Thu, 19 Feb 2009, 04:54 PM It Was One Of God's Great Tricks

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2009 Bob Johnson Photography

Robert Pond

When I was growing up the big battle in the car world was always between Ford and Chevrolet. Drag racing announcers used to hype up the crowd by asking, or yelling, "Who out there wants the Ford to win?" Which was followed by, "And who wants to see the Chevrolet blow the doors off that Ford?" I did a story last week about Connie Kalitta winning three Winternationals races in 1967 and he won them all with a Ford-powered Top Fuel car. Bob Glidden made a living and gained a huge fan base by running and winning with Fords, all sizes, shapes and models of Fords. And, recently, it's John Force with his Ford Funny Cars that have been tearing up the drag strip. Connie, Bob, John and many more have all been Ford fans for a long time and yet, as passionate as they are about the Blue Oval brand, they may have to take a back seat to one of the best sportsman racers in the country, Robert Pond.

Pond won Class at SportsNationals.

While Robert admits to once running a 1949 Austin with a Chevrolet motor (although he said he doesn't talk about it often), he is, through and through a Ford guy. "I started racing when I was sixteen at the local tracks like Orange County and Riverside," he said. "And at that time I had a 1968 Ford Cobra Jet Mustang. It was a California-special and it could really go. It was a tire-fryer, if you know what I mean." Like a lot of people who had cars like that at that time, Robert didn't realize what he had. "I really wish I still had that car, but I can't worry about that now." What he will worry about now is trying to set the NHRA national record in AA/S, a record that he held for a while but one that is now held by, if you'll pardon the expression, a Chevrolet. "Yeah, Steve Ficacci set the record last year in Maple Grove. I still have the speed record but I want to get the E/T mark, too." And based on what we saw from Robert and his wildly popular Ford Fairlane in Pomona last week, it won't be much of a surprise if he does take back the record. With all the new Fords at the Winternationals, it was Robert who paced the Blue Oval group with a stunning 9.76 elapsed time and that was the quickest Ford on the property in Stock Eliminator. And before I get letters (or e-mails), I know that John Calvert qualified second while Robert was fifth, but Robert was quicker. "I believe that makes me the first Stocker to go in the 9.7 range at a national event," Robert said. Setting new standards is nothing new to the Riverside native, since he was the first stocker to make a nine-second run. "I did it as a factored run," he said. "Myself, Joe Aluise and Bobby DeArmond were all going crazy trying to be the first and I got it. But I have to add that mine was a factored time and it was Bobby who made the first nine-second pass on the scoreboards." Robert didn't mention that Bobby drives a Chevy, but we all know that.

Pond at Pomona

Robert Pond, as mentioned, has been drag racing for a long while, but he has been absent from the scene in the past few years. "I was a mortgage banker until about three years ago," he said. It was about that same time that he decided to start his own business, a business that involved his real passion in life, Fords. "I have a company that builds Ford engines. Right now we're in the process of trying to get NHRA to legalize them so they can run in Stock and Super Stock." The engines are manufactured in Youngstown, Ohio at a plant that Robert visits three or four times a year. "We make the F.E. model engines," he said. "That includes 427 and 482 cubic inch engines. The 427's are for racing and the other ones are used in a lot of street rods. We make the cast iron and aluminum blocks. We also have our cylinder heads made there and we hope to get them approved by NHRA as well."

Pond won Rocky Mountain in 2000.

Now that his business is up and running, Robert plans to take his classic Ford Fairlane on the road again, a car that has a 427 cubic inch engine with two four barrel carburetors. "It has a Mark Williams rear end and a lot of Lamb parts on it including brakes and most of the suspension parts. It's a really good car. I enjoy the racing and we've been fortunate to set a number of records in the past, but now I think I'd like to win some rounds. That's our goal this year." Robert won a couple in Pomona before losing to Aldon Miller in round three. Aldon, for the record, runs a Ford Mustang. And when asked about the new Fords, including the one that John Calvert took to the championship, Robert added," I have one. In fact I was planning on running it at Pomona but it didn't get finished on time." With all the high-tech stuff that goes into those new Mustangs, the thing that kept Robert from running his at the first race of the year was a door latch. "They only made fifty of these cars so they didn't have an over abundance of parts. We went to Michigan and watched them build the car but they didn't have a door latch so we didn't get the car in time to run at the Winternationals." He did say that he got to make a pass in John Calvert's car. "I had a two-second sixty foot time, and then ran eleven seconds at one hundred thirty-six miles per hour. So I guess you can tell that I didn't do a very good job of getting it off the line." But he has done a good job with his Fairlane, a car that he has owned for about twenty years. "I bought it from Bob Sharp and took it to the track and won my first round by beating John Calvert and then I beat Don Keen. They were the current and former world champs when I beat them and I made it all the way to the finals where the line-lock broke and I lost to Fred Moreno. And after that I didn't win another round for three years. It was the neatest trick God ever played on me. He made me think it was easy to win races, but I found out in a hurry that it wasn't." From that humble beginning Robert is still looking for that elusive, first-ever national event win, although he has picked up a couple of wins on the divisional level. "I won at Rocky Mountain in 2000 and at Infineon Raceway in 2002," he added. "But like I said, I'm looking forward to the challenge of winning rounds and races this time around."

Pond won Infineon Raceway in 2002

While Robert didn't get a chance to run his new Mustang in Pomona, there was another car with one of his engines on the track. Chris Whitney owns a Fairlane station wagon and it uses one of Robert's 427 engines, but it only has one four-barrel on it. Chris, who runs in B/Stock, lost in round one but not before getting a lot of attention from the fans, after all, how many really fast station wagons are there out there? "I just like Fords and I like the Fairlane body style. They're fast cars and I'd like to think that they're pretty good investments, too," Robert said. If only he had thought that about his first Cobra Jet car. Oh well, live and learn. And there is one other thing that he is passionate about besides his Fords and that's his family. He's been married to Patrice for thirty-seven years and they have two daughters and three grandchildren that, according to Robert, "We try to spoil." Hey, that's what grandchildren are for, isn't it? With a good family, a good business and a really fast race car, maybe God wasn't playing any tricks on Robert after all.

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