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Despite the depletion of the Southern California scene, the midwest and east did have two race teams in particular, who carried the banner for the class a little longer: Farmington, Michigan's Stan Rosen and John Schumacher along with the aforementioned Parmer and Hill Fiat.

In 1972, a small midwest circuit of Fuel Altereds ran round-robin races at a variety of tracks. The Schumacher-Rosen/"Altered Ego," the Gretchko Bros., Bob Sweatt's "El Toro," Mac McCord, and "Whitey" Dentler made up this circuit, and the "Altered Ego" was the star.

Schumacher-Rosen cleaned up on that circuit, running a year's best of 6.84 and also winning Competition Eliminator at the Popular Hot Rodding Magazine Championships at Martin, Michigan.

The Hill and Parmer Fiat continued to run strong in their final year in Fuel Altered (they went Funny Car in 1973). They ran the class' quickest e.t. at Aquasco, Md. at a 6.62 (backed up by 6.86 and 6.88 runs) on May 27.

SCHUMACHER-ROSEN DOMINATE MIDWEST CIRCUIT
However, the real headlines were garnered by the Michigan duo. Rosen, a Detroit automotive engineer, and Schumacher built a roadster that was a genuine harbinger of the future. It was the first Fuel Altered to look like a Funny Car, '23-T Ford roadster body or not. At 100 inches long, it was about 18 short of a standard Funny Car, but its low-riding, Ramchargers "elephant-powered, 3-disc Crowerglide-clutched, Lenco 2-speed overdrive set-up was standard Funny Car equipment for the period.

The "Altered Ego" turned in its finest performance in a race that it did not win: The 1973 NHRA U.S. Nationals. Schumacher qualified the car second in Competition Eliminator with the best pass in Fuel Altered history, a 6.60/221.67. He then followed with runs of 6.75/217.39 and 6.67/218.97 during eliminations. The wild striped roadster was finally trailered when it got loose and lost to Austin Myers in John Carter's BB/FC Vega in round three.

Schumacher's fellow midwest circuit racer, Mike Gretchko, also turned in a decent performance at Indy, qualifying with a 6.76.

Lost in the hubbub was the appearance of "Wild Willie" Borsch. He was driving 1961 Indy Middle Eliminator winner Walt Knoch's "Walt's Puffer Too" '23-T roadster and ran a pair of high sixes, but failed to qualify. This was rather ironic, given that Borsch had been driving a Dodge Charger Funny Car all year. He had crashed the car just before Indy, and took what were probably his last passes in a Fuel Altered. With Borsch gone, the classic age of the Fuel Altereds ended at the 1973 U.S. Nationals.

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