"California Flash" By Bob McClurg Article reprinted with permission from Bob McClurg and Muscle Car Review Magazine May and June 2008 Muscle Car Review Basically, I learned everything I know from trial and error. My first set of wheels was a Mustang motorcycle I paid about $80 for back in 1958. I traded it for a '46 Ford coupe that had a '53 Mercury flathead with Edelbrock heads and three Stromberg 97 carburetors. I got the thing running well enough to cruise the local hamburger joints. I later traded the '46 for a '31 Ford Model A coupe. I raced that Model A everywhere I could. I ended up getting six Model A motors from a couple of local farmers, and I put together one good engine out of all those parts. When I ran it at Old Famosa Raceway, the car made enough horsepower to chirp the tires in second and top out at almost 70 mph. That was pretty fast for a 'stock' Model A in those days. My dad made me a deal that, if I worked real hard that summer loading the trucks and doing other assigned jobs he would buy me any new car I wanted for my 16th birthday. The hot car to have was a '60 Chevrolet Bel Air with the 335-horse 348 Turbo-Fire V-8 with Tri-power and a four-speed. But I read somewhere that the 348 El Caminos were rated at 350 hp. I got a Royal Blue '60 El Camino four-speed just in time for my birthday. Right away I went to the Old Famosa Raceway and I won and kept winning. I figured that, when my dad found out about what I was doing he would get real angry, but when I finally told him he got really excited. My parents went with me to Old Famoso around September because by then the new '61 Chevrolets had come out. There was a guy there with a brand-new 348 Impala with Tri-power, and he outran me. The next day there was my dad with the hood off the El Camino. He said, "Butch, if you're going to do this, let's do it right." We jerked the engine out and drove over to H.L. Shahan's shop in Tulare. H.L. decked the block, installed higher-compression pistons in it, then he balanced everything and put the engine back together. He also installed a set of Jardine headers and a set of Firestone butyl-air tires. At that time, the stockers didn't run drag slicks. I ran in the local Super Stock classes, and it would run 13.80's at 104. It was pretty darned fast. In a year and a half's time. I won over 284 trophies with that thing! We ran the El Camino in two classes. I ran the Tri-power class first. Then I would motor back to the pits, and H.L. would pull the three-two intake off and install a four-barrel, which was one class down. I ran the El Camino all the way through 1961, but by then, I really wanted a 409. I had spoken with our local Chevrolet dealer, Del Munson Chevrolet, about doing a sponsorship deal. I ended up ordering a '62 409 Biscayne with twin four-barrels and a four-speed not one of the Bel Air bubbletops like the other guys were running. I reasoned that the Biscayne was a light car and that it might be a bit more competitive. The car had 13 miles on the odometer when we brought it to H.L.'s shop. We tore the car completely apart and lightened it as much as we could. In fact, we even moved the body back on the chassis about an inch and a half. That car was real, real fast. The first time out, it ran 109 mph. Here's a funny story: When NHRA decided it was going to allow a 7-inch tire in Super Stock, Marvin Rifchin from M&H Tire Company came out with one of the first sets. Being just a kid and not knowing anything, I called and asked Marvin for a set. He told me to go to Ernie Hashim's speed shop in Bakersfield. I drove down there one afternoon with my mom and dad. I told Ernie who I was and told him what I needed. He came out of the back and handed me a new set of M&H drag slicks, and I headed for the door. He said, "Wait a minute. You have to pay for them first." I said, "Well, I called Marvin, and he told me to come here and pick them up." Ernie said, "Unless you're either "Big Daddy" Don Garlits or Connie Kalitta, Marvin don't give anybody free tires. I said, "Well, I guess you're going to have to call him." Ernie came back out of his office shaking his head, and sent us on our way. That was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with M&H. We flat-towed up to Vacaville, which was Tommy "Melrose Missile" Grove's home track. The first guy I see when we pull in the pits is Al Vanderwoude and his Flying Dutchman '62 Plymouth. Al goes out and runs a 12.90/113 and I said to H.L., "I think we're in the wrong place." I made my first run and went 13-flat at about 111 on the butyl-airs. Then I strapped on the M&Hs and ran 12.82/114. I looked at H.L. and said, "We're on our way!" In those days, the late Les Ritchey was known for his fast Pontiacs and Fords. While we were at Vacaville, Les urged H.L. and me to take the car to Pomona and race against the big boys at one of the Pomona Valley Timing Association events. Les thought the car should run 12.50's at sea level, so we were off to Pomona. Hayden Proffitt was there. He was fast. Engine builder Jack Baer was there, and he was pretty fast with his 409. But I think the fastest car at the event was Bill "Maverick" Golden, who was running 12.50s with his Dodge. I ended up racing Maverick on the SS/S final and beat him with a 12.55/116. My first national event was the '62 NHRA Nationals at Indianapolis. I remember running against Royal Pontiac in the first round. When I pulled into staging, my knees were knocking so badly that I could hardly hold the clutch pedal in. But all that went away when I pulled up to the starting line and I outran them. I made it all the way to the semifinals of the S/S class when Dave Strickler (Strickler/Jenkins) outran me. Was I ever upset. That was on Sunday. On Monday, I came back and ran in the eliminator and drew the Ramchargers in the semifinal round. I put about a half car length on Jim Thornton off the line, and man, oh man, that red-and white-striped Dodge came around me like a freight train! Looking back, I think I could have won the thing. When I got back to the pits, I told Hayden Proffitt that the Ramchargers were the faster than lightening. At the time, Hayden's car was running full-length S&S headers, and I was running over-the-fender well Jardine headers. Whenever I raced Hayden, he would always beat me. He and I had gotten to know each other real well by then, and he said, "You got to get a set of these!" I think they were about a hundred bucks, but my dad wasn't going to go for that, so we towed all the way to Indy, and you know what happened there. Anyhow, I came back home and ordered a new set of S&S headers like the ones Hayden was running. The car immediately ran 2 mph faster! My mother went ballistic! She told my dad "Butch could have won Indy." She never let him forget it! I sold the '62 to Linda and Tom Jacobson. That car (Old Blue) is sitting in the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum today. Next, I got one of the '63 427/Z-11 Impala lightweights with the aluminum front end. I ran that car in the NHRA's Limited Production class. The funny thing is that H.L. and Shirley Shahan (the "Drag-On Lady") also got one of the new Z-11s., so here we are in this little town out in the middle of nowhere with two Z-11 Chevrolets. I think Chevrolet only made about 50 of those cars, so that was a pretty big deal. Around that time, I met Bill Thomas, and he gave me a set of rear springs that made my '62 launch a little better. Famed engine builder John Garrison was working for Bill Thomas at the time, and he built my Z-11 engine. It was one of the fastest Z-11 in the country, at 13.00/120. In the spring of that year, Bill Thomas told me that GM was getting out of racing. GM pulled the plug, and that was the end of that. In those days, Mickey Thompson ran Pontiacs, and they were lightning-fast. When Mickey found out about GM's "Moratorium on Racing," he flew out to Detroit and got a Ford deal. Bill Thomas gave me Mickey's number and I called him. Of course, Mickey Thompson didn't know me from Adam, but he did know John Garrison because John was very successful at building supercharged engines in the L.A. area. We set up a meeting for the next day, and MT ended up hiring us both. About a week later, Mickey gave me one of the '63 1/2 R-Code 427 Galaxies to prepare for Indy. Like always, we tried to lighten up the car as much as we could. For example, we removed every other spring from the seat frames to save weight. I was prepared to take out anything I could to make that thing lighter. At the time, Dearborn Steel Tubing had built three or four sets of fiberglass doors for these cars. Naturally, I changed out the steel doors and had the local body shop straighten the glass doors to look just like the steel ones. At Indy, we could only get the car to run 114 while Brannan, Bonner and all the others were running 116. It was kind of embarrassing. Since Mickey had the key to the gate at Lions Drag strip, we would always test there. But no matter what we did, the car would always run 114. John asked Mickey if he could put another driver in the car for comparison purposes. My feelings were hurt, but since it wasn't my car, I went along with the idea. I think they put Tom Sturm in the car first, and he ran 111 twice. John wasn't satisfied. Then Larry Fullerton got in the car and ran 112. Then I ran 114, so it wasn't the driver. I sat home all weekend stewing over what had happened. The following Monday, I walked into the office and turned in my resignation. Mickey immediately wanted to know what the problem was. I said, "John won't work on the engine. He thinks it's the driver, and we've already proven that's not the case. Everyone else out there is running 2 miles per hour faster, and I just don't want to look bad." Mickey said, "Do you think you can do the engine yourself?" I told him I'd never built one before, but I thought I could. He said, "You go back to the shop, and I'll call Fritz Vogt (Thompson's longtime engine man) and he'll show you how to deck it, and you can do anything else you want to it." Suddenly, I realized that now all the responsibility was riding on me! I'm as nervous as I can be. I telephone both Dick Brannan and Phil Bonner and met with both of them at the Dearborn Inn while I was there getting a new pickup that Ford had given Mickey to tow the CA. Now, Bonner was very successful match racing his Galaxie. He had run as fast as 119 with big tires on the car and Brannan was the head of the Ford Drag Team, so I paid close attention to what both of them had to say-stuff like what the deck heights were, how many cc's to run in the combustion chambers (and) what cam to run in the engine. When I came back, I told Mickey that we had to order a special camshaft from Holman-Moody. Once the cam showed up, I took the engine apart, redecked the block and spent two days milling the heads. After bolting everything back together I installed the engine in the car and waited until late at night, after everyone left the shop, before I fired the thing up. The minute the engine lit up, I know it was a thumper. That weekend, I took the car to Fontana Raceway where the darned thing ran 120 mph! Les Ritchey was there. Gas Ronda was there. They all saw it run. Man, was I ever stoked. Ultimately, that Ford ran a best of 12.30/120 mph. Right about the time I had gotten the Galaxie running well, Mickey called and said, "Get in the pickup and drive to Dearborn. Ford built seven 427 Fairlanes, and we're getting two of them. I want you to go take a look." That afternoon, Gas Ronda and I snuck into Ford's X-Garage for a preview. Not too many people know this, but Dearborn Steel Tubing built most of the first 427 Fairlanes with a gawdawful-looking cloverleaf fiberglass hood, while the sixth car had the more commonplace reverse teardrop hood. Of course, Gas Ronda wanted that car. That evening, we were having a small banquet at the Dearborn Inn hosted by Henry Ford II. Dick Brannan got the No. 1 car, which was the prototype, and we drew numbers for the remaining cars. Of course, I wanted car No. 6 but drew car No. 7 instead. Gas Ronda drew No. 6 and he's all smiles. I just sort of dropped my head and didn't say anything. A few minutes later, Mickey asked me, "What's wrong?" I said, "Well, Gas Ronda and I snuck a peek at the cars earlier today, and Gas Ronda's car has the good hood on it. The other ones are ugly!" Nothing was said. The next morning we drive out to Ford' Dearborn Proving Grounds to see which car is the fastest. All the cars are lined up and wouldn't you know it, old No. 7's got the good hood on it! Since Mickey was really in tight with the Ford brass, he had it changed. It would be a while before Gas Ronda forgave me for that. That day, I was the fastest car there. I think I went 123. I couldn't wait to get the car home and install my M&Hs. I remember we had to hammer out the fender wells a little to make them fit. As they were a much larger diameter. I think at the time we were running 4.44 gears. At the '64 NHRA Winternationals, the Fairlane ran 125 on Sunday and was runner-up in the supper stock eliminator finale against Gas Ronda. In June 1964, we went to the Hot Rod Magazine Drags, and Gas outran me again. A fellow named Bob Brooks, who worked for Mickey building pistons, built me a set of 0.060-inch lightweight pistons that were legal for the class at the time. Then the car started running real good. In fact, I outran everybody, whether it was match racing or in national event competition. Of course, the '64 U.S. Nationals was my biggest triumph, running 11.50/123 on 7-inch tires. Ultimately, I ended up running 10.90/128 with the Fairlane on a 10-inch tire. I have been asked when I first used the name "California Flash". That nickname was given to me by booking agent Ben Crist. Ben and I were good friends, and he thought that it might be a good idea to get myself a nickname to enhance my "booking power." I used that nickname for the first time on my Thunderbolt after Indy. After Indy, I went to the NHRA banquet, where I sat down with Ford. I said, "You know, my wife just had a baby and I would like to have a little money for doing this." They said, "We don't have the budget for it, Butch." Well, my heart just kind of sunk into my shoes. As I was sitting there, this fellow tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Can I speak to you? I'm Bob Cahill from Chrysler Corporation. We're putting a program together for 1965 based around the 426 Hemi engine. Would you be interested?" The reason I think Mr. Cahill approached me was that I had just won Super Stock Eliminator at Indy against the largest Super Stock field ever in the history of the U.S. Nationals-54 cars. One Chrysler was left funning out of that number, the Dave Strickler-Bill Jenkins '64 Dodge, which I had just beaten. When you combined that with the fact that Mr. Cahill had heard that I was a new father, I think he knew that I would be very receptive to his proposal. Mr. Cahill told me their plan was to build a fleet of eight altered-wheelbase Chryslers, with two cars running in the Hemi/Automatic class and two running with a stick. "We're going to have Strickler-Jenkins, Buddy Martin and Ronnie Sox on the East Coast, and we would like to have you and Dick Landy on the West Coast." He told me. "Now you go back home, figure out what you need and call me." At that time, I was talking with Jack Chrisman, who had a Mercury deal, and he had offered me $750 per month and half of what the car won. But I was loyal to Mickey Thompson even though he wasn't paying me anything. I went back home and talked things over with my dad. First of all, we agreed that I should have a fulltime mechanic, so I called H.L. Shahan and asked him if he was interested. He said, "Heck, yeah!" After that, we came up with a suitable figure. Then my father told me to triple everything. I forwarded my proposal to Chrysler, and they went for the deal. I ended up getting two cars and a truck to haul them with. At first, it was a struggle running the altered-wheelbase car. Chrysler really thought that the NHRA would allow us to compete in A/FX with the car. When I went to tech at the '65 NHRA Winternations, the officials took one look at the car and said, "Butch, this car looks funny." That's how the altered-wheelbase cars got the name "Funny Car." Since we had no class to run in, we extensively match-raced these cars instead. My car became the quickest and fastest gasoline-burning altered-wheelbase Mopar in the nation at 9.69/144.92 at Fremont, California... That year, I remember winning five straight events in five straight weeks. In 1965, I happened to be at Sox & Martin's shop when they were getting ready to go to Indy with their Super Stock car. I didn't have a car to run, so Chrysler arranged for me to pick up an A990 car that was at Ashley-Dabbs Motors in Tennessee and get it ready for Indy. We painted the car right there in Sox & Martin's shop. I remember we got orange and white paint everywhere. Anyhow, we got a set of tires and wheels for the car, and I installed the spare engine out of my altered-wheelbase car and went to Indy. I'll be darned if I didn't win the Eliminator for the second year in a row. Ultimately, my Super Stock car ran a best of 10.50/137. At the end of the season, I sold the altered-wheelbase car to Mr. Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge. Norm sent one of his guys out to pick the car up and take it back to the shop. The story goes that, while Norm was vacationing in Hawaii, one of his mechanics decided he was going to take the car out for a test run. He lost control, hit a bridge and totaled the car. When Norm came back from his vacation and found out what had happened, he chained the mechanic to the car and wouldn't let him go home until he had removed all of the good pieces that he could sell. But there wasn't much left. Chrysler offered me one of the clinic deals but I turned it down. Remember that this was 1966, and I was just 21. I decided that I didn't want to hang out at the Chrysler-Plymouth dealers and explain what the new parts were and all that stuff. I was also a bit shy standing up and speaking in front of a crowd. If course, I learned to get over that as the years went by. Instead, I suggested that they give the deal to Don Grotheer. Looking back now, I probably should have taken the deal. With Mercury coming out with the flip-top comets, I realized things were quickly getting out of hand, and it was going to be real hard for the Mopars to keep up with them. I just kicked back for most of the year, played a little golf and just paid attention to what was going on. At the end of the year, I called Ron Logghe in Detroit. I said I would like to order a car. He said, "I can't do that Butch. We're under contract with Lincoln-Mercury." I said, "Why don't we build a chassis and install a 427 SOHC Ford motor plate in it? At the same time, I want you to build me a 426 Hemi motor plate to go along with it. Just as soon as your contract with Mercury expires, I'll pick the car up." And that's what happened. After taking delivery of the chassis. I build my own Plymouth Barracuda fiberglass body, which was very light. Then I had Don Mann do the tin work. Next, I built an engine for it. I brought the car home and had Doyce's Auto Body in Tulare paint the car in my familiar "California Flash" orange and white team colors. I hadn't raced using nitro so it would be a new learning experience for me. My father taught me a long time ago that, when you're not sure about something, get the best there is in the business to help out. So I telephone Gene Adams at Hilborn Engineering and told him I wanted to run 100 percent nitro methane. To successfully run 100 percent nitro meant we had to run a much larger nozzle. The first time I fired the engine up it sounded like a flathead. It was the ugliest sounding thing. Anyhow, we went into the shop, took off the barrel valve, and changed the settings. Then we lit it up again. It was still off, but it sounded better. We did that about five or six times. Finally the last time we did it, the thing just cackled. Every time I hit the throttle, it sounded like a cherry bomb was going off! The car only weighted 1,770 pounds, and it was quick! The first time I ran was at Carlsbad Raceway. I made a decent run, shut the engine off and pulled the chute. So far, so good. When I came to a stop, I pulled my face mask off, and suddenly I couldn't breathe for all the nitro fumes inside. When my folks finally arrived and lifted up the body, I rolled out of the car onto the ground gasping for air. I learned very quickly that, with a nitro Funny Car, you don't ever take off your face mask until you climb out of the car. The car was incredibly fast. I match-raced that car all over the East Coast and won a ton of races. By that time, M&H was starting to build a bigger tire, and when you combined that with the fact that I was running 100 percent nitro, I outran everybody. Probably the biggest win with that car was the Cars Magazine meet at Cecil County, Maryland. I beat "Fast Eddie" Schartman, I beat the Ramchargers, I beat'em all. "Dyno" Don Nicholson and I were in the final. We both had run as quick as an 8.03. After "Dyno" Don blew a cam plug, I raced Rupp & Steffey in the final and won. The following season, I ordered a brand-new blown car from Logghe and a supercharged Hemi engine from Keith Black. Then I built a lightweight body. Like the injected car. I didn't know anything about running a blown motor. What I did was hang around with Jack Chrisman, who at the time was running his blown Comet, in order to see what it took to make a blown motor run. I watched Jack make a run at Orange County, and he blew the roof off. That night, he repaired the car and took it to Bakersfield the next day. He blew the blower off again-only this time, it burned him good. Now my new car's already done and sitting unpainted in the shop. That Monday, I came back home and walked around it several times, just thinking. The next day, I got a call from Don Schumacher, who heard that my car was for sale. He offered me a price, and without even hesitating I said, "Come and get it!" On Schumacher's request, I delivered the car to LAX, loaded'er up on an airplane, and that was the end of my Funny Car racing career. After that, I did very little for most of the year except play golf. Then I got a call from Dave Price at Delano Dodge, who wanted to sponsor a Super Stock car. I telephone Mr. Cahill, and he said, "Butch, we have one of the Hurst Hemi Darts with a four-speed available. Why don't you come back to our clinic and talk with us?" I think we paid $5,700 for the car. We brought it home and completely tore it apart. That weekend, we took the Dart to OCIR and won the event. Then we went to Long Beach and won that event. The next week, we went to Irwindale, and we were runner-up at that event. I came back from Irwindale feeling pretty good about things, and was told by Price that he had a falling-out with his business partner and that there would be no more Dart. So it was back to golf. Shortly after, I got a call from Mickey Thompson. At the time, Bunkie Knudsen was on board with Ford, and Mickey had worked closely with Knudsen back in the old Pontiac days. Mickey built the first heads-up '69 Boss 429 Mustang and wanted me to drive, so I went back to work for him. Basically, Holman-Moody built the car and Fritz Vogt and I built the engine. The car ended up running high 9s at 135 mph, but the thing was prone to breakage. Finally, but the end of the1970 season, I gave up in frustration and built my 701/2 Camaro. That car seemed to run pretty well, and I won quite a few local NHRA Division 7 points meets with it. But I really didn't know that much about running the big-block Chevrolet engine, as opposed to running Chrysler, so I ended up selling the car at the end of the season. While I was attending the NHRA Supernationals at Ontario Motor Speedway. I sat up in the stands with Mr. Cahill and we chatted. I told him that I wanted to come back to Chrysler and that I wanted to build a Duster. Bob wanted to know why because he thought that the Barracudas were a little slicker. I said, "No one has built one that's real low to the ground, and I think Ron Butler and I can build a really trick one." Bob went back to Detroit, talked to his guys, and they sent a body-in-white and a whole bunch of engine parts. It was a very nice car. We built that car really light. I think it was about 2,525 pounds, and at the time, the Mopars had to weight 3,100 pounds. We spent hours building weight bars for that car. But it worked really well. Joe Allread and I built the first engine for it, and we ended up winning the NHRA Western Conference in 1971. I also won the AHRA Pro Stock title a Phoenix. I won the Popular Hot Rodding Championship Drag Races in 1972 with it, and I also beat Sox, Nicholson and Jenkins at a four-way match race at Detroit Dragway. That was the day before the SEMA Show opened in Anaheim. I just walked in there and filled my briefcase with sponsorship money. I think the best that car ever ran was a 9.11/150.50 with the weight out. Then Ron and I built the 1973 car. That's when NHRA allowed the independent strut front suspension and coil over shocks on the cars. That car featured an all-tube chassis like the Pro Stock cars run today, and it ran a best of 8.88/154. In 1973, I won the AHRA World Championship. Back then, the AHRA allowed the Chryslers to run 100 pounds lighter, which made my car quite competitive on the AHRA tracks. I also won the NHRA race in Montreal and won the Popular Hot Rodding Championship Drag Races for the second year in a row. Chrysler pulled out of Pro Stock in 1973 so they wanted Sox, Landy and me to run in Super Stock. Sox build a '68 Barracuda, Landy built a '72 Street Hemi Challenger, and I built that '65 SS/B car. That car was about as close to a legal Pro Stock car as you could get. I won the AHRA race at Orange County with it. I won the NHRA Division 7 Super Stock title with it, and I won Englishtown with it. I remember Super Stock & Drag Illustrated magazine called that car "the most feared car in Super Stock Eliminator." In 1975, Chrysler sponsored me through its Direct Connection aftermarket parts program. I built a '75 Duster to run in B/MP and won the Winternations, the Phoenix Winter Classic, Gainesville and several points meets throughout 1975-1976. I think the best that car ran was 9.60/142. The following year, I ran two cars under the Direct Connection banner. Paul Rossi drove a Dodge Challenger, and I drove a Plymouth Arrow in B/Gas. That Arrow was one of the best-driving cars I've ever had. I won the Popular Hot Rodding Championship Drag Races with it. I set both ends of the NHRA B/Gas record at 8.88/162. In match-race trim, I was the first Pro Stock car in the sevens (in 1977) running a 7.92/171. After the Arrow, I drove a couple of cars for other teams. I also built a Pro Stock Dodge Omni without any factory sponsorship, but didn't really win anything big with the car. Around 1982, I spoke with Gil Kirk at the Rod Shop and convinced him that we should run a Pro Stock car. In turn, Gil put together a team with Pontiac Motorsports as our primary sponsor. All told, I won eight national events between 1984-1991 and was in the finals 22 times. I think the best I ran with the Rod Shop Pontiac was 7.30/190. During my racing career there were about four fierce competitors "Dyno" Don Nicholson (I had fun match racing Don), Ronnie Sox, Hayden Proffitt and Gas Ronda. At 49, I qualified for the PGA Seniors Tour. I toured all around the country playing in tournaments and ultimately qualified in Second Place (out of 144 contestants) on the Senior List for the 1998 U.S. Open. To me, golf is a lot like national championship drag racing. You're playing against the top guns in the sport, and you're the one pulling the trigger.