know that the track had indeed been closed for a couple of weeks, but that the original family that had owned the track is once again managing it, and it recently re-opened.

That call was followed by a very angry call from the lady that owns the track informing him the track was open. So according to both the track announcer and the owner, the old track that opened almost 50 years ago is back in business. [9-28-2005]

Jeff Naiser’s usual 5-hour drive from Houston to Kennedale turned into a 22-hour marathon to escape Hurricane Rita, as he made his way to Texas Raceway for this month's King of The Hill race. Naiser made the best of the situation by winning the race.

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Fifteen cars showed up to try to claim one of the eight spots that were available. Low qualifier was the ‘71 Camaro of Billy Stocklin (shown above) from Round Rock with a stellar 4.71.

Second spot was held down by the consistent Camaro of Jeff Naiser with a 4.73. Bud Morgan qualified his ‘67 Camaro into the seventh slot after crashing in testing Wednesday and thrashing for two days to repair the car for the race.

Stocklin and Naiser ran identical winning 4.704 ETs in the semis, and in the finals Stocklin broke his tranny at half track and wrestled his car to winning 5.13. Stocklin’s Camaro had low ET at 4.68 while the wild blown Porsche of Nick Williams had Top Speed of 158.06. (photo courtesy Bubba Corzine) [9-28-2005]