"Nitro isn't a fuel, it's an excuse"
As an old guy, there are "some race cars" that stick in my mind to this day. One is the old "Freight Train" dual blown Chev "top gas" dragster. (In it's last season, before NHRA decided to dump "top gas" it ran dual blown hemis)
I can still remember it showing up in 66 or 67 at Deer Park in Spokane. What I DID NOT know or have long forgotten is one of the DRIVERs
The "Freight Train" was driven by a number of people, some well known, but one in particular caught my eye, one "Floyd Lippencotte Jr". It seems his dad forbade him from racing, that is, his real self, Bob Muravez, so he cooked up the Floyd name to avoid his father's rath. The story goes that his Dad DID find out at some point, and allegedly never spoke to Floy........er I mean Bob, again!!!!
http://www.thefreighttrain.com/
A quote from the webpage:
"Train "engineers” included (random order) Bob Brissette, Craig Breedlove, Tom McEwen, Mickey Thompson, Bill Alexander, Leonard Harris, Roy “Goob” Tuller, Billy The Kid Scott, Gerry Glenn, Bob Noice, Sam Davis (pictured), Walt Rhodes, and the infamous Floyd Lippencotte Jr., AKA Bob Muravez. Behind each and every one of them was the “real” engineer of the entire saga, toiling quietly in preparation for another of its seemingly endless appearances, John Peters.
Bob Muravez made over 1300 runs in the car, that’s over 325 miles in a digger! At one point he won 28 consecutive rounds of competition before losing to a red light. Through suggestion from track announcer Mel Reck and track operator Steve Gibbs, and because of a peculiar family circumstance, Bob adopted the Lippencotte handle for several years. He was rarely photographed during the period, and was undoubtedly the most notorious drag race driver in the sport’s history, for driving and winning national meets using an alias.
As an old guy, there are "some race cars" that stick in my mind to this day. One is the old "Freight Train" dual blown Chev "top gas" dragster. (In it's last season, before NHRA decided to dump "top gas" it ran dual blown hemis)
I can still remember it showing up in 66 or 67 at Deer Park in Spokane. What I DID NOT know or have long forgotten is one of the DRIVERs
The "Freight Train" was driven by a number of people, some well known, but one in particular caught my eye, one "Floyd Lippencotte Jr". It seems his dad forbade him from racing, that is, his real self, Bob Muravez, so he cooked up the Floyd name to avoid his father's rath. The story goes that his Dad DID find out at some point, and allegedly never spoke to Floy........er I mean Bob, again!!!!
http://www.thefreighttrain.com/
A quote from the webpage:
"Train "engineers” included (random order) Bob Brissette, Craig Breedlove, Tom McEwen, Mickey Thompson, Bill Alexander, Leonard Harris, Roy “Goob” Tuller, Billy The Kid Scott, Gerry Glenn, Bob Noice, Sam Davis (pictured), Walt Rhodes, and the infamous Floyd Lippencotte Jr., AKA Bob Muravez. Behind each and every one of them was the “real” engineer of the entire saga, toiling quietly in preparation for another of its seemingly endless appearances, John Peters.
Bob Muravez made over 1300 runs in the car, that’s over 325 miles in a digger! At one point he won 28 consecutive rounds of competition before losing to a red light. Through suggestion from track announcer Mel Reck and track operator Steve Gibbs, and because of a peculiar family circumstance, Bob adopted the Lippencotte handle for several years. He was rarely photographed during the period, and was undoubtedly the most notorious drag race driver in the sport’s history, for driving and winning national meets using an alias.
