Drag Racing Online- Special (page 2 of 5)

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"Harleys had roller lifters and I was impressed by that. I looked at the pros and cons and thought that a camshaft that could utilize these in a drag race car motor might produce a lot of power. I had this pal who was a hot rod circle track racer and he said to me, ‘Why don’t we build a circle car, you wrench and I drive?’ I said, ‘Okay, but I don’t want a flathead, everyone runs a flathead. I want an overhead valve engine, I want six carburetors, a 12-port head on a 6-cylinder Chevy, and I want to run what I’d call a roller cam.’"

— C.H.

There were no cam grinders at the time who did roller cams, so Herbert was going to have to do it himself. He went to the local Sears store in Santa Ana, Calif., bought a lathe and turned it into a camgrinder. He punched out a couple of bumpsticks and they dynoed well in the circle car, but the six carburetors proved to be no good.

Bill Johnson, a friend of Herbert’s with an Indy 500 car, said to discard the carbs and go with a Hilborn fuel injector. That worked better and he and Herbert went to an Indy car race in Texas, debuting their car with a number three qualifying effort. Nothing had changed, the engine was a 6-cylinder Chevy, 12-port head, but the injector ... and Herbert’s roller cam, worked to a tee.

And that’s roughly how Herbert got in the cam business. He got out of circle racing and ran the Bonneville Salt Flats through the mid-1950s and in this time dialed in his roller cam more and more.

He went back into drag racing somewhat based on racers who tried his cams at places other than Bonneville. One of the first examples occured at Bakersfield at the first March Smokers U.S. Fuel and Gas Championships. Gary Cagle drove the Herbert Cams/Torco Oil fueler to top speed of the meet at 180.36-mph.

A little later, Robert "Jocko" Johnson and his incredible streamliner on May 31, 1959 ran the sport’s best elapsed time with an 8.35 at 178.21 mph at Riverside Raceway in Calif. The car was powered by a 6-71 blown Chrysler with eight 48 carburetors and a Herbert cam.

Herbert’s cam and his race cars started dotting the championship scene in drag racing a lot after that. Below are some of his on-track accomplishments:

1961:	Driver Lefty Mudersbach drove the Herbert Cams, twin in-line Chevy to the Bakersfield Top Eliminator title on gas, the only such fueled car to do so.
1961:	Driver Mudersbach won the AHRA Winter Championships in Henderson, Nevada with Herbert’s twin.
1961:	Driver Zane Shubert won Top Eliminator at the AHRA Nationals at Green Valley Race City in Texas with Herbert’s twin.
1962:	Driver Jeep Hampshire runner-upped in Top Fuel class at the AHRA Nationals to Vance Hunt and J.L. Payne.
1963:	Jeep Hampshire runs the first generally accepted Chevy-powered Top Fuel seven with a 7.99 in Bill Martin’s 400 Jr. at Henderson, Nevada, April 28
1964:	The Herbert-cammed twin injected in-line Chevy Top Fueler, "the Pulsator" of Nye Frank and Bob Muravez ran the first Chevy 200-mph time at 201.78 at Fontana, Calif. on Sept. 5.
1964:	That same day at Lions, Shubert was in the process of wheeling Herbert’s Chevy fueler past a 32-car UDRA Top Fuel field, setting low e.t. with a 7.90.
1964:	Bill Alexander drove the Quincy Auto./Herbert/Brisette C/FD (a blown and injected 300-cid Chrysler) to a Drag News record of 196.92-mph at San Fernando in April.
1964:	Alexander also held the Drag News mark B/FD speed mark (354-cid) with the best Top Fuel speed of the year, a 205.94 at Fontana in the Brisette-Yeats, Herbert-cammed car.

In addition to landmark race times, Herbert had a hand in some of the most inventive cars that ever appeared on a dragstrip. In 1960, he built a three-engine, Chevy gas burner that Mudersbach drove to a 9.36, 163.63 on May 21st. The three inline engines worked so that the rear two ran the back wheels and the front ... the front. Diagnosis: too heavy.

In 1962 he and Roy Steen put together two twin nitro-burning, injected F-85 Olds’ in a Top Fueler, one of which Jeep Hampshire drove to an 8.10 San Gabriel Raceway record.

In 1962, he scared the pants off of regular driver Zane Shubert with a side-mounted 450-cid Chevy, rear-motored sidewinder. Three flywheel gears drove the axles, which Herbert thinks caused them to flex, making for a hairy ride. Shubert said in a later interview that the car would launch great, but any time after a couple hundred feet it would hook hard to the left or right. Project shelved.

As a manufacturer, Herbert enjoyed a lot of drag racing success. For example in 1965, the aforementioned Jim Brissette tuned the Brisette-Yeats, Paul Sutherland-driven, Herbert-cammed Top Fueler to the year’s top speed at 219.51-mph and also that year’s AHRA Top Fuel World Championships at Lions Dragstrip.

However, as a racer, Herbert’s heart was with the Chevys and their days were numbered as a competitive engine in 1965.

"When the 10-hundred slicks came out in 1965 or so, that spelled the end for the Chevys. The big Chryslers hooked up a lot better and the Chevys broke trying to keep up with them. I would’ve gone broke trying to keep up with them, too, so I went back to making camshafts."

— C.H.

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