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Photo courtesy Bob Plumer Collection
One of the guys that got thumped by Ongais in this reign
of terror was Mazmanian and his absolutely gorgeous, candy-apple
red, gold-lettered, show car-worthy 'Cuda, and it would be
this team that finally decked the "flyin' Hawaiian."
Mazmanian's cars were show and go in every sense of the words,
and had Ongais been an East Coast racer, he and nephew/driver
Rich Siroonian would've probably ruled the left coast. They
had met in two finals prior to the PDA show, and Ongais won
both. At Bakersfield, Siroonian really got the jump on Ongais
at the start, but the blue Mustang reeled him in on the top
end to take a 7.56, 193.54 to 7.74, 192.71 win.
In the time between Bakersfield and the PDA show, Siroonian
got out of the seat temporarily and was replaced by one of the
West's very top shoes, Dave Beebe, who most recently had a record-breaking
string of runs with Nelson Carter's "Super Chief"
Dodge Charger. Going into the OCIR bash, Ongais was red hot.
Two weeks earlier, he had won the OCIR Nitro race, running a
track record 7.35, 200.44 en route to beating Larry Fullerton's
"Trojan Horse" Mustang in the final. Mazmanian and
Beebe had qualified well with a 7.64, 190.67, but broke in the
first round, allowing Ongais' unchallenged mid-7s to gobble
up the field.
At the PDA race, two important occurrences transpired preceding
the big event.
On the seeming downside, Mazmanian's driveline scattered on
the burnouts to its first two qualifying runs, causing Mazmanian
and Beebe to elect to run without the benefits of a burnout.
Ongais' changes had occurred in the shop a week before the race.
The normally blue Ford showed at OCIR with black splotchy primer
and two M/T decals, but more importantly with the 427 SOHC Ford
raised and set back further in the chassis. These two factors
may have been crucial, because for the first time in a while
Mazmanian, at a race with Ongais in the field, led qualifying
with a 7.56 to his rival's 7.62, and also outperformed him during
eliminations.
And eliminations really whetted the appetite of the record
19,447 fans who came out to the track. In round one, Beebe's
7.45 whacked Steve Bovan's Camaro, while Ongais' 7.58 got
past a red-lighting Ray Alley in the Engine Masters Barracuda.
The big turn of the event came in the second round, though,
when Beebe broke out the whip on the big red 'Cuda. His 7.38,
204.54 crushed a shut-off Gas Ronda, and completely outdistanced
Ongais' winning 7.68 thumping of "Flash Gordon"
Mineo. In a reversal of fortune, however, Ongais as he had
done so many times before, took the play away from his opponent
when a semi-final 7.63 ousted Gary Gabelich in the Beach City
Chevrolet Corvette, a number that compared more than favorably
with Beebe's seemingly off pace 7.89 win over Gene Conway's
Corvette roadster.
The race that the near 20,000 crowd had come to see took
place a little after 11 p.m. Both cars fired simultaneously
and would do burnouts side-by-side. Mazmanian decided that
he'd gamble and risk blowing the driveline as he figured he'd
need every advantage he could muster against the all-conquering
M/T Mustang. He survived the water box and as it turned out,
the race as well. Beebe was second off the line to Ongais,
.03 to .06, but at half track, as in the manner of Ongais'
win at Bakersfield, he drove by and ran the car's fastest
speed ever, a 7.38, 205.01 that nudged out the Mustang's 7.55,
193.54.
As Mazmanian and his crew towed up the road for the winner's
circle and traditional OCIR champagne celebration, the Drag
News reporter stated that he received a five-minute standing
ovation. The people at the track obviously knew what they
had seen, and I know for a fact, that I did, too. 
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martin@dragracingonline.com |
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