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Stories of the Mohawk
When that program ended, Cannon returned to his roots of Pro Modified. He's since settled into the role of tuner and opts to let son Scott Jr., handle the driving. We caught up with Cannon and started a bench race session. What transpired was a story-telling session that was worthy of being shared with the racing community. Of course, there were a few he decided couldn't be shared.
I had a tendency in those days to overreact to things. He had played around on the starting line with me once before, so I decided this time I was going to sit there. I wasn’t staging first. I didn’t care if I melted it to the ground. Once we got down to the finish, he gave me the No. 1 sign using his middle finger. Where I come from, when you do that it had better be the pinkie finger and I had better see your palm. I wasn’t going to tolerate that so I told him I was going to whip him. I chased him and he ran into the van and locked the doors. Come to find out, I think others got involved and told him not to take any crap from me. I think manhood was on the line there. The funny thing is that none of the ones that were stirring the crap were willing to take it up with me but they expected him to. I think there was more made out of this than was really there. There
was a misunderstanding and now I consider Whit to be one of my good
buddies. He’s a good guy and once you get used to his dry sense
of humor everything falls into place. He’s not that bad. Sometimes
he has a hand problem, though, because he likes to tell everyone they’re
number one. a d v e r t i s e m e n t
The good thing about the butterfly is if you get out of shape and you’re
in a Funny Car or dragster, it’s easier to turn the wheel. You
can exit the car a lot easier without hitting your leg. If it wasn’t
for that, they’d all have round wheels in them. a
d v e r t i s e m e n t Knight in Shining Armor
The box had a note and it said to call Jim, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know that that was his name. He wanted to know what I thought. There were all kinds of glasses - Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan - a little of everything. I knew Oakley was a respectable company and while I was just looking at getting sunglasses for my Pro Mod crew, he asked me what I thought of running a Funny Car. He had already heard through the grapevine that that was one of my dreams. I was skeptical but I said, ‘Yeah, I’m ready now.” Jim told me to fly to his office the next day and he’d pick me up at the airport. He let me know that I was the only one who could screw it up. I spent the day with Jim and his wife and by 9 PM that night we had a done deal. I was in “la-la” land. To this day, I have no regrets and
the two of us still remain friends. Everyone knows what happened in
between. I didn’t do worth a crap. I had a good year and the rest
was chaos. I’m still hoping I can do it again one day. a d v e r t i s e m e n t
We ended up in some old bed and breakfast that looked like the Adams Family operated it. The road leading up to this place looked like something out of Sleepy Hollow. Now I’m no coward but I refuse to fight something I can’t see and I’ve learned enough by watching movies that you ain’t ever going to win a fight against Dracula or the Wolfman. I was not going to be one of those people who die at the intro of a movie. I followed the directions and thought we had made a wrong turn. We came to this old place that looked abandoned, but there were lights on inside. I decided to be brave enough, since the crew wasn’t, to walk up to the door and ask for directions. As we got closer, we saw the name on the side of this house. It was the place we were looking for - it was the only place we could get reservations. It looked haunted. You know you’re in a whale of trouble when your crew chief doesn’t even want to go to the door. I didn’t want to, either. We get to the door and it’s locked, so we knock using one of those big ring things attached to this door. Me and the guys are waiting there - I couldn’t even make up something this good - and the innkeeper comes to the door. The guy looks like Lurch from the Adamms Family. The only thing he didn’t do was say…”You rang?” That was enough for me. I told the guys that I’m not staying
in there I don’t care how much money they give me. So the crew
stayed in there. As for me…I slept in the motorhome with my pistol
sitting on my chest.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
She didn’t believe a word I said and got angry and started kicking all of the knobs off of the inside of the truck. She even kicked the gear shift. I had to pull over. She went off and I had to pull her out of the truck. My crew chief was following behind and he ran up to see what was going on. We weren’t fighting. I was just trying to calm her down. Some guy saw what was going on and stopped to get involved. I convinced him it was in his best interest to get back in his car and leave. He did. I got her calmed down and we resumed driving before stopping at a steakhouse in Johnson City, Tennessee. I asked her if she wanted to eat and she was still pouting and said no. She wouldn’t go in. I was hungry and I went on in. Well, my waitress came over and asked if I was driving the truck with the trailer. She had seen me get out. The lady also said there was a woman out there letting the air out of my tires. I went out there and my wife was taking the air out of the tires. I knew how to fix her. I stuck her in the lounge area of the trailer and locked it. I was going to let her out when we got ready to leave but I was so mad I decided to let her ride home in it. All the way down the mountain I tried to put a tire in the ditch. And I did. I figured when I opened the trailer that she’d be calmed down…wrong answer. I opened the trailer and she came out like a wildcat. It’s funny now, but it wasn’t back then.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
Your cheating heart
I used to find a way to mess with them. It was all in good fun. The first time came when I started running an intercooler. It’s illegal now, but it wasn’t when I brought it out. I took a lot of copper tubing and a 25-pound bottle of Co2 and put it on the car. I pushed the Co2 through to cool the coils after the burnout. I had used it a few times in match races against Ronnie Sox. He told me that whenever I got the thing figured out the competition would really be in trouble. I remember at the time Scott Shafiroff and few others were standing on the starting line. After I finished the burnout I had to reach over and turn the bottle on. It would last about halfway backing up. The IHRA tech guy, Robert Leonard, came down and told me I was in trouble and that he had basically caught me cheating. Robert said my purge valve had hung up and it told on me. I then told him I didn’t have one. He argued and said the IHRA officials had seen it shooting over the top of the car. It lasted for 300 feet. I had to finally show them what I had because they were convinced I had nitrous. I’m not so sure that I wouldn’t still have the intercooler today if I hadn’t had to show them. They gave me two races before they outlawed it. The best “I gotcha” came right after [engine builder] Gene Fulton and I had split. I thought he and I had split on good terms because I left not owing any money. I made a business decision. It just seemed his name came up whenever I was protested or there was a rule change. He was always behind it. I had been accused of a lot of things. I decided it was time for payback. My crew and I took a piece of black hose and put it under the injector. I ran the other end of it down into the engine blanket. I put a pop rivet in it with a piece of tape and a note on it. The note read, “Ha ha, I got you Fulton.” We ran it one whole race and no one saw it. Then we ran it another race and still no one noticed. I finally went to a third race and it became evident that I was going to have to tell someone. I told one of Johnny Rocca’s old drivers what I was up to. He planted the rumor in the pits and then the action began. I played the part. Whenever I stood around the car, I did my best to conceal it. Once they figured out they had me, and I had gone a session or two, they told the IHRA. On the third run, I noticed three or four people staring at my injector. They wanted to see this hose. I played it up. On my third run, I got to the scales and was met by the tech guy. He gave me the story of how things were not going to be good from this point on. They had been watching me take the line in and out of my blanket. He then told me I had nitrous on the car. It was awful hard not to start laughing. I could tell he didn’t want to tear me down, much less throw me out. But, he had to. The first thing he does is grab that black hose. The he saw the note. He looked at me and I can’t forget it. He said “get the hell out of here.” I asked him for the line back and wanted to know if he gave it to Gene. He refused both. They told Gene and he was livid. I took matters into my hands in the first round. Gene was standing there with his arms crossed near the starting line. You could tell he was mad. I told Boyce, my crew chief, to watch because I was going to blow Gene’s hat off. I started my car and he was standing about 15 feet over. I drove over to him and nailed the throttle. His hat went high into the air. Boyce came back on the radio and said, “He’s really mad now.” I got down to the other end and I was accused of swerving the car at
him. They gave me a good talking to.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
Patience is a virtue
I was going to whip him. I told him that before I died I was going to make it a reality. He taunted me a little and said I wouldn’t do it. My last IHRA race, I happened to see him riding on a golf cart at 2 AM. We had a heart-to-heart. The next day the police came to my motor home. They wanted to arrest me. There was a warrant. I tried to reason that back home there was at least a three-day buffer. They were intent to serve it then. I told them I had to race. They didn’t lock me up, but they went to Bill Bader. My adversaries wanted to take the championship from me and suspend me. How could they take the title when I had already won it? Bill decided to put me on probation.
I remember my very first nitro Funny Car race. I had a rude introduction to Jim. I had qualified ninth or tenth. This was when Wayne Dupuy was tuning for me. Dupuy came to me after the run and told me that Dunn had chewed him out. I asked Wayne what he had done to him. I had watched the guy all my life and I was familiar with him. But, I couldn’t figure this one out. Wayne told me that Dunn had told him, “You tell your driver if he screws me around on the starting line or any of that bull he pulls, I’m gonna whip his butt or yours.” I had never raced him and I decided I was going to walk over there and see what was up with him. I asked him why he wanted to jump on Wayne. He looked right at me and said, “You like to play starting line games.” I asked, “What?” He continued, “I’ve watched you race before.” I guess Jim figured I was a hot head and he wanted to let me know right off the bat that I had better never mess with him. I had already heard that Jim would pop you in the mouth so I was prepared. I had heard stories about him and I had heard enough to know he was tough as nails and could probably whip both Wayne and Me. I told him not to jump on Wayne as I was walking off and I think from
that day things were just fine between us. In fact, we hung out from
that point on.
Got a comment? Drop us a line at comppluseditor@aol.com.
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His
hairstyle ought to be enough to convince you he's not a conventional
person. Scotty Cannon adopted a Mohawk hairstyle at the urging of friends
first and the demand of the sponsor secondly. As a bracket racer, Lyman,
South Carolina's Cannon proved his worth by winning three national events
in the Top Sportsman division dating back to 1989. He then joined a
new professional category known as Pro Modified and his legend began.
Six-times a world champion, Cannon went on to drive a Funny Car sponsored
by Oakley.
I
love this one, but it didn’t really last long enough. I never
really heard the real story until I joined Team Schumacher. Basically,
one day Whit Bazemore was being an a-hole. We had a little bit of history
on the starting line. You get wound up sometimes when you think you’re
getting jerked around.
I
was not a fan of the butterfly steering wheel in a Funny Car during
my first season. This was the first time I had ever been in a car with
one. I figured if I put a round one in it I’d feel more at home.
I liked it and if you have an open mind and think about it, a butterfly
is nothing but a round wheel with the top and bottom cut out of it.
It’s the same diameter. I don’t know if it was mental or
what, but it felt the same to me. 
I was at an
IHRA Pro Modified race in Louisiana when I met Jim Jannard for the first
time. This was in 1998 and I had sewn up my sixth championship. 
We
were at a race in New York in the early 1990s and I was driving a small
motorhome…real small. It would sleep three or four. This was in
the early going when Bill Barrett was my crew chief. Needless to say,
we had more crew than could fit in my place.
I
found that out after a race in Bristol in the early days of my career.
This was when I used to hang around with Clay Hair (former IHRA sportsman
champion). Because he used to be a male stripper he usually had a few
female admirers following him around. One time one of his girlfriends
came up to the truck to say bye to me. The only problem with that was
that my first wife was sitting in the passenger seat. She didn’t
like it and started asking questions. The accusations were flying as
I was driving home. 
After
I had won a few championships, the allegations began to fly that I had
been cheating and it didn’t take long for people to assume that
because I was once a nitrous racer that I had to be doing it again.
I used to stay pissed off and mad at someone. 
Once I
got my Oakley deal and I knew that I was headed over to the NHRA I decided
to even the score from a situation that had festered for several years.
One of my competitors had a crewman who would call my house and mess
with me. Of course, it was done anonymously. This guy messed up and
called from his sister’s phone. I had *69 and I traced it. Once
I talked to her, I put two and two together. 
That
song about you don't tug on Superman's cape...you don't spit in the
wind...You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don't
mess around with Jim was written about Jim Dunn.
© Competitionplus 2005
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