JUNGLE JIM A NO SHOW AT INAUGURAL FUNNY CAR REUNION

If this was 1972 the above headline wouldn't be news as Jim Liberman was known to occasionally overbook himself and miss a date, but this is 2002 and we are actually talking about his '72/74 Vega Funny Car.

Agent 1320 just got this item from "Berserko" Bob Doerrer, an operative for Agent 1320 and co-organizer of the Inaugural Funny Car Reunionheld last weekend at Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ. We are printing this exactly as he sent it word for word.

"I know I'm going to have to deal with a lot of crap for bringing this up out in the open but I'm so pissed I felt I had to deal with it. The big question is...Why wasn't Jungle Jim's 1972/74 Funny Car from Garlits' museum at the Inaugural Funny Car Reunion? I've had literally hundreds of emails and phone calls asking me that question and here's the deal:

"When Raceway Park booked in Don Garlits a long time ago for a match race on August 31st against Shirley Muldowney they asked if he could come up early and bring the Jungle Jim Funny Car he had in his museum to the Funny Car Reunion. Garlits agreed, signed the contract and then asked if he could make a test run in his Top Fuel car Sunday to get a fuel curve for Wednesday night. Raceway Park agreed and paid Garlits to have the Jungle car on display. We advertised that Jungle's car would be at the event.

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"We found out Friday (July 27) at 4 p.m. when Garlits' show car driver pulled into the pits that he didn't have Jungle's car in the trailer but instead had Swamp Rat IV. It turns out that Garlits was in Indy the week before doing a display and was too cheap to pay the driver to return to Florida and swap cars.

"We had planned a photo op with Jungle Pam with the car to raise money for the Hematology Fund, Raceway Park's favorite charity. We were unable to do that. I apologize to anyone who came to the reunion expecting to see the car and didn't, but it was out of our control. Direct all your comments to: berserkobob@earthlink.net" (DRO file photo) [7-31-2002]

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