Here's a bad one of Perry and Headrick from 1973 at Chattanooga, Tenn. And one at Chattanooga from circa 1970 that could be them This six-banger chose J/Gas over H/MP in 1973.
Tim McDonald was another Cleveland-area racer that enjoyed notable success in Modified Eliminator. Here his D/Modified Production C-1 Corvette hooks-up and leaves hard at the NHRA Springnationals, National Trail Raceway, Columbus, Ohio. Tim built his own engines and cars, tuned, maintained and drove. (Jim Hill photo, Springnationals, Nat. Trail Raceway)
One tiny note on Ralph Ridgeway's vette fuelie mod.. I still have the 2 that I traded for in '65 and '66... the top is just bolted on! I was going to do what Ralph did - unbolt the top and bolt a plate with 2x4 AFBs back on. US army set that plan aside, though.
I know this is a real long shot. Does anyone have a picture of my '70 Cuda A/SM Hemi. We were based out of San Diego and ran the car for one year (1978) in Division 7. It was black with "Jason Bullet" painted on the quarters. Lost all my pictures in a fire in June 2013.
Tim is from Canton, Ohio (my old stomping grounds) and a childhood friend's cousin. I remember being at his grandma's house and there being a huge pile of slicks behind the garage. His car was top drawer beautiful. Kevin
One of my favorite MP cars. This innocent looking, ’55 Chevy C/Modified Production BelAir coupe was one of the nation’s most feared MP cars in the 60’s and 70’s. It and its builder and driver, Carroll Caudle, hail from Amarillo, Texas, and are shown here at the 1969 NHRA Springnationals, Dallas, TX. The green and white ’55 sports lettering for Caudle’s shop, but contingency decals are carried only on the glass. Simple traction bars control rear leaf springs and Keystone Kustom Klassic wheels are on all four points. Running in the 11 lbs. per CID F/Mod Prod class, Caudle’s ’55 looks like it was driven through the gate, fresh off the street. National event class wins and Modified Eliminator titles were frequent achivements for the venerable ’55. Revised G/MP class designation means Caudle was running the ’55 in 12 lbs. per CID class. Glen Brown’s color pit photo caught Carroll’s ‘Ol ’55 resting between rounds. The legendary, multi-decade ’55 is rumored to remain in Carroll Caudle’s garage, safe in Amarillo! (Glen Brown photo) The late Crawford Benham was a much respected and beloved Modified racer from Corpus Christi, Texas. Benham’s career included an NHRA Nationals class win in G/Modified Production with a Camaro and his proven small-block Chevy combination. Austin, Texas’s August “Hands” Hartkopf earned a great reputation for his hard running Street/Modified Eliminator race cars. Hands’ E/Modified Production ’55 Chevy panel truck ran in the 11 lbs. per CID E/MP class. Hartpkof’s Austin Speed Shop sold parts, built engines and tuned. “Hands” Hartkopf gained his knickname from his huge hands, the result of a genetic condition. Those enormous hands were known to be very skilled at careful tune-up work or engine assembly as well as power-shifting a four-speed transmission. Solid rear-axle, C-1, pre-Stingray Corvettes became the darling of Modified racers in the middle 1970’s due to their short wheelbase and aero advantages. The Kline-Mateer-Whitaker ’62 coupe found E/Modified Production to its liking with this wheels-up launch. Those are Cragar’s “Super Trick” lightweight aluminum wheels, favored by many Mod racers in the era. Pete Smith’s G/Mod Prod Corvette was another C-1 Modified Eliminator runner from The Great State of Texas. (For verification, ask any Texan!) Here Pete warms the tires at the NHRA Sportsnationals, held several years during the 70’s. Beech Bend Raceway was the site, at Bowling Green, KY, at the hugely popular, Sportsman-only major event many wish NHRA would bring back. (Photo from The Jim Hill Collection) Shepherd also drove the Reher-Morrison Modified Eliminator Corvette, drilling the ‘Tree and flawlessly shifting the five-speed manual transmissions. R-M-S became a world beating Pro-Stock power, but their roots were set early in Modified Eliminator. Those lightweight, spoked wheels were “Flys”, from Motor Wheel.
Modified Production in my mind was the Best Class that the NHRA every had period !!!! Why they did away with it has always been a question mark for me. When you have a class that was this successful only a FOOL would mess around and do away with it. Jimbo
I want to see some dated pictures of his 'tunnel ram' experiments. For SBC, Bill Thomas and Ralph Ridgeway were doing it in '65, I think.
That wagon reminds me of a story... I bought a 56 wagon from a racer in Schenectady. When I asked him why he raced it in E/MP he said that he never wanted to go over 100mph... speed kills!
Do you have time dated pictures? Edelbrock brought out their tunnelram in 1967 (missed it, was actually 1968). It was based off of Caudles homemade intake that he ran, I'm pretty sure the Austin Speed Shop sedan delivery was owned by Butch Lake, he was Hands step brother. Hands drove a 56 Chevy 2 door sedan Gas class car.
You are wrong. Vic Edelbrock was looking over Ralph Ridgeway's shoulder at the Nationals in September NINETEEN SIXTY SEVEN. The TR1 came out in April 1968, after Ralph's Ridgerunner had already come out at the beginning of 1968. Ralph's BBC ridgerunner came out later. All the Edelbrock ads had other manifolds in them, like the crossram. Try April, 1968 for their first ad for the TR1. Ralph's Corvette fuelie 64 or 65 doghouse with the AFBs on top was first, 65-66. There's a picture here in the HAMB. Contrary to what a lot of people are selling for 1967... There were NO PRODUCTION TUNNEL RAMS in 1967 for Chevys. Pontiac had done work in '63, I believe, that was indeed a tunnel ram if you take a look at it. Wieand came out with the 'breather' in July, 68, by the way. This topic always gets my attention because as a physics major in Schenectady, NY, my work with the 65 fuelie doghouse that I had was dismissed by Jack Muldowney as too late, since Ralph had already done it. Ralph's DEBs car was known and feared all over the Northeast US. He even beat Jack's wife Shirley at South Glens Falls NY... Shirley complained because Ralph hadn't driven the car to the track.
Your right, the ad was 68. As for looking at Ridgeways set up, Edelbrock probably did, but Caudle sent Edelbrock his intake. Edelbrock cut the intake up to get a better look at it. Didn't set to well with Caudle. There are a few guys around that ran with Caudle back then, I'll see what they remember about his time line.
The vette 63-65 fuel injection doghouse with the removable top was a natural for carbs. I saw one in late 62 when a rich college friend showed up at fall weekend with one. It wasn't until Bill Thomas out in CA started putting TWO venturies on top of the doghouse to get more flow for his road racing SBCs that the idea for this poor boy was TWO AFBs up there. The vette injection could hardly flow 600, I've been told - but with no fuel distribution problems in cornering, braking and accelerating the FI could outrun even a Weber carb setup like the Shelby Fords. Two venturies solved the air strangulation problem - but so would 2 AFBs. Then my Uncle called, since he saw that I had finished my degree in physics. So I missed 1967 and 68.... what a party that TET was! I wonder if the Caudle plenum had the huge collection pan in the bottom like the TR1 had. Everybody epoxied the bottom up so that the fuel wouldn't puddle down there below the intake stacks and blow up when it felt like it. Lotsa blown power valves....
I was an Army grunt but the guy in my avitar was a Marine. In the picture, I'm giving him a Green Mountain Boys shooting club hat in a swap for one of his hats. 'White Feather'... Carlos Hathcock, Marine sniper.
A good example of how a dyno can't tell you everything. They probably never had a fuel pond down there in a dyno pull. But out on the street or driving a long way to the pits... different story.
EDIT: the correct first name is Terry Kenny Sherrill’s ’57 Corvette causes heart attacks among hard-core classic Corvette resto-only fans! The beautiful C1 car ran A and B/Modified Production classes in California Modified Eliminator battles. (Jim Hill photo)
Oilguy you are correct although in defense of Loudbang I saw the reference to "Kenny" Sherrill in the East Coast times or some such publication. Terry Sherrill's 57 Vette ran pretty strong in A/MP as I recall.
It's Terry Sherrill and unfortunately it looks like he passed away a couple of years ago. http://www.classracer.com/classforum/showthread.php?t=58262&highlight=terry+sherrill
Number 1 is the division in this case North east division god's country which Ralph would have had on his 55.
It would depend on when this picture was taken, the division specific first numbers didn't start til the early 70's.
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