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Excerpt #1 Match Race Madness by Grady Byrant
Mr. Chevrolet In 1961 I was lucky enough to be able to purchase a high performance 348 Chevy which would run in A Stock. My neighbor and good friend, Dick HARRELL, had purchased a '61 409 Chevy which would run in Super Stock. We were living in Carlsbad, New Mexico at that time and to go to any race was a long haul. Dick came up with the idea to pull each other with a 20 foot chain. We could drive faster than if we had a tow bar and it was safer, we thought. Dick would always pull me with his 409 and I would be the brake man and keep the chain tight. I know this sounds crazy but it in fact worked real well when you work as a team and know just what the other person is going to do all the time. After work Friday afternoon we would hook up the chain, put our 4:56 rear ends in the trunk of our Chevys and go as far as 500 miles for a week end race. When we got tot he race track we would use a bumper jack and jack up the cars, put our racing rear end in and go racing. When the race was over we would go through the same routine and put our 3:08 gears in and drive all night and be home in time for work Monday morning. I just wanted to let you know what it was like to race in the early 60's, you had to be dedicated to the sport, because there wasn't any money to be made, it was just pure love of the sport. Now that the SCENE is set as to what we were racing I'll get to the story. In fact there are two stories about Dick Harrell that I believe are worth telling. If you remember right, in 1961 the first 409's had only one carburetor; an AFB Carter. This just wouldn't work against the 406 Fords, because they had three two barrels and would really pull good in high gear. Dick knew if he had two AFB's it would make the 409 come to life, but, Chevy had not released this set up and if you put it on the car you couldn't run in Super Stock. So Dick went down to the Chevrolet dealership and borrowed a parts book and took out the page on part numbers that pertained to carburetors. He then went to a printing shop and had a new page printed with a fictitious part number and a description of a two carburetor set up that was an option. He then set himself a telegram which stated that this option was available as of such and such date and was called a field option which was not available at date of manufacture of such car. When Dick showed me the telegram and the parts book the first thing I said was, where is it and lets put it on. I couldn't wait to run one of those Fords. Well, Dick said it all sounds good but there isn't one yet, its going to be a few months before Chevy will release it. "What good is all this then, if we don't have a set up yet", I said. Dick looked at me with that possum grin and said, "all this is counterfeited and I'm having an after market manifold stamped with the part number on it and the name of the manufacturer changed to General Motors, do you think it will work?" "Of course it will work. Here is a telegram from General Motors saying that they are manufacturing it and here's the part number in the book, anyone would believe that it is authentic." Well, we put the manifold on as soon as it was ready from the machine shop and off to the races we went, just dying to try on the 406 Fords which were pretty well dominating Super Stock at that time. The first person to see us was the Division Four Director Dale Hamm. He checked over everything and said "I knew that Chevy was going to do this but I just didn't know when it was going to happen". The telegram and parts book worked perfect. Of course, the Ford boys were crying because they had been having a field day with the Chevys and they knew that it would be different now. Sure enough Dick put all the Fords down that day and got a good reputation for having a fast Chevy. In a few weeks they did start shipping the two AFB set ups, Dick just got a head start on everyone, he was the best in the business at that. I don't think Dale Hamm ever knew about this little trick, but he will now. To be continued................... Check back for more exciting stories from the golden years of racing. |
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