As the saying goes,
it's great when a plan comes together. For Big Yohns Racing "the
plan" came together at the 13th California Hot Rod Reunion
held at Fomosa Raceway, October 1-3, 2004. Here is Big Yohn's
version of the events that took place.
Well, what did the Roman's
say, Vini, Vidi, Vici! We came, we saw, we conquered. I don't
know if we conquered anything but we did, for sure, come and
see!
We
got to the track Thursday with both the Junior Fueler and Shubert/Herbert
packed in the trailer. they looked like Sardines! This is looking
into the back of my 24 foot box. On the left, facing us is the
race car. It is a two-piece car, butil that way, by Bob Meyer.
The fron section hangs on the ceiling on the left, front spindles
toward us. Wheels are on the wall to the left.
Shubert/Herbert is not a two piece. Would have been but we couldn't
find a set of splice joints in time. So, all I can do with it
is take off the front axle. Five 3/8ths bolts and it's off. 3-4
minutes max. The axle and wheels hangs from the trailer ceiling
right at the rear door. We use the dolly to roll the chassis
into the trailer and set it down on the support that Meyer made
that bolts to the front of the motor and rests on the floor.
On Friday the Shubert & Herbert car was debuted
in the Jr Fuel pit of Johnson Racing. Basically kept out of the
limelight until the fire up at the Double Tree hotel that night.
Zane hopped in and got comfy! With the upholstery
in, it's just his size and he looked good in there. I don't know
exactly what he expected, but I think it's safe to say that he
was pleased with the finished product.
I had bought a 60's drivers
suit and mask, gloves etc. from John Shoemaker this summer. He
said it would fit someone 6' 2" and 38" around the
waist! Zane is about 5' 9" and maybe 34 waist. The waist
was fine, but the suit was a little short on him! Look out for
Shoemaker! LOL. It was just fine, because it was with Zane in
mind that I bought it!
I couldn't find an old helmet and Zane couldn't find any of his
old stuff either, so I bought a new helmet and took a color chip
to the paint store, had them match the paint, took the helmet
and the paint to my favorite Body and Paint shop, Tim's, (that's
a plug and I can too do that) and he got it painted to match
the car!
On the far left, partly cut off, is Valerie Shubert. The left
side is the side I don't see out of too good, sorry Valerie!
Next is Valerie's school chum, Martha, sorry i didn't catch or
don't remember her last name, next is Bill Cunningham who crewed
for Zane in the early days and the man, himself.
This was Friday about 5:00 and we were headed for the Double
Tree where we were going to be one half of an all S & H fireup
about 9:00 P. M. Bet you can't guess who the other half was!
In the background (below) is car and trailer. I borrowed a trailer
from Bill "Magicar" Pitts because it was more period
correct than a 16 foot flat bed car hauler which was all I had
up there besides the box the race car rides in.
We hooked everything
up and I headed for the Double Tree. After I turned the corner
by our pit area, I looked at the rig on my right and slammed
the brakes on. The White Combo belongs to John Rasmussen who
is a competitor of ours in Junior Fuel with Gene Adams and Ron
Pratt as partners. Not a shabby group.
I thought the contrast was kind of noticeable. When we raced
Top Fuel in 1966, we looked just like the El Camino and the trailer/race
car do here, except we had a single axle trailer that was nowhere
near as nice as Pitts'. (For nitpickers, 1966 we had a different
race car but we towed with an El Camino. In 1967 we had this
race car but towed with either a Cad Fleetwood or a 57 Olds Fiesta
Wagon!)
The point here, is not what we towed with what year, but what
a typical hobby top fuel rig looked like, compared with what
some people feel they need to compete in Junior Fuel!
It's so funny that's it's actually funny and I laugh when I look
at this! Notice the push board. We didn't need it Friday night,
but I thought it looked kind of "Butch"! We used it
Saturday night though. Big Yohns
Well, here's one for
the scrapbook. Shubert and Herbert with Shubert/Herbert! That's
Zane in the cap Chet!
I will have to say that the next couple of hours are in competition
with the most significant hours in my life! Bringing these two
Icons of the sport together at one of the most prestigious events
in Drag Racing is a great satisfaction! To have them sitting
and standing alongside my "pile of pipe" is truly awesome.
Neither of them had been to any recent Nostalgia event and to
say that they were "blown away" by the reception they
got would be among the hugest understatements of all time!
I kind of had an idea that the car would be well, received and
they (Chet and Zane) would be well received, as well, but what
happened was beyond my expectations!
On the lower left
is Zane's wife Valerie with a pretty big smile. I am putting
the funnel into the fuel tank because it had been running for
awhile but we didn't want to run out of fuel, as I was going
to refill the tank while the car ran. The fellow with the camera
poised in the Maroon shirt is from the NHRA Museum. That's Kol
behind him. On the right is "Motorman" Bob McKray who
handled fireup chores and kept track of motor heat etc.
Here I am just about to add fuel, the car having
been running for some minutes by this point. It was sounding
fine and either McKray or Zane were whacking the throttle every
once in awhile. That's Dan Kaplan (who shot some of the pictures
I am using here) in the White tee-shirt and light tan shorts.
I am adding fuel
and McKray is giving the throttle linkage a little nudge to slow
the idle down.
Here's Zane in the seat, motor running and getting
his first sniff of Nitro in public, for close to 40 years. He
declined to use a breather mask and handled everything just fine.
We didn't get much of
any flames because partly, we were running only 15% Nitro. This
is what they actually ran in the car. We also had the barrel
valve lean to not use our fuel up any faster than we had to.
A rich barrel valve and 95% nitro would probably make flames!
I brought 600 handouts, framing quality montage pictures
of the car in a smoky wheelie and Zane in the cockpit, and Chet
Herbert (above) signed them all and they all went. Zane signed
many of them for fans. Zane's wife came over to me after it was
all over, and asked me if I would sign some pictures for them!
Do you have any idea how looney this is for me? Zane Shubert's
wife wants my autograph? Can't happen in this lifetime.
Bob Frey says "And
The Crowd Went Wild". After we fired the "Little Guy"
(on 15%, believe it or not) when we shut down, there was a roar
from the 400-500 people like I have never heard before! It made
the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
On Saturday the Shubert & Herbert
car took its place on Cacklefest Row in "The Grove"
for all to see and admire.
We had an opportunity
to do a test push start Saturday afternoon about 4:00. Prior
to the test start, we had a discussion back in our pits about
the short time the car would run, given the small fuel tank.
Bob Meyer had brought Ronnie Goodsell along. Ronnie was a very
prominent driver in the same era as Zane and was pretty interested
in our project and in helping. Zane said the idle was fast, that
he idled the car about 500, just fast enough to keep running,
so the wheels started turning and we worked on slowing the idle
down The we was actually Goodsell, as he went to work on the
injector and did some stuff.
So when we our test push start, it was with the slowed
idle and everything worked fine. Zane was concerned that I wouldn't
be able to stay right behind him and things would get goofy.
I figured I could do it, it had been a long time but some things
you don't forget! We had a push mark patch about a foot wide
on the push board afterwards and I think a lot of that was before
and after the on track part.
Anyway, it started fine and we had waited till we were down toward
the end of the track so we would not run out of fuel before we
could make sure the revised idle speed and everything was okay.
It was fine.
The Cacklefest
was a real blast. Last year Kol and I (and our crew) brought
the Ted Cyr Lincoln Chassis Research car from the Museum in Pomona.
It was during the "get-ready" period in early September
that I decided that I wanted a Cackle Car of my own and that
started this whole deal.
"Do
I really have to wear this crappy old driving suit?"
"What
are you complaining about, it looks like Armani from here, fits
great!"
"Promise
me one thing, no matter how good it feels, you won't try to do
a smoking wheelie!"
Here is Zane being
pushed from the starting line. This was the Parade. Dave McClelland
was announcing and he was very kind in his explanation of the
car and talking about it's re-construction.
As we pushed down
the track, I was more than a little pleased to realize that the
applause from the grandstands on both sides of the track followed
us all the way to where the stands thinned out, about 1200 feet!
It was thrilling to hear the crowd exhibit their respect for
the car and the guys, Shubert and Herbert! I liked it! If I had
any lingering issues about the wisdom in spending the $ in recreating
this car, they were answered at that point!
We are sitting at the far end of the
track waiting for the Funny Cars and Fuel Altereds to run. I
wonder how many times Zane sat like this at Long Beach and the
other LA area tracks, waiting for next round? Must have felt
like old times!
Prior to the actual
Cacklefest, nobody thought to turn the fuel shut off "on"
and it was in the "off" position until Zane figured
out why the car wasn't starting and pushed the fuel shut off
in and it fired about a 100 feet before the turn around. "Man,
was I relieved!"
The
clutch was set up nice and soft and Zane had no problem with
it or the brakes and everything worked just fine. It ran and
ran, at the slower idle. Zane whacked it every once in a while
and it was the "energizer bunny", it just kept on running!
This picture (above) shows more than Robert Briggs thought when
he took it. The lights from the track lighting were on me and
lit me right up. It's just how I felt. That the light was on
me. It was the eve of my 70th Birthday and while I have had many
nice family birthdays from a loving family, this was special.
The experience
was perfect, the people were perfect, I don't know how it could
have been any better! We went back to the pits after the Cacklefest
was over and all three of my kids were there and some spouses
and grand kids and Meyer and Goodsell and my wife, Linda, came
along this time too. We had barbecue (Kol cooked, I sat) and
a couple of beers and then it was Midnight and I was 70! Too
Old To Die Young! I made it!
We made it to the semi's with the race car the next day and found
some clues to our spongy performances this year. Happy, Happy!
Big (Still Crazy After All These Years) Yohns |