Folks Of Interest Billy " Cigar " Holt

Some people may just pass his intro by. The link was wrong so I went looking for the correct link.....found it. This gentleman is the real deal................an old Alabama drag racer. Being from Alabama, I knew some of the names mentioned as well as the drag strips.
Even if you don't know the man or the places, this website has the " Rest Of The Story ". I believe this is what Ryan had in mind when he started this board.

The story ad the pics are worth every minute it takes to read and enjoy

http://www.holtsracing.com/

enjoy !!<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

 

Wow neat guy, has had alot of great cars,and probably a lot of graet stories

 

My Drag Racing Career ...by Billy Holt

My drag racing career started in the mid-1950s by racing motorcycles in non-professional drags and road racing; however, in 1957 I switched to a drag car which was a 1957 Chevy with a 270 hp engine which wasn't as competitive as I wanted to be. The following year I built my first V-8 Chevy engine. It had a 327 cubic inch displacement with a set of cylinder heads with 1/8" oversize valves. The intake valves made from a 1954 Chevy powerglide 6 cylinder valve which had a 1-7/8" diameter head and cutting the stems to V-8 length and regrooving and did the same thing to flathead V8 Cadillac exhaust with a 1-5/8" diameter. I used Jahns pistons, an Isky RR-1 roller camshaft, two four-barrel carburetors, Hedman headers and Schieffer aluminum flywheel and pressure plate.

The engine was complete and I now needed a car to put it in. I went to Denny's Junk Yard and found a burned 55 Chevy. I removed the frame, cleaned, rebushed the frame assembly and painted it. I am now ready for body parts. We looked around and found a good 55 Chevy 2 door post body that had been totaled in a head-on collision. Then I found another 55 Chevy that had been totaled from a rear-end collision. So now I had a front cap which completed the needed parts. I then went to work assembling the parts of the three 55 Chevys to complete my first "built from scratch" DRAG CAR!!! This project was completed by the spring of 1958. I was ready to RUN, to go DRAG RACING!!! This project was so successful I couldn't believe it. The 1958 season yielded wins of all weekends except two. One of which was caused by a clutch disc failure and the other by an ignition wire grounding out on the firewall. This car set track records throughout the Southeast in both elapse time and speed.

In 1959 I had a year about equal to the '58 season. I then decided to try my luck at the first NHRA US Nationals that were being held being held in Detroit, Michigan. I did well up to the final run that paired me with Doug Cook. Doug won the nationals and that gave me the runner-up spot.

In 1960 my employer put my drag racing career on hold for about four years. I was employed as a field engineer with a space firm, a job that required extensive travel, not leaving time for my racing.

I returned to the Drag Racing sport again in 1964 in a big way. Campaigning various gas cars, blown and un-blown, during the next five years holding NHRA National Class Champion title twice and class runner-up five times. During this period I was a three time NHRA Record Holder for BB/G - retaining the record for over two years, plus holding the NHRA D/G record twice during this period.

After successful match racing of my supercharged gasser against injected funny cars, I decided in 1970 to build my first Funny Car that was named the ALABAMIAN I. This was a Logghe-built Corvette powered by a 392 Chrysler, but disaster struck and the car burned at the Turkey Trott Meet in Gainesville, Florida, that year.

The ALABAMIAN II Funny Car was built by Don Hardy having a 1971 Vega body. With the first pass ever made by this car, it qualified well in the field at the Gator Nationals. Had a good year, winning about eighty per cent of scheduled match races. Also, won several open competition funny car shows and set numerous track records.

The ALABAMIAN III Funny Car was built by Don Hardy also, sporting a 1972 Vega body, powered by a stroked 426 Mopar Hemi that I built. The first time out at the 1971 NHRA World Finals the car qualified and proceeded to defeat the Assassination Funny Car (NHRA Record Holder at that time) losing in the semi-finals.

Then in 1972 the ALABAMIAN had a great year running all of the IHRA Nationals and a couple of the NHRA Nationals qualifying well in the field and being runner up in two events. Also campaigned the car in the Southeast and Midwest setting many track records and winning numerous races, always performing well and being very popular with the fans. The ALABAMIAN was invited to the 12th Annual Auto Show SCCA in Dallas, Texas, and took first place.

The Alabamian's IV through VII were built over the next two years to support and sometimes replace the fatigued earlier ALABAMIAN funny cars.

In 1973 I teamed up with the former Virginian pilot, PeeWee Wallace, for a crack at the North Eastern tracks with the ALABAMIAN. The car was a big hit with the Wallace crew, their appearance was immaculate and performance was exceptional. The ALABAMIAN won NHRA Division One and won the Englishtown World Championship Series meet and the York, Pennsylvania, Funny Car Nationals the same weekend. The car was so popular it was booked for as many as two to three funny car meets weekly, winning more than half the meets.

During this two-year period I was working a full time job, going to the races occasionally and preparing engines and related parts during this time to support the ALABAMIAN running in the Northeastern United States and Canada.

In 1976 I decided to stop actively campaigning drag cars and spend full time with my automotive machine shop. I continued to build engines for active racers, both drag and circle track, staying very busy until in 1989 I had additional health problems so I had to call it quits.

In 2001 I got the urge to build another drag car, this time I chose a 290" wheel base top alcohol dragster. My sons, Greg and Scott, campaigned this car one season; however, it is now in storage at Greg's shop. I gave it the name ALABAMIAN VIII.

 

Billy has done machine work for me.. When the owners of Howards machine shop were unable to work due to illness Billy would close his shop and drive the 60 mile round trip to huntsville and help the staff get the work out to customers.. Some of his customers have set national and regional records on drag strips.. His circle track engines performed well also..Bobby...

 

FOLKS MR HOLT,is the real deal.

 

btt

 

I'm confused. The site that hrm2k posted and the history that NITROFC posted are completely different. Is this two different guys?

 

Al brought over Mr Holt's post from the intro thread.


On the Holt racing site is a link to the the story that Al posted. it is a 4 page story with pics.

try starting here http://www.holtsracing.com/cigar1.html

 

So there is no Confusion, there are two Billy Holt's from Alabama and ironically both drove funny cars
Billy "Alabamian" Holt passed away in 2007. He had more notoriety due to he was a NHRA world record holder in his Willys (33 & 41) and travelled the Match Race Circuit with his multiple series of Alabamian Funny Cars. His Vega can be briefly seen in the Funny Car Summer Movie. Billy had his own Race Engine Shop at his Athens, Al house and also started the successful Performance Products Speed Shop (Decatur, Al) with Charlie Baucom (of CBI Fame), and Wayne Mahaffey (of Southern Funny Car Driver). Performance Products was later sold to Jerry Smith and Dennis Mitchell. Billy's Wife would have B-Day party every year for him where people like Junior Thompson, Shirl Greer & J.C. Sizemore

Billy Jim Holt a.k.a. "Alabamian"
August 10, 1931 -- October 25, 2007
Billy Holt's Racing Engines Inc Athens, Al 35611
Drivers: Gary Fowler, Wayne Mahaffey, PeeWee Wallace
http://rides.webshots.com/album/164193501yIJHqR

Billy Gene Holt a.k.a. "Cigar"
May 17, 1932 --
Cigar is still in Business @ Holt's Racing & Automotive Machine Decatur, Al 35603
In 1971 he drove Bill Campbell's (of Jeep Funny Car Fame) 1968 Ford Torino "The Butcher" which was the Old Taylor / Coleman (of TCI Transmission Fame) "Super Ford" that recently was restored
The large Torino was called "The Butcher" because this Holt owned a butcher shop at the time
http://www.rmauctions.com/FeatureCars.cfm?SaleCode=RW09&CarID=r108&fc=0

 

Both of the Billy Holt's are the real deal in the South and paid their dues on southern tracks which were narrow, poorly lit, poor guard rails, but they had guts and determination to put on the "Show" for the fans

 

thanks for straightening that out. Didn't realize there were 2.

 

Thanks for the mention of me. It feels good to see people remebering the good ole days.

Billy "Cigar" Holt
I never considered myself the best, but I beat the best!!

 

I remember both of you. I'm the cousin of Bobby Boyd and Charlie Baucom. I'm still involved in drag racing with my own alcohol nostalgia funnycar. Windy City Charger. 73 dodge. 496 KB hemi. 14: 71 Littlefield. Lenco 3 speed