Best B.O.P. stock and super stockers of all time

[oldskool]

Here's some GTO's & T-37's, both Stock & SS, including some race winners & record holders.

I'm sure the Rock Running T-37 won lots of stuff.

Mick Leiferman's GTO was a nat record holder 5 years straight & Indy RU 3 years straight.

The Scott Underhill T-37 held the E/SA record in recent years.

[oldskool]

Can't think of any major changes in '72 that changed Pontiac drag racing. The 455HO was still available in A-bodies & Birds.

Changes were mostly cosmetic. Bird grills were changed to a honeycomb hole pattern. The '71 rectangular fender vents were dropped.

For the A-bodies, the Judge & the T-37 were dropped. The GTO type T-41 front end changed slightly, including more recessed grills & fender vents, behind the front wheel wells. The 455HO engine was still an option for the GTO & Lemans, including the Lemans wagon. Gary & Charlene Wood ran a '72 GTO & '72 Lemans wagon. May have run 2 wagons. I have wagon pics showing both a regular Lemans nose & the GTO type T-41 nose. I read that they ran both a D-port & round port 455. Charlene won the Grand Molson race, in Canada. The wagon also won smaller races & got some class wins.

Out on the West coast, Larry Maxwell had a strong running 455HO powered '72 Lemans. A div 6 lady racer from Canada drives it now.

In 2008,Todd Hoven won a nat event & won the G/SA class at Indy, with a '72 GTO. He qualified #7 at Indy.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2008#indextop

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2008#indextop

I suppose the most well known '72 Pontiac racer of this modern era is Brad Burton. He won 2 Stock national championships in the Burton 455HO powered '72 Formy.

Sonny Ray had one of the most famous '72 GTO SS cars. It won several big races, including David Rampy's 1st nat event win, at the '83 Cajuns.

Here's some '72 Pontiac Bird pics.

The '72 Honeycomb grills can be seen in some of these pics.

Love pic #3. It shows a small tire Super Stocker, with slapper bars.

Pic #4 shows Gary Moore at the World Finals, in what I assume was 1972. I attended that event in '73. It was my 1st time to see the Funny Cars. There were lots of 'em & they put on an awesome show ! I watched most of the Sat daytime Pro qualifying from the overhead walkway, shown in the pic. Whole lotta shakin goin on ! Lots of noise & lots of nitro fume tears. That's been almost 50 years ago. But it's an experience I'll never forget.

Billy Foder owned the car in pic #6. As you can see, it has T/A hood & fenders, but no wheel flairs.

The car in pics 7 & 8 is the same car as in pic #6. In those last 2 pics, it had the T/A fenders, but had a Formy hood. When it had the Formy hood, it belonged to Lee Bannister. He won some nat events with it, including the Gators.

[oldskool]

Here's some '72 A-body pics.

The 1st is a clipping which shows that Charlene Wood won a race, driving the "Tons-a-Fun" '72 Lemans wagon.

The 2nd is of the Wood '72 GTO Stocker. Charlene said she drove it some, too.

The 3rd is the "Pontiaction" '72 SS/JA GTO.

The 4th is of the Pontiac sponsored '72 SS GTO that Truman Fields drove. He set at least 1 nat record with it.

Pic 5 is of the multi nat event winning '72 GTO record holder that belonged to Sonny Ray.

Pic 6 is of Sonny's GTO, with a new paint job & driver. It was David Rampy's 1st nat event win, at the '83 Cajuns. We attended the '78 Cajuns & got a close-up pic of Sonny & his Goat.

Pic 7 is the '72 GTO that Todd Hoven drove to the G/SA class win at '08 Indy. He qualified #7 at that race. Todd also had a nat event win in the car.

Pic 8 is of the the White bros & their Indy class winning SS '72 GTO. These bros also ran some strong Stock class Pontiacs.

Pic 9 is Larry Maxwell in his '72 Lemans Stocker, back before he sold it. It qualified near the top of the list, quite often. He has switched over to SS, running a 350 Pontiac powered '68 GT Bird. His Lemans is still active, under the new owner.

[oldskool]

'73 brought a couple of more big changes to Pontiac.

(1) The SD455 Pontiac engine.

(2) The complete redesign of the A-body.

Quite a few drag racers welcomed the SD455. John Clegg bought a stick Forny & won class at Indy that year, with it. As most here know, he later switched it over to SS. They recently updated it & J.B. Clegg has run some mid 9's with it. Not sure, but it MAY be the quickest regular SS class Pontiac powered car ever.

Another famous '73 SD455 car is the Herslow & Morlock E/SA T/A, "Celluloid Hero". It was the SS&DI "Cover Car", in Mar '76. At some point, it was switched over to SS. It was a multi year nat record holder, which was later raced by Phil Szupka.

Bob Michael built & raced an SD455 powered '73 Formy, which he sold to Don Kennedy.

Jack Mullins also built & raced one, which he sold to Glen Tinsley.

Another famous mag "Cover Car" was the depiction of a '73 SD455 powered GTO. The mag named it "Car of the Year". But, the SD455 engine was NOT released to the public in a GTO. Only available in Trans Am & Formula Birds.

However, for some reason, NHRA also allows the SD455 to be run in several A-body models & a Grand Prix. I've posted a pic on this site, of the H-O Racing Specialties newsletter which featured a Clegg '73 GP, which ran an SD455, for a time.

There have been a few guys who ran an SD455 engine in a GT car. I think 2 of those guys were Lynn McCarty & Don Kennedy.

But hey, those SD455 parts are just too rare & expensive to race, nowadays. Right now, the only active SD455 powered Stocker I know of is the '73 Formy that belongs to Michael Brand. He just switched it over in the last couple of years. His wife does the driving.

A 455 D-port powered '73 Formy that runs real good has changed hands a few times in recent years. It started out in Fla. Michael Brand helped get it goin. It's now being raced out on the West Coast, by C.W. Hoefer.

The '73 A-body cars were NOT very popular, either on the street or track. The only serious lookin '73 GTO Stocker I have any pics of belonged to Mick Leiferman.

Here are 9 pics of '73 Birds.

[oldskool]

Only posting 1 pic of a '73 GTO & 1 of a '73 GP. So, I'll post some more '73 Bird pics.

Notice in pic #6, the name Osteen, on the rear. IIRC, James Osteen did some wrenchin on some of the Gay Pontiac drag cars. Gay Pontiac was in Southeast TX, as was Glen Tinsley. So, it makes sense that it was the same Mr. Osteen that was helping Glen.

Googled the name & found this.

"...He worked as chief mechanic and shop foreman for Gay Pontiac for 30+ years. His career highlights include his position as crew chief for Gay Pontiac Racing Team..."

[oldskool]

I suppose the big change at Pontiac, for '74, was moving the GTO to the X-body platform. They also reduced the engine size to 350 cubes.

The Bird bumpers were changed, front & rear, to meet federal regulations, IIRC.

For some Birds, A-body, & larger cars, the D-port 400's & 455's were still available. The SD455 was still an option for Birds. .

Those '74 400's have been very competitive, thru the years, & still are. The strongest '74 400 powered Stocker I'm aware of was the Mulry & Aceves Bird. Ran a sec & a half & more under, qualified #1, many times, and set a record in J/SA & K/SA as a Formy, & in L/SA in T/A trim.

The SD455 powered H-O Racing Specialties T/A set the SS/KA record in '77. If I have the facts straight, Glen Tinsley ran it for a while, then John Clegg got it. J.B. Clegg raced it for a while, with an auto trans. Then they updated it & switched to a 4-speed. J.B. got it down into the mid 9's. Don't know if their '73 or '74 has turned the quickest time.

Thru the years, there have been lots of A-bodies & Birds run a '74 400 engine, in Stock & SS. Carroll Warling held the SS/MA nat record for a while, a few years back, with his '74 A-body.

There is still quite a variety of '74 Pontiac powered Stock & SS cars in competition. There have been so many, I may split 'em up into 3 posts, to get all the pics in. Will post 9 Bird pics 1st. Will put X-body cars on the 2nd post, then the A-bodies & others. If I can't come up with 9, I may find enuff Bird pics to fill up the 9 pic limit.

[oldskool]

Occasionally, I run across a Pontiac that just deserves special recognition. This is definitely one of those cars. It's the Mulry & Aceves '74 Firebird Stocker.

Back in the early 2000's, this car qualified #1 at lots of races. Sometimes it would be more than 1.5 seconds under it's index. Here's an example from a nat event at Vegas, in '04. It was #1 @ 1.544 under ! Notice also that Scott Burton was not far behind, @ #3, & John Schloe was #7.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2004#indextop

In '04, it qualified #4 at Indy. 9 Pontiac Stockers qualified in the top half of the field that year !

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2004#indextop

It also got the K/SA class win that year.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2004#indextop

BTW, that was an All-Pontiac class final, against Don Holmes' '77 Bird !

K/SA index was 12.95. Mulry ran 11.562. Holmes ran 11.571.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2004#indextop

On May 17, 2003, the car set both ends of the K/SA nat record.

On July 5, 2003, it set both ends the L/SA record, this time in full Trans Am trim.

And, on May 1, 2004, it set both ends of the J/SA record.

That Bird has quite a record of performance !