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The First (Pseudo)-Six Let's forget about the first four-second run, or the first five, let's instead plunge back to when men were men and race cars were real race cars and they were chasing the honour of the first six-second pass in Australia. The year is 1972, and it was the era of the new rear engined dragster. Over in the USA Don Garlits had made the switch almost mandatory at the beginning of 1971 with an astounding run of success with his new back-motored car. The switch in Australia had been gradual, but after a few of the Middle and Junior dragsters made the move, by the end of 72 the first serious signs began to appear in Top Fuel, with racer Ross Mellish telegraphing his new "Proud Australian" car, and then, out of the blue, veteran Ash Marshall dropping a new state-of-the-art US rail onto the drag strips in November. At the time the performance standards had been set by Jim Read, who had moved up from a Junior Fueller in Middle Eliminator to grab Marshall's 7.49 record with a 7.40 at that year's Nationals and had since run as quick as 7.30. How long before a six? Marshall had been out of racing for two years when he reappeared with the new car, backed by his new business interest, managing American Larry Huff's Golden Chemical Products detergent pyramid marketing company. While Mellish's new car was H-E-A-V-Y, Marshall's 392-powered car had been built alongside American champion Gary Beck's rail which had run to 6.1-second times at the 72 US Nationals, and had itself reportedly made several 6.6-second, 220 mph shakedown passes in the US before the $30,000 bullet was flown to Australia. To help make it all work was Californian Lee Drake, an old drag racer from the USA who could trace his drag racing origins back as far as Santa Ana in 1949 where he ran a record 111 mph in a 34 coupe, and had held Top Fuel records in the States in the 1950s. He was now the local boss of Golden Chemicals, and keen to get back into nitro dragster racing. Marshall's reappearance was greeted with an immediate press expectation of six-second times. And as predicted, after the December 2 meeting at Sydney International Dragway the headlines roared, "Six Second Drags Are Here!" Marshall ran an afternoon 7.09 at 207 mph, then returned for a 7.09/202 before a 6.98 at 219.90 mph in a race against Jim Read's front engined car. Curiously, the meeting report from the event coverage stated: "As the tree came down Jim Read took off to a full rail length start, leaving a cherry on the tree as he did so, and lit out for the traps. Although no win light came on in his (pitside) lane (the spectator side light doesn't work) it seemed from the start line that he had also reached the finish first although it is of course difficult to be positive. After some minutes delay during which fire trucks and ambulances raced to the braking area (where all they found was clouds of dust), the PA announcer gave the times as - Ash Marshall 6.98 seconds 219.90 mph; Jim Read 7.35/205 with the automatic win going to Ash. "Some doubt has been cast on the accuracy of these times and as this issue . . . went to press the NSW divisional council of the AHRF is conducting an inquiry among observers to determine whether there was any error. In the absence of any other findings however [we] accept the times announced on the night and released by the strip management and credits Ash Marshall with the first six-second pass, the quickest speed ever run by an Australian driver and new SID strip records for AA/Fuel Dragster." The result of the inquiry was that the announced six-second time was rejected by the AHRF, with NSW Divisional Director Brian Hines citing problems with the timing system during the event and repairs carried out afterwards, and that it had been admitted by the CID management that the timers had been reset immediately after the run and no other record of the race was available. He also called for AHRF officials to be permitted to check the timers after such runs in future. SID's managing secretary Dave Andrew stuck to his opinion that the time was correct, but did admit that the 7.35/205 time for Read was "a dummy" though the run "was definitely a seven". Marshall simply stated that he didn't want to argue about it, and had accepted the announcement at the time, but if there was doubt he'd just have to go out and do it again. The pit talk was that a senior Castlereagh official had pressed the reset button just after both cars had left the line, and the ET which was showing for Marshall was actually three-point something. A steward who was present when the incident was said to have occurred challenged the person involved and was reportedly threatened with a "punch in the mouth" if he said anything. (It's nice to know some traditions don't change!) Marshall did try again, and again, for a couple of months but the best the car turned officially was that 7.09 at a later 221 mph, then as suddenly as it had appeared it was gone, back to the USA, and the six-second barrier remained. The TF record was shortly after to go to Victorian racer Alan Hussey at 7.19 and 215.82 mph. and that Australian six-second barrier remained untouched until August 23, 1973 when Jim Read's new Chesterfield-backed rear engined car went 6.892 at 200.89. Marshall moved on to Europe where he helped set up new branches of the Golden Products empire before deciding discretion was the better part of legal valour as more and more countries passed laws against pyramid selling and he settled in California as a dealer in exotic cars. Drake still lives in Australia and still has a passing interest in drag racing. **************************************** If anyone has anything particularly worthwhile to say or ask about things here, drop me an email at dragster_oz@hotmail.com and I’ll see if I can answer you.
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