Best Pontiac Powered Super Stockers

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Several years back Gary & Ann Moore had some good running Pontiac Stock & Super Stock cars in Div 4.

The only Gary Moore I've ever heard of was on the "I've Got a Secret" TV show, many moons ago.


But, div 4 is my div. So, I am real interested in learning all I can about their Pontiacs. So, anybody with info/pics, please post.

That jogged my memory. Back when I had my Stockers, local tracks quit running class, & switched to brackets. But, one track kept a class they called Street Modified. A small cube Super Stock car would have worked good in that class. It was just a lbs per cubic inch class, using NHRA legal weights. Roller cams, Holley carbs, big tires, & ladder bars were legal.

It was a class designed for high rpm small cube engines. I had no chance, with a Pontiac engine. But, I couldn't run in Stock any more, so I decided to give it a try. Big mistake. I found a cheap(they were all cheap back then) '68 Bird 'vert & Put some roll bars in it. Got the 'vert because it could run at a heavier weight.

Anyhow, my engine builder, in Shreveport, did the machine work on lots of race stuff, including one SS Pontiac. He contacted the Pontiac guy, & got me one of his old solid roller cams. But, some new guys opened a machine shop in a small town, only about 30 miles from me. Their head guy was from CA, and supposedly had lots of experience. Hey, they even had a TF dragster.

So, I figured they knew what they were doing. WRONG ! They didn't know anything about Pontiac engines. I got it running, then had to take it back for new oil rings, and a sleeve, before even taking it to the track.

Anyhow, I finally got it to the track. Hey it SOUNDED good. It was my first roller cam engine. Of course it wasn't near quick enuff to run with the sbc engines, in the lbs per cubic inch class. It wasn't bracket racing. 1st car to the finish line won.

It did run quicker than our Stockers, but not competitive in that class. But we did make a couple of races, & TJ got to make a lot of noise & go quicker than she'd gone in the Stocker. Then "boom". Rod out the side. Discovered that it was the machine shop's fault. I think they only lasted one year. Must have messed up some other stuff too.

Hey, I won't charge ya'll anything for that little bit of Pontiac racing history !

[oldskool]

OK, back to 2nd gen Bird SS cars. I've seen quite a few '74 SS Birds. I think I've already mentioned the H-O Racing Specialties SD455 SS Bird. I'll have to call it my all-time favorite. That's because back when I started racing, the only 2 sources of Pontiac info I knew of were Nunzi on the East coast & H-O on the West coast.

I bought all the H-O material & some of their parts. They had helped me with info for my Stocker builds. Their '74 SD455 Bird set a new nat record in SS/KA. Their record time looks real slow, compared to today's SS cars. But, at the time, they had the quickest. Stockers now go quicker than the same SS combo did back then. But ya'll know that.

We saw the H-O car run, at the '78 Cajun Nats. Sorry that we didn't get any close-ups. Don't know why, since we did get a close-up of Sonny Ray. Sorry for the poor quality of the pics. But hey, it does prove that the car was there.

H-O also had a white '74. I've read that the red car is now the car that J.B. Clegg has. He has run well into the 9's with it, as a stick car.

[ss3011]

Originally Posted by oldskool

OK, back to 2nd gen Bird SS cars. I've seen quite a few '74 SS Birds. I think I've already mentioned the H-O Racing Specialties SD455 SS Bird. I'll have to call it my all-time favorite. That's because back when I started racing, the only 2 sources of Pontiac info I knew of were Nunzi on the East coast & H-O on the West coast.

I bought all the H-O material & some of their parts. They had helped me with info for my Stocker builds. Their '74 SD455 Bird set a new nat record in SS/KA. Their record time looks real slow, compared to today's SS cars. But, at the time, they had the quickest. Stockers now go quicker than the same SS combo did back then. But ya'll know that.

We saw the H-O car run, at the '78 Cajun Nats. Sorry that we didn't get any close-ups. Don't know why, since we did get a close-up of Sonny Ray. Sorry for the poor quality of the pics. But hey, it does prove that the car was there.

H-O also had a white '74. I've read that the red car is now the car that J.B. Clegg has. He has run well into the 9's with it, as a stick car.

Back in the old days , Super Stock did not allow ported cylinder heads . It is hard to race a SD 455 due to the ported head rule . Most of the cars in the same class have engines that have very common , easy to get cylinder heads . There are only around 3000 sets of SD heads even made, including service heads . The price of these parts is super high , and frankly there isn't a whole lot of head porters that can make them work . Much easier to buy a dozen sets of Chevy heads and experiment .

[Ed Wright]

Gary & Ann were from west Texas, close to Amarillo. My friend Carroll Caudle was doing some work for Gary & Ann when I met them. He had a maroon ‘61 or ‘62 (not very old then) “TriPower” when I first met him. Fine people. Went over to the Dark Side and built a Hemi Cuda latter. I would expect all old timer racers would know Gary. Bad-assed racer at one time. They don’t come any nicer. Hope he & Ann are still with us.

[oldskool]

Got pics of a 3 more '74's. Don't know a lot about the cars or drivers.

If you guys know something about any of these cars/drivers please share.

Wilbert Thornton was .795 under, on this Q-list.

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

Billy Ingels was .673 under on this Q-list.

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

[Gary Smith]

Originally Posted by oldskool

Got pics of a 3 more '74's. Don't know a lot about the cars or drivers.

If you guys know something about any of these cars/drivers please share.

Wilbert Thornton was .795 under, on this Q-list.

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

Wow I didn't know Wilbert Thornton was still racing, last I saw him was at the '80 Gators with his SS/P Safari wagon and that thing cleaned house in class back then!!

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by Gary Smith

Wow I didn't know Wilbert Thornton was still racing, last I saw him was at the '80 Gators with his SS/P Safari wagon and that thing cleaned house in class back then!!

Yeah, there are a LOT of us old timers who would still be racing, if we had the money to do it.

Even local bracket racing cost a lot nowadays. It would cost me well over $200 per race, just to go to a reg bracket race at our local track, 50 miles away. That doesn't count ANY money for the racing equipment.

Hey, according to our race expense records, in 1975, my wife only won $75 for each Stock win. But, that $75 MORE than paid all our racing expenses for the weekend. IIRC, gas was still only about 50 cents per gal. And the entry fee was LESS than $10.

Even in the late '70's, after we started bracket racing, out-of-state, where it was a 3 hour drive to the Sat nite track, and we had to rent a motel room, we won enuff to more than pay all travel expenses for the entire year. Most weekends we made 2 races, 49 total, in '78. Even tho 4 races were washed out, & we didn't win a penny, we still had the same travel expenses.

We now live in a completely different world. It takes lots of money just to stay home, eat, keep the power & AC on, & pay necessary bills.

Not many po boys making the Stock/SS racing circuit, nowadays. I realize, now, that we didn't have enuff money to race. But, I'm glad we did it anyhow. For most who really love drag racing, no other activity can really be a good substitute. Put another way: "Nothing else really does it for you."

But hey, even tho I haven't been able to race near as much I'd have liked to, I still enjoy reading about & posting about the guys & gals that are racing and/or have raced Pontiacs.

[boxmotorsports]

Russ Abrams / Mr Pontiac SD455, there has to be pictures out there of his car on the bumper

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by boxmotorsports

Russ Abrams / Mr Pontiac SD455, there has to be pictures out there of his car on the bumper

Sorry, I don't have any with it that high.

Will this do ?

[john clegg]

Just to get the facts out there best I remember. The 73 car was custom ordered as a formula 455SD. Drove it for 2 months. Went to Indy. Won D/S. Then over the years raced it in SS/I , J , I A, JA. Then switched to Pontiac big heads. Ran Ss/AM , BM, CM. Started going 8:40s. NHRA said park it. Need to have a 25.5 chassis. To hard to fix. Bought Ken Howel’s 88 bird. Redid car To 25.5 scif spec. Switched to Oldsmobile heads. Finally ran 7.96 in SS AM which was the first 7 second run of a SS with carbs. Meanwhile J b is running the 74 bird we bought from Larry Pacey which is the old HO racing bird. JB set many records with it. Meanwhile the 73 car is in storage. Then I wanted to go faster so I built an 88 back half bird to run in CC/A. Same old motor , smaller @ 396 inches with olds heads. Best run 7.01 @ 202. Then we do a complete rebuild of the 73 car to run SS/H. Has ran 9.75. Trying to run some 9:50s. Quickest old school Pontiac super stocker now. Waiting for Covid to run out so we can beat on the bird some more. Coming up on 50 year birthday. More in it. We will find it. And we also put A 395 inch small block in the 88 bird and run SS /As. Current record holder. So that’s about 47 years on beating on pontiacs 😎