Wally’s Thanksgiving Record Setter

With the afternoon sky shedding a dreary cast on the vacant lot, I set my sights on the service road ahead. Off in the distance, I saw a man step out of a tired-sounding Jeep and start walking towards a nearby warehouse. Sloshing through the damp grass, I squinted at the figure. He was tall, older-looking and wearing knee-high rubber rain boots and a green letterman jacket. Once he noticed me, we both stopped walking and remained in place, equally confused. I hastily swung my camera beneath my jacket, hoping to take the edge off this bizarre standoff.

After staying planted in the driveway for several minutes, refusing to make any progress — or regress — I realized that I had to make a move or flee the scene. Dredging my strongest bravado from deep within, I cleared my throat and prepared for my shot from far left field.

“Are you…Walt?�? I asked.

“Maybe I am,�? he said after a long pause. “Let me see your hands.�?

Without thinking, I held them up. He glanced at them, not straying from his position halfway between his Jeep and the building. It started to rain harder.

“Good,�? he said, motioning for me to follow.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon lending Walt (Wally) Knoch, Jr. a hand with some electrical issues on his cars, as well as learning about the “Walt’s Puffer�? altereds and the history of his family’s speed shop for a story about Walt’s Auto Supply. The entire time, the record-setting Walt’s Puffer II and III Fiats lurked in the background.

***

Yesterday — Thanksgiving Day — marked the 54^th anniversary of Wally piloting his 1939 Fiat into the record books as the first A/Altered to break 150 mph in the quarter mile. This was when the coupe was in its pre-1961 AMT Double Dragster-guise — unchopped and sporting a lavender paintjob.

Some people spend their Thanksgiving with family, friends and football, but the Wally spent it setting records in a ferocious Fiat.

-Joey Ukrop 

Note: Lead photo from Mopar Muscle Magazine, taken after the Thanksgiving Day record run in Chester, S.C. Wally is pictured on the left.