ARMY EXCLUSIVE FOR SCHUMACHER?
Agent 1320 heard a rumor that the U.S Army sponsorship that Don Schumacher recently signed gives the Army an exclusive on sponsoring race cars in NHRA and prohibits the rest of the U.S. Military (like the Air Force, Navy or Marines) from having a presence. The Agent wonders if Bob Vandergriff, who is rumored to be pursuing the Air Force, knows anything about this.

WHAT IF DEPT.
Shirley Muldowney's two straight scorchings of NHRA Winston Top Fuel champ Tony Schumacher at the 47th annual World Series of Drag Racing at Cordova (IL) Dragway got us to speculating and we came up with this fence straddler. If Muldowney's budget is not too restrictive, she and her car look to be in ultra-competitive form and could make a huge impact on the NHRA U.S. Nationals Top Fuel field at Indy. Agent 1320 is convinced she will qualify easily. Shirley has already accomplished more in her racing lifetime than 99.5 percent of the competition, so she has nothing to prove. However, if she won Indy, that feat would equal any comeback effort ever at the race. And that includes Don Garlits' spellbinder in 1984.

…AND ON THE SUBJECT OF GARLITS…
Shirley mentioned that she had talked with "Big Daddy" and the conversation boiled down to basically this: if she'd like any help from Garlits, he'd be more than happy to drop by the pit area at Indy. Shirley said that would be fine and feel free to do so. Muldowney, crew chief Rahn Tobler, Kevin Kennedy, Dana Kimmel, and Don Garlits in the same corner? Our interest is piqued.

A GOULD-STRIKE IN OKLAHOMA
photo by Jeff Leonard

The Fred Bach (driver) and Larry Gould (crew chief) Ford SOHC/427-cid front-motored nostalgia Top Fueler ran the quickest ever lap for a "cammer" with a 6.40 at Noble, Oklahoma, breaking the late Pete Robinson's old 6.50 mark. Said Gould, "Hell, I guess that means we can work on being the first in the fives."