› Forums › Forums › BENCH RACING FROM THE PAST › TONY SMRTIC….The Storm King SAGA
storm-king.anonymous
Hi Bill,
I will try to make the race at Island in Oct. It dosent look to good right now as I am staring another business, findersgarage.com, Nostalgia race decals, t-shirts, diecast and tons of other drag race and hot rod stuff. Should be on line in about a week. My race car is in the garage with a blown motor. Stared working on it and then this new bussiness poped up. I might just be watching the races. Im glad you are getting setup in a new shop.
Andy
storm-king-2
Andy
My brother & I were talking today about what might have been if I hadn’t gotten drafted when I did ( sept 65 ). I missed 2 years if some of the best racing in the country. All the Super Stock, & early funny cars. By the time I bought the Arrow, those old altered cars were old news. Thats why I built the clone. Then when I went Pro/Stock, I sat out 71, another awesome year of racing. Didn’t even go to the track the whole season, almost quit. Couldn’t let it go then. Met lots of great people, Jon Lunberg, Richie Zule, Ronnie Lyles, Alban Gauthier from Quebec, Clyde Cheek. Even the Rickman Bros, who were kindof my nemisis from early Dover days steered us in the right direction on jetting the 4500 Hollies, & helped us get solid in the 9’s.
Bill
storm-king-2
Dino,
I ran the injection 2 more times in 68. Once at Englishtown, & once at Conn. Dragway, trying to set the A/XS record. Missed it both times, close, but no cigar. I had only used the parachute one other time, at Lebanon Valley. I pulled it in the lights, & nothing happened til I was half way down the braking area. So, when we ran for the record in Conn., I pulled it before the lights. It was out, like ,right now, I think it slowed the car so quick ,I could have got out and walked alongside it, before it cleared the speed trap. That was the last time we had the Hilborns on the car. When we went back to Conn. the next week to run heads up S/S again, they seemed to have an attitude about us. After running one week as an altered, injected ,Funny Car, and then come back the next week to run S/S didn’t go over too well. We still got to run, but it just didn’t have the same feeling, for lack of a better word. Hard to discribe.
Anyway, fast forward 2 years, after I sold the clone to Doc, and was getting ready to move to Tenn., I sold the Hilborns to someone in Oregon I believe.
Bill
storm-king-2
My brother has been at me to tell this story.
When I got out of the Army in 1967, I bought a 68 Road Runner, 383 Automatic, bench seats, 3:55 posi. We took that and my mothers 67 Plymouth GTX to Dover for the last race of the season. I drove my car, my dad drove the GTX. There were 15 or 16 cars in our class. I think it was B/SA then. We were the only mopars, the rest were GTO’s, 442’s & I think some Chevelles. When we got rained out, there were 3 cars left to run. A GTO, my dad, and me. I never got the chance to run against my dad. I think it would have been his day if it hadn’t rained. He was sharp on the lights, & he had backed out of it on every run he made that day, because the Eliminator Tires he was running would rub the fenders on top end. He wouldn’t have cut me any slack.
Bill
anthony-terenzio
Well that answerd it. I was going to ask were did the name Storm King come from because i was out on my motorcycle Yesterday (Sunday) up state N.Y. and came across an aera with all kind of stuff called Storm King
storm-king-2
Yeah, Storm King Mountain overlooks West Point, and Highland Falls, and Cornwall. Gary & I, and our friends used to hike up there all the time when we were kids. Pretty awesome view from up there.
Bet it’s still a great ride on a motorcycle, did you go on old rte. 9 along the river ?
Bill
paul-ceasrine
Actually went to the Storm King Mountain area in the cold of winter once, with an idea of
trying to Toboggan down Rte. 9W. Not a bright idea. I think I would have broken
Dovers MPH track record, along with every bone in my body.
Gary, if you raced the 68′ 383 Road Runner in late 67′ it would have been in B/SA or C/SA
If you raced it in 68′, it would have been in E/SA. A friend of ours “Wing Nut” raced a gold
Road Runner in E/SA in 68′ . (Bobby S. remember “Wing Nut”). The guy had a new Road Runner every 2 months or so, after wrecking them. The family had money.
Historical info; 1967 NHRA factor B/S (9.50 – 10.59)
* Late in the year, I think NHRA re-set the class to C/S
1968 NHRA factor E/S (10.00 – 10.49)
I think the road Runner was around 10.10 wt/hp or so. 335 hp @ 3370 lbs.
Yep, against GTO’s and 390 Ford Mustangs.
Paul
bobby-s
Actually went to the Storm King Mountain area in the cold of winter once, with an idea of
trying to Toboggan down Rte. 9W. Not a bright idea. I think I would have broken
Dovers MPH track record, along with every bone in my body.
Gary, if you raced the 68′ 383 Road Runner in late 67′ it would have been in B/SA or C/SA
If you raced it in 68′, it would have been in E/SA. A friend of ours “Wing Nut” raced a gold
Road Runner in E/SA in 68′ . (Bobby S. remember “Wing Nut”). The guy had a new Road Runner every 2 months or so, after wrecking them. The family had money.
Historical info; 1967 NHRA factor B/S (9.50 – 10.59)
* Late in the year, I think NHRA re-set the class to C/S
1968 NHRA factor E/S (10.00 – 10.49)
I think the road Runner was around 10.10 wt/hp or so. 335 hp @ 3370 lbs.
Yep, against GTO’s and 390 Ford Mustangs.
Paul
Sure do Paul,
“Wing Nut” Don Casale, his side kick was Frank,
if I remember Frank’s last name was Bour (not sure on spelling,)
Don always had the “DON’T WORRY SMILE”
poor Frank always had a feeling on what the OUTCOME would be,
had a great time on Beach 3 with them and the rest of the group,
Jimmy Williams ’62 Impala, 4 spd 409,
Bill Balzano with his GTX, his brother Nick, who still has the R/T,
my Plum Crazy T/A and before that my ’62 Tempest with the axle.
Rich Wetzel with his Big Block fast back ’71 ‘stang,
Joe Puleo with his rare optioned ’69 Yellow Camaro, Convt’
SS/RS 396, 4 spd, with the rear disc brake set up, chambered exhaust.
Bobby S.
storm-king-2
Paul,
This is me, Bill. I had the 68 Road Runner, got it just before the end of the season in 67. It barely had 200 miles on it when we took it to Dover. All the magazine test were getting 14.9’s at 99.0 mph. We took the top & filter off the air cleaner, plugged the vacuum line to the distributor & set it for total advance, dropped the tire pressure, 14.70 – 100.0 mph. I’ll have to check the receipt, but I don’t think I bought the Arrow until early 68. Gary wasn’t old enough to drive yet, but on this site he is Storm King, and I am Storm King II. We really ought to switch to make it less confusing.
Bill
storm-king
If you get up that way again Anthony, go into Cornwall and look for 218 hwy, it runs along Storm King mountain down to West Point, which is beautiful by itself, but also has a great museum. 218 really nice on a rice rocket; I’m sure puttin’ along on a ‘Glide or a Wing would be nice too (but I’ll never know!) I used to ride it as a kid on a BSA 650 Lightning. Came back years later from Oklahoma and trailered my ZX10 Ninja just to give it a go.
Dad sure could drive! But he did the racing for us. I think the most amazing thing to me still is that he could watch a run, and tell you the et within five hundredths before the announcer said a word. I never saw him miss. That timing helped me the last few times I raced in N.Y., although at Lebanon. I was on delayed enlistment to the Air Force. My Dad took the ’67 Hemi four speed GTX up there to run, and I drove my ’72 Ford Pinto with headers, and Erson cam, Mallory ignition, Offy intake and a mildly ported head I did myself. This was in late 1975 I believe. It didn’t have posi or a big converter or good gears (3:19). Anyway we had just rebuild the motor on Friday night, we drove it around all night and saturday to break it in, and went to Lebanon Sunday. First round of eliminations and Dad comes up to me and says, ” they changed the light sequence on the tree. It had been a 5/10’s tree all morning, but they changed it to a 4/10’s tree in the afternoon (still a full tree, not pro tree). I ran a Cosworth Vega the first round and I got the win light. He followed me back to the pits and was mad as hell because he had run .0001 over his dial in and didn’t see how I could have beaten him. As it happened, the Pinto was insanely consistant, and I too had run exactly .0001 over my dial, but Dad had told me to go when the second to the last light went out rather than when the last one came on, and I holeshot the guy. I ran the car at lebanon three weekends in a row before leaving for basic training. I won bracket eliminator twice, and runner upped the third time. Car didn’t even have a tach in it, I just shifted at 40 and 70.
Oh, yeah, Bill, it’d really be less confusing if we switched names now. 🙄 Dino didn’t even realize you weren’t Dad! But come to think of it, that would make you the really old Dover fart…..(BILL-stormking2…Gary -stormking :got it -Dino)
paul-ceasrine
Bill (SK2)
Max-Wedge, Black Arrow, Hemi GTX, Road Runner, BSA Bike and then a PINTO 😮
When did the VOLARE come in 😛
OK, Those times for the Road Runner are right on. Our friend “Wing Nut” ran 14.60’s with
his in 68′, E/SA. Bone stuck, but with a set of 7″ slicks. I think he ran the same times with his other cars, a white w/black vinyl top car and then another one. Loved those black-matte painted hoods.
First ones out were post-cars Sedans, then the nicer looking hardtops came out later.
Bobby S. (I/m borrowing the Storm King thread). You have one Steel-Trap mind. Know everay car from that era. Here’s one for you;
Tommy Bennett, 68′ or 69′ SS396 Chevelle (blue/green?)
You had a Tempest with a flex-axle? 😯 And a Plum-Crazy T/A. Remember “Wing Nut”
had one of them too. Brought it up to my fathers second gas station (Gulf) on Rt. 52
in 1970, late one night. Beautiful 340 Six-Pack, Plum Crazy color. That was the last time we saw him.
Paul
storm-king
Bill, Storm King 2, originall owner/driver of Storm king ’64 max wedge, owner driver of former Black Arrow (storm king 2) owned one of the very early ’68 Road Runners, later a superbird, and a Pro Stock Duster.
Me, (just storm King) later ran the max wedge with my dad, then a hemi GTX four speed car. I ran the Pinto also. I’ve had motorcycles since I was a kid. When I eturned to drag racing in the ’80’s it was on a bike. By 1990 I was riding a top fuel funnybike. I started using the Storm King name purely to see if I could find people who had pictures or remembered oour cars. Bill wasn’t doing much internet browsing back then.
dinoFound this on Gary’s Facebook gallery…those were the days …This IS the former Black Arrow!
. . . .HIs caption was:
“My brother and I with his hilborn injected race hemi altered wheelbase car. Towed by my Mom’s 440 GTX, with my Dad’s Chrysler 300H and Bill’s then-new ’68 Road Runner in the background. I wish we’d have stopped back then to appreciate how much fun we were having! …”
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dinoThank Vic Mengler for this one Smrtics…Quite the Tow Car!
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storm-king
Awesome, thanks for posting.
Dino, if you’d be so kind, up in Tony Motzerella’s (yeah, spelling! But I think that’s the guy we knew as “Meatball” is he on here?) pix up in the premium members page, there is a great picture of my Dad, Mom, and Bill, could you post that here?
