ALTERED DRIVERS HEAD EAST
In mid-June of the year, a quartet of Southern California Fuel Altered drivers felt confident enough to take their show on the road. Leon Fitzgerald, driver of the "Pure Heaven" Chevy-powered '32 Bantam, organized a tour where he, Leroy Chadderton's "Magnificent 7" roadster, Nolan Pritchard's "Beaver Hunter" (with Dale Young initially booked to drive and later, Henry Harrison), and the man himself, "Wild Willie" Borsch would hit the East Coast and Midwest and spread the gospel.

Beginning at then eighth-mile New England Dragway in Norwood, Massachusetts on June 13, the quartet put on round-robin shows along the Atlantic seaboard and the Great Lakes area, and continued until Labor Day weekend. Most of them competed at the NHRA Nationals as the tour closer, and in a great East vs. West, AA/FA class final, Illinois' Gabby Bleeker put his '38 Bantam sedan in front of Borsch to win.

Despite the absence of these four stars, the Southern California scene continued to thrive as new stars stepped up to replace the golden quartet.

Of course, Emery's staying behind guaranteed no lag in performance, but teams like the Campos Bros./"Lo-Blow" roadster with Tom Ferraro driving, the Horchar Bros.' psychedelic "Paraphenalia" roadster, the amazing Mondello & Matsubara 7.8-second, 200-mph blown Chevy-powered Fiat, the Thurmond Bros.' wild, blown Chrysler-powered all-steel "high boy" roadster, and the thundering 7.67-second, 204.54-mph Gary Read-driven, Way-Hoven-Okazaki "Groundshaker Jr." roadster guaranteed butts in the seats at the Fuel Altered shows.

In addition to these blown cars, injected entries like Mikio Yoshioka and Darrell Akaishi's "Stone-T," Mike Sullivan's Chrysler-powered Fiat, Dave Hough's Olds-powered roadster, and Randy Bradford's Chrysler-powered Fiat all won individual event titles against blown competition. There was something for everybody in the ranks of the Fuel Altereds, a fact that was becoming well known.

At the second annual Car Craft All-Star Awards banquet Joe Mondello won the trophy for Competition Engine Builder and Borsch won Competition Driver (Non-fendered). A quick glance would indicate that the skies were cloudless, but that was not the case.

FUNNY CARS GAINING GROUND
While the Fuel Altereds might've found work in Southern California and its environs nearly 40 times in 1968, the Funny Cars had been hosted 40 times by Labor Day Weekend. They were even outdrawing Top Fuel in an area where the fuel dragster was born.

It's hard to say for sure, but the 1967 Orange County Manufacturers Race was probably what caused the dam to break for Funny Car on the West Coast. Every decent-running car in the United States, 45 in actual number, and over 12,000 race fans came out to watch.

Top Fuel had enjoyed similar crowds with shows like the 1967 PDA Top Fuel show, but Funny Car hadn't. The demand went up enormously for their services, not only in Southern California, but everywhere else. The annual Super Stock Magazine Nationals in York, Pa. and the Capitol Raceway King of Kings Invitational in Maryland were just two of almost a dozen annual affairs that grew out of the initial 1965 burst by the class. Super Stock & Drag Illustrated magazine owed a fat hunk of its initial success to the success of the Funny Cars. (There never was a Fuel Altered Illustrated magazine.)

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