FEATURE- From the Tower by Bob Frey

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Sat, 12 May 2007, 11:12 AM

Almost Fifty Years Of Greatness

By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2007 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Nanook recently at Atlanta.

It's hard to believe that one of the truly iconic cars in the sport of drag racing began with a young man running a 348 cubic inch Chevrolet at Inyokern drag strip in California forty-eight years ago. Dave Hough, who owns the Nanook AA/FA, took a 1959 Chevrolet to the Super Stock Eliminator championship at the California track in 1960 and he has been a part of the drag racing scene ever since. The name "Nanook," came when Dave's partner at the time, Ed Moore, took a look at his girl friend who was wearing a furry coat and said, "Here comes Nanook of the North." And, as the expression goes, a star was born. Or at least a name was born. Of course in the formative years of the AA/FA cars, if you didn't have a name you weren't really a member of the fraternity. "There was Pure Heaven and Pure Hell, the Rat Trap, the Winged Express, the Magnificent 7 and so many more," Dave said. "In fact, at the height of the class, we would have about thirty cars at a race all going for one of the sixteen starting spots in the show." And of those thirty cars, Dave said that most of them were the real deal, that is, supercharged, fuel burning cars that were all capable of winning the race.

Nanook does one of the famed fire burnouts
While most drag racing fans picture Nanook with a big Chrysler hemi engine, the original car actually sported a fuel injected, 455 cubic inch Oldsmobile. "It was a '29 steel bodied car with a Ford Model A body," Dave said. "It was built by the folks at Race Car Productions and it had a 115 inch wheel base." After a few years with that combination, Dave knew that if he was going to compete with the growing number of cars in the class he had to switch to the more powerful hemi engine. "Our second car was built by Don Tuttle at California Chassis Engineering and it had a shorter, 108 inch wheel base and it did have a 392 hemi engine." This car was the one that really started the legend because it became the first car in the class to run over 210 miles per hour. That one was followed by another '23 T-roadster bodied car that was built by Dennis Watson. "That was a really fast car," Dave said. "It held the track records at all of the southern California tracks like Lions, Irwindale, Orange County and more. It also set track marks at Sacramento, Fremont and in Tucson, Arizona." He went on to say how much the teams loved going outside of California to race. "Arizona was a great place for us to run and we staged the biggest fuel altered race in the country there for years. It was the one race that we all wanted to win."

Nanook vs. Snake
Ed Moore, who later ran the Friendly Chevrolet fuel altered and who gained fame with the "Mob" fuel altered, was Dave's first partner, but the two would part ways early in the history of the Nanook car. "Ed and I used to take turns driving the car," Dave said. "Then a guy named Charlie Brent came along and he wanted us to run his engine in the car but he only wanted to tune for one driver so Ed and I split up but we still remain friends and neighbors to this day." The story about how Dave got Charlie's engine for his car is a little unusual. "Charlie crashed his dragster at Orange County and he literally took the engine out of the car, put it in his truck, drove to my house and dumped the engine in the driveway. He told me that he was through with racing and that I could use the engine for my car." Charlie worked for Donovan Engineering at the time and his expertise and the availability of technology from Ed Donovan proved to be one of the keys to the success of Nanook. "I took the engine and Charlie and I became partners in a car that was run as the Hough, Brent and Donovan car," Dave said. "Charlie used to put all the new things that they came up with at Donovan Engineering in the car and I never really knew what to expect. In fact, I remember one race where Ed came up to me and said 'I got it hopped up a little so you may want to slide down in the seat at about six hundred feet. But it's a short field so just get it through the lights.' My friends told me that when I came by them at about half-track they couldn't even see me in the car. Hey, at least we made the show." Nanook would eventually run a career best of 6.18 at better than 236 miles per hour, a record that would stand in the class for about ten years. And, near the end of the fuel altered era, Dave and the folks at Super Shops got together to run a car for a year and then, in one of the great promotions of all time, they gave it away at the end of the season. One of the highlights of the Super Shops version of the car came when Dave was pressed into action at the famous Orange County Manufacturer's Meet in 1978. "They had to postpone the race a couple of times because of bad weather and we were put in the field. Ironically we made it all the way to the finals where we ran against Don Prudhomme in his famous Army car and we almost pulled off one of the biggest upsets in history." Dave told me that he and Don still sign copies of the picture of that historic run. "I have to tell you that I think I enjoy signing them more than Don does," he said.

Steve Tryon
Throughout the history of the Nanook car, while engines, body styles and paint jobs changed, there was one thing that remained constant and that was Dave's wife, Linda. "We've been married for forty-six years now and she has been a vital part of my life and the race car since the very beginning of my racing career," Dave said. "When we began dating she was the only girl who would be content to come watch me work on the car in my garage. All of the others wanted to do things like go out on dates, go to dances and stuff like that." Go figure, huh. And while Dave was working on the car Linda was busy booking the fuel altered cars into tracks all over the country. "She took care of all the logistics when it came to booking the cars. She did that for us and a lot of the other teams, too." And Dave recalls fondly some of the classic radio commercials that were done by the great Steve Evans when he worked for ultra-promoter, Bill Doner. "In 1973 our cars were no longer in a class by their own since NHRA dissolved the class and told us that we could run in Competition Eliminator but only if we ran on alcohol," Dave said. "Steve put together commercials that said 'Come see the only class banned by NHRA. We had to sneak them in under the cover of night.' And then there were the commercials that took advantage of the quixotic nature of the cars like the ones that said 'We've put in extra guard rails just for these cars.' We had a lot of fun and Steve really helped a lot."

Like most of the fuel altereds and the people who ran them, the cars disappeared from the scene in the late 1970's only to be resurrected in recent years. "I went to the Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield a few years ago and I saw all the attention that was being paid to the nostalgia cars and I decided to bring back the car. We re-created the '72 car and now we run at events all over the country." When they first came back Dave had his son, Rick, behind the wheel. But a couple of accidents, including one in Florida that resulted in Rick losing his right hand, appeared to put the car and the family back on the sidelines. "I thought that would cause us to throw in the towel," Dave said. "But Rick wouldn't hear of it. He is the real inspiration behind this car and Linda and I are so grateful for that. It's been great to see the car out there again and Rick works on it all the time." Dave went on to say that one of the highlights of Rick's return came when they brought the car to Las Vegas last year in order to shake it down and get the driver, Vince Generalao comfortable behind the wheel. "After we made a run at 6.20 at about 230 miles per hour, (NHRA chief starter) Rick Stewart came over to my son and congratulated him and shook his hand and that meant a lot to Rick and our family." As the family tours the country in 2007 they will do it with another new driver, Steve Tryon. Steve, who has a wide range of experience and who has driven everything from fuel funny cars (for the Powers Steel team) to altereds and other nostalgia cars, is the latest man to wheel the famous Nanook car down the track. "He's the first non-family member to drive the Nanook," Dave said, "and he does a great job."

Rat Trap vs. Nanook
Nanook and several of the other AA/FA cars will be traveling around the country making about fifteen special appearances this year like the one they did recently at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Georgia. "We love going to the tracks and it's especially nice to run at the NHRA national events," Dave said. "The fans who stop by talk about how nice it is to see us at the races and they often tell us about seeing us run back in the 1970's." He also said that a lot of the fans bring up the old Drag Racing magazine from 1973 that has the car on the cover. "Steve Reyes shot the cover and he wanted to put the car in a winter situation. So we took it to our cabin, shoveled snow for about two hours to get the snow bank and then Steve did his thing." It is one of the classic cover shots of all time and it's only fitting because the Nanook car is one of the classic cars of all time. "It's been a good life and now we're enjoying ourselves. Plus we get a chance to expose the car to a lot of drag racing fans who never saw it back in the 1970's." And for that, drag racing fans all over the country should be thankful. And just think, it all started with a 1959 Chevrolet.

For a great source of information about the fuel altereds, check out the new book by Lou Hart called "Drag Racing Fuel Altereds..From Flatheads to Outlaws." The book is 126 pages and has lots of color photos and some of the classic shots of these great cars. Another source of information is the book by Don Montgomery called "Those Wild Fuel Altereds." That book is almost 200 pages with hundreds of great black and white photos along with some wonderful historical notes about the men and machines that made up the fuel altered era. Both books can be found at the Wally Parks Museum in Pomona and on Amazon.com.