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The fabled Denison-Arlasky-Knox roadster beating Quality Auto at the 1964 Bakersfield race.

If there was a problem here, it was the fact that there was no scene in the early 1960s. The Speed Sport roadster actually toured as a Top Fuel dragster and the other drivers, as wild as they were, got work in classes like Junior, Little, Middle, or Comp Eliminator, which in many cases, included only two or three cars. It wasn't like Funny Car in the late 1960s where a track, such as Cecil County Dragway in Maryland could drum up 16 cars with a few phone calls.

Drag News had a top 10 ranking for Junior Mr. Eliminator cars and racers like those above and current California Funny Car owner Jim Dunn with the Dunn-Merritt-Velasco Fiat, the Mooneyham & Sharp '34 Ford, Alderson & McElvain, Pippins & Torres, Red Paris, Shipley & Cooley, the Cedarquist Bros. & Ryan, Harrell-Borsch-Muse, Argee-Sorenson, Hawkins-Webster-McCloud's "Bad News/Fifteen Ounce coupe" and Boyd Pennington would get together in "best of threes."

However, from 1960 through roughly 1966, it was hard to put together an eight-car Fuel Altered show. There just weren't that many of them in one place ... except for Southern California. Between 1966 and 1971, Southern California Fuel Altered shows were as plentiful as Top Fuel and Funny Car programs, and if there ever was a golden age for this group, this was it. It was in this arena that the legends were truly developed.

THE GOLDEN AGE
First off, a qualifier needs to be made. We are talking here about nitro-burning, blown and injected AA/Fuel Altereds, not gas or alcohol. There have been many truly great blown gas or alcohol roadsters and coupes. Walt Knoch's "Walt's Puffer Too," the Reschlein & Trisch roadster, the Dale Armstrong-driven Foust-Menzies-Armstrong roadster, Jerry Gwynn's (Darrell's dad) "Baby Huey," the Reath Automotive Fiat, Ron Scott's roadster, Phil Lukens in the Blair's Speed Shop Fiat, the Terenzio Bros. roadster, the Boggs Bros. roadster and literally countless others to numerous to name. They won NHRA national events and/or classes and always got a rise out of the crowd, but they weren't on fuel ... most of the time.

Jim Miles' blows the crank out of the bottom of his Magic Muffler '48 Fiat at Lions, circa 1965. (photo by Ron Lahr)

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