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But Jerry didn't hire just any old, washed-up former driver to run his two-car team. He hired the transplanted Canadian and onetime bracket racer who became a funny Car racer by cutting the roof off of his steel-bodied Chevy II and then defeated the class's pioneers at the AHRA Winter Nationals, scoring one of the greatest upsets in class history. Armstrong was only getting started. He went on to dominate the formative years of NHRA Pro Comp, the forerunner of today's blown-alcohol categories. Moreover, he won with literally every conceivable style of Pro Comp car, from injected-nitro digger to blown-alky roadsters, floppers and dragsters. In every case, Armstrong successfully escaped whatever handicaps had been imposed to thwart him by switching entire combinations and continuing to dominate.
Dale developed his BB/Funny Car, Jim Foust's Donovan-powered Alcoholic, into what arguably remains the most dominant methanol car of all time. I can't recall another alcohol car that could run with the nitro-burners, but this Plymouth Satellite did it routinely. At independent events featuring both types of Funny Cars, Armstrong often ran quick enough to qualify near the top of the fuel field, and sometimes stole the show. He was known to burn out for 800 feet under power, ignite the win light, then backup at faster-than-freeway speeds. Fuel racers protested; many refused to run for promoters who'd allow Armstrong to run against them, even if Dale mixed up a light load of nitromethane. To them, the only plausible explanation for such performance from an alcohol car was that this pioneer nitrous proponent had somehow solved the age-old mystery of mixing methanol with laughing gas. (Sorry, Dale!) Ultimately, Armstrong stepped up to conventional fuel floppers-ignoring the reality that nobody with no money should've been able to run with the sponsored cars. All he did before he ran out of money and went to work for Bernstein was to set the first sub-5.90 national e.t. record, clocking 5.89 seconds in Mike Kase's Speed Racer (1981). Armed with Budweiser's budget, he went on to pioneer multi-stage clutches and extended-overhang noses and the swoopiest, most slippery bodied vehicles that drag racing had ever seen. (If you weren't around to catch the 1987 Buick LeSabre that was banned by NHRA, see any modern Funny Car.) Less well known is the fact that it was Armstrong who single-handedly developed the quad-cam McGee motor into the only serious threat to the pushrod Hemi since the 1970s, when all the Chevys went away. When Bernstein failed to maintain Dale's level of enthusiasm for that expensive side project, the Aussie 'cammer was shelved in favor of concentrating on winning world championships with conventional hardware. (This type of engine was subsequently banned from official international competition by the FIA, the world motorsports organization whose drag racing representative is NHRA) Although I'm not too familiar with the super-sized athletes whose nicknames and wild logos take turns adorning Toliver's cars, I'm cheering for that WWF team, just like all those preteen males and other wrestling fans in the crowd. The only difference is, I'm the one clapping for the guy driving Jerry's tow vehicle, and wondering where Dale Armstrong might have mounted a bottle of nitrous oxide 25 years ago.
Dave Wallace Jr. is a washed-up photojournalist and magazine editor who co-owns Good Communications, Inc. a full-service advertising agency (goodcom@goldrush.com). Wallace also publishes the Hot Rod Nostalgia "magalog" (www.hotrodnostalgia.com). Volume Five of the print version is currently in production.
Photo by Rollo Tomassi
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