Drag Racing Online

(previous page)

DRO: I know that from 1960 you drove Stocks and gassers, but when did you make the break to a Pro-style car?

JC: It was in the early 1970s. I had an injected, fuel-burning Plymouth Barracuda that Bob Durban drove for me. Back then, there was plenty of match-racing, so I got used to the kind of schedule and effort that it took to run a pro race car. Actually, we did very well with the car. In 1972, Bob won Competition at the 1972 NHRA Gatornationals.

DRO: If I recall right, you were the first Pro Stock campaigner in the family.

JC: Sometime, and I'm guessing around late 1973, I hooked up with the Hiner & Miller team and we ran a '74 Pinto in Pro Stock. I didn't drive the car; Jerry Miller did, but it was my car and I worked on it and got to know the class. We qualified at the Winternationals and Indy, but at the time, the Bob Gliddens and Wayne Gapps were running the Ford show.

DRO: You even had to go against your current engine builder Rich Maskin.

JC: He and Dave Kanners had an AMC Hornet that ran very well at the time….

DRO: When did the Funny Car with Dale Emery driving come into the picture?

JC: That was just before the Pro Stocker. I was thinking about running Funny Car because of their popularity and I knew some racers in Mansfield, Ohio, who knew him. I had told them about my thinking of going Funny Car and the conversation eventually turned to Emery and 'Why don't you hire him?' as a driver and crew chief. It was a good move; he won the Canada race ('73 NHRA Le Molson Grandnational) and the ('74) NHRA Winternationals. Dale also won an IHRA race (the '73 Bristol All-American) and overall, the car was one of the better Funny Cars in the country.

(next page)