Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

Congrats to Sam for his Pontiac powered win !

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

Also, congrats to Norman Warling for his Pontiac powered semi-final finish.

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

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

Sam’s win was actually a Dodge Challenger win. Congratulations to him and his father Dave 👍.

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

Maybe I was misled by the qualifying list showing his car to be a '71 Pontiac. And, because the pics I have of his '71 Pontiac are of a '71 Formula Firebird. The car pictured also has the same 5759 permanent number as is listed on the Q-list.

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

I suppose this, once again, proves that you can't believe everything you read online.

The only clue I had that his car might not be a Bird, was the B/SA class. Have never seen a 455 Bird run that high. But, since Scott Burton's '70 Formy ran B/SA, I thought maybe NHRA had increased the hp factor enuff, for a '71 Bird to make B/SA. Probably not.

Hey, sorry for the bad info guys. Not intentional. :o

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

The Firebird in the pic.was driven by Harry Axemaker,I believe he won a Nat.event (Winters?) in the late 80's with it.Used to see him at the Div. 5 events...gsa612

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

Nice to see a younger gen win one.

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

Anybody have a clue why Sam Rueland's car is listed as a '71 Pontiac ?

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

Since the '71 Formy pic I posted does have the same permanent number as the one shown on the Q-list, anybody know when/if Sam ever actually raced that Bird ?

Found some more pics on my laptop which may help explain some of this. Sam Reuland is wrote on the side windows. And, Axemaker is wrote on the doors of that '71 Bird & a '72 GTO. So, maybe Axemaker was the car owner & Sam was the driver ???

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

Here's the history on the white '71 Firebird:

Car was ordered through Schoon Motors in Luverne, Minnesota. Schoon Motors was owned by Arnie Toftland, a pretty successful Pontiac racer in his day. The car was ordered and purchased by Don Breen of Sioux Falls, S.D. specifically to race. It had very few options: 455 H.O. engine, heavy duty suspension and TH400 trans. It's also a radio delete car and came with a column shift, no console. The window sticker for the car still exists. Don and partners Daryl Vanderploeg and Greg White raced the car in SS/JA with engine work by Larry Nagel's Precision Engineering in Sioux Falls.

After racing it, the car was sold to Dennis Kohler from Sioux Falls and was driven on the street for several years before being parked. Don was looking to build another Firebird for Stock Eliminator and I told him that I knew where his original Firebird was sitting. Don bought it and did a beautiful job of turning it into a Stocker, running the low h.p. 455.

Don sold the car to John Spry, who was originally from Mitchell, S.D. John was living in Montana or Wyoming...not sure which. John repainted the car grey and raced it as a Stocker for several years. Harry Axemaker, also from Mitchell, S.D. and a friend of John's, brought the car back to Mitchell after it was purchased by Harry's brother Ken, who lives in Alaska. The car was repainted to it's original white by Dennis Axemaker, a brother of Harry and Ken. Harry raced the car for quite a while. When he was done racing it, the car was turned over to their good friend Dave Reuland from the Mitchell area. Dave also raced the GTO pictured with Axemaker and Reuland on the door. Dave and son Sam raced the Firebird for several years before deciding to do the silver Challenger.

Unfortunately, Harry passed away in late January of 2018. Ken Axemaker, the brother that owned the car, sold the car to Dan Johnson of Mitchell, who was a long time friend of Harry's. Dan and his grandson are now racing the car in F/SA with the low h.p. 455. Plans are to do a 455 H.O. engine in the future.

I may have missed a few details, but that's a pretty good over view.

Here's the car as it now looks:

https://i.imgur.com/ar87bX2h.jpg

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

Actually, Dave is Harry, Ken and Dennis cousin

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

Side note on Schoon Motors.

Warren Schoon along with Arnie Toftland had the dealership. Warren, Arnie, and I believe Bob Best from Sioux Falls were flying to the Indy 500 when their plane went down. Warren and Bob died at the scene. Arnie was badly burned and lingered for quite a while before passing.

Many of Arnie's cars are still in the Luverne area. His son Dean has a few and several others have a few also. Arnie knew how to make the Pontiacs run for sure! I worked at Schoon's Chrysler dealership in the 80s.

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

Sam at Indy.

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

"Here's the history on the white '71 Firebird:..."

Alan,THANKS for all the details. I really appreciate it. Love to know the history of Pontiac Stock/SS race cars. :)

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

First off, thanks everyone for the congratulations. Much appreciated and it took a little while.

Now, as for the controversy with the qualifying sheets. My dad and I do race a '11 Challenger, which we have had out for little over a year now. A few years ago we ran the Firebird at Kearney and their computers just didn't update the drivers with their new cars. Hence, Dad and I and at least one other driver had the wrong car listed.

I appreciated the history of the Firebird that was listed, and it is essentially correct. My dad and Kenny, Harry, and Denny Axemaker are first cousins. They started racing in '77 when they built the '72 GTO that we still own today and is shown in those pictures. The Firebird was parked for round-a-bout a decade when Dad asked Ken, the sole owner, if we could race it again. Ken graciously lent us the car while we, and Harry, supplied the parts. We raced it from 2007 until late 2017 when we parked it in order to complete work on the Challenger. Ken sold it over the winter last year and it remains in the area in the hands of Dan Johnson. The GTO will be brought back out next year as a secondary car with a new paint scheme.

Re: Congrats Sam Reuland !
 

"...The GTO will be brought back out next year as a secondary car with a new paint scheme."


Glad to hear that ! There use to be lots of '60's & '70's GTO's on tracks all over the country. Now there are VERY few.

I'd like to keep up with your GTO. Maybe you could post info about it's return to the track, in the "Class Racer Builds" section. ??? :)