It’s a jungle out there.  Thundering through the twilight hours are Elephants, tromping and stomping everything in their way as they move from one end of a clearing in the trees, a clearing known as O’Reilly Raceway Park, to the other.
 
In days gone by animals abounded in this jungle.  First there was the little Mouse, he of the high-winding, screaming voice.  And then there was the Rat (motor), also from the land of Chevrolet, but overcoming them all was the massive Elephant from Mopar.  Four hundred and twenty-six cubic inches of fire-breathing horsepower that, in its day, dominated drag racing.

The Mopar Hemi Challenge Is The Highlight of Indy’s Friday Action

MOPAR HEMI SS CHALLENGE PHOTO GALLERY BY ROGER RICHARDS 

It’s a jungle out there.  Thundering through the twilight hours are Elephants, tromping and stomping everything in their way as they move from one end of a clearing in the trees, a clearing known as O’Reilly Raceway Park, to the other.
 
In days gone by animals abounded in this jungle.  First there was the little Mouse, he of the high-winding, screaming voice.  And then there was the Rat (motor), also from the land of Chevrolet, but overcoming them all was the massive Elephant from Mopar.  Four hundred and twenty-six cubic inches of fire-breathing horsepower that, in its day, dominated drag racing.

---

 

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Click to visit our sponsor's website 

 

---

 

Sadly, while the animals roamed the earth the Denizens of Dearborn had to satisfy their emotional needs with engines
named after cities, burgs like Cleveland and Windsor.  Somehow, Ford never seemed to get it that animals – of whatever size

– had more cache to their names than did places like Cleveland.  Heck, this was a time that ultimately convinced song writer Randy Newman to pen the immortal words about the home of the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame, “Burn on big river, burn on,” but, oh, how times have changed.  Now Cleveland is a modern metropolis, but Ford still doesn’t have an engine that can match the magic of the Mighty Mopar Hemi.
 
Back in the day – and how many of you out there are old enough to have seen these wondrous machines racing when they were factory-fresh? – the sight of the likes of Sox & Martin, “Dandy” Dick Landy and so many others brought chills to the hearts of their competitors and joy to the faces of their legions of fans.  The Mopar Hemi Challenge keeps that spirit alive, as the fastest legal Super Stock cars in the land do battle for a largely meaningless $10,000 winner’s purse – but a trophy that’s emblematic of their superiority over their peers – at least on this day, at this track, in this, the most prestigious and important race on the NHRA POWERade Series tour.

---

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Click to visit our sponsor's website

 

---

If drag racing is ever to be considered a rich man’s game, it’s never more evident than with these stunningly gorgeous ’68 Plymouth Barracudas and Dodge Darts.  The men who build, race and own these cars rarely consider that they’re thrashing vehicles that tip the financial scales at at least $250,000 – and often considerably more.  That’s why – to you and me – that ten grand purse seems huge, but to them it’s pocket change.
 
We’re not for a second suggesting that these car owners don’t care about money, but let’s be realistic here:  If you can afford a Hemi Cuda or Dart you’re not likely to care if the winner’s purse is ten dollars or ten thousand.  This is about winning, and nothing else.
 
Charlie Westcott, Jr. and his dad do care about the money – but they care more about winning.  The flanks of their cammo-painted, Jesel Performance-backed ‘Cuda sport a series of Hemi Challenge stickers, with most of them carrying hand-lettered signage reading “winner” in place of “participant.”  They have dominated the Challenge for seemingly forever, and this year’s go was no different.  From Junior’s 8.631 qualifying effort to his father’s second place 8.684, they were the class of the field – and next year they’re probably going to be even quicker, because they’re going to discard their automatic transmission in favor of a 4-speed.  Why?  Because as the senior Westcott put it, he can adjust a clutch a few moments, but changing a torque converter takes considerably longer and a lot more physical effort.

---

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Click to visit our sponsor's website

---

 
Yes, the Westcott’s are all about being the baddest Mopar racers in the land, and to date few have been able to challenge their claim, a claim they’d never verbalize.  They let their cars do the talking for them.
 
Twenty-eight cars answered the call for the first round, and while qualifying netted times descending from Westcott, Jr.’s sixty-three-one to Steve Kent’s much slower nine-eleven-eight, virtually every competitor knew before the racing even started that it would take a miracle to keep Westcott’s Elephant out of the tall grass, yet on they came.  The shame of it was that far too many fans were still on their way to Indy, or stuck at their nine-to-fivers, when eliminations began.  If only the NHRA could find a way to shoehorn this great racing into Saturday’s show when a much bigger crowd would be on hand to witness it.  But no matter.  The hard core – the truly hard core – were scattered throughout the stands, often on their feet, as these amazing machines clawed their way skyward and down track.
 
Watching over it all was Mopar’s David Hakim, who continues to engineer a program his bosses are starting to understand and appreciate.  For them it’s all about selling ’08 units, when in truth an event like the Mopar Hemi Challenge can do just that by showcasing the heritage of today’s showroom vehicles.  And they do have that new Challenger on the way…

---

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Click to visit our sponsor's website

---

 

Hakim knows how to work the phone lines, but it isn’t hard.  Every guy who raced one of these cars back in the ‘60s still has an affinity for them, so it takes little effort to get the “big names” of long ago to come out to watch.  “Akron” Arlen Vanke and Dick Oldfield (the original driver of the much venerated “Mopar Missile”) were warmly greeted by the crowd, while Herb “Mr. 4-Speed” McCandless helped announcer Bob Frey provide color commentary from the tower.  The younger fans must have been shocked when McCandless said, “Back in my day we didn’t have Reaction Times or 60-foot clocks.  We just raced to the other end, and whoever got there first won!”
 
Winning is exactly what that Westbrook kid did, too.  There’s little point in giving you a round-by-round synopsis of eliminations, but one thing we can say with authority:  There were far too many redlights, but at the same time they were understandable redlights, if that makes any sense.  When you know the Elephant in the other lane has a longer trunk than you do, you’re going to take chances, and taking chances often means redlights.  There were almost a dozen of ‘em in all, some of them double redlights and even a couple on singles.  The pressure was great, and a lot of guys just couldn’t help themselves.  They knew they needed killer lights to win, and some of ‘em were just too quick for their own good.
 
Bucky Hess earned the “honor” of being Westcott, Jr’s final victim, falling with an 8.864/148.80 to Westcott’s so-much-better 8.650/152.93.  Hess gave it his all, chopping down the Tree with a 0.013 Reaction Time while Westcott played it safe with a 0.039.  He didn’t need to cut a light.  He had the car to get the job done, and that’s all that mattered.
 
One of the great things about the Mopar Hemi Challenge is that none of the competitors seem even remotely concerned by Westcott’s performance advantage.  They’re just ever-more determined to overcome it, which means that next year’s Challenge will be even better.
 
If you have an appreciation for drag racing history, this is a race you just have to see.  This is no nostalgia gathering of older cars, some of which run, and some that don’t.  This is about historical cars that are absolutely and positively all about racing, and racing hard.  When the Elephants start trumpeting on Friday of next Labor Day weekend, you gotta be here for it.  Forget that “we’ll-get-there-by-the-pro-session-in-the-evening” stuff.  Just tell your boss that you’ve gotta leave early ‘cause you’ve heard there’s going to be an Elephant stampede in Indianapolis, and you have to see it!

{loadposition feedback}