Fri, 24 Apr 2009, 03:10 PM His Career is a Long Way From...Over!

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2009 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Richard Feldman

The fans who come to Indy every year, and to other select races across the country, get to see what has become known as the “Hemi Shootout.” This is the race where all of those great big, honkin’ hemi cars get to do battle on the quarter-mile just like they did when they were new about forty years ago. When those cars compete at an NHRA national event there always seems to be something special about them. Maybe it’s the classic lines on the cars, the history that they bring with them or just the fact that they are really fast. And when one of those hemi cars lines up against a slower, a much slower car in the handicap eliminations it’s a lot of fun for everyone. After all, we all like to see the underdog upset the favorite and who doesn’t like to see a little, 283 Chevy, for example, hold off the high flying 426 cubic inch entry? It’s those kind of races, the ones with the huge head starts, along with the wide variety of cars in the eliminator that make Super Stock Eliminator so much fun to watch. And for every hemi that’s out there, there is a venerable, old, reliable 283 Chevrolet trying to make life miserable for the Mopar fans, and Richard Feldman just happens to have one of those cars.

Richard Feldman

“Mr. Security” is and has been the name on the side of Richard’s venerable 1966 Chevrolet for as long as I can remember. I know that it was there when he rolled into the winner’s circle at Englishtown back in 1986. It was also there when he won the SS/O class “about 50 or 60 times” according to Richard. Among those class wins for the insurance representative for New York Life were wins at Englishtown going back as far as 1971, ’76, ’82 and 1983. He also took class honors at Indy in the 1970’s and ‘80’s and he won those races with his first real race car, a 1966 Chevrolet with a 427 cubic inch engine. “I ran that car in the B and C/Stock classes and had some success with it,” he said. “Then NHRA moved the cars to Super Stock and I didn’t do quite as well.” One thing that he did do was keep the car in complete, stock condition and I imagine that’s worth a pretty penny today. “I didn’t want to put a roll bar in it to run Super Stock so I kept it in its original condition.” That means that Richard has a 1966, 427 numbers matching Chevrolet at home. “It has 1,700 original miles on it and I take it to car shows and cruise nights every now and then and the folks really like it.” Take that you hemi lovers. After parking his big car Richard found another car that he thought would fit right into the Super Stock class and so he bought it. “It’s a ’66 Impala with a 283 cubic inch engine that’s rated at 220 horsepower and it fits neatly into the SS/O class.” So neatly that Richard has been racing in that same class since his big win at Englishtown over twenty years ago. That race, like the one we just finished in Atlanta, was rained out on Sunday and held over until Monday and that’s when Richard went to work. “We got a time run on Monday morning and I picked my dial and went at it.” Among the drivers who were in the Super Stock field that weekend were Fred Krawiec, Ron Morehead and Phillip Monteith, all very familiar figures to fans of the New Jersey track. Richard made it to the final round where he beat Tom Sheehan and his Chevy Camaro and it was time to chalk one up for the “little engine that could. “I like this car and I try to refine it and make it quicker every year,” he said. “It’s a fun car and when I’m done racing it I think I could use it to pull tree stumps.” I guess that’s a reference to the size and weight of the car, but I don’t think we have to worry about that since Richard shows no signs of slowing down, on or off the track. One thing that was interesting about the car is that, in his efforts to make it quicker and faster, Richard said that he bought a new rear end for it during the recent off-season. “I have to tell you that I paid more for the new rear end than I paid for the car when I bought it.” I guess that’s progress, isn’t it?

Richard Feldman is one of the many racers who say they love the sport because of the people who are involved in it. “I race a modest schedule,” he said. “A couple of national races and five or six points meets a year and that’s about it. I love racing but it’s really the people who keep me coming back. You meet such nice folks and make friendships that last forever and that’s special.” Something else that’s special is what Richard does with his spare time, and believe me, he doesn’t have a lot of it. Between racing and running his insurance business in East Liverpool, Ohio, there isn’t a lot of extra time to go around, but for longer than he has been racing, Richard has operated a ham radio station that connects our service men and women oversees with their loved ones back home. “It’s a nice way to give something back,” he said. “I do it almost every night of the week. We have an arrangement with the military and we put families in touch with their sons or daughters who otherwise may not be able to hear from them or speak to them while they’re in a combat zone. It’s very rewarding. Because of the way it’s hooked up, every time they finish a sentence they have to say ‘Over’ so that the other person can respond.” Like drag racing, the men and women who run the ham radios are a very close knit group and one of the people who is heavily involved with it is Paul Sergi, the founder of Summit Racing Equipment. “He runs a company, DX Engineering, and I buy some things from him,” Richard said. “I had my car parked out in front of his place once and he came out to take a look at it.” In addition to his business, his racing and his time spent helping our men and women in uniform, Richard does find time to occasionally take one of his other, non-drag racing cars out for a spin. “I have a Delorean, a ’62 XKE Jaguar and a Ferrari.” Well, hey, who doesn’t?

Richard Feldman is the kind of person who makes this sport so special and it’s cars like his that make the racing so enjoyable. “I like getting the head start,” he said, and he should since it happens almost all the time. “I’m always trying to be a better racer and go quicker and faster but mainly I just want to have fun.” For over thirty years now he has been doing just that and, from the looks of it, the only ones who will say that anything is “over” are the folks he talks to on the ham radio. And if history is any indication, those big hemi cars better watch out because they’re going to be chasing that vintage ’66 Impala for along time.

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