I've been trying to find a little history on my Henry J drag car, and today someone on Moparts.com sent me this pic, likely taken in the 70s at a SoCal strip in the Lancaster area. Maybe it'll jog someones memory. Its definitely my car, the other pic is how I found it a year and a half ago, no 'Wayne Moore' on the side. It does say 440 Dodge on the side, which by coincidence is what I've put in it. Very cool, maybe this will turn up some info, maybe someone on here even knows Wayne Moore, or he may even be a member. You out there Wayne> I have your car....
Was thinking of buing this some years ago, but it was not easy to get any transports to sweden from canada then. Would also like to se pics from ite racing life??
Dave In auditing your posts, I saw the Wayne Moore era of the car. I was of the opinion that the car was once the 428 Cobra Jet powered Bracket 1 "J" dubbed Soul To The Bone. However, in seeing the car from the starting line, I now tend to believe that it might have originally been the Grant Merideth AA/GS car from 1966 dubbed Snoopy. It was powered by a blown 427 Ford wedge. The over all stance and body proportions, along with the windshield featuring a cut away allowing for a blower are remenescent of the blown "J" from way back then. I would make a call out for Don-Rockerhead-Montegomery. he sometimes frequents the HAMB-and he wrote a book on the hsitory os the blown gassers. In there is a couple of shots of a Henry J that bares a strong resemblence to your car.
This Henry J is in the Fonda Drag race scene in the beginning of the Heart Like A Wheel moive about Shirley Muldowney. They show it for a split second I rewatched it a few times just to make sure. It was filmed in 1983 so it was running back then.
This is indeed the car shown in that movie - Funny thing is, it was lined up in the staging lane... But at the time, it had no drive train! The movie people just wanted race cars for extras, and they didn't care if they actually ran. My dad was a bit miffed at the movie people - He and one of his racing buddies were pushing his (the buddy's - I think his name was Don McCallister? It's been 30 years!) car in the background.... But the camera angle was such that they never actually made it into the frame. That, and they had them move and push that same car back and forth for a dozen takes or so, and THAT car had a drive train! (It also had the name on the side. Have to find the movie and watch it again.)
Thanks WCD for the shout out about the AA/GS Henry J called "Snoopy" from 1966. Grant Merideth and Gary Newton sold the "J" when their new flip top '69 Mustang debuted in 1970. The car was sold to Gary Toy who later sold it to a third party who converted it to street use. The car appeared on the cover of Hot Rod magazine in a group drive-in shot and was later destroyed in a street racing accident in which the owner was reportedly killed. A sad demise for one of the coolest Henry J's of its time.
I never knew Wayne but I remember this car very well from Irwindale Raceway, which is where the above picture was taken. When Irwindale closed in Sept. 1977, I never saw the car again, I was a regular at OCIR, so I assume he quit racing?
You sure about thataccident? We had a thread about that covershot with the Anglia and I do not remember that part. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Tman, pretty sure about the accident as I am sure it was confirmed by the owner's nephew in a post on the "Henry J.com" web site. A rear view of the car is shown along with the nephew's account of it being a total loss.
440 Dave, Wayne Jr. and anybody else that is interested there are several pictures of Wayne's car at Irwindale on auto imagery.com. Look for their link Miscellaneous, then the Brackets photo gallery.
Sad if it is true, thanks. That car influenced me to build my HenryJ at 14. Still have that issue filed away.
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