2005 NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion Honorees Named
Fitzgerald, Wallace, Armstrong On Hand For Ceremony
By Bill Groak
2005 California Hot Rod Reunion honorees from left to right. Leon Fitzgerald, Dave Wallace Sr. and Dale Armstrong
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Drag racing legends Leon Fitzgerald, Dave Wallace and Dale Armstrong were among those on hand Friday night as the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California, announced the Honorees for the 14th Annual NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion. Armstrong was named Grand Marshal for the event, Sept. 30-Oct. 2 in Bakersfield. Fitzgerald, Wallace, Dick Landy, Shirley Shahan, Bill Simpson and Dave Uyehara will be those honored at the event. Tie votes by the selection panel meant that six persons will be honored rather than the normal five.
The Night of Champions brings together racing fans with some of the drivers
competing at the nearby Pomona Raceway in the CarQuest Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals
(Feb. 10-13) and past champions of the event. It’s just one more example of the
Museum’s “living history” project, said Sam Jackson, executive director of the Parks
Museum, which is presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California.
Legendary Pro Comp driver and Top Fuel/Funny car tuner Dale Armstrong.
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Grand Marshal Dale Armstrong won twelve NHRA National events with a series
of alcohol-burning dragsters, altereds and funny cars during the 1970s. But the 1975
Winston Pro Comp champ and former Funny Car National Record Holder is perhaps best
known for his mechanical prowess. As crew chief for Kenny Bernstein, he tuned the
Budweiser King to four NHRA Funny Car Championships in the 1980s as well as Kenny’s
first 300-mph pass in 1992 at Gainesville. His driving career dates back to the early
1960s in his native Canada and he was named Number Ten on NHRA’s all-time Top 50 Drivers
list during NHRA’s 50th Anniversary season in 2000.
Best known as the driver of the famous Pure Heavan Fuel Altered, one of the
first racers to successfully use the big block Chevrolet, Leon Fitzgerald was part
of the National Fuel Altered Tour in the latee 1960s and early 70s that included Leroy
Chadderton in the Magnificent 7, the Marcellus and Borsch Winged Express, Henry Harrison
in Nolan and Pritchard’s Beaver Hunter and Don Green’s Rat Trap and introduced the
exciting Fuel Altereds to fans all across the country.
Although he started his drag racing career in Fords, from the early ‘60s
through the mid-‘70s, Dick Landy’s name was synonymous with Mopar. He was a pioneer
in the days of altered wheelbase factory experimentals that led directly to the current
Funny Cars. When Landy reached 196 mph on fuel, Chrysler Product Planning decided
they’d seen enough and set up a series of Performance Clinics at showrooms throughout
the country. Landy was selected as the Dodge representative. In 1967 alone, Landy
conducted more than 70 clinics for 50,000 people in 29 states. Landy made a great many
friends for Mopar and raced as many as seven different cars in a single season.
In the early ‘70s, he helped pioneer the Pro Stock category.
Leon Fitzgerald and Bob Frye.
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When Shirley Shahan won Stock Eliminator at the ’66 Winternationals, she became
the first woman to win an Eliminator title at an NHRA National event. This pioneering
effort made it possible for her to become one of the sport’s first female professional
racers. She began her career racing a ’58 Chevy and won the Super Stock class at the
first Bakersfield March Meet in 1959. In 1965, with some backing from Chrysler, she and
then-husband H. L. Shahan bought a Plymouth Super Stocker. A Plymouth public relations
man came up with the Drag-On-Lady title that stuck throughout her career. She toured
the country for four years, running both Super Stock and injected match races. In 1969
she was offered a factory AMC Super Stock and eventually a Pro Stock when the class was
created.
Bill Simpson began his drag racing career with an injected fuel dragster and
began manufacturing drag chutes in his garage in Redondo Beach as a second job to
supplement his job at the movie studios. The demand for his products became so great
that he expanded his business to include fire suits, seat belts and other safety
equipment. By the 1970s he was able to live a lifelong dream racing Indy cars. It was
at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that he performed his famous publicity stunt by
setting himself on fire while wearing one of his own suits. He eventually became the
largest manufacturer of safety equipment in the industry before selling his company and
forming a new one called Impact Racing. Over the last four decades, Simpson’s products
have literally saved hundreds of racers in all forms of the sport from serious injury
or worse.
Dave Uyehara has been a drag racer in Northern California for over forty years.
Teamed with Frank Martinez, he began his career in a Jr. Fuel dragster in the mid-‘60s.
Since then he has driven and built countless dragster and funny car chassis and in the
late ‘80s he was one of the most prominent chassis builders in the sport with a long
list of customers including Eddie Hill. Today, his Nostalgia Top Fuel cars are the
standard of the sport.
In the 1950s, Dave Wallace Sr. took a second job at San Fernando Drag Strip to
help raise his growing family and supplement his income as a postal worker. His love
of the sport led to his becoming a track reporter for Drag News as well as honing his
photography skills. A photo he took in the early ‘60s survived to win an award in the
Leslie Lovett Memorial Photo Contest at the 2002 California Hot Rod Reunion. His son,
Dave Jr., has continued the tradition started by his father, reporting on drag racing
himself for nearly four decades.
The 14th annual NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion, presented by the Automobile Club
of Southern California, annually attracts thousands of hot rod enthusiasts to Kern
County to honor the pioneers of the sport. The honorees speak at a Friday night
reception and receive the "Wally Award" at ceremonies on historic Famoso Raceway.
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