Of all the nostalgic components that set the 50th U.S. Nationals apart from any preceding edition, the so-called "Golden 50" gathering behind IPR’s grandstands gave younger fans unprecedented insight into the evolution of quarter-mile equipment and styles since 1955.  NHRA’s two main criteria for Golden 50 consideration called for (1) real race cars -- not clones -- that (2) had actually contested the Big Go at Great Bend, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Detroit or Indianapolis.

Forty-nine of the 50 assembled vehicles appeared to meet both requirements (the lone exception being Jeg Coughlin Sr.’s modern re-creation of an Austin Gasser, which was allowed to join the gennie machinery, for reasons never explained by NHRA officials).  Many of them were capable of push-starting, and did so for Labor Day’s wildly popular Cacklefest.  Some of these relics are exhibition-equipped for burnouts or short squirts, only.  One of them is still campaigned competitively, 39 years after its last Indy appearance.

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Dean "Skeet" Russell had mixed emotions about returning to the scene of his greatest disappointments in drag racing.  He was certainly flattered to receive one of NHRA’s coveted Golden 50 invitations, which were issued party on the basis of past U.S. Nationals accomplishments.  On the other hand, this was the place where Skeet suffered his most-agonizing defeats:  at 1964’s Big Go, when his 1962 Plymouth lost in the semifinal round of C/Stock Automatic competition to California killer Dave Kempton, and at the ‘65 event, which saw him go all the way to the class final.  Not long after that heart-breaking loss to Doug Kehl, Russell parked the 361-cubic-inch, 305-horse Sport Fury in his Norwalk, Conn., garage for what would prove to be a 16-year slumber.

A body style widely derided at the time as the "60-Too Ugly" evidently looked less quirky to Skeet’s parents, who purchased their new Sport Fury as family transportation.  That role rapidly changed as the kid started winning trophies with Mom’s Mopar at Connecticut Dragway and, eventually, setting records at Cecil County, Charlestown (R.I.), Richmond, York and Maple Grove. A current speedometer reading of 11,999 original miles testifies to a brief previous lifetime as a grocery getter.

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"I won the Division One points in Junior Stock in ‘64," Russell recalls with obvious pride. "I was runner-up for the whole country that year, too.  This thing set the national record three times [at 13.35/105.70, ultimately].  I won Stock Eliminator or my class eight times at NHRA events.  What I really wanted to win was Indy."  After coming oh-so-close 39 years ago, he never tried again.

Not until 1982 did Skeet back the big Sport Fury out of his garage, intending to make a few time-only runs at his local track.  After changing only its oil and battery, the musty Mopar responded with a respectable 13.36 at 104 mph that Wednesday night, reigniting the fire that Russell felt the first time he pulled Mom’s car to the starting line.  

Over the next two decades of competition in E.T. brackets and Mopar meets, Skeet has cosmetically restored Mrs. Russell’s grocery getter to its mid-Sixties condition.  (Not that it needed much attention; his claim that the powertrain and suspension are virtually unchanged in four decades was enthusiastically verified by an old friend and former crewman, Buzz Baylis, who traveled all the way from California to reunite with this car and driver at IRP.)  The original set of headers did succumb to rust, Skeet notes, and the electrics have clearly been modernized.  Otherwise, engine-compartment photos from 1964 look very much like B&W versions of what you see here.

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Thanks to the ever-increasing popularity of all-Mopar meets and nostalgia races, this 61-year-old kid is getting plenty of opportunities to burn rubber.  Only two weeks prior to the 50th Nationals, he clocked an all-time best E.T. of 12.84 -- running the same, C/SA-legal motor that’s been between the fenderwell headers since its last rebuild, in 1966 (by Bill Stiles and Tony Pizzi).  The car’s best speed of 107.20 mph was recorded back in 1985.

Although Skeet still hasn’t completely gotten over the Nationals class wins that got away in ‘64 and ‘65, that pain has lately been eased by all the trophies he’s winning and, most recently, by an Indy reception that was both surprising and overwhelming.  It seems that Chrysler fans have not forgotten the independent Plymouth that dared to challenge the factory-backed Fords and Chevys here in 1964 and ‘65 -- and came within one or two rounds of sending those big boys packing.