Shirley`s last pass!

[Assdragger]

Just watched Shirley Muldowney make her last pass. She ran against Cory Mac and lost, BUT she cut a better light, it was a .028! It`s too bad the legends that can still drive and still want to, cant get the sponsership it takes to get the big horsepower!!

It`s sad to see her stop. Good luck Shirley.

[McGrath]

They are gonna have her on the ABC National News here in a few minutes....

[55olds88]

So she's stopping due to lack of sponsorship $$ hell with all the womens products out there (well products aimed at women) and all the strong women stuff, you would guess she is a natural fo sponsors.......

[k9racer]

All the big corporations want a young person. This is true in all motor sports.NASCAR has the same problem now Ie Bill Elliot and Mark Martin just to name two.. Seems no one wants to sponsor us old folks in any kind of sports or entertainment.Thanks for letting me rant..

[chromedRAT]

my cousins run a car lot now, but they used to be REALLY well known, i guess. ohio guys probably know them on here. anyway, they used to take my dad into the strip when they'd run and sneak him in i their trunk! he'd hang out and watch them tune and run, and he got to meet alot of the old racers. shook don garlits' hand, shirley's too. they introduced him to everybody. sad to hear she is calling it quits.

[McGrath]

"NASCAR has the same problem now"

As far as I'm concerned NASCAR can fall in a hole and disappear. They have turned it into a Yuppie sport and an advertising tool. I think NHRA is well on its way to doing the same thing too.

[fab32]

Don't look now but NHRA has been doing it for YEARS.

Frank

[k9racer]

YES I AGREE with BFTWCS 100 per cent. All sactioning bodys are doing it. Yes NASCAR of today sucks.

[McGrath]

"Don't look now but NHRA has been doing it for YEARS"

I know, but it doesn't seem as bad as NASCAR. Yet.

Maybe because NASCAR is more Mainstream. Out of your everyday, non-Rodder population i'll bet 99% of them will know who Dale Earnhardt or Richard Petty is, but have never heard of John Force or Don Garlits.

I don't know about anywhere else, but Nostalgia Drag Racing in Missouri is quickly getting away from what it started as. Wentzville's M.A.R. started it in about '86 or '87 as '65 or older. It started out great, but over the years it has gotten to be more and more of a "Money" thing than a "Nostalgia" thing. Lots of Glass body Street Rods running and even their Feature Cars are getting farther away from true Nostalgia. Meeting the NHRA rules probably has a lot to do with it.

Not long after M.A.R. started their Nostalgia Drags, they apparently decided they were missing out on some Money and started a Second Nostalgia Drags. This one is held later in the Summer and they bump the cutoff up every year. Its overloaded with Muscle Cars and last I heard most of the true Nostalgia racers don't even bother attending.

Just another example of Money taking over a good idea.

[Bumpstick]

Sat in the stands today and watched her second and last runs she still kicks ass. I told my 8 year old son she's as old as his grandma (shocked the hell outta him) She signed his cap in the pits. I know NHRA is going corporate but when you see the look on an 8 year old's face when a top fuel car goes by its still worth every penny. No corporations, no money. No money, no race. Support it or it goes away. Just my .2 -stick

[Crosley]

NHRA is in trouble. Mayb they know it?

Some of the ol shoes are getting up there in years........ Not much coming along to replace them IMHO.

[katzenhammer]

Wow that is sad. I have always admired Cha Cha...



Justin

[4t64rd]

Does anybody know Shirley personally?

Supposedly, a distant acquaintance is/was married to her. His name was Rad, short for his Russian name I can't remember.

Just curious...

[Assdragger]

Her husbands name is Ron, dont know anything other than that.

[30roadster]

one of my favorite movies.... "heart like a wheel"... think i'll go watch it....

[old beet]

Don't know her, met her a couple times. K-MEMBER has some pizza cutter slot mags off one of her early cars. Saw her climb out of her firesuit(100 degree day) hopped into her trailer wearin black bra and painties. CHA CHA CHA!!!...OLDBEET

[50mercfan]

and she started by racing a chopped merc, thats one cool lady.

[296 V8]

dont know her but i have heard from a frend that saw it she is a first class A # 1 %#*&!

[metalshapes]

296, Is that good or bad?

[Reverendcolin]

She's from my area. Up here in the great white north. New York.

I don't remember any chopped Merc.

First Dragster she ran was owned by the Abbott Bros. (they owned American Glass in Albany NY) Dragster was named "Hellsapoppin" built 283 if I remember correctly.

I remember her running a mid 50's Corvette (don't know who owned it) It ran Modified sports. I did run her once at South Glens Falls Drag Strip for middle eliminator. That was the early 60's, 1963 I think. Needless to say, I didn't win.

Saw the movie. Most of the early stuff was Movies bull shit with a little reality thrown in.

[Smokin Joe]

Ron Tobler

Probably Kenny Bernstein's last ride too, but he doesn't have tits so no one cares! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Assdragger]

Kenny had his "LAST RIDE" glory last year, he wouldnt be driving now if Brandon wouldnt have got hurt. Dont get me wrong, I think Kenny is the man but they didnt make a big deal about him leaving like they did last year because he already did that.

[John Copeland]

Reverendcolin,
In the mid-60s I ran a C/MP 55 Chevy Nomad. I was in the Air Force and stationed up at Plattsburgh AFB, N.Y. On the weekends I ran up at a track just across the Canadian/N.Y. border, Napierville Dragway. Shirley was there most every weekend with the Gas dragster that her 1st husband ran until he found out she could drive better then he could. I used to drive all the way from Plattsburgh to Albany to buy speed parts, used to be a nice shop on Central Avenue in Albany called Pfieffers? Shirley, as I remember, was very approachable and could drive as well, if not better then most of the guys she competed against. I was at Indy where she didn't qualify on Labor Day weekend this year, the car is old and her and Ron are trying to run on a shoestring budget, I think the Kaletta gang has hired him to co-crew chief one of their cars next year. The track at Montreal, where she was hurt so badly, was a state-of-the-art facility at the time. It was very short lived because the Canadian Government and NHRA could never come to an agreement on emission and noise restrictions. Hey, what ever it's worth, just my little historical in-put!

Shoe

[Smokin Joe]

BTW, anyone besides me noticed that Scott K. has been kicking Ass since our boy Jessie James came on as a sponsor?
Bet Connie's rolling over in his grave and he ain't even dead yet! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Assdragger]

Connies probably getting laid just by being associated with JJ, so he could probably care less about what the cars are doing! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Reverendcolin]

Thanks Shoe.

We used to run up to Napierville too. Not too often, it was a drive back then. We use to get tow money and free rooms. The Canadian girls real something else back then (still are)

I was running a full fendered 33 Chevy coupe with an early Caddy V-8 and Hydro. I could fanagle my way in to B or C gas with a little weight and some lying. (If you ain't cheating, you ain't racing.)

I had the tranny rebuilt by a guy named Scotty. He'd just come back east and had worked for B&M. Did the tranny for $25. That was around 1963, 64.

Remember Pfieffers well. It was the place to go. If I remember correctly Cha Cha's first and second husband opened a speed shop in Schenectady NY, but I can't remember the name. C & D or something like that.

They were good days, Parts and cars were plentiful and cheap
.

[John Copeland]

Rev,
One weekend I went home to the Buffalo area and picked up a 5:13 posi for the Nomad and stopped at Pfieffers on the way back to Plattsburgh and bought a Borg & Beck style, three finger clutch. The car had a pretty healthy 327 in it, and when I went to run at Napierville, the tech guys gave me a hard time because with a mechanical cam I was supposed to have a scattershield. The solid lifters were singing, I'm lying to the guy that its a hydraulic cam cuz I wanna run, and he finally said, its your car. Unknown to me, the flywheel was a stock cast iron unit off of an old 265. I came off the line hard and when I hit second gear at about 8500 RPM, the flywheel disintegrated. It blew all four ears off of the Muncy and I never found the bell housing or starter.......anyway, I was laying under the car trying to wench up the engine, so I could tow back home. I was using "borrowed" vintage U.S. Air Force cargo straps, when this sweet young lady started talking to me about the damage, and was I OK, etc. With as many expletives as I could muster up, I answered her questions and unknown to me, the young Shirley Muldowney walked away with her ears burning!
I did an article in Rev Magazines Photo Flashback column a year or so ago. It featured the "Golden Gasser", a 53 Ford sedan sponsored by Don's Porting Service, Schenectady, N.Y. I'm sure you know the car.

Shoe

[hammeredabone]

Does anyone recall the midnite madness sales at Pfiefers? They usually had a fuel coupe sitting out front. Lottsa people, deals were ok, nothing to get to excited about.
Went back a coupla years ago and Cental ave. in Albany where Pfiefers was is pretty run down.

[Reverendcolin]

Hammer, Albany has turned to shit. Amen.

Shoe, got any old PIC's. I've lost mine in the last three marriages. Shit happens but life goes on.

I got in to Bikes and the old group seemed to drift away. I see one or two now and again but they seemed to have gotten old.......

Did you ever meet up with a group from Ct. called the Dragonrun's (spelling?)? They had the Blown hearse, a nice 40 Chevy with a 409 (supposed to be a 348) and a lot of other nice cars. Wonder whatever happened to them?

I ran against the 40 Chevy. Hated them bastards!

[John Copeland]

Rev,
I have quite a few pictures that I took up in Canada. There was a guy by the name of George Constantine that was the local heros at Naiperville. Ran a 428 Cobra Mustang out of a shop called Sudden Action, got some pics of Bill Flynn when he came over with the Yankee Peddler and blew his doors off. George was killed in a freak boating accident when I was in Nam in 69. One of their other big stars was a flip top flopper called the PB experimental. I remember asking some guy up there what BP stood for, now they own have of the U.S. Got lots of flicks, remember the Thames panel called Bad News? Shoot me a PM, I'll be glad to share some of my memories with you. Central Avenue, I remember getting hammered in the Friedly Tavern a few times! Later,

Shoe

[desoto]

We used to have to listen to her foul mouth at Lebanon Valley Dragway. She used to pit a couple of cars from us (we ran AA/FD) and yopu could hear her all the way across the pits.

Nobody, especially her husband, could do anything right.

BTW, for you easterners that have seen the Ty-Rods Old Timers Reunion t-shirt with the two front engine dragsters going at it off the line at Lebanon Valley (on the back of teh shirt), that's Shirley in the far lane. ....and our car in teh near lane.







and that's me on the front of the shirt running the valves between rounds.

[Reverendcolin]

desoto,
Your bringing back more memories........ That's the Cha Cha, I remember.