The Greatest "Hawaiian" !
Limited-Edition Print of 150 (Large format print 13x36) signed and numbered by the Artist.
"Winning the NHRA "Winternationals" back to back, could be the "Highlight" of any Professional Drag Racer's career.. The same could be said for winning the "US Nationals" at Indy, two years in a row...How about winning all four of those races ? And doing it all the same car ? In fact, how about going into the third year, with the same car, and winning the prestigious, "Us Fuel and Gas Championships" in Bakersfield? Well that's exactly what Roland Leong did with this Kent Fuller built Dragster!
I asked Roland about this car, and I was surprised to hear about it's evolution. The car was originally built for Roland to drive, and it had a wheel base of about 125". Roland had the dubious distinction of having crashed the car on his first pass...Three things happened after that. One,,,NHRA mandated that drivers had to pass a driving test, and receive an "Official" "NHRA License" before they could compete...The second thing that happened was, that Fuller stretched the car out to a 136" wheelbase, and third, Roland hired "Hotshoe" Don Prudhomme to drive the car.
With the car revamped, Roland and Prudhomme preceded to win the 1965 NHRA "Winternationals." They also match raced several times, with the likes of Tom "Mongoose" McEwen, and others. The car was running a Crower injector at the time, when Roland decided to switch to "Enderly," in hopes of gaining a little more fuel. The car promptly picked up 10mph, but it was a little on the lean side now...Keith Black, built Roland, what he called a "Monster" of a fuel pump, to meet the demands of the new injector...They took the car to "Indy" and handily won the race!
KB had warned Roland to only use the "Enderly." with that big fuel pump. So of coarse, Roland precedes to buy a huge "Hilborn" injector, to keep the air-intake up with the larger fuel volumes. Also about that time, the "Snake" decides to take off and put his own car together. So Roland hires "Likable" Mike Snively for the 66 season. As history records, Roland and Mike won the "Winternationals" and the "US Nationals" that year, but the trusty old Blue car would have one more transition to make. On the way back from "Indy," an unfortunate traffic accident wiped-out the front end of the car. Fuller quickly rebuilt the front-end, and stretched the car for the 3rd time to 155" inches. This is the final configuration of the car as it was at the 67 "March Meet.""BAKERSFIELD" 67.
Critics of the "March Meet" (Also known as the US Fuel and Gas Championships) that year, said it was the "Nail in the Coffin" heralding the "End is Near!" for the once prestigious race. The "Smokers" car club, started this annual event in 1959, and it quickly became the "Drag Racers" Race! Anyone who was anyone, with a Dragster, attended this historic event. It was often boasted that the race had close to 150 "Fuelers" in attendance. Apparently, the "Smokers" club turned the event over to some Eastern Organizers in 65, but the club stayed on hand to help run the event. By the time 1967 event had arrived, the organizers had promoted the race primarily as a Funny Car event!. This in turn, didn't sit very well with the dragster folks, and many of them choose not to run the event...Some would say, "The disorganization at that event, foretold the near-further end of this Great race.But this 67 event, still had a 32 car field, with "Wild Bill" Alexander sitting on the pole with a 7.19 at 212.26, and Ron Rivero holding on to the bump spot at 7.44 at 212.26. (Interesting to note, the number 1 qualifier, and number 32 car both ran identical speed of 212.26) Roland had arrived at the event with two "Hawaiian's". He had recently acquired a new Don Long built car, and hired "Mike Sorokin, to drive it at the race. The new car, had the brand new 426 Hemi as a powerplant, while the trusty "old Blue" still ran the 392...Snively qualified 13th at 7.30, and Sorokin ran a 7.37 for the 24th spot...Snively remarked "This is a heavy toad!" referring to the fact that the new Don Long built car was 200 lbs lighter the his car...None the less, Snively (the "slipper man") did win the event, and did it with little to no tire smoke, as it was rumored that Mike was master at slipping the clutch. Roland now tells me, that the "Hilborn" injector had a lean spot, right when you stepped on the gas. This acted as sort of a built-in fuel stop, allowing the car to get up and run without a lot of tire spin...In this painting, we are seeing the 3rd round, as Mike takes out Gary Gabelich in the "Purple Gang" car, 7.19 to a 7.25.... Gabelich would later remark, "They just flat ran away from us!" Roland retired the car sometime later that year, but that Fuller built beauty (Now residing in a Museum in Italy), was the car to beat for 3 years running, to me, that makes it the "Greatest Hawaiian!"....DCP
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