10.5 Racing in the Seventies Super Modified provided an alternative to class racing and brackets By Bobby Bennett; Photos by Michael T. Uno, Tom Schiltz, Rick Voeglin and Super Stock and Drag Illustrated Magazine
Heads-up sportsman racing was something that many considered a dream and very impractical by the time the mid-Seventies rolled around. During an era when the extreme expense of class racing scared many and bracket racing provided an affordable alternative, many diehards longed for racing where an average “Joe” could run heads-up with no ramifications and an index would be a sickness passed.
As all good things begin, a rough draft on paper led to what could be considered to be the wildest phenomenon to hit sportsman drag racing almost three decades ago. The rave as many knew it back then was called Super Modified and some coined it as a new era of sportsman drag racing.
F.J. Smith, long known for his prowess in Super Stock, was Canada’s most successful Super Modified racer.
Super Modified began as a modest proposal in the July 1974 issue of Car Craft magazine. The basic idea was to create a sportsman class that enabled sportsman drag racers to compete on a heads-up basis without having to incur the unrealistic financial obligations that a class like Pro Stock demanded. The objective was to attract body styles such as 1967 and later cars of the muscle era and some compacts. The vision included Camaros, Chevy II’s, Dusters, Barracudas, Mavericks, Firebirds, and Hornets, just to name a few. The pounds-per-cubic inch ratio was established at 10 pounds. If one preferred a small block, the rules stipulated it had to match a combination that came with the car.
The initial Car Craft “rulebook” called for a fiberglass hood with an all-steel body. The engines would use a single four-barrel carb, flat tappet cam and stock cylinder head ports. The suspension had to also be acceptable in Super Stock and the tires could be as large as 12”. Their goal was to tap into the large contingent of C through G Modified Production cars in attendance at national events. As the writer put it, “A small block in a 3000-pound car is a natural combination.”
The NHRA took notice of this interest only after an influx of interest from racers interested in fabricating machines. This only served to help the cause and likewise inspire the IHRA to develop a similar stand-alone version.
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Car Craft magazine drafted the initial concept for Super Modified. Staffer Rick Voeglin built this competitive entry for less than a $5,000 investment.
The final rules on the NHRA side mandated a 10.5” tire, ten-point cage, production heads (allowed to port one-inch down), it had to be a production car (1967 or later) of at least 500 units, wheelbase was limited to 103”, single-four barrel, transmission had to match the manufacturer, spoilers had to be production, stock suspension, no lightening of chassis, 50/50 weight distribution and the body could have no external modifications. Those were just a few of the guidelines. In 1975, in NHRA competition, there was only one class with a 9.5 pounds per rule. One year later, it was opened up three classes with 8.5, 9.5, 10.5 weight breaks and labeled A through C.
The Super Modified class can’t help but draw the comparisons with the IHRA’s unique Top Stock division. Arlen Fadely, a key player in the Super Modified movement, remembers the class very well. After all, he was quickly labeled as a front-runner. Fadely did battle in a small block-powered Ford Maverick loved everything about Super Modified. He even commented early that he saw the IHRA’s Top Stock division headed the same way as his beloved Super Modified.
Fadely’s feelings have merit when one considers that a handful of enterprising Top Stock racers are now paying for their existence on the IHRA tour.
“Top Stock is a pretty neat deal, but yet it is screwed up some,” Fadely commented in 2003 when this text was originally published. “To me it’s kind of hard to figure out once you add the crate motors into the deal. The way I see it, this class was set up for Stocks. Our deal was set up for Modified and it was pretty easy to get a grasp of.”
F.J. Smith, long known for his prowess in Super Stock, was Canada’s most successful Super Modified racer. He was to Chevrolets what Fadely was to Fords on the East Coast. He also commented that Top Stock could have learned from the Super Modified lesson.
“I think Top Stock can learn a lot from the old Super Modified class and it will do well as long as they don’t play too many games with it,” Smith said. “I think they need to keep a lid on things like they did with us. They don’t need to run fast to put on a good show. I think the name of the game is to keep it competitive.”
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Arlen Fadely’s Maverick began life as a “Body in White” from the Ford dealership and was assembled by Don Hardy Race Cars. He was the Ford front-runner in the early and formative years of Super Modified.
As Smith sees it, Super Modified is still worth visiting the memory banks. Modified eliminator gave it the stage to perform.
“I think Modified was one of those classes that made the racers really pay attention to one another,” recalled Smith. “However, I think Super Modified only intensified that. When you were on your game people would tell you so. That was what made it special.”
Some think more could have been done to grow the concept. Did the NHRA do as much to promote Super Modified as it could have?
“There was a lot of wishful thinking during that time that it would become a junior Pro Stock class,” recalled Fadely. “Those kind of deals are never destined to work. It didn’t work in the IHRA and it certainly didn’t work in the AHRA with the GT classes. When you have that style of racing, it is always exciting to watch. But, as the season wears on and guys become less and less competitive, the participation begins to fall off. There’s always a big difference between the successful and those less fortunate.”
Fadely admits the early days of the IHRA and AHRA versions attracted as many as 30 cars per race. Participation declined significantly by the end of the first season.
“I think we would have all wanted to go heads up and have our own class,” Smith agreed. “None of the sanctioning bodies ever really want to allow technology to take its course. They needed to look at the numbers and stay on top of that.”
Fadely cited his participation in the AHRA GT classes as the reason he never wanted the NHRA version to be a stand-alone class.
Publications such as Super Stock magazine stepped forward to promote the concept.
Fadely had some disagreements with the NHRA in 1976 and decided to give the IHRA’s version a try. The IHRA’s version of the Super Modified class had more liberal rules, such as larger tires and a 5-speed instead of the production 4-speed. Hand-fabricated manifolds were legal.
The IHRA Super Modified class was a monster of its own.
That’s where an obscure class racer named Rickie Smith stepped in and created a name. He and car owner Keith Fowler had a successful season in 1976 and one year later won nearly three-quarters of the events contested. The competition was tough, as names such as John Bray and Don Bowles regularly competed, but Smith’s combination of Gapp and Roush horsepower and chassis proved to be too much. The IHRA dropped the class after that year. As a point of interest, Bowles also ran Roush horsepower.
Smith was given the reputation of being the driver that won too much thus invoking the demise of the class. He didn’t see it that way; merely pointing out he worked hard enough to earn the title.
“The IHRA just cancelled the class,” Smith said. “That certainly wasn’t my fault. I raced by the rules and the rulebook allowed us to run a bigger tire and that was about it. We just had the right combination and I think in about a year or so, everyone would have caught up with us. But, we worked hard – real hard.
There were many nights that I laid on my back in the parking lot of my motel working on that car.
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He continued, “Too many guys wanted to go out after the races and not work on their cars, and then when it came time to race they wanted to whine because we had an advantage. I was fresh out of high school and I was an ex-athlete and I was very determined and had a lot of willpower. I didn’t have the money, but luckily I had Keith Fowler. That car was hard on bearings and I had to pull the pan at the end of the night every night.”
Smith added that Jack Roush thoroughly educated him when it came to prepping the motors. The hard work didn’t change the thought process of Smith’s detractors. Many that felt that IHRA needed to step in and regulate but didn’t.
Pro Stock legend Rickie Smith took three-quarters of the event wins in the IHRA’s stand-alone version of Super Modified. The class was eventually cancelled, but Smith points out that he was more determined than anyone else and that was why he won so much.
“The IHRA had some staunch supporters and when Rickie started dominating so much, they called it quits,” added Fadely. “Why did that happen? When the sanctioning bodies allow one racer to win as much as they did, it literally prices everyone out of the class. I’d have to say that Keith Fowler spent his money wisely.”
Fadely says Rickie wasn’t completely at fault. He felt that it was Roush’s participation that proved to be the nail in the coffin. Smith also contends that Roush was given a lot of credit for his motors, but it was actually Gene Fulton who did them in his championship season.
The prestige on the NHRA side was in winning class and that would net enough monetary profit to break even on the books. According to Fadely, the indexes were not favorable to the combination, so it made winning the overall Modified eliminator title a difficult task. At Indy, in 1976, Fadely won class over 33 entries only to be disqualified on a technicality. One year earlier a whopping 39 Super Modifieds rolled through the gates. Fadely eventually went on that same season to become the first Super Modified racer to ever win the overall Modified title.
Fadely points out that Super Modified proved to be one of those concepts that looked good on paper, but didn’t have a realistic outcome. He credits Car Craft as the one that started the ball to rolling, but Super Stock and Drag Illustrated’s involvement only aided in the growth.
“Car Craft was pretty instrumental in making this whole thing happen,” Fadely said. “They believed that the NHRA would make it a Junior Pro Stock class. When Econo dragster came along, another one of their visions, it was believed to be a junior heads up class as well. The concept was well received and the Super Modified class was a full-bodied spin-off.”
Car Craft fielded a car through staffer Rick Voeglin. Voeglin credits racer input and the inclusion at several NHRA and IHRA events is what pushed the concept to fruition more than his magazine’s participation.
“We had just completed the Econo Dragster crusade and we wanted to do a doorslammer oriented version,” recalled Voeglin. “Our initial version was to be called Pro Modified. It was intended to be a heads-up eliminator for sportsman racing on an affordable level.”
Voeglin never ran the IHRA because of his geographic location in California and regrets never getting to do so. His fondest memory was in seeing the class get its chance in the NHRA. Let the record reflect, Voeglin reminded, that Ray Allen won the first class eliminations ever held.
As there has always been in drag racing, there was also an East and West Coast rivalry. Fadely and Smith recall racers like Rick Houser (Chevrolet) and Jim Stevens (Ford) that they used to race on a semi-regular basis. As Fadely pointed out, “When they would come out from California, we would kick their asses.”
Fadely continued, “They would run out there and their times would be two-tenths quicker and they would fall off of the pace once they came out here.”
Smith added with a chuckle, “The standing joke was that the horses got out of there coming across the Rocky Mountains.”
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The Maverick that Fadely, Leroy Hinzman and Ed Bennett developed was a natural for the trio. His position at Ford Engineering lent a great deal of knowledge towards the project and enabled him to build the car along the same lines as the legendary Mopar Missile Pro Stocker. Fadely gained a lot of publicity because his entry was a project car for Super Stock and Drag Illustrated magazine.
Fadely approached the class with nothing less than a full-fledged effort.
“I watched as most of the Trans-Am Series cars started out as body in white versions,” recalled Fadely. “Ford was pretty screwed up at that time and you could actually buy a body in white through the dealerships. I ordered one from Walt Hickey Ford in Southgate, Michigan and paid $450 for it.”
The package came with doors, deck lid and that was it. He promptly had the car shipped to Don Hardy, who prepared the car according to the rulebook. The car was trick in every aspect. Sources report that it was leading Seventies-era Pro Stock runner Wayne Gapp that prepared Rickie Smith’s championship-winning Maverick.
Others used their own intricate approaches. For instance, Smith’s car was acid-dipped as well and several others had their own special tricks. In a contrast of sorts, Voeglin estimated that he had no more than $5000 in his entry.
The performances of the Super Modifieds helped them to establish their value. During this era, the Super Modifieds ran as low as a 10.18. Fadely held the record for much of the year. The close competition was the selling point for racers like Smith.
“I think because the cars were so competitive, it invokes a lot of memories,” added Smith. “It’s amazing how we can’t remember what we did two weeks ago, but we can remember this stuff. It was a very good class and brings back good memories.”
Super Modified was actually originally referred to as Pro Modified, as evidenced by this old Drag Review clipping circa 1974.
Fadely eventually sold his car to Mike Edwards, who went on to win the championship in 1981. As Fadely recalled, the Super Modified rule of 10.5-inch tires worked to Edwards’ favor because he would go to the high-altitude tracks and the atmospheric shortcomings were minimal.
In looking back through the years, Fadely will admit running Super Modified was a lot of fun and provided a formidable challenge. This era was one that he and others will never forget.
It affected others that didn’t race as well. Veteran photojournalist Dave Bishop, who worked largely on the IHRA side, recalled watching Super Modified in its heyday. His comments summed up what Super Modified stood for.
“It was a neat class to watch and it was something that we all could relate to because we knew the people running it were working class guys,” Bishop said. “It was a good thing while it lasted, I just think it ran its course. It was a perfect class for that era.”
