Posted by: Bob Gilbertson, Rinnai Chevy
Ever since Phil Burgess published the OCIR stories on DRAGSTER Insider right here on NHRA dot com I've received quite a few emails asking about the infamous ramp trucks used during that era and if I had a "Jungle" story I could pass along.
Being that this is an all-request Monday I dug into the archives of the wayback machine and came across these shots from the collection of the late "Jungle Bobbi" Liberman, Jungle's first wife and mother of his only son Randy. Enjoy...
February 1970: Jungle's brand-new ramp truck parked outside of a shop ("The Cave") that Jungle rented in Garden Grove, Calif., for the winter. On the back and all ready to go east is the brand-new red Nova that JJ built for the East Coast tour. Jungle only made two test laps in it at I believe Irwindale before he loaded it up for the 2,800-mile trek across country. Jungle, Bobbi and his only crew guy, Pete "White Peter" White, hopped in and hit the road. As you can see by this photo the only room for the crew was the cab of the truck with a bench seat and the very small sleeper connected to the cab's rear window. I spent many miles in this rig and let me tell you, it wasn't a picnic going down the road with as many as five maniacs packed inside, much less just three.
Next stop" New York National Speedway, Center Moriches, Long Island, first Sunday in March, 1970.
It was a mob scene. The first East Coast appearance of "Jungle," who at the time was a cult like icon in the sport of drag racing. Thousands of people who had read about him in the magazines but had never seen him with their own eyes turned out and he didn't disappoint. First run: Did one of his patented killer burnouts and backed-up at about 80 mph. Tree turned green and "Jungle," racing against Lew Arrington's Brutus Firebird, took the win and set both ends of the track record in the process, I don't remember the numbers but it was huge for the time.
Second round, the s**t hit the fan. "Jungle" had athe throttle stick and couldn't shut the car down in time and the end result was that the car was destroyed when the he ran it off the end of the track. "Jungle," who wasn't hurt in the incident, immediately contacted East Coast chassis builder Al Graeber to build him a new car and the Graeber-built 1970 Camaro ended up being one of, if not the most, popular Funny Cars that Jungle ever drove. If I remember correctly it had an over 90 percent win record during the 1970 East Coast match race tour.
By the way, this Nova was the first Hemi-powered car Jungle had ran; previously big-block Chevys were his choice.
Again I need a time machine...
BB