Best Pontiac Powered Stockers

[oldskool]

I have that pic of the John Thropp car in my files. Love the tow bar.

Towed my GTO to the track, in '73, with a 472 powered Caddy. Plenty of torque. No sweat. Hey, I had to start somewhere. For '74, I moved all the way up to a homemade pipe trailer, which had mobile home axles & no brakes. But hey, I was winning races & having loads of fun !

That reminds me of this 3rd pic, which appears to be a GP pulling a trailer with a Bird on it. Have seen a few pics of Pontiacs, especially wagons, pulling other Pontiacs around.

By the way, that GTO in the top pic is a '67. I've seen very few of those on the track. I suppose the GTO racers just didn't wanna give up their Tri-Power & 4-speed. I think the 400 engine, TH400 trans, & Q-jet would have been a lot more competitive. Dial your own, breakout racing, is just tuff with a stick.

[oldskool]

As mentioned, there were a lot of Pontiac dealers that fielded drag cars.

That Stephen Pontiac car reminded me of a couple of pics I have.

One is a chrome bumper '68 GTO Stocker. The other is what I think was a poor attempt at a Pro Stock car. Anybody know how quick it was & how much it lacked being competitive ?

When I 1st saw it, I thought the "Pro" was for the Pro bracket, at a local bracket race. But, I think I read that it was actually an attempt at the Pro Stock class. That was obviously in the very early days of Pro Stock. Never knew of a dealership sponsoring a bracket car.

"...Following a 1973 NHRA rule change to allow records to be set at any national meet, at the 1973 NHRA Winternationals, "Dyno Don" Nicholson set the first official Pro Stock e.t. record with a 9.33, while Bill Jenkins turned in a record 148.76 mph (239.41 km/h) speed; later at the same event, Nicholson made a 9.01 second/150.50 mph (242.21 km/h) pass, breaking both his and Jenkins' records..."

Anybody know how the Stephen Stockers did ?

[impstocker]

Originally Posted by oldskool

As mentioned, there were a lot of Pontiac dealers that fielded drag cars.

When I 1st saw it, I thought the "Pro" was for the Pro bracket, at a local bracket race. But, I think I read that it was actually an attempt at the Pro Stock class. That was obviously in the very early days of Pro Stock. Never knew of a dealership sponsoring a bracket car.

?

I remember that Stephen Pontiac Firebird Pro Stock car running at Dover Dragstrip early 70's

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by impstocker

I remember that Stephen Pontiac Firebird Pro Stock car running at Dover Dragstrip early 70's

Do you remember what kind of times it turned ?

[oldskool]

The next '68 Bird I'll mention belongs to Todd Hoven. He's explained to me the circumstances under which he came by the car. If he wants to add to or correct anything I say about the car, he is invited to do so.

If I'm correct, the car is the one that Roy & Mike McKinney traded to Truman Fields, in the deal in which they got the '68 that Truman had won the '73 US Nats with. Truman then took the McKinney car and began racing it. He got the C/S class win with it at the '77 US Nats.

Then he raced it for many years, with several different paint jobs. Long story short, Todd got the car & raced it for a while, with a Truman Fields Hard Times resto look. Then that look was changed back to a plain green, without all the lettering.

Todd ran it as a stick car for a while, then switched to auto. He drove it himself, for a while. Then, as many here know, he started driving a Mopar, & his brother Duane started driving the bird. Again Todd, if any of this is wrong, please correct it.

I'll look up some numbers & race results for it, since Todd has had it.

He made the field for the 2015 US Nats with a .958 under, 10.592.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2015#indextop

He won this div 1 race in 2016.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop

He got the D/SA win at this div 1 Nat Open race, with 10.543. Aslo cut a .008 light. Ran a 10.533 the previous round.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...UMMIT#indextop

I'm sure Todd can tell us about any other wins the car has had,

[oldskool]

Another nice 10 sec '68 Bird belongs to Ronald prince.

At this div 5 race, he qualified with a .667 under, 10.883, and was RU.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCStory.asp?ID=316804

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2018#indextop

[oldskool]

There are LOTS of pics of other '68's thru the years.

Here are 4 oldies.

Will probably find others to post later on.

Check out that old ramp truck in pic #2. Back in the '70's & '80's there were lots of those at the tracks we ran. But most were not as old or big as that one.

My 1st was a new '74 Ford 1-ton with a 390 & 4-speed. It was baby blue & cost around $3500. Got it a little cheaper, because the '75's had already come out. This one was probably still on the lot because of the color. A friend gave me some ramps off an old trailer, and we welded 'em on the truck & called it a ramp truck. Made it too steep. So, I had to add an electric winch to load the car. And this pic shows the home built trailer I'd bought, for $500. This pic was taken in early '75, before the door lettering & decals were added to the Bird. But, TJ had already won several races by that time. The 1st two wins came while it was still in red primer. Hey, we ran local tracks. They didn't care what color they were.

And while I'm showin my old junk, that '68 ragtop reminded me of ours So, here's a pic of it, along with my first 1-ton crew-cab, a '76 model. It's the truck that carried us to 49 races in '78. Cost about $4000. They're at least 10 times that price nowadays, probably more. I haven't bought one lately.

[Alan Nyhus]

Here's a couple pics of the Don Breen '71 Firebird 455 H.O. that later went to John Spry and ultimately to the Axemaker family. It was originally run in SS/JA but since we've talked about it here....

Indy, U.S. Nationals:



Lunati add after Don won the NHRA Points Race at Minnesota's Donnybrook Raceway (now known as Brainerd). Don beat Herman Chapman in the final, who's car is also in the add:

[Terry Witzel]

Originally Posted by oldskool

As mentioned, there were a lot of Pontiac dealers that fielded drag cars.

That Stephen Pontiac car reminded me of a couple of pics I have.

One is a chrome bumper '68 GTO Stocker. The other is what I think was a poor attempt at a Pro Stock car. Anybody know how quick it was & how much it lacked being competitive ?

When I 1st saw it, I thought the "Pro" was for the Pro bracket, at a local bracket race. But, I think I read that it was actually an attempt at the Pro Stock class. That was obviously in the very early days of Pro Stock. Never knew of a dealership sponsoring a bracket car.

"...Following a 1973 NHRA rule change to allow records to be set at any national meet, at the 1973 NHRA Winternationals, "Dyno Don" Nicholson set the first official Pro Stock e.t. record with a 9.33, while Bill Jenkins turned in a record 148.76 mph (239.41 km/h) speed; later at the same event, Nicholson made a 9.01 second/150.50 mph (242.21 km/h) pass, breaking both his and Jenkins' records..."

Anybody know how the Stephen Stockers did ?

According to this information, the Stephen Pontiac Pro Stockers best was a 10.35


STEPHEN PONTIAC CADILLAC INC, Bristol, CT (Pontiaction 68 GTO RA II/ 69 Firebird RA IV/ 70 Firebird RA V drag racers sponsor)
Stephen Pontiac Cadillac Inc. was located at 1097 Farmington Ave in Bristol, Connecticut during the 1960s and 1970s.
The dealership sponsored cars named Pontiaction. The service technician at Stephen Pontiac Bill Eckstrom had already been an avid drag racer prior to the dealership involvement in 1968. Bill became their driver and did very well campaigning the Stephen Pontiac cars. The 3 dealer sponsored cars were named Pontiaction I, II and III and competed in NHRA and even Indy.
The first Pontiaction racer was a 1968 Pontiac GTO RA II 4 with a speed steel bumper (Endura delete) that ran in D stock.
Pontiaction II was a yellow 1969 Firebird Ram Air IV 4 speed that ran in C stock at 11.93 E.T. at 118 MPH in the quarter mile.
Pontiaction III was a pro stock 1970-73 Firebird RA V that was rebodied according to the year it raced. This car was raced at Indy as well as posting 10.35 second E.T.s in the quarter mile.
The Pontiaction II Yellow 1969 Firebird was raced for the 1969 season as a Stephen Pontiac team car. Bill Eckstrom believed the car was converted for street-legal use and sold after that. In researching the car Jeff Palazzo found no evidence of the car ever being registered during that time period. It is suggested that Pontiaction II was raced in 1970 now named Yellow Bird by the new owner.
Jeff Palazzo of Simsbury bought Pontiaction II in 1989 showing only 15,000 miles on the odometer. Palazzo raced Pontiaction II for 12 years. He quit racing it because of it's rarity and difficulty finding parts.
Pontiaction III was retired after 1973. Pontiaction III lives on as the RA V engine from that car is being used in a 1969 Trans Am racer. Howard Block bought the body and is restoring the car.
Stephen Pontiac later became Stephen's World 'O' Wheels and then Stephens Automall and Stephens Toyota.

[oldskool]

Thanks for that info !

"...a yellow 1969 Firebird Ram Air IV 4 speed that ran in C stock at 11.93 E.T. ..."

That brings up a question. The caption under the pic of Truman Fields winning the '73 US Nats says that he set the C/S record at 12.06.

So, what year did that '69 Bird run 11.93 ?


Another question: Truman got the C/S class win at the '77 US Nats. How quick did he have to run to get that win ?

Is there ANY source to find all/any of those old nat records & class win records ?

Or were they just on paper & never transferred to any form where they'd be accessible online ?

Would especially love to find records of all the US Nats, prior to 1998, since 1998 & up records are online at DRC.

Does anybody here have records of class winners from ANY of those older US Nats ?