PART 2 of Jim McLennan; a Photo
Flashback
The year was 1985 and the glorious
achievements of Jim McLennan, that multi-tasking businessman,
drag racer, and promoter, now seemed a distant memory. Champion
Speed Shop, his storied emporium for high performance racing
equipment on Mission Road, had been sold. Half Moon Bay and Cotati
drag strips were gone as was Champion Speedway in Brisbane. Jim
still held the master lease on Baylands Raceway (Fremont), but
had sublet it to the Terry Ness group and kept only the food
rights. Visions of Sammy Hale wheeling Jim's wicked little small
block Chevy dragster down the Half Moon Bay tarmac also had dimmed
and faded away. When Jim sold his Kent Fuller rail to Sid Masters
and Rick Richter in 1963, no longer would the naughty chant of
his potent nitro motors echo down the drag strips of Northern
California. South San Francisco, long the hub of drag racing
in the Bay Area, seemed about as peaceful as the many cemeteries
that dot the landscape there. Then, a rumble was heard. At first,
it was faint, barely measurable. But, it continued and appeared
to be centered in the 'South City'. The "McLennan fault",
long dormant and inert, was active again. Those seismic shocks
continue today and there is no indication the jolts will stop
reverberating across the drag racing landscape any time soon.
Bobby and Mike McLennan, Jim's two sons, have carried on the
McLennan legacy in the sport of drag racing. Mike is the current
driver for Mike Fuller's nostalgia top fuel dragster, and Bobby
campaigns both a Chevy car under the Champion Speed Shop name
and a Chrysler-powered front engine top fuel dragster under the
RB Entertainment banner. Both of Bobby's race cars have unmatched
funding from Brian Van Dyke's RB Entertainment enterprises.
This rumbling all started when some of the old dragster guys
decided to dust off their front engine slingshots and fire them
up. One thing led to another and soon there were organized events
where old timers gathered to share stories and run their rails.
At the forefront of this movement was Bay Area hot rodders Tom
Prufer and Brian Burnett. They started hosting "nostalgia"
drags at Baylands in 1984. Burnett, who owned Los Gatos Ferrari,
was buddies with Roy Brizio, son of the "Rodfather"
Andy Brizio. Roy got a bad case of the nostalgia bug and came
up with this idea of building a replica of Jim's red Scotty Fenn
dragster and present it to him as a present. The intermediary
for all this activity would be Jim's oldest son, Bobby.
Bobby: I had not been to a drag race in probably
ten years and had not even kept up with the sport. I had a degree
in economics from the University of California at Riverside and,
at the time, heavily involved with real estate development and
athletic clubs. I funded the project and Roy built the entire
race car from a set of plans he got from a friend. We used Bruno
Gianoli's blown (4:71) Chevy street rod engine and mated it to
some Hilborn injectors we got from Micky Thompson. On the night
of the surprise party, a Thursday before the nostalgia race,
we closed down Mission Rd. With Bud Barnett behind the wheel,
I pushed him from the top of Mission and we fired it up right
in front of Malloy's Tavern; dad was deliriously thrilled!
It's probably safe to say that
1984 through 1989 were the formative years of the so-called "nostalgia"
drag racing movement. Like Bobby, most of the racers were reliving
the past with race cars that were originally constructed back
in the 1960s and 1970s. At first, there was an absence of rules.
But, as its popularity grew, there was a clamor to establish
some guidelines for the racers to follow.
Champion Speed Shop was back:
several shots taken in 1986 at Fremont; from any angle, the dragster
is an faithful rendition of the late 1950s slingshot with its
short wheelbase, bicycle tires, and Hilborn injectors.
Note the NDRA (Nostalgia Drag
Racing Association) decal on the back of the fuel tank.
Jim, Bobby, Paul "180"
Wirth, Joel (master machinist friend of Sammy), Becky Hale, and
Sammy Hale (in seat).
Jim, Sammy, and Bobby at Baylands
with Roy Brizio's re-creation of the Jim's Scotty Fenn car.
Sammy way out on Louie Poole
and the Magi-Car; Louie was the one that initially restored this
infamous "legs under" Fuller dragster. Louie worked
for Roy Brizio at the time and now assists John Cox with his
nostalgia top fuel dragster.
Bobby: Initially, it was kind
of like "run whatcha brung"with few rules. Gradually
rules were put in place for the sake of safety and fair play.
The ANRA under the direction of Frank Fedak established common
rules for blower overdrive, fuel-pump size, and tires. Still,
our Chassis Research car with its small block Chevy was no match
against more powerful cars like Jim Davis' hemi. Once we went
back to Tulsa (Oklahoma) for Brian Burnett's World Drag Racing
Series and got walloped by Davis. Fed up, we decided to build
a new car.
The frame for the new Champion
Speed Shop dragster would be a chassis purchased from a friend
of Sammy Hale. Coincidentally, instead of putting the venerable
Chassis Research car out to pasture, Jim had Rob Stirling lengthen
it and then rebuilt it as a replica of the twin-engine blown
Chevy AA/GD he raced briefly in 1961.This was also about the
time the Goodguys Rod and Custom Association started to host
vintage drag racing events. The Goodguys took nostalgia drag
racing to a next level. They started with a single event at Sears
Point Raceway (now Infineon Raceway) and gradually added events
at tracks like Bakersfield, Sacramento, and Pomona.
Bobby: The big issue at the time was the rule
that one had to use an iron engine block. But, getting a 392
cid hemi block in good condition was becoming more and more difficult.
Not only were they old to begin with, but many were diseased
from the inside with rust. Guys were blowing up engines left
and right and that made the show less than desirable. We, on
the other hand, were kicking ass. The Chevy guys had nickel high
dollar NASCAR blocks and we could put the coals to them without
worrying about splitting the block. I knew that if The Goodguys
approved the use of aftermarket engine blocks, the competition
would catch up. They did, and we found ourselves going from the
top of the class to about two tenths behind the leaders in the
matter of a few months.
Jim McLennan and the
red Fuller car at Half Moon Bay in 1962.
The re-creation of Jim's Kent
Fuller car had a long and storied career. It was twice lengthened,
eventually to 170". Here's Sammy smoking the hides in its
original rendition at Baylands in 1987.
Top row: Chet Thomas, Tom Homer,
Tony Bernardini, Roberto, Tom McLennan, Mike McLennan, Bob McLennan,
Mark Gavron deceased), Ronnie Capps, and Jim McLennan. Bottom
row: Bob Gavron, Harry Devack, Cathy Devack, Roy Brizio, and
Sammy Hale (in car).
Ron Burch's shot of the 'Red
Car' ( i.e. the Fulller look alike) after it had been lengthened
to 170" (June 1990).
CSS racing Don Argee's
fuel roadster at Sacramento (1990).
Sammy and the 'Red Car'
at Sears Point in April of 1990.
Sammy, Tom, and Tony
With the approval for the use
of aluminum blocks, nostalgia top fuel dragsters saw their elapsed
times drop from the high to the mid six second range. WW2 Racing,
Fuller-Dunlap, Dan Horan, and others upped the performance standard
significantly with their 398 and 417 cid Donovan aluminum blocks.
In 1992, Sammy Hale ran a best of 6.505-232.55, but by the next
year, Ted Taylor, driver for WW2 Racing, had recorded a 6.263
with a 398 cid Donovan engine.
Bobby: After the 1992 season, Sammy decided
to retire in order to spend more time on his crankshaft business.
We got Harry "High Speed" Hoffman to drive in Sammy's
place. Harry was a very talented record-holding Bonneville racer.
In addition to driving the car, he did a lot of work on the chassis
to make it competitive again. To keep pace with the hemis, we
really started leaning on the engine. We were blowing up stuff
right and left, and Harry eventually left the team. Scott Hesselgrave
and Gary Read (of Grounshakers fame) drove for us after Hoffman,
but 1993 through 1995 were not particularly good years for Champion
Speed Shop.
Harry Hoffman at Famoso
Raceway.
Scott Hesselgrave at
Sears Point.
By 1996, nostalgia top fuel racing
had gotten serious. The Goodguys had their championship series
firmly in place, and the top runners had started to tickle the
sub-six second zone. So-called nostalgia drag racing had matured
far beyond its friendly, folksy roots, into a year long highly
competitive program of races complete with points, standings,
and prestige-nostalgia had become newstalgia. It was also a turning
point for Jim, Bobby, Tony and the Champion Speed Shop team.
They brought in the highly esteemed and talented Ronnie Capps
as consultant, and had Robert Stirling front half the chassis.
Bobby: Quit? No way was that going to happen.
Over a period of time we made several changes to the engine combination
that was not popular with the competition. First, we replaced
the cast Hilborn fuel pump with a Waterman 7.50 billet pump.
Because of the shape of the Chevy wedge head, we needed a pump
that could provide gobs of pressure to atomize the fuel, something
the Hilborn was unable to do. That required jettisoning the Mallory
points magneto with one of MSD's 44 AMP 'flamethrowers'; we also
added an onboard computer to gather run data for us. At the time,
there were no restrictions on either of these components, but
it unleashed a huge furor among the teams. Nonetheless, it transformed
our 6.50 car into one capable of running in the 'teens'. Not
long after that at a race at Sears Point where everything just
fell into place. Sammy was back behind the wheel and he qualified
us at 6.21. We beat Denver Schutz (Ground Zero) in E1, Ted Taylor
(WW2 Racing) in E2, before losing an odd final to Bob Hallock
caused by oil on the track.
Sammy on a hard launch
at Sears Point - just the way he liked it.
The time had come to retire what
Sammy Hale referred to as the "red car"-it had been
back halved, front halved, and simply was no longer suitable
for what the team wanted to do. They purchased a new Robert Stirling
car and that started a brand new chapter in the history of dragsters
with the Champion Speed Shop name.
Bobby: Sammy wanted a no frills dragster with
nothing on it that wasn't needed to go fast. At first it had
a 'shorty' aluminum body, but quickly replaced it with a carbon
fiber body. From day one, this car just hauled ass! Goodguys
allowed us to use Brodex aluminum heads, and because we were
pushing the envelope, could always set low e.t. In 1999, we ran
5.875-239.22, but consistency eluded us and that kept us from
winning the big race. Even at that, we won a lot of rounds because
I had the best driver in the business. Sammy was sorely missed
when he decided to get out of the seat for good at the end of
1999.
The first time out at Sears Point
with the Stirling car; sporting an aluminum "shorty"
body (the only time) as it was soon outfitted with the carbon
fiber shell.
March Meet 1999 at Famoso Raceway:
in the final session of qualifying Sammy ran the quickest pass
in history by a front engine car--a stunning 5.87! Shutting off
was another story. Sammy got oiled in and both he and Howard
Haight did a masterful job of avoiding each other.
At the 1998 Pomona Goodguys event,
a vortex in the fuel tank was causing the motor to go lean and
burn up. The car was so dominant, Sammy could click the engine
at 1100' and still defeat his opponent.
Final round against Steiner-Berger
at Pomona (1998); that weekend CSS had .5s on the field, and
despite blowing off the fuel line at 1000', they won the event.
Indy 1998: another good race
for CSS, making it all the way to the final before losing to
Lee Jennings Sr.
After Sammy retired, the team
hired Rance McDaniel to replace him. Champion Speed Shop would
enjoy their greatest success in 2001 when they won the Goodguys
championship, eventually running a best of 5.854-239.40 with
the 400 cid Chevy engine prepared by Bobby and Tony Bernardini.
Bobby: We were still having problems hanging
intake valves with the Brodex heads. Alan Johnson had some symmetrical
aluminum heads he manufactured for the pro stock truck series
that bolted perfectly onto a small block Chevy. We got a verbal
agreement from the Goodguys to use them, and proceeded to order
(3) sets of heads and (2) manifolds. Then, we were told that
it was permission to use aluminum heads, but not billet aluminum
heads; they would have to come off. We had a significant amount
of money invested in these parts and appealed the ruling. In
the end, the Goodguys allowed it. But, when word got out that
we had AJ heads on the car, the uproar was unbelievable -- people
were very upset, accusing us of ruining the sport.
In 2001, after much ado, CSS
replaced the Brodex heads with those of Alan Johnson. The AJ
heads were symmetrical and the configuration of the intake and
exhaust valves (EI, EI, EI, EI instead of EI, IE, EI, IE) eliminated
major cylinder head heat issues.
The Champion Speed Shop
'brain trust': Tony, Bobby, and Alan Johnson.
A racing accident in 2002 and
the subsequent controversy concerning that incident halted any
ambitious racing for the Champion Speed Shop team for the next
few years. Other than a brief stint with Kent Terry's Thrash
Racing in 2003, there wasn't a lot of racing activity until 2005
when Jim teamed up with Brian VanDyke and his RB Entertainment
team.
2003 March Meet found
Bobby's "mouse" motor in Kent Terry's Top Fuel car.
Bobby: Brian asked me if I would give them a hand tuning
their top fuel dragster. He had a '01 Uyehara top fuel dragster
that he had been racing since 2003 with driver Jeff 'Surfer'
Diehl. Our arrangement was only supposed to last a year, but
over time evolved into a partnership whereby the Champion Speed
Shop crew came on board, too. When Jeff left the team in 2006
to go IHRA funny car racing, we had to find a new driver. Adam
Sorokin became available when John Blanchard decided to park
his car. We were very lucky to acquire the services of such a
talented driver. At the time, I was also building a new Champion
Speed Shop Chevy top fuel dragster, but progress had been going
slowly. After the 2008 season, Brian retired the Uyehara car
in favor of a brand new Neil-Parks car. I finally completed the
CSS 'canopy' car in time for the 2009 March Meet. It is a Stirling
car that I purchased from Dan Horan Jr. when he decided to go
funny car racing instead. Brian has agreed to sponsor (RB Entertainment)
both the Chevy and Chrysler dragsters and Adam will drive both
of them although not at the same race.
In November 2006 at the Goodguys
Finals at Bakersfield, Adam Sorokin and the RB Entertainment
slingshot would run the quickest time ever for a front engine
dragster - 5.703. At the end of 2008, this mighty car was finally
retired after six years of service; a new Neil-Parks rail was
ordered and currently sits ready for battle in 2010.
Champion Speed Shop and Chevy
"fever" is back at last-fondly coined the Batmobile,
it ran 240 mph the first time out at the '09 March Meet. Just
two months later, Adam Sorokin slipped the comely little streamliner
into the 5s with a 5.96 clocking at The Dragfest at Famoso.
Adam Sorokin, son of Mike Sorokin
(of "The Surfers" dragster fame) will handle the driving
chores for both the Champion Speed Shop Chevy dragster and the
RB Entertainment 392 cid Rodeck Hemi rail.
Reflections on the McLennan
Legacy
"…..it was never
a matter of could I do it. I was Jim McLennan's son; I had to
do it. Fortunately, I was blessed with my dad's mechanical aptitude
and the help of some extremely talented individuals like Bruno
Gianoli, Tony Bernardini, Kenny Crawford, and Sammy Hale. I went
to my first race in 1985 with nothing more than a fancy little
briefcase of tools, so one can see that it has been a long and
arduous learning curve for me. But, with dad's genes and the
exceptional resources available to me, I figured it out. I wish
I could say that I was so astute I didn't need to consult other
people, but just the opposite has been true. There are still
individuals I call today like Sammy and Ray Zeller when I want
to toss around a new hypothesis or rethink an idea. Yes, the
heritage and history of Champion Speed Shop and its success racing
the small block Chevy engine weighed on me many times-there was
a lot of pressure to succeed with this endeavor."
The Small Block Chevy
"…..I'm sure there
have been stories about us being reckless because we ran a small
block Chevy and it was nothing more than a grenade. At times
that reputation might have been deserved because we raced hard
and were out there to win. But, I had Sammy Hale in the cockpit
and he was anything but reckless as a driver. I also had the
confidence of knowing Sammy had a great "feel" for
what was happening during a run and would not do anything imprudent.
He never turned the car over except once when we were just starting
out in the '80s when the chute did not open during a run at Fremont."
To Drive or Not to Drive
"…..when I was growing
up it seemed someone was getting burned or seriously hurt every
week. I witnessed Bud Barnett's engine explosion and fire at
Half Moon Bay, a horrific accident still indelibly imprinted
in my mind to this day. Dad told me that I did not have to drive
and go fast, so I heeded his advice. I did make a run at Bakersfield
one time and I think I ran about 160 mph; it was OK. But, I'm
much more comfortable working on a race car rather than driving
one. Michael (McLennan), on the other hand, is a whole different
story. Mike wants to go fast and will drive anything. He was
driving long before I got back into drag racing. Dad wanted him
to drive for us once Sammy retired, but I was unequivocally against
it. We had some pretty heated family discussions over the question
of Mike driving for us, but it's no longer an issue. When we
went with the replica of the Kent Fuller car, we had Stirling
lengthen Roy's version of the Scotty Fenn car to accommodate
dual engines. We wanted it to be a duplicate of the AA/GD Dad
raced briefly in 1961. We raced it as an exhibition car as a
way to get Mike into our family racing; he has been the only
person ever to drive "The Twin." I have my concerns
about Mike driving a nitro car, but he's doing something that
he truly loves. Michael is a good pilot; he's very consistent
and should there be trouble, say an "oil-in", knows
how to keep a race car off the wall and away from the other driver.
Sammy says he's good; one can't get a better endorsement than
that!
The Mike McLennan File
Mike McLennan has been the only
person ever to drive "The Twin". Currently, plans are
being made to restore it to look exactly as the way it did in
1961: Algon Injectors with a 6:71 supercharger in back and a
4:71 in front.
Two shots of "The
Twin at Sacramento Raceway (June 1990)
Mike at Sears Point in
1993.
Mike and the crew pushing "The
Twin" off the track at Famoso after it blew a left rear
tire during the 1995 CHRR.
Mike McLennan driving the Smith-
Allred-Maher T/F at the 2000 March Meet. Mike drove the Smith-Wulf-Maher
and Smith-Allred-McLennan dragsters from 1996 through 2002.
Sacramento Raceway April 21,
2007-Mike McLennan's very first run behind the wheel of Mike
Fuller's nostalgia top fuel dragster. Less than a month later,
the team won the 37th Annual Ignitor event in Boise Idaho.
2009 featured a new car
with a new paint scheme... a real beauty.
The Champion Speed Shop story
would never be complete without hearing from the one person who
has been such an integral part of the Champion Speed Shop legacy
for so many years. Sammy Hale was that hot, young "shoe"
Jim McLennan put in the seat of his new Kent Fuller car when
Jim decided to hang up the helmet in 1962. It was Sammy that
Roy Brizio called in 1985 to entice him back into the cockpit.
Now retired and living on his ranch in southern Arizona (Rio
Rico), Sammy still finds time to consult with Bobby on tuning
strategies and other technical issues that relate to running
The Champion Speed Shop top fuel dragsters.
Sammy Hale ….. "The
point of drag racing is this: go as many rounds as you can and
try and beat everyone. People don't recall what's written on
the side of your dragster, but they do remember who won the race!
"
"Don't go to war
without a rifle". - Sammy Hale
"…..Roy called me
back in '85 to see if I was interested in driving again, I was
so far removed from the drag racing scene I did not even own
a driving suit. On the contrary, I was heavily involved in riding
road bikes and I don't mean the kind with engines. Going for
long rides throughout Marin County was a lot of fun and I really
enjoyed it. Initially, I told Roy I would think it over, but
I did not give it a lot of thought. He called again a few days
later and I agreed to drive it for one nostalgia race at Fremont.
Roy had built this dragster that was a copy of a Chassis Research
design and Bruno (Gianoli) had dropped a street rod motor in
it. It didn't even have aluminum racing pistons and the blower
was driven by V-belts. I thought I was driving a Datsun pick
up truck and knew this combination would never work. I told Bobby
that I would donate a stroker crank if he would buy new rods
and pistons. We eventually got the car into the high 7s, but
even then, were outclassed by lighter and more powerful dragsters.
This fact was made painfully clear at a race in Tulsa in the
late 1980s. We made it to the final and had to race Jim Davis.
Here we were with our small block Chevy in a short rail and Davis
with a late model hemi in a car of his design. We were totally
overmatched, and even with the holeshot I put on him, lost the
race when Jim came roaring past me right before the finish line.
This is when we all decided
it was time to build a new race car. We bought a chassis that
had been sitting around and accumulating dust for fifteen years.
It had been originally constructed by Arnold Chaves to handle
a Chrysler block but probably not a nitro motor. This would be
the dragster I called the "red car", one fashioned
to look like the Kent Fuller dragster I drove in 1962. We had
it lengthened twice; once to 150" and later to 170".
I drove this car for about five years and we got it down into
the 6.50s. I quit driving after experiencing a moment of sublime
clarity after a run at Bakersfield. The engine hung an intake
valve that exploded the blower which precipitated a really bad
fire. I was OK, but felt "someone" was sending me a
message to step aside and do something else.
Jim, Bobby, and the Champion
SS team had a number of drivers after I quit driving, the first
of which was Harry Hoffman. At the time, Bobby also had enlisted
the help of Mike Demerest of "The Groundshakers" to
advise him with the tune up. The car was very competitive with
Hoffman behind the wheel, but the chemistry between Mike and
Harry was not the best and Hoffman left after a year or so. Gary
Read, another "Groundshaker", replaced Hoffman, and
he, later by Scott Hesselgrave. All this time I continued to
go to the drags and work with the team. I reasoned, or rationalized,
that if I was going to devote all this time to the team, I might
as well get back into the car. But, the "red car" had
been changed so much I couldn't drive it. So, Bobby ordered a
brand new car from Stirling, the one I called the "black
car." It was the epitome of simplicity-nothing on it except
what was needed to go quick. It was definitely a "learn
as you go" process, and in the beginning the car wanted
to switch lanes. Stirling discovered that the chassis was too
flexy and added some cross members. We also repositioned the
location of the fuel tank to make it lighter up front. It took
a little time for us to understand what the car wanted, but when
we did, it hauled ass. I drove again from 1996 through 1999,
and during that last season, we were low qualifier most of the
time. We were definitely on to something, but lacked the consistency
to back up the times with big wins. By now, the grind was starting
to wear on me. I was 58 years old and had been through two or
three bad incidents that year. My last run for Jim, Bobby, and
Champion Speed Shop was at the '99 CHRR. In the first round of
eliminations we were paired against Larry Gotelli Jr. We did
not have the slicks on the car matched correctly, and at about
600', the race car became totally unmanageable. I thought it
was going to flip over but somehow I saved it; just another frustrating
way to lose a drag race.
"Gotelli's Speed Shop"
vs. "Champion Speed Shop" - CHRR, 1999 - This first
round race in Top Fuel alone was worth the price of admission.
Larry Gotelli (grandson of Ted Gotelli) and Sammy Hale (who was
driving fuelers before Larry was born) squared off for NoCal
bragging rights and a ticket into round two. To say it was exciting
would be an understatement.
"The titanic first round
battle royal between the two bay area speed merchants was breath
taking. This had all the drama and intensity of any final round.
In the near lane, Larry Gotelli, grandson of famed racer Terrible
Ted Gotelli. In the opposite lane, the worlds fastest small block
Chevy being displayed to the crowd compliments of the man with
"Juevos Grande", Sammy Hale. Gotelli advanced to the
second round where he smoked the tires against eventual runner-up,
Jim Murphy."
Photo & Commentary
by Mark Hovsepian
"….. Looking back,
I'm a little sorry I did not have a continuous drag racing career,
But, I learned ten fold the second time around what I previously
knew about being a driver. And, I got to meet some extremely
talented people like Mike Demerest and Kenny Crawford and renew
friendships with many of the sport's greats. Kenny was instrumental
in putting us on the right path to get that Chevy dragster to
perform. Was it a "grenade" as it has been so often
called? Not if you have all your ducks in a row; we proved that.
There was a steep learning curve, but after time, all the big
mistakes had been made. What hurt us was not the concept, but
all the stupid little stuff that got ignored or forgotten from
time to time. We did crack the whip pretty hard, but I was far
more radical than most on the team regarding our tune up. With
the "black car" we wanted to shoot it down the drag
strip like a bullet. We accomplished that by, first, making the
car as light as possible-it weighed only 1675 lbs. with me in
it. Then, we needed to get the right amount of weight to the
rear tires so that the front tires floated dead still for one
hundred feet or so. To accomplish that, we set up the motor to
give us 20/21 lbs. of boost "at the hit." I told Bobby
I wasn't interested in driving the car if we didn't run the engine
on lots of nitro. With the low compression we ran, we could put
92%-94% in the tank and 60 degrees lead in the mag to obtain
the desired 7000 rpms when the blades slapped open. I think our
best '60 time was around 1.03, but from 200' to about 900', the
"black car" was a missile".
"For me, I like lots
of power and lots of "bite". The ideal small block
Chevy engine would be around 383 cid with AJ heads and a "stout"
blower. The compression would be 6.5:1 with 92% to 94% nitro
in the tank. I would make the race car as light as possible to
make it easier to move the weight. Also, parts for all the rotating
mass would be as light as possible to allow the engine to be
as efficient as possible."
Bobby showed up for this final
round of a Nitronic Research Shootout packing his gun belt; nice
touch with the piston pistol and plugs for bullets; CSS beat
'Wild' Bill Alexander for the bucks.
Sammy at Sears Point-must be
springtime as the hills around Sonoma are still green.
Andy Brizio, Jim McLennan,
& the late Jack Williams.
Andy, Jim, Gas Rhonda,
and Tony Waters.
Art Chrisman, Chico Breschini,
and Jim.
Tom Homer, Ed Riggins, Sammy,
Bobby, and Ed Cortopassi (of Glass Slipper fame) at Bakersfield
in 1998.
Pat and Don Garlits with
Jim.
Two drag racing legends
- Ted Gotelli and Jim McLennan. We have lost them both.
Adam Sorokin with Sammy
as his "shade".
Jim & Mike
Jim & Bobby
The Smilin' Irishman
Champion
Speed Shop Part 1 |
