Happy day after Xmas everyone, I hope Santa was good to all of you.

First off I really screwed up in a previous blog in the caption for the "Jungle" photo.  An alert "GilbyManiac" Ken Gunning who's raced at Englishtown and Northeast forever sent me this:

Hey BB;

In a recent blog you show a picture of "Jungle Jim" with the Englishtown timing tower in the background. You note that the tower was on the west side of the track. Having raced there many times from the mid '60s to early '70s I am sure it was on the east side, the same side as the lake and the pits. No big deal, I still enjoy your blogs. Keep up the good work.

Ken Gunning, '57 Chevy wagon "The Jolly Green Giant"

Thanks Ken for keeping me honest, I also had another mistake in that same paragraph.  We raised the roof of the tower for the 1968 Springnationals, not the Summernationals.  I must have had a brain fart while I was typing, huh? 

Now let's get to Funny Cars.  In previous blogs we've featured the work of Tom West, one of the most experienced photographers from back in the 70s that ever shot drag racing.  Since those photos were published we've received an overwhelming amount of emails asking for more photos of early Funny Cars.  Since today is the kick-off of an all-request weekend I got Tom to send along a few more for your listening and dancing pleasure.

First up is the infamous Beach City Corvette that Phil Burgess recently featured in DRAGSTER Insider.  A lot of guys drove it but the most colorful driver was Gary Gabelich.  Gary used to have a feathered plume on top of his helmet which you can see sticking above the roll bar.  I wonder if they'd allow that nowadays?

Next is the Weekley, Rivero, Fox and Holding (sounds like a law firm. huh?) "Frantic Ford"  Another car that had a variety of drivers, Ron Rivero is behind the wheel in this shot and this gang terrorized tracks on both coasts. 

Now here's a couple of cars you might have not seen before.  Al Bergler's line of "Motown Shakers" were always beautiful cars until he came out with, in my opinion, this butt-ugly Corvette.  Al, by the way, is in the process of restoring one of his original Vegas for the nostalgia circuit.

One of the East Coast cars that ran a ton of match races was the King & Marshall team out of Rhode Island.  Don Marshall tuned it and Jimmy King was the driver.  They started out in Top Fuel but when they saw how many match races they could run with a flopper they made the switch.  Here's the car from Englishtown with Don Roberts driving after King retired.

Last but not least is the "Burnout King" the legendary "Chi Town Hustler" driven by Pat Minnick.  Teamed up with John Farkonas and another guy you might have heard of: Austin Coil. These guys literally boiled the tires every time they did a burnout.  

That's all I've got time for right now, stay tuned as I've got a special surprise for all you "Jungle" fans next week.

BB