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Back From the Past After forty years, Bill Stiles is having fun again By Steve Reasbeck Photos by/courtesy of Steve Reasbeck and Carl Mentz
It
is a hot, August night in central Pennsylvania. The humidity hangs in the
air, and the crowd is large and vocal. From out of the water box, a
familiar blue and white ‘68 Hemi Cuda, one of the factory offerings that
still highlight Super Stock racing in this day and age, pulls into the
staging beams. With the crowd urging the driver on, the Cuda pulls the
front end at the hint of green and marches toward the other end. The above could have been describing an East Coast
Super Stock event in 1968, where the above car and driver won 19 of 23
events, and runner-upped in two, but it is not. It describes the fabulous
“Friday Flashback” event held at Beaver Springs Dragway on August 13
of last year. It was the first time in many, many years that the car and
its driver made a decently serious pass, and to say it was well received
would be an understatement. a
d v e r t i s e m e n t The story of York, Pennsylvania’s Bill Stiles is
the story of drag racing in the East. Bill went to grade school and on
through high school with the legendary Dave Strickler, whom Stiles
Performance would help tune into drag racing stardom. His path through the
sport would take him to tuning the dominant Stocker of the day, and then
to a series of his own extremely successful MoPar doorslammers.
Beginning his automotive hobby in 1958, Stiles
became well known in the York, Pa, area street scene with a 1956
Chevrolet. He witnessed his first drag race at Convair Field in Allentown,
Pa, where he remembers well a young Bill Jenkins “racing a six cylinder
dragster. No kidding”. He raced at area tracks such as Convair and
Lancaster, and went on to help Al Goughner’s dragster that was so
successful at York in 1959. Racing as a hobby, he accepted a mechanic
position at Ammon R. Smith Chevrolet in York, home of the famous “Ol
Reliable” Chevrolets of his old pal, Dave Strickler. He left in 1963 as
Service Manager, and went to work for a local trucking company and then
signed on with Chrysler Corporation itself. a
d v e r t i s e m e n t Strickler had teamed up with Bill Jenkins with an
aluminum-nosed ‘64 Dodge Hemi in 1964, and had a successful year, but
upon the duo’s split Stiles was tapped with the duties of continuing to
see that Dave Strickler found the winner’s circle. Bill built both of
Strickler’s cars, the famous altered wheelbase Coronet as well as the
“legal” NHRA cross ram Hemi Coronet that would go on to win class at
Indy. It is well known now that the factory AWB cars were
heavily acid dipped for lightness, and that is what caused many of them to
literally fall apart after a period of hard racing. The Stiles-Strickler
car was even lighter than most, as Bill describes. “When we went to
Detroit to pick the car up, I saw a body lying all by itself in the corner
of the shop. When I asked about it, I was told that it had been left in
the acid tank too long, and was too thin.” Bill told them “that is the
one I want.” Upon his return to York, Bill found that the “floorboards
were almost completely gone. I had to build the frame and the seat
mounts.” However, that car
was one of the most successful cars of the day, and continues to be one of
the most recognizable racers of the period.
Toward the end of 1965, Chrysler approached Bill
and asked him if he would like to try his hand in running one of the new
Street Hemi packages. He jumped at the chance, and teamed up with fellow
York racer Jere Stahl to put together one of the most dominant Stock
Eliminator cars ever raced, even to this day. In 1966, NHRA had only four national events, the
Winternationals, Springnationals, Indy Nationals and the World Finals. The
A/S four-speed Hemi Belvedere won three of them, only because the car
wasn’t completed in time for the Winternationals in Pomona, and
continues to be legendary even today. The pair followed up with a RO23
Hemi Belvedere hardtop for 1967, which Stiles says “was incredibly fast,
running 10.70’s in stock eliminator.” However, the pair was all
traveled out, and raced primarily in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey area.
Remember that this was 1967, and traveling “the circuit” was not the
big deal that it is today. Late in 1967, Bill was in Detroit picking up some
parts from Chrysler when Chrysler’s head honcho Dick Maxwell invited him
to take a trip out to Detroit Dragway to take a look at a new project that
Chrysler was to build. Upon arriving, Bill was introduced to the factory
“mule” ‘68 Hemi Cuda, which would become the most dominant and
recognizable Super Stock package of all time. “Maxwell asked me if I
wanted to make a pass,” remembers Bill, “so I did. When I got back he
asked me if I wanted one, and I said absolutely.” Bill went on to great
success with that car, dominating the East Coast SS Circuit, as well as
NHRA Division 1 racing, and was campaigned by Bill into the 1971 season.
The car was sold in 1971, but not before Bill qualified number one
Gainesville with an elapsed time of 10.01. 1970 saw the inception of Pro Stock, and the Stiles
Performance shop rolled out a new Duster with Ed Hedrick driving. In 1971
Bill took over the reigns himself, and continued winning and dominating
events in the Northeast. At the Super Stock Nationals in 1971, Bill beat
his old friend Dave Strickler in the Jenkins-prepped “Ol Reliable” in
the first round, and pulled a huge upset by defeating the late Don Carlton
in the “MoTown Missile” in the second. “I ran a 9.97 to his 9.90,”
Stiles remembered. “The Missile had the field covered, running 142 mph
to everyone else’s 138-139, but I was able to get out on him, and he
could not catch me.” Stiles lost to Mike Fons the next round, but
remembers “Dyno” Don Nicholson winning the event “running about the
same elapsed times as I did. That Duster won a lot of races until I sold
it in 1973.” a
d v e r t i s e m e n t
At the Chryslers at Carlisle show in 1993, Bill was re-introduced to his world-beating ‘68 Hemi Cuda, by then restored and on the show circuit. Owned by the Blake family of Arizona, it was raced again, albeit semi seriously, for the first time this past summer at the “Friday Flashback.” The car ran 9.90 to the thousand foot mark, with early technology and even an old flat tappet camshaft in the motor. This past November, the Duster was located in
Minnesota, where the owner believed he had acquired and old Sox &
Martin car. Ronnie Sox and Dave Christie flew out to authenticate it, and
identified it as the successful Stiles Pro Stock Duster. That car has also
been reacquired, and is currently undergoing restoration in York. These days, Stiles Performance specializes in
magneto work for sprint cars in central Pennsylvania and on the World of
Outlaws circuit. He also builds a couple of motors a year, at his own pace
and choosing. He is also involved in the York US 30 Reunion held each year
at York Fairground, a must-see for all Nostalgia drag fans. Information
can be found at www.yorkus30.com.
Life is good for Bill Stiles. a
d v e r t i s e m e n t Commenting on the “Flashback Friday” event,
Bill has this observation. “I consider it an honor to have raced the car
back in 1968, and it was also an honor and privilege to have done so in
2004. Upon coming back down
the return road at Beaver Springs, I wondered why all those people were
standing on the return road. When I stopped at the time shack and received
the ovation and reception I did, it was very emotional. I am not ashamed
to say there were some tears in my eyes. To experience it the first time,
and then to be able to do it again, I consider myself the most fortunate
man around”.  For more information: a
d v e r t i s e m e n t
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© Competitionplus 2004
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