Starting Line B

This E Altered belonged to Ken Backward of Owasso, OK. When I first loaded these images, I thought it was "Action Joe" Cunningham's car, but it isn't. Ken sent me an email correcting my mistake and noting that he recognized it immediately because of the homebuilt injectors on the ram tube. The engine was a later model 292 Chevy 6. Ken also noted that the "poppy red" mustang behind it was his also.

The "Little Ben" car is also picture in the black and white section. Sherman Cummins was the person who finally remembered that the car belonged to Lyle Smith of Wichita. I spoke to Lyle a few years ago. He said he still has the car and would like to restore it.

I can't remember anything about the Mopar on the left. The Model A was running in a stock class. We always said the AHRA had a class for every car. Behind the Model A and directly behind the obviously chilly starter was Merle Grabhorn, frequent contributor to the Dragnet listserve and occasional author. Merle has a drag racing web page of his own at this link.

These days lots of cars grab the air off the starting line, but in those days it wasn't nearly as common. The B/Gas Supercharged Austin of Larry Nails, Sr. and Vern Holzman always put on a good show. As mentioned elsewhere, this car is still being raced as this is written by Vern's Holzman's grandson Chad, but without the blower. The Wheeler Brothers' black highboy was one of my all time favorite race cars. It was powered by a small block Chevy and ran in B/Altered.

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