SOLO FLIGHTS

THE DAY M/T's MUSTANG WAS CORRALED

3/8/05

o me, dividing drag racing into its "old day" period and its modern era is fairly easy. In April of 1975, R.J. Reynolds through its Winston brand of coffin nails signed to back NHRA's racing series and that little move sent the whole sport down the yellow brick road to corporate respectability. (God, how can you use those two words in conjunction with each other). Anything before were the "good old days," the rest is jet age in so many words.

To my way of thinking, there were two great Funny Car win streaks; "Dyno Don" Nicholson's incredible 1966 winter, spring, summer run with this "Eliminator 1" Mercury Comet, and Danny Ongais aboard Mickey Thompson's Mustang and his romp through the lilies of the field during the first half of the 1969 season.

Of the two, Ongais' charge was the more memorable. There were more match races in the '66 season and consequently Nicholson would lose a heat every great once in awhile in best of threes throughout the country. As one example, he lost two straight in a wild ass pairing with Arnie Beswick at Yellow River, Ga. in either March or April of that season. And

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in matches with the Ramchargers, "Jungle Jim," and others, he occasionally tasted defeat in best of threes, although I'd be willing to bet that occurrence happened less than a dozen times. In June of the season, Maynard Rupp's "Chevoom" Chevelle took him two straight at Milan, Michigan to break his "unbeaten" streak.

Ongais' efforts were different. Like Nicholson, his ride was ahead of its time. Whereas Nicholson ran the first successful flip-top Comet, ultra lightweight and ultra quick, Ongais' car was the first to feature a Top Fuel-style roll cage and zoomy headers. He was unstoppable with this beast for better than a half a year, compiling an amazing 55-2 win-loss record. He broke in the final at the Hot Rod Magazine against Charlie Allen in March, and in the second round of the AHRA Springnationals at Bristol, Tenn., he red-lighted against Leonard Hughes in the Candies & Hughes Barracuda. At that race, he got back into the field under the old AHRA "break rule," and went on to beat Hughes in the final. Other than that, he tortured the competition.

Ongais' Waterloo came at the annual Orange County International Raceway PDA (Professional Dragster Association) on July 19, 1969. Until that time, he had won the Stardust Open at Las Vegas, the Bakersfield March Meet, the Orange County "Nitro" Championships, the NHRA Springnationals at Dallas, Texas, and the aforementioned Bristol race, not to mention roughly a half-dozen 8-car opens at L.A. area dragstrips like Lions, Irwindale and OCIR.