Glidden To Ride Again
Buoyed by a surprise entry at the season-ending NHRA AAA Auto Club of California Finals, speculation has it legendary Pro Stock driver Bob Glidden will be behind the wheel of a Dodge Stratus Pro Stocker on a full-time basis next season. Glidden, who came on as a consultant for Larry Morgan's "Team Mopar" Pro Stock team during the early part of 2003, drove at Pomona where he recorded a career best 6.812 at 203.98 mph. In fact, the 200-plus mph runs by Glidden marked the first time in his storied career he had exceeded the double-century mark.
While exact details of Glidden's driving plans are yet to be formalized, it is known that he will be back with Morgan's team in 2004. Morgan has released his second driver, Gene Wilson, but at the same time revealed his desire to maintain and run a second team race car. Whether or not that car runs a full or partial season schedule with Glidden driving is ultimately dependent on sponsorship negotiations.
Glidden is second only to Warren Johnson on NHRA's all-time event Pro Stock winning list, amassing 85 career wins before retiring from active driving in the early '90s. Glidden won NHRA's Pro Stock World Championship 10 times, including the '79 season, which he won driving a Plymouth Arrow.
Fast Fusion
During the recent SEMA Show in Las Vegas, a major announcement was made for the 2004 NHRA POWERade season. The Funny Car campaign, owned by Don Schumacher, will see a fusion of sorts. It was announced that Oakley and the Dodge brand would jointly sponsor the team's record-setting, nitro-powered Dodge Stratus, driven by Gary Scelzi. The venture will see a union of the "Gen X" paint schemes, which Oakley President Jim Jannard has made famous with Dodge's ongoing and aggressive Hemi engine program and advertising campaign.
The new scheme for the Dodge Stratus will be developed by Jannard's company, who has produced some of the wildest paint schemes in Funny Car history, not the least of which was last year's Oakley "Time Bomb" Dodge Stratus. While exact specifics are still unreleased, the '04 look will incorporate an Oakley front with a wild-looking Hemi motor on the side panels.
The new machine is expected to not only capture the imagination of NHRA Funny Car racing fans, but also maintain the team's prestigious title of world's fastest Funny Car. During the '03 season, Scelzi set the NHRA national speed record on two separate occasions. While racing at Route 66 Raceway near Chicago in June, Scelzi first set the mph mark at 328.06 mph. Then, during the fall event held at the same facility in September, Scelzi rewrote his own mph mark to 329.18 mph-the fastest run in Funny Car racing history. In total, at the season's end, Scelzi's team was credited with the top four fastest Funny Car speeds of all time.
Dodges Go Dutch
Michigan's Darrell Marvel scored top honors during the Hemi Shootout held at Maple Grove Raceway in October. The event, presented by Mopar Hemi-racing proponents/participants S&S Racing (Eddie & Michael Smith), was a featured part of NHRA's prestigious annual all-sportsman-orientated Pennsylvania Dutch Classic. Marvel drove his "Marco Superstore Racing" '68 Hemi Barracuda past 12 other Hemi-powered SS/AA entries, knocking off Bucky Hess, who red lighted in the final round. Marvel recorded a final round time of 8.755 at 150.10 mph.
Low e.t. for the S&S Racing Hemi Shootout went to another Michigan-based racer, Charlie Westcott Jr., who qualified his "War Fish" at a spectacular 8.663. That run, which was 1.337 seconds under NHRA's national index for the class, also gave him the pole for the overall Dutch Classic event's Super Stock eliminator, which attracted a massive 138 entries. Top speed for the SS/AA runners came courtesy of Shootout host Michael Smith at 152.14 mph.