Best Pontiac Powered Stockers

[oldskool]

A fellow Pontiac guy just found & sent me this Super Bird pic. It and the other '67 Bird pictured below show some things from days gone by.

(1) The Super Bird looks like an independent racer, like I was. We came up with a name for our cars & put that name on the side. And looks like the guy just put whatever decals he could find, on the car. I did the same thing, when I 1st started. Had no idea where to buy the real contingency size decals. Just used whatever my local NAPA store could come up with, or whatever I could find. Also he didn't use any lightweight alum wheels. Just used some factory type steel wheels. Some guys would paint the wheels with some sort of silver or alum colored paint. I always thought that looked sorta cheesy. But, lots of low buck guys did it.

(2) Then there were car dealers that sponsored cars, therefore had the dealer name on the side, for advertisement. Many times, some dealer employee would actually prepare & race the car. As mentioned, lots of racers nowadays don't want any name or decals on the car, at all. They seem to want the car to look more like a street car than a race car.

Anyhow, these Birds are typical of the way cars looked, back when we started racing.

[Billy Nees]

Is that "Butchie" Delorenzo in the Myrtle Motors car?

[oldskool]

Well, after quite a bit of searching, I think I've finally figured out why I was so confused about all those classes from the very early 60's, like S/S, OS/S, S/SA, A/FX, & B/FX. I was trying to lump all those classes into one class, called Super stock.

Not so. It seems that all those classes, plus A/S & A/SA, were part of what was called "Top Stock".

Then, all the Stock classes from B/S & below were included in what was called "Junior Stock".

I'd occasionally run across the term Junior Stock. But, in my mind I just assumed that class had rules like some sort of "Pure Stock" class.

Another reason I had a different idea about it was because when I 1st started racing my GTO, the class I ran was called "Top Stock", at our local track. But, their use of that name was NOT the same as NHRA Top Stock, from the early '60's.

At that time, there was no bracket racing at our track. The street driven cars would run what I think was called Street Stock. Actually, some of the cars that ran in Top Stock were also driven to the track. Top Stock ran for $75 plus a trophy. Street Stock just ran for a trophy, IIRC.

Anyhow, I never ran a track that had a Junior Stock class. Only read about Junior Stock, since I got online. And only discovered exactly what it was, yesterday. I'm sure that many of you older guys may remember Top Stock & Junior Stock well. I don't.

Now, as it got closer to the mid '60's, the FX classes went wild. They separated themselves from Top Stock cars, with all sorts of modifications, like blowers, shorter wheelbases, light body parts, etc. These cars began booking into match races, at tracks all over the country. This was the birth of the Funny Car. Arnie Beswick probably led the Pontiac powered match race tour guys. There were a few others, including Don Gay. But, those cars had nothing to do with Stock or SS, so that's all I'll say about that.

So, if I have it correct now, Everything from B/S down, ran Junior Stock. Everything above B/S, ran Top Stock, at least at the national level. I assume that some local tracks made their own rules, as mine did.

If this Top Stock/Junior Stock info is not correct, some of ya'll who know for sure, please explain it to us.

Then, somewhere around '66 or '67, Stock & SS, became 2 separate classes. The SS cars could run headers, bigger than stock cams, after market intakes, & bigger tires than the Stockers could run. Again, this is what I read online, about the history of Super Stock. May not be accurate, since we all know that not everything you read online is true.

Here is a link to the site where I got much of this info.

http://www.mre-books.com/ct953/superstock1966.html

Below is a pic, which I've probably posted here already. Not re-posting to brag, but just to show that the class I ran, in '73-'74, at my local track, was called Top Stock.

[oldskool]

Anybody know of any Pontiac Stock nat event wins during the '80's & '90's up thru 1997 ?

After the Mike McKinney US Nats win in '77, the next Pontiac Stock win I know about was the Al Vanis win in 2003, which I mentioned.

Surely there must have been others, in that 20+ year period.

Any online source for nat event Stock & SS winners for that time period ?

[Billy Pires]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

Is that "Butchie" Delorenzo in the Myrtle Motors car?

Bloomster told me it’s Harry Wesch who also worked at the dealership.

[oldskool]

In looking for results of national events, I happened across this short video of the 1965 Winter Nats. Thought some of you might be interested in it.

At aprox the 1:45 point of the video there is a good close-up of the Gay Pontiac '64 GTO. And, at aprox the 8:37 point, Arnie Beswick's A/MP '63 Tempest, drives past the camera.

The video is near the bottom of the page, at this link.

https://bangshift.com/bangshift1320/...kably-awesome/

And, speakin of Arnie's '63 Tempest, here's an AHRA video I happened across. I assume the round shown at aprox the 15:40 point, was the semifinal. And, at aprox the 16:18 point, I assume that was the final round, showing that Arnie won the Sportsman Eliminator class at that race.

https://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/...nternationals/

Here's a pic of that Gay Pontiac '64 GTO, along with the other 2 cars they were racing, at the time, and their hauler.

[oldskool]

While lookin for some more videos with some Pontiac Stockers on 'em, I ran across this one. For obvious reasons, I HAD to post a link to it !

[oldskool]

Not posting these in any particular order, but just as I run across 'em.

In this one, Randi Lyn Shipp got RU.

https://www.nhra.com/videos/2018/201...inner-ben-line

This was a qualifying session at a div 7 race in AZ. There were 6 Pontiacs entered. Three 1st gen & three 2nd gen Birds.

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

5 are shown in this round, including the quickest Pontiac Stocker ever, the Scott Burton B/SA '70 RAIV Formula.

[oldskool]

Here's a video of the 1st round of elims, at the 2012 Winter Nats. Leo was #2 on the final Q-list. List also included Pontiacs driven by John Schloe, Scott & Brad Burton, Larry Maxwell, and Lindy Lindholm.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2012#indextop

[oldskool]

How about an all Pontiac nat event final ? Bryan Warter picked up his 1st Wally. Randi Lyn was RU.