1st ANNUAL FUNNY CAR REUNION AT ENGLISHTOWN 2000
#140
Have you ever wondered what became of all the Funny Cars from the 1970's well I found a bunch of them hunkered down in the pits at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ. Actually a group of people got together and decided it was time to put out a call for Nostalgia Funny Car Owners to get together for a gigantic reunion at one of the East Coasts most famous Drag Strips. And boy did they show up. Actually 33 Funny Cars showed up for the event and of that number 26 took to the track for two rounds of tire smokin' fire breathing Funny Car Action. Even more of them came out to be part of the Nitrohol Thunderfest. What a great sound it was when thirty or so of the cars fired up their engines (Nitro & Alcohol) at the same time and left them running for several minutes. And the crowd went wild. Every one of the Funny Cars had a story behind it and I worked to bring out a lot of the historical facts associated with them. I have also included original movie footage of racing at Englishtown during the 1971 and 1972 Summer Nationals. The movies help us to appreciate the history of the 1970's Funny Car era and to see how a lot of it is being preserved by these special car owners. I had a chance to interview one of the Stars of the era, Joe Jacono, and he told me of his experiences driving the Rollin' Stoned Funny Cuda. This was Joe's first time at a Nostalgia Drag Race and he was reunited with his beautifully restored Funny Car. The Grand Marshall of the event was none other than Jungle Pam Hardy. Need I say more. Pam took to her old job of backing up a Funny Car but this time it was former Funny Car World Champion Bruce Larson and his USA 1 '68 Camaro Funny Car. Pam also got behind the wheel of a Corvette and participated in a celebrity drag race with "Berserko" Bob Doerrer. Also making a guest appearance at the event was "Big Daddy" Don Garlits and his Swamp Rat #34. Big Daddy made a half track pass with the car just to put the smell of Nitro in the air. The event also had an assortment of other classic vehicles and we take you on a trip through the pits and out on the track for their drag racing experience. The 422 Motorsports Nostalgia Super Stock Racing Team was on hand and they ran two rounds of hot N/SS drag racing action. As I mentioned I have included some original movie footage in this production and some of the cars/people you will see are: The Drummer BB/FC, Chelsey King F/C, Moby Dick, Hawaiian, Sammy Miller, Don Schumacher, Ed "The Ace" McCulloch, Jungle Jim, Dodger Glenn, Jake Johnson, Barry Setzer, The Trojan Horse Mustang, The Holeshot Mustang, Tom McEwen, Gary Richards, The Creasy Brothers and Marshall, Swensen and Lani, Ormar Carruthers and the Tentmaker Mustang and Gene Snow. How's that for a star studded lineup. Most of you know that I am a big fan of the old Super Stocker and Factory Experimental cars of the 1960's so I was not sure what to expect at this event. But boy was I happy I went to this terrific event. What I found was a group of cars and people that did this sort of racing without the infusion of big corporate money. The cars had personalities and the people were genuine characters. It turned out to be a very refreshing visit to the Funny Car Match Race era that I had totally forgotten about. If you share that kind of enjoyment I am sure you will be entertained by this 95 minute video. I highly recommend this concept in Nostalgia based drag racing attractions. This video is fully narrated with a story line that runs on top of the video action.
