Remembering Pontiac's biggest win ever in drag racing history!
 

Today being Labor day, it is time to remember when Pontiac was King on the drag strip with winning Top Eliminator at the US Nationals!
This win for Pontiac has never been repeated and likely never will again.
Jack Chrisman was driving for Mickey Thompson and beat Don Garlits in the final!
Pontiac's racing program was in full swing under the leadership of General Manager Elliot "Pete" Estes and win they did!
Several firms were contracted under the SD racing program including Mickey Thompson Enterprises in Long Beach, Ca.
The biggest win ever for Pontiac in drag racing was on this weekend, Labor day weekend at Indy!
I own and collect M/T HEMI Pontiac engines and parts. Am happy to answer questions about this successful winning Pontiac racing engine. Very little has been published about it. Jack Gifford, of course, also knows so much about these engines and perhaps he will reply as well.
learn more by following here-
https://www.facebook.com/PontiacHeaven

thank you

VERY cool! Thanks for sharing!

With the success at this race, why did the Pontiac Hemi program die off so quickly? Was it solely because of Pontiac's exit from sanctioned racing in 63'? Or, were there reliability issues too?

Some may know that the car in the far lane, in that 1st pic was Connie Kalitta's "Bounty Hunter".

'62 was indeed a very good year for Pontiac. Besides the dragster & some lower class wins, another M/T Pontiac also won the A/FX class. That same car had also won A/FX at the Winter Nats, earlier in the year. Those 421SD engines won lots of stuff in '62 & '63.

Yep, those early '60's were Pontiac's "Glory Days", in drag & circle track racing ! Love to read about it & watch some of the old videos from those days ! :)

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...agster.981950/

https://bangshift.com/bangshift1320/...ine-dragsters/

Fritz Voight was a friend of mine from the early 60s until his death.He was very honest about that hemi win.First he said the biggest deal that race was on gas,it was a non nitro year.Second it was THEIR day to win(we all have had them)if they raced everyday the results would not have been the same eveyday.Tom

"...it was THEIR day to win(we all have had them)..."

Yep ! If you enter enuff races, you'll eventually experience it. We've won races in which we didn't really have to make a decent pass, because our opponents either made mistakes or had mechanical problems. A red light, a mechanical problem, a slow light, we get the semi-final bye run, & the other guy trips the red light in the final.

No, we didn't earn it. BUT, the winner's check was made out to us, anyhow ! :)

And we never refused to accept the check & cash it. :)

Was Connie running a MT/PMD Hemi also ?
Or was he running a 392 Chrysler Hemi ?

No, he wasn't running a Pontiac.

I just posted that because that was the car that Jack Chrisman was running in the 1st pic that was posted.

BUT, IIRC, there were at least 2 dragsters running the M/T Pontiac Hemi. I'll do some searching & see if I can find that info.

The OP knows a lot more about the M/T Pontiac Hemi than me.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...barcak.316668/

Post #27 mentions a 2nd Dragster with the M/T engine.

Too bad the golden boy Chevy couldn’t stand getting its tail stepped on so it cried to momma GM. They were so butt hurt that people were yanking out chevys and putting Pontiacs in everything’s from t birds to corvettes they had to kil off Pontiacs racing support.

pontiacs we’re handing Chevy its azz til the Chevy aftermarket kicked in and GM protected it. It’s (Pontiac) still a better engine design than a SBC or. bBC all day long! If you applied the same quality of manufacturing to its parts, only the advent of the LS engine could even compete . Chevy always needed the aftermarket bandaids to keep up.

In the end it was chevys “find a part on the side of the road “
and Chrysler’s “elephant hemis”that put Pontiac away. With out factory support and with , one maybe two cars running a class as a privateer against the mountains of data coming in from
Those other brands it was near impossible to compete in a class. But back in 62 63 Pontiac ruled the strip and the street. And MT sure was helping out a bit

Think about it every time something was tested w a popular multi car brand later in the 60s the information filtered to the other cars while they continued to compete . If a loan Pontiac puked an engine when they tested something new that one car was out. Data sharing between teams was important then and is important. Today . Just look at chevys COPO program compared to Pontiacs in. Late 60s both had a ban but the Chevy program was much bigger and far less hidden .because momma GM
Wanted it that way. Dont dare cannibalize the corvette or the camaro was the rule!

BUT in the SD years it was a far more level playing field . And that’s when Pontiacs sure did shine ! There’s a reason so many switched later, just look at Jess Tyrees little Indian w the black eye it tells the whole story And that’s why we love our ponchos! Pontiac owners love an underdog !!

I spectated the '62 Nationals. Although Mickey brought three dragsters, one of them had some unrepairable problem and didn't run. I frankly can't remember if it was also a hemi. Mickey said later that he was just as surprised by the hemi's Top Eliminator finish as was his crew. He had hoped to do well with the twin-engine dragster, which had a single 6-71 blowing into a pair of 215 c.i. aluminum V8s, one with Buick heads and the other with Pontiac/Olds heads.

The hemi dragster was run a few times after Indy, by Jack Chrisman on nitro (I think he then owned it), but it had reliability issues as a fueler.

Strange story: although since 1985 I've made good use of M/T hemi heads, in '62 I was not a fan of Mickey copying Chrysler hemi head design. I was already into building Pontiac engines and wished that Mickey would have stayed "true" to the Pontiac wedge heads that pushed him to 406 mph at Bonneville just two years prior. And at $1,000 a pair I couldn't imagine him selling more than a few pairs- which wasn't too far off, with no more than maybe 20 pairs ever sold.

Pontiac was on top of the game back then. Carol Cox win at winter nationals in 61 probably pissed the good old boys off.

Thanks for starting this thread. Yes, these were the years that Pontiac had no equal, on the circle tracks or the drag strips. They had the engineering, the enthusiasm and the leadership at the top of the division that understood the value of the youth market, the importance of wining at the race track, and support from the factory and aftermarket. Not to mention the talented and colorful drivers. It was a glorious time for our brand. Some of us have never left that time frame and chosen to improve what Pontiac gave us as one of the best V-8 racing platforms that has transcended time. Great pics, keep them coming. Anytime you end up on the winning side of a race with Don Garlits, it's a very special day at the race track! Thank you to all the pioneers, past and still with us who made this all possible.

Here is a link to a good article on the US Nationals 1962 and the winning car in question. 171 MPH trap speed , impressive!
http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/membe...onals_1-20.pdf

Yeah, she got at least 2 big wins, maybe more.

I don't really know how many races she won. Carol & Lloyd Cox ran several Pontiacs. Not sure how many or in what classes. I have a pic of Lloyd with a trophy & the car is marked SS/SA. Maybe some of you guys can help me sort some of this out.

(1) This is Lloyd & Carol Cox, with the S/SA Pontiac. The car number is 901, & its at Indy. So, is this 1961 ?

(2) This is Carol in the S/SA Pontiac, #973.

(3) This is Carol, with the #973 S/SA Pontiac & the class winners trophy. I have this listed as 1962. BUT, the sign board behind the car clearly says '67, NOT '62,

Pretty sure NHRA was not still running that class, in '67. So, why does the sign have 67 instead of 62 ?

(4) This appears to be the same car, but with #708 on it, along with a big trophy. So, what year was this ? Did the car win the class in '62 & '63, at the Winter Nats ? OR ?

(5) This is Lloyd Cox with the '62 M/T Tempest, & the A/FX class winners trophy, at Indy. Notice again that 67 on the sign board behind the car. Could it be that whoever painted the sign just simply painted the wrong number on it ? How could the painter not have known what year it was ? Hey, he could have asked somebody. I'm almost positive this had to be 1962. M/T had a '63 A/FX car in '63. And NHRA was not still running the A/FX class in '67, I don't think.

Who can sort all this out ? What races did Carol win ? What races did Lloyd win ?

https://www.motortrend.com/features/...nternationals/

Some of my questions are answered on this site, by Steve Cox, in the section called Family Tradition. .

https://stevecoxracing.com/f/current-points

Some little things that popped out at me in some of the pictures.

In Steve's picture #2 , the guys are standing in mud working on the car.
The guy on driver side is standing in a puddle, and the tires are muddy.
1962 was grass roots , mud and guts

Picture #3 is same vehicle, but has nice finned valve covers and chrome exhaust.
In the other pictures the car had home-made looking valve covers and plain exhaust.
The "nicey" stuff must have came on after the Big Win

In Ponyakr's close-up of Bounty Hunter he has Chrisman's name crossed out on the list.
Chrisman returned that favor at Indy
Also noted Connie didn't have Don Garlits name on the Wanted List ?
or was "The Big Wheel" actually Don Garlits ? (pre-dating Big Daddy nickname ?)

Lloyd's t-shirt says 1962 Class Winner
The "67" on the sign -maybe- was the ending of the track name or sponsor name ?
Route 67 -- Highway 67 -- Lumber 67 -- sumpn idunno

'63
 

Pontiacs were still strong, in '63.

(1) Pontiac dominated A/FX at the Winter Nats.

(2) The A/FX winner.

(3) Jim Wangers & the '63 Royal Pontiac Indy B/FX class winner.

(4) All Pontiac B/FX run.

(5) Six Pontiac class winners at Indy '63. :)

WOW ! That's great !!! Never saw this before. :cool:

Pontiac also won A/FX, S/S, S/SA, A/SA, B/SA, C/SA, G/SA. :)

Lookin with a magnifying glass. may find more good stuff.

Double WOW !! By using the mag glass, I read the caption to a pic that says Don Garlits was driving Connie Kalitta's car. I never heard that before. If that's so, that explains a lot. That page is a gold mine of info !!! :)

So, am I the last guy here who didn't know Don was driving the Bounty Hunter car at that race ? Did Don drive for Connie at other races ?

TJ is workin on getting some pics off that page, in a form that I can post.

Well, ya'll know the saying "You can't believe everything you read online"?

Here is a quote from a Don Garlits site, about that '62 race, & his Swamp Rat IV car.

"...Swamp Rat 4: I built Swamp Rat 4 during the spring of 1962 at the request of Frank Wylie, my boss at Dodge Public Relations. He wanted me to compete in the 1962 NHRA US Nationals at Indy on gas, using the new Dodge 413 CID Max-Wedge engine that they were offering in the 1962 SS/AA cars. I snapped the car together, a very light weight piece of equipment and went to Indy, didn’t run well at first, but soon got a handle on the “Gas” and went to runner-up against Jack Chrisman, driving Mickey Thompson’s Hemi-Pontiac Dragster."

According to that, Don drove his own car, not Connie Kalitta's car.

My guess is that we can believe Don, instead of that other article.

I thought maybe Don just did not wanna run his car on gas, therefore drove for Connie. But, my guess now is that he NEVER drove for Connie. I obviously don't know for sure. :o

Don drove Connie's car ???
 

Yeah, that's what it says !

At this point, I have to believe that those who wrote the captions & edited that article just did not get all the facts straight.

Surely Don didn't drive Connie's car, JUST for the speed record pass. ??? :confused:

2nd pic is the one the article posted as being the final round, with Don G. in the near lane.

The last 3 pics show the S/S, A/SA, & G/SA winners. Both cars in each pic are Pontiacs. So, I ASSUME that all those finals were All-Pontiac.

One pic shows that a Corvair beat a Pontiac to win class. I was too embarrassed to post it. :o

"..."67 NHRA Champions" ?
Like Indy honored or crowned "67 NHRA Champions"..."

That makes sense. Like maybe they ran 67 different classes that year.