Dyer opened the show with an 8.73, 168.72 blasting
of Droke, who exploded a blower at half-track,
and then ripped an 8.75 to bury Gilkeson's "Viking"
Nova.
Wood was the winner of the show, and he'd probably
be the first one to tell you he was fairly lucky
in taking the $2000. In the first stanza, Wood
was losing to the "Kingfish" until the transmission
let go at half-track whereupon he registered
a 9.33, 155.17 to win. In the second, the "Piranha",
a seemingly sure winner, red lit against him
as did Dyer a round later.
 In
the final, Wood was the underdog against (maybe)
the country's strongest blown car, the Mr. Norm
Dodge, but was kissed by Lady Luck when the
Dodge broke the transmission while backing up
from an opening burnout. Hey, minimal engine
damage, only one full-run, and voila ... $2000.
The show's wildest race occurred in round one
when the AMT "Piranha" roadster and Ron O'Donnell
took on Don Gay's slick GTO. The AMT "Piranha"
was what appeared to be a Lotus Europa roadster
with a blown and injected 392-cid Chrysler stuffed
behind the driver, and a direct drive trans.
Naturally, it was slow off the line, but on
the top end ... hang onto your hat! In this
race, Gay took a huge lead off the line and
was in front until the pair neared the top-end
lights where O'Donnell zipped by with Top Speed
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of
the meet, 8.75, 186.32 to 9.01, 163.93.
Great show! And where was I? At Lions watching
an 8-car Top Fuel show and Fred Goeske making
test runs in Lou Baney's rear-motored Southern
California Plymouth Dealers rear-motored blown
and injected Chrysler-powered Barracuda. Hey,
how about a 9.01, 173.41?
Paul Sutherland walloped the Top Fuel field
and in a special blown four-car feature, Southern
California hired gun Gary Southern drove Pat
Akins and Roger Hardcastle's "Stinger" Aston-Martin
blown Funny Car run as fast as an 8.28, 184.04.
He outperformed Ronnie Runyan's "Blue Hell"
Corvette, Al Van Der Woude's "Flying Dutchman"
Dodge and Scott Hunter in the Glendale Speed
Center Chevy.
Hey, an 8.28 was a blistering run back then,
so spectator-wise, I didn't feel second place
was all that bad. Still ...
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