NHRA Top Fuel Skool and Some Nitro Runs

[oldman]

Hah! I found a link to an article!

https://www.enginebuildermag.com/2015/06/allison-power/

I remember reading about Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove when they were both trying to outdo one another running on the Salt Flats. Those guys were crazy. I also visited Arfon’s shop outside of Akron, I think. I also believe racing was in his son’s blood as well.

There was a racing shop where my cousin lived in Chardon, Ohio. The owner was Ron Hutter. I never seen a motor shop so clean as Hutter’s. He built engines for both NASCAR drivers and drag racers.

There’s a fellow that lives just north of me that was and still is in the racing business. Bruce Larson has built something like an 4000 horsepower engine. Maybe I have a picture. Let me look.

 

[Sawfish]

Regrets, I have many. But this is probably the biggest of all. Not building the Triumph 'Top Fuel' drag bike, circa 1960's. Was in the Air Force then and had neither the time nor resources to follow through. But being young and dumb gave it a heck of a try.

Found this image online and it pretty well is a match to what I started the build on. The memory of what might have been lingers on. . .

Great to see!

After I had some money in the 70's I bought a new 77 Bonneville. I would have preferred ones made in the 60s, but still, this was a very fun bike to ride around on.

But gosh, you had to travel with wrenches, because they shook a lot of stuff loose!

 

[squatting dog]

I remember reading about Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove when they were both trying to outdo one another running on the Salt Flats. Those guys were crazy. I also visited Arfon’s shop outside of Akron, I think. I also believe racing was in his son’s blood as well.

There was a racing shop where my cousin lived in Chardon, Ohio. The owner was Ron Hutter. I never seen a motor shop so clean as Hutter’s. He built engines for both NASCAR drivers and drag racers.

There’s a fellow that lives just north of me that was and still is in the racing business. Bruce Larson has built something like an 4000 horsepower engine. Maybe I gave a picture. Let me look.

View attachment 261433

Saw Bruce in action back in 1966 when he was a young spud at New York National Speedway.
Hutter made horsepower for some of the best Mods in the business, and in my mind, the best modified driver in the business... Ritchie Evans. (R.I.P)

 

[FastTrax]

I think that I saw some drag races on TV within the last 1-2 years and the fuel classes were running what looked to be 1/8 mile instead of 1/4.

Can anyone add info to this?

The distance was reduced because of the Scott Kalitta tragedy.

www.autoweek.com/racing/nhra/a35540252/why-an-nhra-drag-strip-is-1000-feet/

www.racingjunk.com/news/the-nhra-comeback-looks-promising-but-will-it-be/

www.rapidtables.com/convert/length/mile-to-feet.html



www.fanbuzz.com/racing/scott-kalitta-death/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Kalitta

Amateur video:

 

[JBR]

I had some relatives down in California, a ways north of San Francisco Bay. I visited when I was a kid about 13, and one of the fatherly types took me to a drag strip at a spot called Half Moon Bay. The special attraction was that Don Garlits was going to run there that day.

At the time, I believe the top speeds those nitro-burning rail dragsters were achieving were up toward 200mph. We got a pit pass, walked over by Don G, and watched him one-pointedly preparing his car's engine. I was too in awe of the whole scene to say anything to him or his crew guys. No one gave him any competition on the quarter mile that day, but he set a record for the HMB track... somewhere around 190mph, I recall. Exciting for me!

While I was down there in Calif, I saw Don run again on a concrete(!) track in a place called Cotati. It wasn't quite as fast, but again a track record. This time too, I had a pit pass, but this time I talked a little when he brought the car back to put it on the trailer. He remarked that the track really messed with his back on the run we'd just watched.

Back in Canada, I never lived close to a drag strip, and didn't see any more fast quarter miles except occasionally on TV. But I never forgot Garlits' runs.

 

[ArnoldC]

Indeed, JBR. "Big Daddy" is an icon beyond legend in drag racing.

Saw him up close and personal once at a race Omaha, Nebraska. Late 1960s was the year. Actually, that Saturday night, between the weekend race days he had his 'Swamp Rat' on display in the mall of a shopping center. Not to be deterred, he had dropped the oil pan and was checking the crankshaft for cracks by tapping lightly on it with a small ballpeen hammer. Remember him saying in answer to my question that one could tell if the crank was cracked by the tone of the hammer strike.

1993, my dearly departed wife Linda bought me a brick on his museum walk in Orlando after we visited there. Don Garlits is one of my lifetime heroes.

 

[JBR]

ArnoldC, I'll share a little postscript to what I posted before. In Cotati, Don's wife was with him in the pit area. I was so impressed by Don as an innovator, a designer, a self-taught engineer & master mechanic. And for the fact that he'd even say anything to a 13-year-old boy. He seemed like a real guy, in that respect, not a pompous grump or redneck jerk. For godsake, he had a wife in the pit there (and a family somewhere, I presumed).

So, from a hot-rod magazine ad, I got the address for his business in Florida (Tampa?). I wrote him a fan letter. He sent me an 8x10" glossy photo of his current Swamp Rat dragster. Boy, did that make me happy!

 

[ArnoldC]

Agree, JBR, with how approachable Big Daddy was. Good all-around guy and a great ambassador for drag racing.

'King of the Dragsters', The Story of Big Daddy (Don) Garlits by Don Garlits and Brock Yates, c/w 1967 is a good read if you can find one. Have a copy in my library. Actually, overdue for a re-read.

 

[911]

If you guys are into racing, you probably heard of Ron Hutter. Ron was a friend of mine. He lived and had his speed shop in a small town in Chardon, Ohio. Ron died about a month ago. He built engines for some big names, including Dale Earnhardt, Sr.

I could write many stories about this man. He was incredible as a racing engineer. He didn’t build me an engine. I could never afford him, but he did allow me to spend a day with him. He was just an incredible person and racing was in his blood. Racing lost a great builder.


Hutter Obituary.