Gassers star at the show

Words and photos by Brian Losness

For thirty-two years the New family at Firebird Raceway in Eagle, Idaho, have been turning back the clock to the days of the beginning of the sport of drag racing, and entertaining today’s fans with how it used to be.

This year’s edition of the Oldies But Goodies was another example of that. The headliner of this event again were the AA Supercharged Gassers, a great group of cars made their way to Idaho from Northern California, Oregon and Washington.

These cars are the originators of today’s Funny Cars and Pro Mods.  They are equipped with Hemi power plants topped with 6-71 superchargers, capable of mid six-second runs at well over 200 miles per hour. Eight cars made to the trip to Eagle, for the Oldies, so there was a full field of cars.

Troy Owen’s Willys is uncovered in the pits.

Qualifying

The weather was overcast and warm as the first session of the AA Supercharged car came up to set the qualifying order. After the first session Howard Anderson from Applegate, Calif., in his ’38 Chevy Coupe, was low qualifier with a very nice 6.97, followed closely (and I mean closely) by Troy Owen from Albany, Oregon, in his ’41 Willys Coupe with a 6.98. Scott White in his Willys is third at 7.07, Mitch Chamberlin in his beautiful flat black ’51 Chevy Deluxe is fourth with a 7.29 at over 200 miles per hour.  on the bump is Monte Grubb out of Tacoma with his  ’33 Willys Pick up with a 9.65.

The second session of the saw seven cars come up to make attempts. The lone holdout was "Mad" Mike Molea, whose engine suffered some extensive damage when it dropped a valve at about 1000 feet, killing both the cylinder head and the piston in that cylinder. Since there were only eight cars he was going to get bumped out and took the time to make repairs and get ready for first round.

As the track and the air temperatures both started to cool down, this made the surface even tighter and it showed as Troy Owen stepped up from his number-two position and went to the head of the class with a nice 6.94-second run.