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5/17/05
We return now to our regular
mixed bag of letters.
CORRECTIONS TO PRUDHOMME HISTORY #1
I really disagree with
your statement "Prudhomme actually
won his first Top Fuel race in 1962 at the wheel of the fabled
Greer-Black-Prudhomme Top Fueler at a race at Pomona Fairgrounds,....."
On March 4, 1962 Prudhomme won the Smoker's U.S. Gas and
Fuel Championships at Bakersfield in the Fuller-Zeuschel-Prudhomme
car defeating Gotelli-Leasher. He also had low e.t. at 8.21
and Top Speed at 185.36. This dragster was immediately sold
to Lou Senter after the Bakersfield race and campaigned as
the Ansen Automotive Spl. and driven by Tommy Dyer (Prudhomme
also took some laps in it). Meantime, the car that would
become the Greer-Black-Prudhomme fueler was being raced under
the Cash Auto Parts banner and driven by Rod Stuckey. Tom
Greer acquired the car and sent it back to Fuller's for "reconditioning."
Now
outfitted with new paint, a Ewing body, and Black's engine,
the dragster debuted at Pomona on June 17, 1962, over three
months after Prudhomme's huge Bakersfield victory. Not only
did he beat Mudersbach that day, but also Jack Ewell and
B&L Auto
Parts.
Looks like you need a new drag racing historian!
Steve Justice
Pinole, CA
CORRECTIONS TO PRUDHOMME HISTORY #2
Snake's 1965 Pomona win
was in Roland's Hawaiian; the G-B-P car was long gone by
then.
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The win that brought Snake to national attention was the
1962 March Meet, teamed with another relative unknown, Dave
Zeuschel, plus up-and-coming chassis-builder Kent Fuller.
Even earlier, in 1961, running gas during the Fuel Ban,
he ran up a string of Top Eliminator wins at small California
strips -- including a streak of six-STRAIGHT victories at
Cotati! -- with the single-engine Fuller car he'd purchased
from Ivo. He started out with the same carbureted Buick that
Ivo campaigned, later going to injectors, and ultimately
swapping in a blown Chrysler on gas, then fuel. This car
was for sale in Drag News in late 1961, when he got the ride
in Fuller's revolutionary, lightweight fueler. His success
in this car led directly to an offer from Tommy Greer and
Keith Black to drive the G-B-P fueler -- the single-most-dominant
digger in history, as you so capably pointed out.
Loved the story and photos!
Dave Wallace
HotRodNostalgia.com
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