Awesome video...Jenkins/Landy match race '75

[Bench Racer]

Not sure on the date. I done some you tube searching for the Grump and early years prostock, found some good stuff but not the one I watched a decade or so ago. Search you tube search for Bill Grumpy Jenkins at the 68 NHRA Nationals. It's worth the time. Don Jackson

[ss wannabee]

I'm no expert on the past...just recalling (I think)...from that book about building Chevy
SBC Pro Stock engines written by Jenkins during the Vega/Monza days. I bought a
copy years ago..and it's somewhere in my junk....

Of course, I'm sure Match Racing was very lucrative with guaranteed $$$ as oppossed
to the potential $$$ of a National Event keeping Bill and crew quite busy in between the
major NHRA and AHRA races...

And as we all know...Pro Stock was HOT...and a definate spectator draw.....

Remember seeing the Monza getting into the "Mountain Motor" wars...with that funny
tall Formula-V??? hood scoop...and engines in the 600 ci range...

Later, IHRA took the "helm" in that dept. with engines of over 800 ci.....

That being said....I was fortunate to see Bill match racing (in 1970) with the '69 Camaro,
and the next year...with the 70-1/2, and both these cars went to Nat. Events.

In fact...1970 was about a month before Indy...isn't that the race he sheared the rear
wheel studs on a burnout and lost the race? Tough loss!

Maybe the Vega to Monza transition happened in '75?

[Rat Raceway]

Love to see videos like ^this.


I was born in 75,

[Geerhead55]

The Monza did come out mid '75 for Jenkins Competition,, I'm thinking it made its national event debut at Indy, that year. I saw it for the first time at the '75 Fallnationals here in Seattle, the first year for an NHRA national event in this area, that September.
Jenkins was here a year earlier with the Vega for a match race here at Seattle International Raceway, and Landy was here also, with the car shown in the video. The Vega, with the weight out ran a 8.55 that night, which was incredible at the time.
The final round that night found Bill in the Vega taking on local hitter "Jungle Gene" McKinney in his ancient '69 Camaro( Wynn's sponsered, if anyone recalls) with a big block of undisclosed displacement. After doing the rosin sweeping, the super long burnouts, and multiple dry hops, the cars staged, reved 'to the moon, and launched into the darkness. This was before the scoreboards were installed, and the packed house was so quiet you could've heard "that pin drop". When the win light came on in Jungle's lane, you could'nt believe the noise and pandemonium that insued!
If you were there that night, you'll never forget it,,, I know I never will.
Needless to say, there was alot of partying going on in the black Wynn's Camaro pits that night back in '74.
Danny Durham

[Rich Biebel]

I watched them match race at Island Dragway once and Landy put his car on the back bumper out to about 3rd gear......sparks flying as it was after dark

I think it was before the Vega days though as Grump was in a Camaro (IIRC)

They did put on a heck of a show.....rosin burnouts.....cigars.....very cool....
I was standing right behind them when Landy did that wheelie ...

[Rory McNeil]

I don`t know if it was 74 or 75, but I do remember that Jenkins vs Landy match race at Boundary Bay dragstrip very well. I was 17 or 18 at that time, and I was living in Delta BC at the time, which is the town that the Boundary Bay track was located. I really wanted to go to that race, as it was a much talked about event, but my Dad said "too bad, ya gotta cut the lawn today" (1/2 acre with a cheap pushmower with no bag meant an all day job, with the raking and hand trimming the edges (No Weed Wackers in those days!)
Luckily Delta Cable 10 covered the drags at Boundary Bay, so I saw this footage on TV that night. The next day, I went to Mission Raceway, and although the Grump had headed south back to Seattle, I did have the pleasure of watching "Dandy" Dick Landy run his Dart a few times. I still have a photo I took of Landy working on the Darts engine in his striped bell bottom pants, with a large crowd milling around the car. Although the fact that Landy showed up at Mission was very cool, but not unbelievable, most of us were stunned that him AND Jenkins had been at Boundary Bay the day before. Compared to Mission, Boundary Bay was a very basic local old airstrip runway hobby track. In fact, in that video, you can see an old red bus. THAT was the timing tower! I only raced a few times at Boundary Bay, it only ran as a dragstrip for a couple of years, and was then turned into a municapal airport , which it still operates as today.