Ed Franks had the "Cherokee" and a beautiful wife (Dotty, I believe) who wrote the ET cards at E-Town. Whenever Ed ran she would have someone verify both lanes ET's so no one thought she was helping him out. His brother Jim had an identical Chevy wagon, the "Cherakawa". I don't remember him having much luck with it. The car names reflected the brother's indian heritage. John Mason
Great Post JMason! Nice to hear interesting little bits of information like that, it helps to 'put a face' on the racers that some of us have never met. Thanks! ... Steve
Hi Mark, A lot of fast cars came out of Philly. Do you remember Romalo Forciano,Franco and Art fron the iron shop next to Dukies? Other than guys like us no one remembers that Tony built a motor for Teddy Pendergrass of the Blue Notes and Teddy stuck it to Tony and never paid him! Shortly after that Pendergrass crashed his Rolles and was paralized for life. What goes around comes around!
Mark, Are you referring the the Jerry Woods who worked for Penske Chevrolet and drove Carl Jennetti's B/S 69 Camaro? Also, do you remember the wild man named "Sycamore" who worked for Tony?
Thanks for the images. Last I heard, the car was in a barn in Iowa and the owner wanted a kings ransom for the car. -Dave
COLESY, I take issue with your statement that no one actually bought Fenton Wheels. I politely ask that you rethink that statement you made about the products that I engineered and marketed from 1968 thru 1983. I retired from Fenton Manufacturing Corporation as Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing and that company enjoyed many years of service to true racers from about 1948 thru 1983, sponsoring such greats as the Unser Brothers Pikes Peak Hill Climb Car before you were probably even born. We sold millions of dollars of Fenton Wheels to hundreds of thousands of consumers and Drag Racers alike. We were a NHRA MAJOR SPONSOR for 15 years awarding hundreds of thousands of dollars to hard running drag racers thru-out NHRA, AHRA and other racing organizations. We even provided a $100,000 sponsorship to a AA/FC top fuel Fuel Funny Car in 1975 (Fenton Charger). And we took our lumps when that car crashed at its debut at the 1975 AHRA Winternationals completely destroying the car....understanding "that's drag racing". On this thread alone there is a large percentage of Junior Stock Racers who ran our wheels, including some of the very top guys. Our 15x3.5 Gyro front runner and our 15x11 Rear Wheel were the standard for drag races cars from 1970 thru about 1977 with guys like Don Carlton (Mopar Missile), Arlen Vanke, Dyno Don Nicholson, Bill Bagshaw (Red Light Bandit), Butch Leal, Hubert Platt, Frank Iaconio, Shay Nichols, Royce Freeman, Paul Smith, Carrol Caudle, Bill Hoefer, Allread & Glover, Kieth Berg, Dave Boertman, John Dianna, Cal Method, Jack Mullins, Tim Neja, Zoelle & Crader, Centolanza Bros, Callahan & Sulc, Bob Burkitt, Ciera Bros, Lamar Vaubel, Tom Elk, Sherman Gerlach, Marvin Ripes plus 100's more ( my memory does fade with age ) who relied upon our drag race wheels as the state of the art product during those years. I lived and breathed NHRA & AHRA drag racing from 1968 thru 1983 and take issue with your statement and hope that you typed it into this thread "without thinking about how it might offend someone". Respectfully, Mike Gaines
Hey Mike; It was a joke! We all loved the old Fenton Sharks back then and the slotteds as well. Just Steve and I havin' a little fun. Fenton was always one of the better pay-outs for Stock racers back then and the company did a great marketing job as well. Trust me, I have no intention of slamming any product that helped to keep Sportsman racers competitive. <!-- / message --><!-- attachments --> <FIELDSET class=fieldset><LEGEND>Attached Thumbnails</LEGEND> </FIELDSET> Colesy, THANKS FOR YOUR RESPONSE. I APPRECIATE IT. Mike Gaines, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing Fenton Manufacturing Corporation 1968-1983 (Retired)
Hi Mike, glad you're a member of the board. Thanks for contributing to the sport and providing, to me what was one great looking wheel, the Fenton Shark. Sure wish they were still around!!
Steve, Got any of the 50 Olds belonging to Gene Norris out of Florida ? Also, how about Jack Mullins Arkansas based 52 Olds ? Thanks
I think that's the car that Hickernel, Sperry and Bolton ran out of (I thought) Mendon, OH. It was killer car at Penses Dragstrip in Sidney, OH and Kettlersville Dragstrip. I don't remember if they won class at the Nationals or were runnerup. Seems like they ran the car about three years in the late 60's or early 70's. After that some of them went on to careers at the Rod Shop in Columbus, Oh. There were about three or four cars from Mendon that ran at the same time. One was an old early 50's Olds stocker that was gold with a black top. I think that won class one year at Indy but didn't pass tech. I think the head gaskets were too thin or something like that. I sure would like to see a colored picture of that wagon. There are some fond memories of watching that old thing run. Sure was nice to see it one more time.
That's me. Seems like everyone remembers the Catalina but almost nobody remembers the 427 Chevelle. Shows where I had success (JR Stock) and not so much in SS.
No, I remember them both. Last I remember Vinnie had the Catalina and painted it blue any Idea what happen to Vinnie or the car????
I've been wondering the same thing. It must be a 428 car. The 400 4/bbl's were powerful cars but only had the small valve heads. @ 340 hp, I don't see one being a player. Actually, the 428 doesn't look any better at 375 & 390 hp
It seems many of the guys enjoying this thread luved the early Oldsmobiles Freddy. If I had any more images, I sure would have posted them. That was a quote from another HAMB member's 2-month-old post who has "literally hundreds of great color pictures of many of the guys on you(sic) master list." ... see --> 1468 .
Vinnie is still in Jersey somewhere. Dom Rinaldi posted recently about him. When Vinnie and Dom teamed up I ended up with the Catalina back. I put it back on the street and drove it for a couple years, then sold it when I moved to Arizona.
My 67 was raced as a 428 360 HP. Originally a 428/376 4 speed I bought for a daily driver but when I saw where it fell as a auto stocker with the smaller cam I had Dan Jesel builld me a motor and went racing. 4042 lbs shipping weight as a 2 + 2. Added 2 pieces of chrome to my base Catalina and jumped in. Dan made a couple passes in it and said he felt like he should just keep going to the grocery store. I never saw the pics on ClassRacer you noted - Got a link? I'd love to see them. All my pics from the 60's and 70's got burned by my first wife after the divorce. I have no idea who had the 68 car.
Does anybody remember this car? I owned it from the late 80's until 2001. It had only 11,000 miles on it when I bought it. The story I got is that it was raced out of Long Island. The name on the protect o plate was Vito Gurino (sp?). Tow hooks had been welded to the front of the frame at one point. It had a lot of the little 'tricks' used back in the day. Loosened sway bar links, fan blades trimmed on the alternator, rear air bags, stuff like that. Just wondering if anyone remembers anything about it. It ran a 4bbl with a 4 speed.
Nope. That's not it. It had a solid black top and looked like the Olds on the previous page that's in the lanes next to the bullet nose Stude. I think I remember seeing that pictire quiite a few pages ago and that looked like it was at Indy from what I could tell. I still go to Indianapolis every year but it's just not as much fun as it was in the late 60's. I've been going over there for about 45 years and I've noticed the memory plays some tricks on me know. This has been a lot of fun watching and listening to all this. I hope you can keep it going like the Drag Cars in Motion thread. I check this thing 2 or 3 times a day. Great stuff!!
JAKE here ! sorry to say that KEN WORRELL passed away back in 1985 at a young age of 45 .he had 2 or 3 OLDSMOBILE sdns, named PACK RAT later he moved up to A&B stock with a black and gold CORVETTE big block .he ran a body shop called LINCOLN AUTO BODY I MISS HIM GOD BLESS
My best friend, who raced NHRA Junior Stockers and was an NHRA Record Holder as well as later on, an NHRA Tech inspector promised to UPS the box of "hundreds of photos" he has and I am going to scan many, many of them,,,still waiting for the photos. Mike
Looking forward to seeing them Mike. Guys, for those like myself to young to have enjoyed "the good old days" the photos and information provided by those contributing to this thread has been great. Its the personal history and the stories told by those who were there that make this thread a must visit at least acouple times each day. If it hasn't been said already, many thanks.
*** I just noticed that although it currently has a 5-Star Rating, only 12 votes have been cast rating this thread. See 'Thread Rating' ( ) at the top of this page if you'd like to cast your vote.
The Jalopy Journal
