Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves

Bruce Fulper · 07-01-2007, 01:33 AM

Part #2.
Sunday morning rolled around real early. This event was such a huge "happening" that most everyone had stayed overnight. Kinda unheard of to us, but man. What partying. Bon fires everywhere. Lots of beer that I hadn't aquired a taste for yet. But I tried. Hell peer pressure can really get you doing dumb things sometimes. But this was a 100% fun time. We talked all night about strategy. We didn't know what the hell to do, but we talked about it. The one thing we did figure out was we needed a hell of a lot of runs in order to see what to dial. And this first time? NO changing of the dial. You picked it before eliminations and that was that.

My buddy with the Comet and I were the first ones in the staging lanes Sunday morning. We were the first pair down the track. It was 9:00 A.M. sharp. I've lost count on the time trials at the moment - but here they are - read them top to bottom in columns starting from the left side.

One thing I began to notice - (the Buick only had one great big ol' Stewart Warner water temp guage,) the hotter it got, the quicker it ran. As you can see it began dropping by a tenth or so, then hundreths, then single digit hundreths. The four 21.84's about threw me - I thought, "This is it - I'll dial 21.84" - but I had a few more time trials to go before the one o'clock cut off.

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Bruce Fulper · 07-01-2007, 01:36 AM

Here's the next set of Sunday morning time trials in order as they were ran. Now then - here's the killer - As you see the car was happily inching it's ET's lower and lower until the last run. I had finally got down to 21.80 at the hottest part of the day so far, and then I made the last time trial. The damn thing jumped .014 hundreths! Just knocked me out. I thought I had it made until that run. Everyone was flipping out how consistent the car had been, then that friggin 21.64 popped up. Talk about stress.

No one was any help. Hell, no one we knew had ever heard of bracket racing before. Even the "old" guys. No one knew what to suggest. I kept looking at those Et slips and finally came up with the thought...."it goes quicker as it gets hotter. I have to guess how many runs I might make and how hot it might get."

It was frustrating as all get out. I was pacing around right up until they called first round. I decided cause it had creeped so slowly to 21.80, and now it had cooled off some, and I wouldn't be making that many runs even if I got to the finals, I went ahead put a 21.70 on the window.

Bruce Fulper · 07-01-2007, 02:41 AM

I can't remember all of the cars I ran against that day. I do remember one of them was a VW that was slower than me. And THAT messed me up. And with the low first gear those things have I thought Crap! He was way out on me at the green. But the old Buick stormed (ok, creeped,) around him about the time he hit fourth gear. It had launched like a rocket, but when he hit fourth it was like he hit the brakes. But it had worried me for a bit.

The Buick had cooled down a LOT before the first round. And I wish like heck I could remember who and how I beat anyone with a 21.70 dial, especially with the first win being a 22.01. It took seven runs including the final that day.

I had formulated another game plan before the first round too. I would leave the dynaflow in low range until the speedo was straight up - dead on 60 mph - then no matter where I was I clicked it to high range. Which as I remember just a few feet before the finish line.

Back then the win lights were strung across the track right at or just a very few feet after the finish line. I remember not being able to see them. Unless the other guy left the time slip booth all pissed off I had to wait to get my slip to know if I had won.

So, now that it's easy to reflect on what happened that day, I'm thinking the Buicks block was so heat soaked from all of those time trials and it was a hot summers day, I see now the date was 8/15/71, that the ET's started dropping quicker than they did during TT's. I started wondering if the 21.70 was low enough.

22.01, 21.97, 21.93, 21.90, then jumped to a 21.77, which had me real worried, but the next one, semi-finals if you will, was a 21.74 and it had me sweating bullets now. There was one run left and I was too close to my dial.

I do remember this competitor... It was a small block 1968 Chevelle dialed in at the bottom end of the bracket. 15.00 flat.

As I had mentioned to Len in a previous post - at 42 you could get REAL close to the starting line as a spectator. Their chain link fence narrowed right up close, close enough that I could see and more importantly hear all of my Kent buddies going crazy.

Of course there were no reaction times to cloud our heads back then. All I knew I was holding the brake harder and harder and laying into the gas pedal more and more. Had my routine together too. I'd light that top light and stop, take off my horn rimmed glasses, wipe the sweat off my face, put my glasses back on and bump in. Count - FIVE amber lights - and on this last run - after all of my pre-stage prep - and my pals hanging on the fence, and in front of 30,000 people, the Chevelle sitting next to me at an idle, and of course the Buick was a quiet as a church mouse, as the lights came down I remember pushing the gas pedal a-l-l of the way to the floor. Remember, other than the announcer who was REALLY having a ball with me all day and the Chevelle idling, it was pretty damn quiet.

When I let off the brake - the Buick for the first time ever - the right rear tire - went CHIRP!!

I saw all my pals F-A-L-L off the fence laughing their axxes off. It was hilarious. The Buick, my unbelievable super slow beast, actually chirped the tire when it left. What a riot.

I remember now after looking at the car, I had taken the PolyGlass tires off my '65 2+2 cause it was sitting the garage with a broken four speed.

Here's the et slips including the semi-finals. Remeber - read left column top to bottom first -

Bruce Fulper · 07-01-2007, 03:09 AM

It CHIRPED the tire!

Oh man - it was soooo funny. Anyhow.

The Chevelle - is sitting at an idle when I left. I was running with my drivers window rolled down. I'd look at the folks in the stands. Wave. I mean c'mon, I had a long way to go to get to 60 mph and I was having the most fun I could have. Or make. It was nutty. This friggin '53 Buick getting all of this attention that afternoon. Remember all of those "older" guys we went to see?
They were hating me 'bout now. Fulper's goofy little brother is out there geting attention like crazy. Not one of them talked to me later. Reminds me of several guys I know now - that I used to look up to but after I started going fast in Super Stock quit talking to me. Oh well. Live and learn 'bout those special personalities eh?

Anyhow - the Chevelle has to wait 6.7 seconds. I actually watched his lights come down and saw him leave from my inside rear view mirror. It was a four speed car and watching him row the gears in the mirror was something else. I watched him til it was time for me to shift, once.

At the stripe he came around me like Terry Sherrill. I looked up at the lights and once again I couldn't tell who won, but I could hear the crowd going nuts.

As I was coming down the gravel return road I saw the Chevelle blast off from the ET shack, throwing rocks everywhere. I thought....me?

The ET shack girl had the BIGGEST grin on her face, oh man......I had won.

I had paid $75 for the car, and just won $125 bucks!

Shoe polish: The "Green Wastelands" was a self made reference from the WHO's "Teen Age Wastelands" song. The car was green. Portholes were identified as "Zoomies." Of course as I mentioned way earlier - a reference to some relatives I never met, "Fulper's Auto Parts," and some other teenage nonsense fun.

The kid - the check - the Buick:

THE CHECK -

The winning 1953 Super -

oh, the final ET ? I'm surprised no one has asked yet...

bill dedman · 07-01-2007, 03:20 AM

Thanks, Bruce.
I was under the impresion that your Buick venture was an Easten version of Johnny Bartlett's Oregon-based '54 Buick Stocker effort, but that was just a typical assumption of mine. I was particularly interested because Bobby Roper's Buick was the only '53 I'd ever heard of anyone seriously attempting to go fast with, in Stock.

I can't vouch for the internals, but his stock appearing '53 "Roadmaster" ended up running low 16's at 83 mph with DynaFlow.... which kept the swapped-in 312-powered '54 Fords at bay.... LOL!

Thanks for the Buick saga. Did you retire it after that day, or work with it?

You never said whether it was a Special (straight-eight), or the 322 cubic-inch V8 Super or Roadmaster, which was new for '53.

Curious minds, et., etc., etc...

Bill, in Conway, AR

Bruce Fulper · 07-01-2007, 03:27 AM

Sure I did. Re-read !
Ha!

Floyd Staggs · 07-01-2007, 10:01 AM

Hey Bruce,
Let me take you back to my time of glory, 1963.
Place, San Gabriel Raceway.
Last race for the track.
I had a '63 Vette that I raced in Super Sport/A. I won class that night and set a track record, 12.90 @ 107, that still stands today. I also beat the national record which was 13.02. The win qualified me for Street Elininator, I wasn't running slicks, I had Casler Cheater Slicks. I lost to a Mopar wedge 4 speed and he got the $25.00 purse.
Back then it was a big deal. I've won more since getting to the second round at the Summit series.
I also had the pleasure of racing Gas Rhonda in the very first Cobra that Ford put on the track. I never could beat that guy. That was in mid '63. I sold my corvette and bought a Mopar. Then I found I couldn't win in it either.
I quit racing in '65 to raise a family and stated again in '95, I think that's when I met you, at Norton AFB.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Floyd Staggs
V787
www.staggsracing.com

bill dedman · 07-01-2007, 10:56 AM

Okay; I missed that the first time through... sorry.

That's quite a saga!!!! I cannot imagine the degree to which that poor Chevelle driver was chagrined to have been beaten in the final by that Buick!

Did you ever race it again?

Bruce Fulper · 07-01-2007, 11:36 AM

No. I sold it a couple of weeks later for $175 dollars. And after I got back from the Army I stumbled across an ad in the Kent newspaper for a '53 Buick . Yep, turned out to be mine and I bought it back. I guess you could say it was the original "BowTie Bomber" !

Hey Floyd - that musta been some fun racing in Ca. in '63. Back when Grossi had a REAL Pontiac!

Chuck Norton · 07-01-2007, 11:40 AM

Scotch,

I, too, was present at S.G. Raceway for the last event forty-four years ago this week. Can't drive by that piece of real estate today without thinking about the good times we had there. Of course, the similar memories are attached to the locations that were Lion's, Irwindale (I swore to never drink another can of Miller Beer), OCIR, and the old Fontana track on Foothill Blvd.

Certainly a corner of drag racing history for the Los Angeles area.

Best,

c

07-01-2007, 01:33 AM	#1
Bruce Fulper Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: So. Cal. Posts: 651 Likes: 4 Liked 54 Times in 33 Posts	Re: Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves Part #2. Sunday morning rolled around real early. This event was such a huge "happening" that most everyone had stayed overnight. Kinda unheard of to us, but man. What partying. Bon fires everywhere. Lots of beer that I hadn't aquired a taste for yet. But I tried. Hell peer pressure can really get you doing dumb things sometimes. But this was a 100% fun time. We talked all night about strategy. We didn't know what the hell to do, but we talked about it. The one thing we did figure out was we needed a hell of a lot of runs in order to see what to dial. And this first time? NO changing of the dial. You picked it before eliminations and that was that. My buddy with the Comet and I were the first ones in the staging lanes Sunday morning. We were the first pair down the track. It was 9:00 A.M. sharp. I've lost count on the time trials at the moment - but here they are - read them top to bottom in columns starting from the left side. One thing I began to notice - (the Buick only had one great big ol' Stewart Warner water temp guage,) the hotter it got, the quicker it ran. As you can see it began dropping by a tenth or so, then hundreths, then single digit hundreths. The four 21.84's about threw me - I thought, "This is it - I'll dial 21.84" - but I had a few more time trials to go before the one o'clock cut off. Last edited by Bruce Fulper; 07-01-2007 at 03:14 AM.

07-01-2007, 02:41 AM	#3
Bruce Fulper Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: So. Cal. Posts: 651 Likes: 4 Liked 54 Times in 33 Posts	Re: Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves I can't remember all of the cars I ran against that day. I do remember one of them was a VW that was slower than me. And THAT messed me up. And with the low first gear those things have I thought Crap! He was way out on me at the green. But the old Buick stormed (ok, creeped,) around him about the time he hit fourth gear. It had launched like a rocket, but when he hit fourth it was like he hit the brakes. But it had worried me for a bit. The Buick had cooled down a LOT before the first round. And I wish like heck I could remember who and how I beat anyone with a 21.70 dial, especially with the first win being a 22.01. It took seven runs including the final that day. I had formulated another game plan before the first round too. I would leave the dynaflow in low range until the speedo was straight up - dead on 60 mph - then no matter where I was I clicked it to high range. Which as I remember just a few feet before the finish line. Back then the win lights were strung across the track right at or just a very few feet after the finish line. I remember not being able to see them. Unless the other guy left the time slip booth all pissed off I had to wait to get my slip to know if I had won. So, now that it's easy to reflect on what happened that day, I'm thinking the Buicks block was so heat soaked from all of those time trials and it was a hot summers day, I see now the date was 8/15/71, that the ET's started dropping quicker than they did during TT's. I started wondering if the 21.70 was low enough. 22.01, 21.97, 21.93, 21.90, then jumped to a 21.77, which had me real worried, but the next one, semi-finals if you will, was a 21.74 and it had me sweating bullets now. There was one run left and I was too close to my dial. I do remember this competitor... It was a small block 1968 Chevelle dialed in at the bottom end of the bracket. 15.00 flat. As I had mentioned to Len in a previous post - at 42 you could get REAL close to the starting line as a spectator. Their chain link fence narrowed right up close, close enough that I could see and more importantly hear all of my Kent buddies going crazy. Of course there were no reaction times to cloud our heads back then. All I knew I was holding the brake harder and harder and laying into the gas pedal more and more. Had my routine together too. I'd light that top light and stop, take off my horn rimmed glasses, wipe the sweat off my face, put my glasses back on and bump in. Count - FIVE amber lights - and on this last run - after all of my pre-stage prep - and my pals hanging on the fence, and in front of 30,000 people, the Chevelle sitting next to me at an idle, and of course the Buick was a quiet as a church mouse, as the lights came down I remember pushing the gas pedal a-l-l of the way to the floor. Remember, other than the announcer who was REALLY having a ball with me all day and the Chevelle idling, it was pretty damn quiet. When I let off the brake - the Buick for the first time ever - the right rear tire - went CHIRP!! I saw all my pals F-A-L-L off the fence laughing their axxes off. It was hilarious. The Buick, my unbelievable super slow beast, actually chirped the tire when it left. What a riot. I remember now after looking at the car, I had taken the PolyGlass tires off my '65 2+2 cause it was sitting the garage with a broken four speed. Here's the et slips including the semi-finals. Remeber - read left column top to bottom first - Last edited by Bruce Fulper; 07-01-2007 at 03:21 AM.

07-01-2007, 03:09 AM	#4
Bruce Fulper Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: So. Cal. Posts: 651 Likes: 4 Liked 54 Times in 33 Posts	Re: Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves It CHIRPED the tire! Oh man - it was soooo funny. Anyhow. The Chevelle - is sitting at an idle when I left. I was running with my drivers window rolled down. I'd look at the folks in the stands. Wave. I mean c'mon, I had a long way to go to get to 60 mph and I was having the most fun I could have. Or make. It was nutty. This friggin '53 Buick getting all of this attention that afternoon. Remember all of those "older" guys we went to see? They were hating me 'bout now. Fulper's goofy little brother is out there geting attention like crazy. Not one of them talked to me later. Reminds me of several guys I know now - that I used to look up to but after I started going fast in Super Stock quit talking to me. Oh well. Live and learn 'bout those special personalities eh? Anyhow - the Chevelle has to wait 6.7 seconds. I actually watched his lights come down and saw him leave from my inside rear view mirror. It was a four speed car and watching him row the gears in the mirror was something else. I watched him til it was time for me to shift, once. At the stripe he came around me like Terry Sherrill. I looked up at the lights and once again I couldn't tell who won, but I could hear the crowd going nuts. As I was coming down the gravel return road I saw the Chevelle blast off from the ET shack, throwing rocks everywhere. I thought....me? The ET shack girl had the BIGGEST grin on her face, oh man......I had won. I had paid $75 for the car, and just won $125 bucks! Shoe polish: The "Green Wastelands" was a self made reference from the WHO's "Teen Age Wastelands" song. The car was green. Portholes were identified as "Zoomies." Of course as I mentioned way earlier - a reference to some relatives I never met, "Fulper's Auto Parts," and some other teenage nonsense fun. The kid - the check - the Buick: THE CHECK - The winning 1953 Super - oh, the final ET ? I'm surprised no one has asked yet... Last edited by Bruce Fulper; 07-01-2007 at 02:29 PM.

07-01-2007, 03:20 AM	#5
bill dedman VIP Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Conway, AR Posts: 1,739 Likes: 0 Liked 6 Times in 4 Posts	Re: Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves Thanks, Bruce. I was under the impresion that your Buick venture was an Easten version of Johnny Bartlett's Oregon-based '54 Buick Stocker effort, but that was just a typical assumption of mine. I was particularly interested because Bobby Roper's Buick was the only '53 I'd ever heard of anyone seriously attempting to go fast with, in Stock. I can't vouch for the internals, but his stock appearing '53 "Roadmaster" ended up running low 16's at 83 mph with DynaFlow.... which kept the swapped-in 312-powered '54 Fords at bay.... LOL! Thanks for the Buick saga. Did you retire it after that day, or work with it? You never said whether it was a Special (straight-eight), or the 322 cubic-inch V8 Super or Roadmaster, which was new for '53. Curious minds, et., etc., etc... Bill, in Conway, AR __________________ Bill

07-01-2007, 03:27 AM	#6
Bruce Fulper Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: So. Cal. Posts: 651 Likes: 4 Liked 54 Times in 33 Posts	Re: Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves Sure I did. Re-read ! Ha! Last edited by Bruce Fulper; 07-01-2007 at 03:32 AM.

07-01-2007, 01:36 AM	#2
Bruce Fulper Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: So. Cal. Posts: 651 Likes: 4 Liked 54 Times in 33 Posts	Re: Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves Here's the next set of Sunday morning time trials in order as they were ran. Now then - here's the killer - As you see the car was happily inching it's ET's lower and lower until the last run. I had finally got down to 21.80 at the hottest part of the day so far, and then I made the last time trial. The damn thing jumped .014 hundreths! Just knocked me out. I thought I had it made until that run. Everyone was flipping out how consistent the car had been, then that friggin 21.64 popped up. Talk about stress. No one was any help. Hell, no one we knew had ever heard of bracket racing before. Even the "old" guys. No one knew what to suggest. I kept looking at those Et slips and finally came up with the thought...."it goes quicker as it gets hotter. I have to guess how many runs I might make and how hot it might get." It was frustrating as all get out. I was pacing around right up until they called first round. I decided cause it had creeped so slowly to 21.80, and now it had cooled off some, and I wouldn't be making that many runs even if I got to the finals, I went ahead put a 21.70 on the window. Last edited by Bruce Fulper; 07-01-2007 at 01:45 AM.

07-01-2007, 10:01 AM	#7
Floyd Staggs VIP Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Cucamonga, CA Posts: 1,522 Likes: 157 Liked 229 Times in 99 Posts	Re: Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves Hey Bruce, Let me take you back to my time of glory, 1963. Place, San Gabriel Raceway. Last race for the track. I had a '63 Vette that I raced in Super Sport/A. I won class that night and set a track record, 12.90 @ 107, that still stands today. I also beat the national record which was 13.02. The win qualified me for Street Elininator, I wasn't running slicks, I had Casler Cheater Slicks. I lost to a Mopar wedge 4 speed and he got the $25.00 purse. Back then it was a big deal. I've won more since getting to the second round at the Summit series. I also had the pleasure of racing Gas Rhonda in the very first Cobra that Ford put on the track. I never could beat that guy. That was in mid '63. I sold my corvette and bought a Mopar. Then I found I couldn't win in it either. I quit racing in '65 to raise a family and stated again in '95, I think that's when I met you, at Norton AFB. And the rest, as they say, is history. Floyd Staggs V787 www.staggsracing.com

07-01-2007, 10:56 AM	#8
bill dedman VIP Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Conway, AR Posts: 1,739 Likes: 0 Liked 6 Times in 4 Posts	Re: Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves Okay; I missed that the first time through... sorry. That's quite a saga!!!! I cannot imagine the degree to which that poor Chevelle driver was chagrined to have been beaten in the final by that Buick! Did you ever race it again? __________________ Bill

07-01-2007, 11:36 AM	#9
Bruce Fulper Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: So. Cal. Posts: 651 Likes: 4 Liked 54 Times in 33 Posts	Re: Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves No. I sold it a couple of weeks later for $175 dollars. And after I got back from the Army I stumbled across an ad in the Kent newspaper for a '53 Buick . Yep, turned out to be mine and I bought it back. I guess you could say it was the original "BowTie Bomber" ! Hey Floyd - that musta been some fun racing in Ca. in '63. Back when Grossi had a REAL Pontiac! Last edited by Bruce Fulper; 07-01-2007 at 02:30 PM.

07-01-2007, 11:40 AM	#10
Chuck Norton Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Covina, CA Posts: 474 Likes: 108 Liked 89 Times in 19 Posts	Re: Len Imborgno - Jim Skelly - Performance Preserves Scotch, I, too, was present at S.G. Raceway for the last event forty-four years ago this week. Can't drive by that piece of real estate today without thinking about the good times we had there. Of course, the similar memories are attached to the locations that were Lion's, Irwindale (I swore to never drink another can of Miller Beer), OCIR, and the old Fontana track on Foothill Blvd. Certainly a corner of drag racing history for the Los Angeles area. Best, c

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