2/8/05

In drag racing, it may help if you have a pedigree last name. But in Jake Bonner’s case, maybe not--- no, Jake is not kin to legendary pioneer Stock/Super Stock/Funny Car/Match Racer Phil “the Georgia Peach/Daddy Warbucks” Bonner.

But lately another famous name has begun to be associated with Jake Bonner’s (who is all of 17 years old and still in high school). That name is Ford racing maven Dick Brannan. It was the 66-year-old Brannan, who in 1962 outraced the best drag racers that Ford Motor Co. could then provide, and who eventually headed up Ford’s in-the-field drag racing team until the mid-1970s. He helped create the blue oval powerhouse team that carried Phil Bonner, Gas Rhonda, the late Les Ritchie, Bill Lawton, Connie Kalitta and others to fame, fortune and many drag racing wins.,

Brannan, a native Georgian who earned a mechanical engineering degree from Tri-State University in Angola, Indiana, and retired from active drag racing from 1972 until now, is teaming up with young Mustang Footbrake racer Jake Bonner to teach him all he learned in all those years of early Stock and Super Stock racing.

Hedman Hedders' Mike Thomas, left, and Jake Bonner look over his '65 Mustang for placement of a new set of headers.

It all came about in a rather, shall we say, roundabout way. Jake, who lives with his mother Wendy in Bremen, Georgia (an hour west of Atlanta), wanted to sign up for a scholarship from Lanier Tech in Georgia for young and promising students who want to further their learning in the automotive racing sciences. Only trouble was, according to Hedman Hedders “Iron Mike” Thomas, Jake was too far ahead of his peers in racing and in mechanical abilities.

“He came to my table first, and within minutes I knew he was way ahead of the rest of the guys interviewing for the (internship) jobs,” Mike says. Plus this tech school was geared more towards the kids who are interested in sports car racing and NASCAR. Jake was a bracket racer. Mike quickly took him under his wing. It also didn’t hurt that Jake had an early Mustang which Hedman Hedders sorely needed as a test mule for their new line of racing and street headers they will soon introduce for those cars.

Then Iron Mike had another idea. Since Jake raced a footbraked ’65 Mustang, why not introduce him to Dick Brannan, who was very familiar with non-electronics-equipped race cars of a similar stance and era years ago, and see what transpired? Shortly after a get-acquainted meeting between Bonner and Brannan, in January at Hedman headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia, a loose partnership was formed. Their first race together will take place at a big-money all-footbrake race at Montgomery (Alabama) Motorsports Park this February titled, appropriately enough, “A Feetful of Dollars” (as opposed to Chris Phillips’/Anthony Oehler’s super pro “Fistful of Dollars.” Cute.).