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HALLO-WEENIES, or BARRIER BUSTERS RUN WILDBy Chris Martin
Photos by Jeff Burk and Tim Marshall
No insult intended here. I just thought that taking the country's ghoulish little October-fest, and wrenching it a wee bit, might produce a cute head. Uh, didn't work? All right, then, we'll cut to the waste. Here are a few juicy tidbits concerning drag racing history that occurred in the month of October. You say "October" within a drag racing backdrop to me and I think of one car, the Adams-Wayre Top Fuel dragster and driver John "the Zookeeper" Mulligan. On Oct. 9, 1966, Mulligan pushed what was then one of the West Coast's hardest-running Top Fuel dragsters to the sport's first six-second run, a 6.95 at 221.12. The hallowed (I knew I could work the Halloween theme in here somewhere) event took place at Carlsbad Raceway, just north of San Diego, California.
And if Mulligan's exploits weren't enough, "T.V. Tommy" Ivo broke the next barrier when he charged to a 5.97 at Keystone Raceway Park in New Alexandria, Pa., on Oct. 29, 1972. Ivo's run, as was Mulligan's for that matter, was subject to controversy. Ivo's John "Tarzan" Austin-tuned dragster won the IHRA Longhorn Nationals that year, scored a number of match-race wins, but had never run quicker than a 6.21. Mulligan, who had been in the 7.1s prior to the 6.95, took almost another year before he clocked another six. If you're into coincidences, how about the four-second zone? Gene Snow ran NHRA's first four-second run when he clocked a 4.997 at Houston Raceway Park on October 6, 1988. Nobody in a piston-driven engine in the threes, but if it happens, the odds favor October. Oh, and finally, as in NHRA World Finals, the association's first such
event was held Oct. 30-31, 1965 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The big class was
Top Fuel and taking the world title that year was Maynard Rupp at the
wheel of the Logghe-Steffey-Rupp/"Prussian" out of Michigan.
What's interesting about this race (and very indicative of how times
have changed) was the following day. The Finals event was held along
with a companion feature -- a $1,000-to-win Top Fuel show. Jim Bollinger
in the locally based Beamon & Bollinger dragster beat Jimmy Nix
for the grand. |
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