True Class War: Pros, Cons, and Why

[Alan Roehrich]

So, we sat down with Jimmy Bridges himself, and we discussed the Corvette he currently races, the story of that car is well documented, and we will tell it now.

Lonnie Garner from here in Nashville bought that car, a truck, and a Chapparal trailer in Texas. The car first came to Nashville in 74. He ran it from 74 to sometime in 77 in F gas where he won a lot of races at Union Hill and Bowling Green. He sold it to Mike Robinson in Nashville, who soon sold it to Ronnie Traffansted. Ronnie ran it in Modified, and did quite well with it, won a few division 2 races with it. Ronnie sold it to Dallas Pennley in Morgantown KY. Dallas made it into a 64 and ran it in Super Stock K. Dallas didn't run it a lot because he became a Western Car and Truck Dealer. December of 87, we bought the car for Scott Wilcox and rurned it back into a 67 and built the L88 motor to run Super A. Scott showed up in Atlanta in 88 with it for its first race as a 67. Larry was driving his Chevy II that weekend. Summer of 89 Mike Keown went to redo the motor. After that he set the A and B records. In 90 he won in the Southern Nationals. Whenever he showed up in Houston to run Super Stock A mod with an Oldsmobile, and did not have the Corvette, they cut the 67 L88 from the classification guide. Reason was that it had aluminum heads for road racing applications. There were only 22 sold to general public. 59 to road racers. After the L88 was made obsolete, the 427 was made into a 425HP, and the car changed it to a 66. Ran it a couple times as a 66 while Scott owned it. Scott sold to Glenn Young from Murfreesboro TN. Mike Lynch started working and driving for Young. They won class several times with it. Glenn swapped the car off to Noel Davis. Davis raced the car the most successfully, he won 1995 IHRA World National Championship. Won a Muscle Car championship in 96, and another Muscle Car Championship in 97. Then the car sat, and at the 99 Sports Nationals in Bowling Green, Noel still had it, and the rolling chassis was purchased by Jimmy Bridges who put 396 in it and ran Super Stock C. Jimmy first raced it at Indy in 99. Lost to Adkins that weekend. Next race was in Memphis, which we relighted against Dwight Southerland. Next race was in Dallas, we beat Roger Brogdon in class. Since then, we've won Indy class 9 straight years and beat ourselves in 10. Thats the history of the Vette.

On a side note, I spoke with Tony Rhodes, who owned the black Corvette, late last Fall. Tony still owns that car, it has not been raced since the 427 L-88 was removed from the guide.

[mike koester 66 nova]

Alan
Great history lesson on Jimmy Bridges Corvette. Seen that car race many
times by different owners. A very strong stock / super stock community from
Indy south to Alabama along I -65. I do not want to hi- jack this site but you
might know. What ever happened to the Ronnie T. / Larry Seay / Don Wolfe
66 Nova. Another great looking and running car that had the same circle of friends and owners.Got any idea where it is resting at today. Thanks

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by mike koester 66 nova

Alan
Great history lesson on Jimmy Bridges Corvette. Seen that car race many
times by different owners. A very strong stock / super stock community from
Indy south to Alabama along I -65. I do not want to hi- jack this site but you
might know. What ever happened to the Ronnie T. / Larry Seay / Don Wolfe
66 Nova. Another great looking and running car that had the same circle of friends and owners.Got any idea where it is resting at today. Thanks

Jimmy often looks in on the site, and will tell me what he knows about things, we talk often. He looks at this thread, I'm sure he'll check this thread to read what I posted about his Corvette.

[Dwight Southerland]

Alan -
A couple of bits to add to the story:
The height of the Hemi contingency's campaign against the '67 L88 Corvette was at the Memphis national race in 1989. Several Chrysler racers and the factory race director who flew in specifically for the meeting, met with NHRA officials in the tower before eliminations began on Sunday morning. Several Chevrolet racers, including me, knew what was going on and wrote many letters and made many phone calls during the remainder of the year to pose our objections. I believe that the following year was when the combination was removed from the Class Guide. It's hard to beat cubic money and GOB relationships. I still argue that it is purely partisanship, even based on NHRA's "50 units" rule.

Does anyone know who in Texas originally built and raced the car? I was pretty familiar with most of the MP crowd out of TX during that time but I have not made the connection.

Seems that I concluded that the car was originally a 1965 car based on the VIN. The car I raced in SS/C that belongs to Leonard Lamia was also a '65 car that we raced as a '66 so we could run the 427-425 combination.

[Alan Roehrich]

Dwight, we sat down with Jimmy yesterday, and he didn't mention who Lonnie bought the car from, and I'm not sure he ever has. He may not know.

Mike Robinson was associated with two F/Gas Corvettes, Jimmy's car, and a 1963 Corvette. Around the same time. We don't know where that car went, either.

As far as the 1967 L-88 Corvette being removed from the guide goes, that's a matter of politics and selective enforcement on the part of NHRA. Depending upon who you talk to, Chevrolet produced and sold at least 36 of the 67 Corvette L-88 cars to the general public, complete and running. According to some sources, beyond that, a couple of dozen, give or take, were "provided" to racers in various forms of racing. Some say there's also the two versions originally available, and in different numbers, the L-88, and the L-88 with the L-89 aluminum head option. I don't even claim to know which sources are correct. Now 50 years after the fact, I'm not sure anyone can say with absolute certainty. But the cars were legal for more than 20 years, before NHRA decided that they were not. Sort of similar to the 69 ZL-1 Camaro. I'm sure that with your vast amount of knowledge and infoprmation collected, you can provide several examples of cars being in the guide when less than 50 were produced. It sure didn't seem to matter between 2008 and 2016, did it?

[Dwight Southerland]

For me, the inconsistency of NHRA's application of the "50 unit" rule is what was evidence of preferential treatment and their arguments sometimes hurts my head. The argument against the '67 L88 Corvette was that the L88 was only available in the Corvette, so the fact that less than 50 were manufactured disqualifies it, whereas other rare combinations often had engines that were available and sold in greater quantities in other bodies. The '70 and '71 Barracuda Hemi convertibles are examples of that. There were only two documented '70 Hemi convertibles built and the collectors are very adamant and proud of that fact. But, since more than 50 Hemi Barracudas were produced, NHRA argues that combination is legal. Same for Dick Simon's '67 Fairlane 427 convertible that he raced for years.
On the other hand, the rule always stated that the car had to be available and in the hands of the general public, which the '67 L88 Corvette was. It was available to anyone who wanted to buy one; it's just that Chevrolet did not advertise it and thus few people ordered one. As opposed to special production vehicles that were produced in quantities greater than 50, but you had to be specially qualified through relationship to purchase one.
Then you have the ZL1 '69 Corvette, where more than 50 ZL1 Camaros were built and are legal, though the Corvette is not. Or the '70 Yenko Chevy II which was produced in the hundreds by an outside firm, sold through Chevrolet dealers, used production parts and is still not legal, though the Shelby Mustangs are.

You get my drift.