Long before there were nitro Funny Cars and even what we know as Top Fuel dragsters, door cars and roadsters often attracted the same fanatic love to which we now assign the nitro cars. I know that I have a fuel-racing mentality – particularly for 1970s-era Funny Cars -- but I also love a good doorslammer. So, apparently, does Robert Nielsen, who submitted the great photos below, with nary a digger or flopper in sight, and provided informative explanations for each.

For fans and racers who attended the digs, it's not always the showstoppers they remember but also some of the other cars, and I'm sure that anyone who frequented SoCal tracks will recognize some of these lesser-spotlighted but nonetheless interesting and nostalgic machines.

"I have more than 1,000 images of cars from Lions, OCIR, Irwindale, San Fernando, and other tracks in SoCal, Nor Cal, and Arizona," said Nielsen. "Most of these images were taken on occasions when I was not running my car but still traveled to the races to help friends with their cars and took along my 35mm Nikon FTN camera. For the most part, the photos that I took were of cars that were either friends' or cars I raced against. While I do have some photos of dragsters, Funny Cars, and Pro Stock, these are definitely only a very small portion of the images that I have. While I do not consider myself a photographer – I am a picture taker, the difference being a photographer knows what he is doing, and I just take a LOT of photos, and some turn out OK."

These definitely turned out OK, Robert. Thanks for sharing. The quoted parts below are Robert's notes for each photo.

"Here's Carl Smith’s small-block Chevrolet-powered All Star Tire Anglia as he makes another typical wheels-up launch off the line at Lions Drag Strip. I am not sure of the exact date of this photo, but it must be 1971 or 1972 as there is an NHRA sign in the background (prior to this time, Lions was an AHRA track). This car was an extremely hard-running bracket car and was at Lions every Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, almost without exception! I, too, spent a lot of time there and occasionally had my Nikon FTN camera with a 50-300mm zoom lens with me when my car was undergoing some periodic maintenance or update. The things that I have always liked about this photo are the front end being carried in the air, the rear tires slightly distorted from the forward launch thrust, and one can almost see the cool, calm, relaxed expression on Carl’s face as he drives his car down the track."

"This is Ted Wells' 1954 Ford. This car was unique. I raced with Ted from about 1969 until 1974. Ted was the shop foreman at Larry Orfia's Valley Head Service (in Tarzana, Calif., two doors down from Frank Huszar's Race Car Specialties shop). I spent a lot of time hanging around VHS and RCS in those days, much to the detriment of my college education. Ted’s car was originally powered by a 352-cubic-inch big-block Ford. This was later changed to a destroked 427 big-block Ford; actual displacement was 396 cubic inches. Ted was a master machinist and fabricated a lot of the parts on this car. He fabricated a custom aluminum tunnel ram intake manifold simply because at the time there were none available for a big-block Ford and partly because he liked a challenge. He also molded the entire fiberglass front end himself. This car weighed in excess of 3,800 pounds. It would launch so hard that it literally would pull the pinion carrier out of the third member on the 9-inch Ford rear end. To fix this problem, rather than changing to a Dana rear end (which was in vogue at that time), Ted fabricated a custom third member out of 4130 steel plate that he welded and machined himself as there were not any other options available to be purchased if you wanted to run a 9-inch Ford rear end back then. He also ran a Ford top loader 4-speed transmission that he had modified to the point where he NEVER missed a gear-change shift! This car ran consistently 10.70s, which was very fast for that era. In 1974, Ted was working on building a Super Stock 427 Fairlane, although I am not sure if he ever completed this project as he moved to Wichita, Kan., and I lost contact with him."

 

Nielsen knows that I have a soft spot for supercharged Opels after my short stint behind the wheel of Frank and Linda Mazi's BB/A in 1984, so he included this great shot of the Herrera and Sons AA/GS Opel, taken during one of the Sunday events at Lions. Bitchin'.

Nielsen could not resist including his own first car in this piece; of course, the photo was not taken by him (that would be some feat, eh?). I love the pic for its snapshot-in-time view of the Irwindale starting line and snack bar. Although the track is long gone, the road in the background that goes over the 210 freeway still pretty much looks the same, and I shed a tear every time I drive on it. Said Nielsen, "My car first car was a 1963 Ford Falcon powered by a 260-cubic-inch small-block Ford engine. It had a B&M Hydromatic transmission. This transmission had a 4.05 1st gear, and coupled with the 5.43 rear end, it launched real well and would rev way past 8 grand if I was not quick on the 1-2 shift (this was before I installed a rev limiter that I designed and built myself). I also modified the distributor so that it would retard the timing when I shifted into high gear. This car was much more competitive in the AHRA than in the NHRA as I held a number of AHRA national records, including the H/Stock Automatic record at 12.97 seconds and 109.35 mph in 1969. I did mange to hold the Irwindale D/Modified Production class record, which allowed me to participate in their annual Grand Prix race, and the OCIR D/Modified Production class record. I also held track class records at San Fernando Raceway, Beeline (Phoenix), and Fremont."

"Tom Nicklin & Sons Outcast. Being a Ford racer, I was always somewhat partial to other Fords. Anyone could make a Chevrolet run, but it took real heart and dedication to make a Ford run (some might add stupidity to that also). This car had a fuel-injected big-block Ford in it; I think it was a 427, but I might be wrong. This was another of the many cars that was at Lions every Saturday night and Sunday afternoon."

Nielsen took this photo in November 1970 in the pits at the inaugural NHRA Supernationals at Ontario Motor Speedway of Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins adjusting the valve lash on his Pro Stock Camaro. He said, "What I find rather unique about this photo is the total lack of ‘secrecy’ that is displayed by Pro Stock teams today. No trying to hide anything that is ‘under the hood’ that might give up some advantage you may have over the competition, unlike Bob Glidden when he crashed his Thunderbird and the first thing he did when he crawled out was take his jacket off and cover up the intake. I also like the duct tape being used to hold the beat-up plates on top of the carburetors. And if one looks closely at the interior, you can see that there are still some of the original factory door panels and interior parts in place – unlike today’s hand-fabricated from-scratch Pro Stock cars where nothing is stock anymore!"

Another pit shot from the 1970 Supernationals; this one shows Jim Stevens’ B/Street Roadster, which took Modified honors at the event. The car was powered by a fuel-injected Ford Boss 302. Stevens was a full-time Los Angeles County firefighter.

And yet another pit shot from Ontario, this time of the famed Marcellus & Borsch Winged Express AA/Fuel Altered. That's the wild man himself, "Wild Willie" Borsch, having a smoke. "I loved – and still do love – the fuel altereds," said Nielsen. "One never knew exactly which direction these short-wheelbased cars might actually go. They definitely were exciting to watch run and I suspect even more exciting to drive!"

Wally Parks always told me that everyone loves a good engine shot, and this one will make a believer out of you. Again from the 1970 Supernationals, this is the Boss 429 Ford Maverick in Dick Brannan’s Pro Stocker. "The Holley carburetors on this engine setup are inline – not crosswise – making them really difficult to rejet!" pointed out Nielsen. "Also, the magnesium valve covers are starting to look like they could have used a little TLC." Quite a far cry from today's Pro Stock engines for sure!

 

OK, race fans, that's it for the day. I hope you enjoyed the little non-nitro side trip down Memory Lane. I'm sure there are dozens of Lions denizens out there who fondly remember these cars, and I think they make for an interesting collection of early iron.

See ya next week.
 

First things first: I'd like to welcome World Products aboard as the presenting sponsor of DRAGSTER Insider. Bill Mitchell, whose name should be familiar to anyone who has been around drag racing the last four decades, created World Products in 1987, kicking it off with the now-legendary Dart II (now Sportsman II) cylinder head, an affordable cast-iron head for the small-block Chevrolet that delivered impressive performance gains. The head was an instant success and was named Product of the Year in 1988 by Hot Rod magazine.

From that point, Mitchell, who is pictured at right in the photo here, and his team of engineers created other Chevy-oriented masterpieces such as the Merlin line of cylinder heads and engine blocks and now intake manifolds. No one-trick pony, World then wowed the Ford crowd with its Man O’War replacement block for 302/351 engines, and Mopar lovers could look to World for enhanced versions of aluminum Hemi and Wedge engine blocks.

World also went back to its Chevy roots and introduced the Motown line of cast-iron and aluminum blocks and heads for the small-block Chevy. The company also recently launched its Warhawk line of replacement blocks and cylinder heads for GM’s LS1/LS7 and C5R offerings.

Check them out here, and tell them thank you!
 

Given the number of people whom he touched and the many causes that Dick Wells championed, Monday's Celebration of Life service for the NHRA board member and aftermarket icon who passed away two weeks ago Monday was, not surprisingly, a packed-house affair at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Emceed by NHRA great Dave "Big Mac" McClelland, the 90-minute salute was filled with laughter and remembrances of Wells, who also served as National DRAGSTER's first editor. "There was nobody who enjoyed what he did more than Dick Wells," "Mac" told us, and it was clear that many people enjoyed their time with Wells and many who benefited greatly from it.

NHRA employees present and past turned out to show their respect for Wells, led by Board Chairman Dallas Gardner, President Tom Compton, Executive Vice President/General Manager Peter Clifford, Senior Vice President-Racing Operations Graham Light, and every vice president who was in town. I saw a lot of old NHRA friends who had known Wells since he joined the board in 1979.

Industrywise, it was an all-star turnout, especially from among Wells' friends and co-workers at SEMA, including President/CEO Chris Kersting, Board member and President of Street Scene Equipment Mike Spagnola, and Trade Shows Director Gary Vigil. Also in the crowd were well-known figures such as longtime NHRA friend, supporter, and Museum board member Alex Xydias; legendary car builder Carroll Shelby; Tom McKernan and Rick Lalor of the Automobile Club of Southern California; LA Roadsters founding member Jack Stewart; “Speedy” Bill Smith (for whom Wells had worked before leaving Nebraska for his job with NHRA); Jim Adolph; Bob DeVour; Bill Holland; Roland Leong; and Linda Vaughn, just to name a few.

Many of the above-named also spoke, sharing funny Wells stories and remembrances, honoring a guy who loved good humor with much of the same. Many of them knew Wells for more than three decades and spoke from the heart about their admiration for and kinship with Wells.

Compton closed the service with a story about his young daughter, Rachel, whom Wells had "babysat" for hours in the NHRA suite in Pomona while her dad was having one of those million-miles-per-hour days. When Compton told her two weeks ago about Wells' passing, she was heartbroken and told him, "He was such a nice man." Amen.

If you're going to the Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals presented by Valvoline and you knew Wells, a special tribute is planned for him Sunday that you won't want to miss.

When I left you last Thursday, the National DRAGSTER staff was heading into our meeting to somehow construct an impossible list of Top 10s of our sport. Even with 10 lists on tap to construct, I somehow imagined that our 9 a.m. start would lead to a conclusion around noon, but when the first list – Top 10 cars, which I thought was going to be one of the easiest – took nearly an hour to agree on, I knew we were in trouble.

We didn't wrap until well after 4 p.m., and even though consensus on all 10 was finally reached, there were some sore feelings about cars or crew chiefs or drivers that didn't make the top 10 cut or didn't end up ranked as high as one or more of us might have believed they should have been.

We'll present our lists in Issue 5, the one between the Winternationals preview and the results issue. I'm tackling the write-up on Top 10 Upsets and Top 10 National Events. The lists are controversial for sure, and we're already bracing ourselves for the "How could you leave (fill in the blank) off that list?" kind of responses.

Is it time for the Winternationals yet? The clock on the home page shows seven days, which isn’t many considering that we began the countdown with 70-something just after the Finals in November, but still … eight days? Man, I can hardly wait. We're all anxiously scanning the extended weather forecast and hoping that we don't have a repeat of last year's rain-marred event. We're expecting rain later this week and some early next week, but I think the race will be fine.

We're putting the finishing touches on the Winternationals preview issue. My print nostalgia column has more great memories of "T.V. Tommy" Ivo, who recalls his historic (but painful) eight-second blast in Pomona, as well as Lori Johns' look back at her 1990 Pomona win. It's also our annual season preview, which includes a class-by-class look at the year ahead and so much more.

Our Winternationals Memorable Moments list is down to the top five, which will be revealed next week leading up to the big moment during Sunday's pre-race ceremony, where the top moment will be unveiled. Looking at the list of Nos. 6-25, I was surprised that moments such as Robert Hight's comeback victory of just four years ago – in which he just about burned his Auto Club Mustang to the ground in round two but came back and won the race – finished higher than almost mythical moments such as the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" of 1981 or the Hawaiian Funny Car taking flight in the lights in 1969.

In fact, two of the top 10 moments are from the 2000s, and every decade is represented in the top 10, which speaks volumes about the consistently great nature of the racing at the annual season opener.

Eager in the interim for some kind of motorsports competition, I took the kids and my 2-year-old grandson, Trevor, to Monster Jam at Angel Stadium in Anaheim Saturday. The little guy – like most little guys – just loves them monster trucks, and he wasn't alone. They put on a pretty good show – nothing like the sound and fury of a drag race, though – and I always try to observe how "the other guys" do their thing compared to the NHRA Big Show. I know that my fellow NHRA decision-makers do the same wherever they go, and it's interesting to compare notes. How was the pre-race ceremony? What did they do to fill any downtime? Were the sponsor mentions too egregious? How was the sound level of the PA? Did the drivers interact with the fans? Did the fans seem excited? How was parking? Ticket control? The list goes on and on. It's probably not something you’d even think about unless you also were in the biz, but try it next time from a fan perspective. There are a lot of differences but also a lot of similarities.

It's pretty clear, too, that the iconic Grave Digger is the John Force of their world. Even the mere mention of the name brought cheers from the crowd, especially from the under-10 set, including T-Rev. Even though it was Pablo Huffaker and not Dennis Anderson behind the wheel of the familiar black and green '50 Chevy panel truck (did you know that seven Digger drivers travel the circuit to ensure a Grave Digger at every major event?), you wouldn’t have known it by the cheers. He got smoked in the first round of the racing competition and came back determined to wow everyone in the freestyle portion. He was (predictably) the last to run and blew the right-front tire after a monster jump but kept the hammer down and ended up flipping end over end trying to make a jump on three wheels. Kinda reminded me of Force in the 1992 Dallas final.

Good stuff and a lotta fun, but I'll stick with drag racing.
 

From the Too-Good-To-Be-True Department: We started getting word here yesterday that Don Prudhomme had signed a last-minute deal to salvage his season and "un retire" with a return in Gainesville, but, sadly, tisn't true. Talked to Snake Racing General Manager Skip Allum on the phone this morning, who confirmed that although he has also been hearing the same rumors, that's all they are.

I can’t tell you how much I would have loved to have had "Snake" pull a Mark Twain ("The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"), even after publishing our huge tribute issue to him two weeks ago, but, for now, "the Snake" remains in hibernation. I just hope that he remembers Don Garlits' famous quote, "Retiring is easy; I've done it dozens of times," and that fellow heroes such as Kenny Bernstein and Warren Johnson changed their minds, too, after hanging up their gloves.

I know y'all have been itching for more nostalgic stuff, so I'm proud to announce: Coming later this week --The Return of Fan Fotos!

See ya then.
 

I'll be in our Top 10 rumble -- er, I mean meeting – today as I and my fellow National DRAGSTER staffers match wits, expertise, and debating skills lobbying for our individual Top 10 favorites for the upcoming special issue of ND. We go in at 9 a.m. and come out whenever we're done. We may have to send out for pizza. If it goes after hours, we may have to add something a little stronger.

Anyway, in anticipation of being locked up all day, I went sifting through my e-mail Folder of Interesting Stuff (eFIST, patent pending) looking for some entertaining material for today's entry. Man, I collect some weird stuff in there. So, for your reading enjoyment and amusement, here's a little show-and-tell.

And away we go ...

NHRA's IT guru, Jared Robison, forwarded me any interesting link to a story headlined "World's Smallest Hot Rod Made Using Nanotechnology." How could I pass that one up? I mean, there are Jr. Dragsters and then there are Jr. Dragsters, but nano dragsters?

For those of you without a college degree – or those like me who also had to look it up -- nanotechnology is a manufacturing process that controls matter at the nanoscale, usually considered between 1 and 100 nanometers. A human hair is about 100,000 nanometers wide. Apparently it's the next great gateway to technical advancements. Hey, just look at the iPod nano.

Anyway, I got all excited thinking that there was going to be some great photo of a super-small car that maybe a flea could drive but instead got the photo below, helpfully positioned by the Photoshop whizzes of the American Chemical Society next to a photo of Joe Hartley's Top Fueler to show the similarities.

Uh … OK. This is a dragster?

"It has smaller front wheels on a shorter axle and bigger back wheels on a longer axle," explained James Tour, a Rice University chemist, who was involved in the research. I think he was serious.

Researchers say that this new "nanodragster" improves on prior nanocar designs (I certainly hope so) and could speed up efforts to craft molecular machines, and learning how to drive nanovehicles could pave the way for small but technologically useful structures, such as electronics, that could be built atom by atom.

The minuscule vehicle, whose chassis is a pair of aligned hydrocarbon molecules, is about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. According to the article, spherical molecules called buckyballs, made of 60 carbon atoms each, serve as the rear wheels. For the front wheels, the scientists opted for a less sticky compound called p-carborane. The "dragster" is pushed along a "dragstrip" made of a superfine layer of gold (and you thought all-concrete tracks were expensive!) by heat or an electric field, where it can reach speeds of up to 9 nanomiles, or 0.014 millimeters (.0005-inch), per hour (which they tell me is pretty fast), and, hey, it also can do tricks.

"Because the front wheels don't stick to the surface as strongly, they're more prone to lift up, so [the nanodragster] does seem to pop a wheelie at times," Tour said.

I bet Bill Doner would book 'em.

 

On a slightly larger but still small-scale note comes this photo from Randy Bruette at ATI, who has recently finished restoring the ATI Black Magic Funny Car. No, I'm not talking about the Al Segrini/R.C. Sherman/D.A. Santucci-driven flopper, but rather this fine little piece, a minicar built by ATI honcho Jim Beattie for his kids in the mid-1970s when the real car was first storming around the country and up and down the East Coast.

The minicar had languished in a barn for 25 to 30 years before Bruette found it and began bringing it back to life. Built on a Rupp go-kart chassis and powered by a 3-horsepower Clinton engine, it's cloaked in a Vega replica body made of high-impact plastic rather than fiberglass. The body was painted by the late, great flopper painter Tom Stratton in California, who also painted the original Black Magic Funny Car body from a Kenny Youngblood scheme.

Bruette says he's planning to make a Back in the Day Tour in 2010, going to as many tracks as possible in the Mid-Atlantic area for nostalgia events.

The minicar is functional, and a couple tracks have given him the OK to have his 10-year-old daughter, Emmy, make a couple laps.

I also received these and other images like them from several folks, showing amazing art fashioned from old tires. It just goes to show you the inventiveness and creativity of the human spirit. I was about to comment that these were pretty slick pieces of art, then I noticed that these are made from treaded tires. I wouldn’t want to anger the artist, especially if any of them were women. I'd hate to rubber the wrong way, you know? I'd rather inflate her ego. Wheel-y I would. "Rim" shot, eh? Man, suddenly I'm very tired.
 

Is Ford's reemergence in drag racing showing up in its TV commercials? One can't help but wonder. Old pal Jason Oldfield clued me in to a Ford ad for the new Taurus boasting about the quiet ride and showing it off by placing it and a competitor alongside a jet dragster going through its flame show.

Talented wheelman Tanner Foust, he of drifting fame and the Speed Channel show Supercars Exposed, is in all of the new commercials, which can be found here.

Well, it's winter elsewhere in the country, which means it's the time when everyone shows off cool new snow machines. I really like this T-bucket snowmobile with supercharged Chevy power to help conquer those nasty snowdrifts, but how about the bottom photo, where some guy, obviously tired of his anemic-performing snowblower, got all radical with a big-block Chevrolet powerplant so that he could really start tossing aside the white stuff?

Kai Grundt's V-8 snowblower has electric start, an electric block heater, antifreeze heater, and eight wonderful cylinders that churn out 412 horsepower and 430 foot-pounds of torque and can throw snow 50 feet at just 3,500 rpm.

The custom 42-inch, two-stage auger has a Chevy 10 bolt truck differential with spool and a centrifugal auger clutch with shear pin protection, further adding to the image of this automotive-themed blower. Crazy Kai will build you one to suit your automotive leanings (Chevy, Dodge Hemi, or Ford) or will even give you a V-10 or a diesel engine if you’re so inclined.

He also offers hop-up kits consisting of Lunati camshaft, Milodon gear drive, and Holley and Edelbrock components as well as a fuel-injection option.
 
Sure, it weighs more than 900 pounds, but he has ingeniously routed engine coolant through the handle bars to keep the operator's hands nice and warm.

OK, folks, that's it for today. I gotta pack my notes and my boxing gloves and head into the meeting.
 

Man, look at the calendar. The Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals presented by Valvoline is only two weeks and two days away, which probably explains why I'm too busy with all of the assorted Winternationals accoutrements to even breathe.

Between the History of the NHRA Winternationals book, the 50th Winternationals Web site, the special expanded event program, and various featurettes here and in National DRAGSTER, in the last six months, I've written tens of thousands of words. And we haven’t even started on the Winternationals preview issue of ND yet! And I know that in the course of covering the event for National DRAGSTER and NHRA.com, I'll write even more. As much as I can’t wait for the event to get here, I also can’t wait for it to be over.

OK, so that's a lie, but you get my drift.

Columnwise, thanks for all of the input for our Top 10 lists – I was besieged with your votes, and y'all only confirmed what I already knew: You're a bright and knowledgeable bunch – and your submissions for the Your Heroes column (coming soon!) as well as all of the feedback on the new deal around here. I'm trying to keep it fun and nostalgic while not crossing swords with the ND column.

Candida and Marc were in Phoenix this weekend to cover the National Time Trials there, and although the car count was a little light (OK, a lot light), Marc took advantage of the downtime to set up some possible cover shots for the Pomona preview issue, which is also our annual Season Preview. I know you've seen our trusty ND photographers covered in tire rubber after a brutal day on the starting line, but it's clear from this photo, snapped by John Force Racing publicist Elon Werner, that Marc was getting down and dirty for us to get the shot. (Man, that's a low-angle shot!) I'm not saying this is going to be the cover, and I've yet to see the actual photos, but I like the way it looks.

For those of you keeping score, that will be Issue 4. Issue 1 was our What's New: Top 10 issue that most of you who subscribe should already have. It includes Tommy Ivo's great recollection of his 1974 crash and a lot of other cool stuff. Yesterday, we received office copies of Issue 2, which has a huge – and I mean HUGE – Don Prudhomme retrospective. If you're a "Snake" fan, you're gonna love this one. In addition to a four-page interview I did with "the Snake" about his decision to retire (I still think he's not done), the Pure Nostalgia column is the second half of the interview, called Snake's Take, for which I fed him subjects and let him share his feelings, covering topics such as Tom McEwen ("It's like having a brother that you don't get along with, but they're still family.") and his take-no-prisoners attitude of the 1970s ("I was a jerk. I recognize that, especially now."). That covers three more pages, then there's Little Bradfield's four-page photo tribute to The Man, and I have to say he picked some great shots, most of them color keepers.

We're working on Issue 3 right now, and I'm very proud to say that Senior Editor Kevin McKenna landed an interview with Al-Anabi team owner Sheik Khalid Al Thani, who doesn't grant interviews very often. K-mac had to do the interview Sunday, but it was worth it. This issue also includes Phoenix testing results, a tribute to Dick Wells, a look at overdue champs, and the What's New combo of the first installment of our all-class new iron and new products. Issue 5, the one between the Pomona preview and results issues, will be our Top 10 special.

I'm pretty excited about the Top 10 lists, but there will be some hard choices to make. Internally, we've been compiling our lists and sharing them, and I can guarantee there will be some heated discussions Thursday when we reconvene to decide the Top 10. Everyone has an opinion (including you guys), and there are bound to be hurt feelings and busted jaws before this one is done. Candida has a mean right hook.

Back to the Winternationals: The Golden 50 is shaping up to be really something, and even with some last-minute dropouts, it's already at about 80 cars (you can see the current list here) because we keep adding great ones. Just yesterday, I added to the list the Drag-On-Lady SS/BA, the Mooneyes Dragster AA/D, the Syndicate Scuderia AA/D, Don Grotheer's Cable Car SS/BA, the Teixeira & Son B/G, the rear-engine Warren, Coburn & Miller Top Fueler, Roger Gates' AA/FD, and the Leland Kolb/Scorcher AA/FD.

Some of the cars on the list will be Cackled, and there's a lot of excitement about one entry in particular, the Smirnoff AA/FD.

The car, which was designed by the talented Steve Swaja, built by master craftsman Roy Fjasted of Speed Products Engineering, and surrounded with a body from the equally prodigious Bob Sorrell, was tuned by the late, great Dave Zeuschel, who had coaxed speed-crazed Darryl Greenamyer to Lions Drag Strip for a look-see and before he knew it found himself building engines for his pal.

The car made its debut in 1967 and ran its last race at the 1969 Winternationals, but the original owner held on to the old gal for nearly four decades before she was resurrected.

Sure, I know, the car has been seen around since it was restored in 2006 (there's a great recap of the car's history as well as its restoration here), but the big news is that Greenamyer will be back at the wheel. Greenamyer was a famed test pilot and air racer (he flew both the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird) and original owner and driver of the car, which Larry Dixon Sr. drove when Greenamyer’s duties at Lockheed kept him from racing.

According to Steve Gibbs, "It took current owner Joe Passalaqua years to talk Greenamyer into selling the car, and it is a beautiful restoration of what was one of the most beautiful cars of the era. To get Greenamyer back into the car is a big deal in our little corner of the sport."

Greenamyer's name also may be familiar to people who saw the documentary Frozen in Time, in which Greenamyer attempted to fly an abandoned B-29 out of Greenland in 1994.

The plane, the Kee Bird, was on a secret mission over Greenland Feb. 21, 1947, when the crew became lost and, out of fuel, crash-landed. Miraculously, the plane suffered little structural damage. Although the crew was rescued, the plane was left behind and sat on the edge of a frozen lake for nearly 50 years. The Air Force released ownership of the plane to anyone who could fly it out of there.

After months of work replacing vital components on the plane, including all four engines, and after the death of the project's chief engineer, who literally worked himself to death, the plane was finally ready to fly and had taxied to a takeoff position when fire broke out, and the plane, heartsickeningly, was consumed in flames. It sank into the lake the next summer, gone forever. (You can read more about this ultimately sad but definitely Herculean effort here.)

The plane is gone, but Greenamyer is still here to tell the tale and I'm sure will share racing tales with his old buddies in Pomona. I think I'd like to shake his hand.