In the late '60s Top Fuel Dragsters tended to show up at Wichita International Raceway with some regularity. Don't forget that "Kansas John" Wiebe was a local boy and there were a few other Top Fuel cars around. Sometimes they seemed to be there just to test and tune and sometimes to check out the visiting exhibition or match race. After all, a huge number of the who's who of drag racing passed through Wichita from about 1966 through 1969 and probably for a few years after that (Uncle Sam took me away after the '69 season). I don't have a clue who this is.
For thirty years I've wondered who this little boy was and whose car he was sitting in. Sherman Cummins and his father Charles "Cheatin' Charley" Cummins, have identified him as Gary Cooper sitting in his dad's injected big block Chevy car. Today Gary is into A/Fuel (NHRA Top Alcohol) and I understand he is building a top fuel car. I guess it never hurts to start young!