Lower Class Winner At National Event

[OLD INJUN]

Originally Posted by Phil "Swampy" Marsh

This IS "Swampy". Sorry this took so long to post but I didn't know this site existed until a few days ago when I was researching articles about me and my car, "Swampy's Toy". It was a 1971 Chevy Vega Hatchback. I painted it like Sox & Martin's car with the exception of a blue stripe with various size stars in it. The name "Swampy's Toy" was a play on my last name and Gumpy Bill Jenkin's car "Grumpy's Toy".
I lost my class race at my first national event at Englishtown, N.J., in 1972 but then won my class at the next 3 national meets at the 1972 Indy Nationals, the 1973 Summernationals at Englishtown and the 1973 Indy Nationals. At the two Indy meets George Williams and I did not race each other and he was eliminated by other racers in our class. However, at the 1973 Summers we did race in the final for Y/Stock. I beat him by 2 hundredths (.02 ) of a second! It was the closest race they had all night! I set the record that year at the points meet at Atco Dragway in New Jersey and then proceeded the next night to win Stock Eliminator! I was beaten for class win at Indy in the final by some one racing a Corvair (his second one in two years ) BUT upon weight check after the race he came up short on weight (!) and I was awarded the win! (The previous year he was in a different class with a Corvair and failed tear down tech when one of the two carbs on the Corvair engine had the wrong ID tag on it!). I sold the car and delivered it to the new owner from Minnesota (?) at that Indy Nationals and went home with an empty trailer. I did not race any more after that as family responsibilities took my time up. I hope this clears up any confusion about "Swampy's Toy" and me. You can see a photo of the car on my profile page here on Class Racer. Thanks for your time, "Swampy"

Did a guy named Randy Sullivan from Minneapolis buy it from you?

[Rick Unterseh]

I still have parts from Neil Smedmobile's bird, so it is alive and will rise again!!!! Coming to a National Event final near you! Neil, you did well, helped me a ton, and I will return the favor.

[Pat Cook]

Originally Posted by Colesy

More Tom Reider, this time in the wagon at the 76 Indy Nationals with another Stock Eliminator win. Mick Leifferman was runner-up in the 71 G/SA, GTO. Didn't Leifferman set some kind of record for the most consecutive Indy runner-ups? I believe he had 3 in 1975, 76 and 77.

I met Tom Reider at Ford's Arizona Proving Grounds he was a principal design engineer for the 2.3 engine. He told me about a rear axle gear business he was starting. Really nice guy. He is nice write up about him and his Pinto wagon

http://www.precisiongear.com/about.htm

[GarysZ24]

Originally Posted by THE LEGEND

The FWD car was Tim Griffith. H e finished 2nd in the world that year but he also drove a mopar wagaon U/SA car at some of the 1/4 mile races.
He also helped me win the div 9 championship in2003 by loaning me his h/ps mustang to get record points.
Very good racer and all round good guy
Chip Johnson

Wasn't Tim the one who piloted a Chevy Cavalier Z24 to the finals of an early '86 IHRA national event Chip? I had some video footage of a car with the original burgundy red paint job (that mine had) being in such a race back then, and the car was similar to mine!

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by GarysZ24

Wasn't Tim the one who piloted a Chevy Cavalier Z24 to the finals of an early '86 IHRA national event Chip? I had some video footage of a car with the original burgundy red paint job (that mine had) being in such a race back then, and the car was similar to mine!

Probably thinking of Steve or Brenda Taylor

[Steve Lackey]

Originally Posted by art leong

Then George owes us a lot of money LOL Cause if he wasn't there we won. LOL We were runner up to him in 1980 at the Gators.We redlighted. I'm pretty sure it was called Swampys Toy it was a black Vega panel wagon.

George's Vega was called Rampage and he won the Gator's and the Fall Nationals and a couple of Runner-ups at the Winter Nationals in the 70's

[Johnny M Fisher]

Originally Posted by GarysZ24

Wasn't Tim the one who piloted a Chevy Cavalier Z24 to the finals of an early '86 IHRA national event Chip? I had some video footage of a car with the original burgundy red paint job (that mine had) being in such a race back then, and the car was similar to mine!

That would be Mike Ellis from Durham, NC who was runner-up in 1986. It was practically a new car at the time, with a little fine tuning. Those were the days!

[GarysZ24]

Originally Posted by Johnny M Fisher

That would be Mike Ellis from Durham, NC who was runner-up in 1986. It was practically a new car at the time, with a little fine tuning. Those were the days!

Thanks Johnny, and you're right those were the days! If I would have known making a fwd mfi Chevrolet competitive in Stock would' ve been as much of a challenge as it has been, I would have bought my '76 Vega back, and tried to follow the success of George Williams, as he aided my desire to buy one by the way he was able to make a non-V8 Vega a winner. I won the '77 Memorial Day High School Drags at Bandimere's with mine, and several other races in '79 as well (along with a semi-final finish @ the '79 D5 ET Finals in Street Eliminator). It sure would' ve been easier to make competitive...no computer to fight with, and headers were made for their 4cyl engines too!

[TOM KASCH]

1st fwd car in a final was :
Bill devo at the 85 Suffork div2 wcs, he beat me in the semis when i b/O against him.
I then went to the Summernationals the next weekend and lost in the semis their,too
Only got to one NHRA final with our fwd cars, B/O by .003 at the div3 Martrin race in 94, I did win a div3 Open stk shoot out at Milan in 94 , but that doesnt count.
Ran fwd stks for 18 yrs must have made 1,000 passes in 4 different cars.

[Sean Marconette]

Tom,
Did you race at Heartland Park Topeka at some point in time with that car? It looks familiar.

Thanks
Sean