Truth be told, I hadn’t planned on continuing the Chi-Town Hustler/”Jungle Jim” Liberman thread past last Friday’s column, but, as seems to always be the case here, one pile of great memories only serves as creative fuel for the fire for the rest of you to burn up my email with even more salutes and tributes. Too bad neither had a wedge Top Fueler.

Walking, talking drag racing photo great Steve Reyes saw the Hustler in its earliest days while a photographer in Northern California and passed along the photo at right of the Hustler Barracuda pre-ramp truck, circa 1968. Pitted to the right, also on a tagalong trailer, is Terry Hedrick’s Seaton’s Shaker Corvair.

“Jon Asher would write about the Chi-Town Hustler’s burnouts in All-American Drags magazine in early 1967 before they came west,” he recalled, referencing Friday’s discussion about when the Hustler took to fogging out racetracks with long smoky burnouts. “Those guys set the bar for smoky burnouts. I think I saw Pat Minick, Ron Colson, Frank Hawley, Clare Sanders, Minick’s son [Wayne], and Pete Williams all drive the Hustler. Maybe ‘Jungle’ drove it in SoCal, but I’d believe Russell Long drove before ‘Jungle’ would have on the West Coast. Back then, Russell was the go-to guy if you needed a substitute driver for your AA/FC. The [Liberman] poster at Long’s was a centerfold from [Popular Hot Rodding magazine] that I shot at OCIR.”

I also mentioned last Friday how the Hustler was a Ford (Mustang II) for a short time when Pete Williams drove in 1977, and Reyes supplied this photo of the car in its Hustler afterlife as the Drastic Plastic entry of Tom Motry, driven here by the late Ron Correnti.

“I watched it crash at a PHR event at Martin, Mich.,” Reyes recalled. “It hit the sand pile at the end of the track when the chute failed. The car stood on its nose and then flopped on the roof in the sand. I had pix, but they stayed with Argus [Publications, publisher of PHR] when I left there in 1994. I think the crash was in 1973-75.

“When I stayed at 'Jungle’s' house in 1973, I awoke and ventured downstairs to his work area to find him taking hits off a bong and building an engine. Here’s a pic of 'Jungle’s' rig, the ramp truck [barely visible to far left], with a second Funny Car in front of his house in Pa."

Guy Radcliffe saw Liberman in his heyday, seeing “Jungle” race several times in 1970 and 1971 at Atco Raceway in New Jersey. “Due to economic hardship, I wouldn't see 'Jungle' race again until August 1977 (again at Atco),” he wrote. “For those who loved nitro Funny Cars in the early ‘70s, 'Jungle's' death became symbolic of the absence of Funny Cars to the local dragstrip. Nitro Funny Cars had been something you could see at the local dragstrip once or twice a month or more. Now, you can only see them on TV.”
 
Another reader, Bob Lukas, shared his "Jungle” memories, too. “I was 17 in 1964 and could not see enough of the early A/FX cars always going to Connecticut Dragway, Dover Drag Strip (I first saw Phil Bonner there and 'the Grump' with Doc Burgess and the Black Arrow Plymouth), Lebanon Valley, Englishtown, or wherever they had an early Funny Car meet. I would catch a ride from the local speed shop owner (who grew up with my dad); all you had to do was show up early Sunday morning, and the racers mostly treated me like one of them. I became good friends with the late Bill Flynn from his speed shop and later Al Hanna.

Austin Coil’s comments about a four-wide race at Bytron Dragway stoked some nostalgia for Gary Crumine, too. “Man, that brings back memories,” he wrote. “Ron Leek would put on four-wide gasser shows where another famous local car, the Shake, Rattle and Run ‘57 Chevy, was cleaning up everywhere it went. Between the SRR and the Hustler, we would get a big match race at least twice a month. Then, when Funnys took off, we’d get guys like ‘Fast Eddie’ Schartman, Arnie ‘the Farmer’ Beswick, ‘Dandy Dick’ Landy, Mr. Norms … you name it. Wow, what good memories I have of it. They never disappointed us.”

Here's a really great peek down the barrel of the eight-hole injector as "Jungle" gets sideways at US 131, From the DRAGSTER files; photographer unknown

Tom Haman also added his recollections  to the growing Liberman memories pile. “I was a track photographer for Cordova Raceway in Illinois in the mid-‘70s to early ‘80s,” he wrote. “I always made it to the World Series of Drag Racing every year as it was the place for the big boys to tune up prior to Indy because it was always the weekend before the Nationals. Anyhow, it was either '76 or '77, and I was shooting on the tower side at the starting line. ‘Jungle’ was in my lane (I don't remember who was in the other lane). He took off hard with flames shooting skyward in the cool, humid August Saturday night when he got to half-track and popped the blower at least 150-plus feet in the air (no fire, just BOOOOM!). It split at the base of the Crower eight-hole injector, sending the injector with scoop and the blower flying in two separate paths. I followed the injector/scoop to the high dewy grass, where it sent out clouds of steam. I thought I had the souvenir of a lifetime! I was about to pick it up when one of the crew guys came up and said it was still repairable. Being just a kid of 21 and trying to cooperate, I gave it up. On the other hand, a spectator a bit further up track jumped the chain-link fence, grabbed what was left of the blower shell, and hightailed to parts unknown. He got away clean, but I really wanted that Crower injector and scoop.”

Ma Green, a West Coast drag racing management staple, of course crossed paths with Liberman and company, but her memory is painted from a different brush. “Back in the late '60s, Chi-Town came to Sacramento for a booked-in race. It had been to Hawaii just prior, and the body was damaged on the way back, so it showed up in Sacto in gray primer. We had become friends with the guys, and they asked Kenny (my hubby at the time) if he could throw some letters on the car. They didn't want permanent lettering, so he used poster paint. It looked great; however, every time they ran, some of it would flake off, so Kenny spent most of the day doing one side and then the other trying to keep lettering on the car. Don't know if Austin remembers that or not.”

Dennis Friend commented on the Richard Wood photo I used to illustrate the Charger’s smoky burnouts. “I was fortunate enough to be at Rockford that day, and you see one thing done to the Charger was to keep the smoke out of the cockpit,” he observed, then added, “Don’t get me wrong, 'Jungle Jim' was great, but I think Arnie Beswick deserves a lot of credit for where Funny Car racing went before J.J.”

Where Funny Car racing might have went with Liberman also was discussed last Friday in Bobby Doerrer’s great recollections of how the late Vinnie Napp was a driving force behind a new 7-Eleven sponsorship for “Jungle,” so I was happy to hear from my buddy David Napp, Vinnie’s son, who now owns the fabled Raceway Park facility with brother Alex and who clearly was genetically imprinted with admiration for Liberman.

“It was great to see my dad's name in your column along with such notables,” he wrote. “He rarely spoke of two people who passed before I was born. One was his father, the other was ‘Jungle.’ I think it hurt him too much to lose not only a friend but someone he had great aspirations for in business as well.

“As a kid, I heard the legendary tales from everyone, but not from Dad. In the infrequent times he did, he spoke highly of ‘Jungle”, with a look of ‘what could have been’ in his eyes. He tried to find another driver who had that ‘it’ quality that is indefinable but obvious when one possesses it. Many came close for him, but none equaled Jim.

"Jungle Jim" Liberman, E-town 1975, en route to Summernationals win

“I still have the black and white composition notebook my father kept for the 7-Eleven East vs. West Funny Car Nationals, Aug. 21, 1977. Kosty Ivanoff, Castronovo, Lani, ‘Jungle,’ Eastern Raider, Cassidy, Frantic Ford, Burgin, Mineo, Burgeois, Loper, Trojan Horse, Creasy, Fireball Vega are scribbled in pencil. On one page regarding Jim, it says, ‘Jungle Himself 2000, (loaned 2500).’ Guess my pop was a part-time banker for a racer in need. Along the bottom, the attendance: 5,706. Wish I had been one of the lucky people that day. My brother Alex can only remember my parents being dressed up and dropping him at a friend's before the funeral, but that's the only ‘Jungle" memory he has. Being born in 1976, I never got to see the legend himself. Luckily, Steve Bell came across video of ‘Jungle’ racing here, and it was played on ESPN. We finally got to see ‘Jungle Jim’ race down our strip. Thought I'd never see it. A great thrill to say the least.”

And with that, I’m going to swing out of here on a “Jungle Jim” vine. See you Friday.