MOORESVILLE, N.C. — We all have a favorite driver and a favorite race car from our youth, because, or whatever reason, we connected with that driver and that car.
Nobody in my family was a driver or crew member. We just liked the excitement of racing and attended many different types of races.
My uncle, Raymond Sheheen, however, became friends with members of the Custom Body Funny Car team out of Utica, N.Y. He often told me stories of how the car was doing as it raced all over the country against the biggest names of the time. He sent me pictures and T-shirts of the car during early 1970s.
For the first time, I had a connection to a team and, more importantly, a race car — the Custom Body Funny Car.
With the car based in New York and me living in California, I didn’t get to see it run all that often. But when we would travel back to Utica to visit family, my uncle would take me to the Custom Body Shop and I would see the car and get a new T-shirt. I loved that car.
Finally, in 1974, the team traveled across the country to run the Winternationals in Pomona with driver Tom Prock. That’s Jimmy Prock’s dad and Austin’s grandpa. We made the drive down from Northern California to see the Castronovo Brothers’ Custom Body Funny Car run in all of its nitro-burning glory.
There she sat, body up, shining in the California sunshine. I just stood there in my Custom Body T-shirt, like a kid staring at the Christmas tree surrounded by presents on Christmas morning.
Fast-forward 45 years to the recent Amelia Island Concours in Florida. I was there to stroll the golf course and enjoy another one of Bill Werner’s extraordinary events.
I wasn’t on the grounds 10 minutes when I came around the corner and there sat the Custom Body Funny Car. The car from the 1973 season.
I made a beeline straight to the car and Ross Howard, who now owns it. He was surprised to hear I had such a passion for the car. Then he said those magic words, “Do you want to sit in it? Why don’t you sit in it while we cackle it.”
I had always dreamed that maybe someday one of my NHRA buddies would let me sit in their car while they warmed it up. Never did I dream it would be the Custom Body Funny Car.
I put on the flame proof top, balaclava with respirator attached, goggles, earplugs and helmet. Then I squeezed into the cockpit. The respirator does a good job of taking away the nitro fumes, however, it takes a while to realize you can breathe normally while wearing it. I’m not claustrophobic, but if you are, fully geared up and sitting in a Funny Car cockpit could be unsettling.
After a quick tour of the cockpit from Ross, Larry Brown, who used to drive the famed “Okie Smoker,” brought the Dodge Challenger bodied machine to life. First running just on alcohol, which in itself will get your attention.
Once Larry saw all of the other cars participating in the Cacklefest were running and he felt the Keith Black Engine was properly warmed up. He flipped the valve to nitro. Once the Nitro was coursing through the “Utica Flash’s” veins, the beast was fully alive.
I have been to hundreds of drag races and sniffed a lot of nitro, but none of that can prepare you for sitting in a Funny Car with an engine between your legs cackling on nitro! The vibrations shaking your body, your helmet rattling off of the roll cage and flames spitting out of the pipes, even at idle it is an extremely violent experience.
Larry gave me the signal and I whacked the throttle several times. Each time a massive shudder charged through the frame rails like a bolt of lightning just struck the car.
Eventually, the session was over and they shut off the engine. The crowd that had gathered when they fired the engine, cheered and clapped. For some, it was the first time they had ever experienced what nitro can do in a combustion engine.
I could have sat there all day and drained a 50-gallon drum of nitro.
I have been very fortunate to live out many of my racing dreams during my career. This one will always top the list. I can’t thank my new racing buddies Ross Howard and Larry Brown enough for making a little boy’s dream come true.
I also have a new Custom Body Funny Car T-shirt!