When the team took Top Gas at the NHRA Winternationals, defeating Connie Kalitta, John Peters was recognized as the driver. Then track announcer Mel Reck and track manager Steve Gibbs gave Bob the Floyd Lippencott Jr. moniker one night in 1963 at San Gabriel. In an interview, Bob said that if a headshot was needed, the photographer waited until he had his goggles and helmet on. It was the NHRA’s best-kept secret that I know of. Bob’s father eventually found out that Bob was driving, and true to his word, disowned him. Bob’s father passed away in 1993 having never spoken to his son after that day in 1967.
John Peters’ Freight Train went through a few different drivers, but none more successful than Bob Muravez. Oops, I mean the mysterious Floyd Lippencott Jr. (Photo Courtesy James Handy)
118 Drag News columnist Judy Thompson gave John Peters’ rail the Freight Train name after watching it defeat the competition by a train’s length. Driver Bob Muravez made more than 1,300 runs in Freight Train and at one point went 28 consecutive rounds before a loss. Bob continued to rack up the wins for Peters, taking six national events. In 1967, Bob set the class record at a UDRA meet at Lions with a 7.31 at 200.44 mph. History has recorded this as the first 200-mph blast by a Top Gas car. Freight Train has a long list of accomplishments, including being the first Top Gas car over 190 mph, the first Top Gas car to run a 7-second time, and the first to run a 6-second time. The Peters team won the Division 7 points championship five times, and in 1967, Freight Train was low qualifier at every meet the team ran.
119 By 1970, it seemed that if you wanted to win in Top Gas, you should be running twin engines. Although most competitors followed in the steps of John Peters’ Freight Train, some guys including Rico and Dom Paris went a different route. They are credited with being the first to campaign a rear-engine twin Top Gas car. They debuted their 240-inch Gary Woods dragster at the 1971 NHRA Nationals. Although Rico failed to qualify the twin 392 Hemi, he made the show at the 1971 Supernationals, where he ran a 7.46.
120 “I Support Top Gas” was the cry through 1970 and 1971. Rumors had been circulating that the NHRA was on the verge of killing the category, and the end finally came at the 1971 season-ending Supernationals. In the final go, Jim Bucher’s twin Chevy engine rail was declared the winner over Ken Ellis. Ken, who had cleared the traps first, was running a little underweight and thus was disqualified.
121 The final Top Gas World Champ was Austin Myers, driving Butch Hummel’s twin 392 Hemi rail. This was Austin’s only national event win, although he made it to the finals a couple times in the mid-1970s driving Jack Hart’s Top Fuel Golddigger. This was Butch’s second national event win, having previously enjoyed the sweet taste of victory at the 1970 Summernationals, with Larry Brown driving his Top Gas car.
122 In 1971, Al Lidert took the “more boost is always better” philosophy to the max when he created a blown twin Schwitzer turbo BB/GD. Golden Gator out of Fort Lauderdale won Best Engineered award at the 1972 NHRA Nationals and took class at the 1973 Gatornationals. Driven by Chase Knight, the car had turbos mounted to a 482-inch Keith Black mill and fed 60 to 70 psi of boost. The NHRA eventually took notice of the car and added weight, and more weight, and more . . . well, you get the picture. Best times for the doomed ride came in 1977 when it clicked off 6.70s in AA/DA. That same season, the car won the Division 2 points championship.
The Greek jumped onto the wedge bandwagon in 1971 but, like most, discovered no real advantage to the design. The wedge was removed and never made it to the end of the season. And the car? Well, it was involved in one of the season’s more unusual accidents. (Photo Courtesy James Handy)
123 Poor Chris “the Greek” Karamesines. He received a swoopy, new rear-engine wedge Top Fueler in 1971 and what happens? He gets run over! Well, not him but the car. And not just by anyone, but by Jim Nicoll, who was driving Chris’ own push car. The accident happened at Fremont in October when the push bar broke. Jim went right up and over the entire car. Thankfully, Chris came out of the incident unscathed. Can’t say the same for the car, though.
124 At the 1971 Supernationals, Ed Donovan debuted his 417 aluminum-block Hemi. Based closely on the 392 design, the first aftermarket Hemi was placed in John Wiebe’s Top Fuel car and proceeded to run a 10th quicker (6.53 best) than anyone in the field. A red light in the final against Hank Johnson marred Donovan’s debut.
John Wiebe sits behind Ed Donovan’s first aluminum 417 Hemi. The block made use of pressed-in sleeves and 392 heads. John’s impression after running early 6.50 times? Super strong and super powerful. (Photo Courtesy Roger Phillips)
125 The first major victory for Donovan’s nugget of Hemi gold came in the summer of 1972 at the 6th Annual PDA race held at Orange County International Raceway. Herm Petersen overcame a number of odds to drive around a failing Tom McEwen in the final round for the honors. Herm had been eliminated in the second round by a young Fred Mooneyham but was reinstated on the low ET rule after Garlits dropped out.
126 Dale Thierer, driving the E. T. Engineering Lewis Brothers Top Fueler, Hemi Hunter, holds the distinction of being the last to pilot a Chevy-powered dragster to a division championship. Dale, running out of Division 1, won in 1971, accumulating 2,800 points with the 454-inch car. Dale’s division win earned him a birth at the season-ending NHRA World Finals, where he cranked out 6.80 times at 217 mph.
127 The final Top Fuel national event win by a front-engine dragster went to (drum roll, please) 23-year-old Art Marshall. Art earned the win behind the wheel of Prudhomme’s old high-back Hot Wheels rail at the 1972 NHRA Grandnationals. A young Jeb Allen, looking for his second national event win in a row, went up in smoke just off the line while Marshall sailed to an easy victory with a 6.57 at 220.58 mph.
128 American-born and Canadian-adopted Gary Beck, a relative unknown in 1972, shocked the Top Fuel troops at the NHRA Nationals when he defeated the Northwest’s Jerry “the King” Ruth in the final of the season’s biggest race. Driving the Ken McLean Woody Gilmore–chassis car, Beck, who had just earned his fuel license two weeks before, went into a burn-down with Ruth on the line and the ensuing heat built by Ruth’s engine saw his promised 5-second run go up in smoke. Beck went on to an effortless win with a 6.11 time.
129 The first member of Cragar’s Top Fuel magical 5-second club was Tommy Ivo, who reportedly hit that mark on October 22, 1972. Tommy found the perfect combination of a sticky track and a cool-air front to reach 5.97 at Pittsburgh.
130 The 5-second barrier was broken for the second time in November 1972 at the NHRA Supernationals. Mike Snively, who became the quickest man ever to lose a national event, knocked out a 5.97 at 235.69 mph in Diamond Jim Annin’s Woody Gilmore fueler. Snively fell to Vic Brown’s hole-shot