FUNNY CAR FEVER
YORK US 30 DRAGWAY
DVD #021
This one hour and twenty-six minute original movie production takes a look at racing activities at York US 30 Dragway during the early years of Funny Car Racing. “Dandy” Dick Landy explains how the Funny Car era began in 1964 and progressed through the Altered Wheel Based cars in 1965 to the Fiberglass Flip-Top Funny Cars in 1966 and beyond.
The feature event in this production is the Super Stock and Drag Illustrated Magazine’s 1972 Funny Car Nationals at York. Over 40 Funny Cars showed up for the event and they were divided into two categories. There were sixteen Injected Fuel Funny Cars and the remainder were Blown Fuel Funny Cars. Here is a partial list of some of the Funny Cars: Frantic Ford, Ed “Ace” McCulloch, Mike Oglesby, Sammy Miller, Roland Leong’s Hawaiian, Candies & Hughes, “Flash Gordon” Mineo, Gene Snow, Don “Snake” Prudhomme, Cecil Lankford’s Brand X Mustang, Johnny Valadez’s Mexican Revolution, Big Mike Burkhart, Mart Higginbotham’s Drag-On Vega, Mickey Thompson, Larry Fullerton’s Trojan Horse, Tom Hoover, Jungle Jim, Ken Poffenberger, Kenny Warren’s Virginia Twister, Jeff Gordon’s Bostonian, The Gustin Brothers Wild Cargo, Jumpin’ Joe Wise, Bill Leavitt’s Quickie Too, Taylor & Wolff Super Duster, Steve Tansy’s ICAS Cuda, Al Segrini, Drake Viscome, Pop Whitt’s Hippie Hemi, Jay Minor’s Trip, Dee Simmons, Dick Boninfante’s US Male, Al Hanna’s Eastern Raider, Jay Keating in the Skistmas & Stapleton "Jersey Rattler" and the Bowan & Kopper Mustang among others. We follow the cars through their qualification runs and then eliminations.
The racing footage has real car sounds rather than dubbed-in sound bits. We were able to acquire original 8mm film with accompanying sound and blended the two together to a near perfect match. The Funny Car runs are some of the best you will ever see. You see dry burnouts, back-ups and short blurps up to the line. This is the way I remember the Funny Cars back in the 1970's.
The 1972 Funny Car Nationals also hosted four bracket eliminator classes and you get to see them in action during time trials and eliminations. There is a great assortment of cars in this segment. The bracket cars were used to fill in the action between funny car rounds and they did a great job. You get to see the Shack Engineering Camaro, the Classical Gas ‘57 Chevy, the “Rising Sun” Oldsmobile, the Bracket Buggy Plymouth, the Underdog Chevy Nova, the Hamerly Brothers 1971 Duster, the “Thunderball” ‘55 Chevy, the Beasley Ford Super Cobra Jet Falcon and Merv Moyers tunnel port Mustang among others. Once again you hear the original sounds of these classic cars. We have also included several interviews with people who were part of the 1972 Funny Car Nationals. First you hear from Kenny Warren as he talks about his history running the Virginia Twister Funny Cars. Another interesting story is provided by Tom Hoover who was running the White Bear Dodge Funny Car at the event. We also include an interview with Merv Moyer who was racing a 1969 Mustang Bracket 1 Car. Merv tells us how he purchased the car from Sam Auxier, Jr. back in the 1970's and raced it for a few years. Later he sold it and he traces the movement of the car through several owners until a guy from the State of Washington bought it several years ago. Another interview with Sam Auxier, Jr. tells use how the car has been restored and is now on tour throughout the country.
We also include an interview with Sandra Osborne of York, Pa. Sandra entered a beauty contest at the 1972 Funny Car Nationals and she tells us how she won the “Miss York US 30" title.
We also include Funny Car Racing segments from the 1969 Super Stock Nationals, the 1971 Super Stock Nationals and additional Funny Car action from 1973. Some of the cars and drivers you see include: Dickie Harrell, Jim Maybeck, Tim Kushi, Fast Eddie Schartman, Lee Jones, Gene Conway, Connie Kalitta, Bob Cane, Stone Woods & Cooke, Durachrome Bug, Gary Bolger’s Don Garlits Dodge, Don Schumacher’s Stardust and Bruce Larson’s USA 1 Camaro.
Just to satisfy our Pro Stock fans we have included a Pro Stock segment from the 1972 Super Stock Nationals. This footage comes from three different film contributors. I just love the long burn outs, dry burn outs and dry hops. They don’t do it like this anymore. We have included relative narration in order to explain what you are watching but it does not take away from the great sounds of the cars. This is drag racing the way it was and now you can see and hear it all again. Get your copy today. Our DVD includes 14 Chapter markers so you can quickly navigate to your favorite part of the video.
DVD # 021
