hi gang......
Here it is!
-the story I've been waiting weeks to get ! You're gonna enjoy this one !
It was written and sent to me by Gary Wise, one half of the infamous
scallywags known worldwide as the SHI- Brothers Racing team of Northwest
Washington State… I first made their acquaintance in April 1988 while I
was in Fremont California for the NDRA Nostalgia Nationals Oldie Drags being
run at what was then called Baylands. I first met these two through friends
George Campbell and the late Hank Law'she who had already made their
acquaintance. At that time we all lived in the great State of Montana…. (
As some of you know, George is known for his XO / STR 302" Jimmy powered '29
Ford roadster known as "SALT CIRCUS", -while Hank later built and campaigned
the companion "SALT SHADOW" -a Flat black '32 American Austin XX / Comp.
Coupe running Hank's old Wayne headed 216" '50s sprint car engine on alky
-but that's another story….)
Back to the story at hand. To know Hedstrom and Wise is to enjoy one of
life's rare treats. These guys have more fun than a body should ever be
expected to have -hang around with these guys and you're always looking
around for cops ;cause you just don't really believe this much fun can be
legal. -and they manage to do it all with little or no money1 I think if
you checked with the library of Congress, you'd find these two wrote THE
original book on lo-buck. Among their other known cohorts and associates
are a desperado known by many as "Ganggreen Gary" Cope, -another notorious
scallywag called "Zeke" Zacherson, "Jerry rig" Weigt, and many, many
others…. (rumor has it that Keith Young, and Katie Young Cortez have
something to do with this bunch too, -but has yet to be confirmed by the
proper authorities…)
The commonality that all these birds share is that they're all "paddling the
wrong way on the wrong side of the boat" as it were -they like to have "all
their ducks in a row." That is to say, they love doing things the hard way
by messing around with INLINE engines !
Now because my Montana friends George and Hank were running inlines too it
was a natural that I'd be a member of the "pit crew" for both of them, and
I'd be exposed to the never ending hy-jynx of the SHI- Brothers….. To be
around these guys you would most certainly get the impression that they were
a couple of stand up comics fresh off the bus from Vegas to Salt Lake, and
out of work….. I mean, they're the LAST guys in the world you'd ever take
serious as competitors….
Oh yeah ? Read on:
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A familiar tale of friends, greasy parts, gasoline, and salt…..
By Gary Wise
It all started when Ray Hedstrom bought a 1941 Chevrolet coupe from me in
1975 for 125 dollars after I had removed the motor and any other part I
thought I could sell off for $2.00 or more later on. He installed a
junkyard 235" six in a neighbor's '60 Chevy in exchange for the core which
he kept for himself. A "quickie" rebuild, 2 carbs on a Nicson intake, and
a set of Clark headers put the horsepower up to maybe as much as 170. The
stock transmission got an Ansen converted side cover and floor shifter. The
old torque tube rear end with 4:11 gears was left alone. Up until the
early 1980's, this was his daily driver. In early 1982, he decided that it
might look better with a chopped top. With a copy of an old Rod and Custom
in hand (how to chop a 48 Plymouth coupe), full tanks for the welder, and a
few new hacksaw blades, we began. After a few weeks and 3 or 4 gallons of
Bondo, it was done. He slapped on some red paint and a set of American 5
spoke clones. It looked pretty good.
In 1985, Ray decided that we should attend Street Rodder Magazine's
Nostalgia
Nationals in Fremont California. Not only did it sound like fun, it was the
location of the first real national event for INLINERS INTERNATIONAL. This
is an organization devoted to the modification and preservation of vintage
inline motors that we had joined in 1981. Besides, he had a mild heart
attack in the summer of 1984 and became aware of his mortality and the
importance of doing what you wanted to do. At the event, the car posted a
stately 17.789
ET. It may have been slow but we had the time of our life. In an effort
to hurry things up a bit, the car got a $50 Saginaw 4 speed from a 70's
Monza and a swap meet Hurst. The rear end and torque tube were pitched in
favor of a 55-57 Chevy with a 4:11 posi. Quarter mile times plummeted into
the 16's.
In 1987, a fellow Inliner from Vancouver British Columbia. (Just a 160 miles
north of us here in Everett, Washington) wanted to go to Bonneville but
didn't want to drive or go alone. Ray made the ultimate sacrifice and took
him. The salt bug bit big time. He bent up a roll cage, took out the 280Z
buckets, put in a fire system, found a set of Goodyear Frontrunners (one at
a time over several swap meets) and narrow steel wheels to put them on
covered by a set of traditional moons. The fire system was the one thing
you didn't get used at a swap meet. Tapped out for the year, the motor
remained a pretty much stock 235 Chevy 6.
He brought the car to Bonneville for the first time in 1989 entering in
XO/VGC
and using car number 1941. This is a class for '59 or earlier inlines and
flathead V motors ( except for Ford and Mercury ) in '48 and earlier U.S.
production bodies. The car actually broke 100 MPH. That same year,
however, a new class record was set by a fellow Inline club member at better
than 137 MPH. Ray's speed was not that bad when you consider that the new
record holder was running a 320" GMC. Every year following, the coupe went
a little faster. In 1991 the class record was bumped to 141+ by another
club member also in a 320" GMC powered car.
Speedweek was rained out in 1993 and 1994. It was just as well. Ray had
a 5 way bypass in July 1994. That together with complications with diabetes
(diagnosed only a few months before the heart surgery) earned him a
medical retirement from his job with the phone company at the ripe old age
of 51. Fortunately, 5 of his 9 kids had reached an appropriate age and
flown the nest. Unfortunately, 4 were still at home and required periodic
feeding.
The years 1995 through 1997 saw winter nights wasted trying to get a friends
terminally cracked Wayne 12 port cross flow head to work on a newly acquired
261" Chevy 6. Each time, a stock head was thrown on days before Speedweek
in order to have something to run. In 1997 famed inline engine builder
Jerry Weigt offered to let Ray run a killer 261 he was building for the 50th
Speedweek in 1998.
This baby had a stroker crank giving it more than 300 inches. The head had
been modified to within an inch of its life with intake valves the size of
salad plates and ports large enough for sparrows to nest in. The valves
were bumped by a set of custom built roller rockers and roller lifters.
Fuel was fed through two 500 CFM Holleys ( $25 each at a swap meet). The
car was taken to the salt and fired up on a set of "warm up" plugs. A
fresh set of plugs were put in and the coupe was pushed to the line. The
key there was that the plugs were put in; they were not tightened up.
Before the quarter on the first run, two pistonswere blow torched (because
of the oversight…) and the double trick head was cracked. So much for the
high dollar "loaner" motor.
Also at 50th Speedweek was former Inliner Newsletter editor and pal Armond
Orr from northern California. He was there with his chopped '41 Chevy 1/2
ton pick up doing push truck duty. After the unscheduled demise of the
race motor, he offered the motor out of his truck for the following year.
He had a few theories in mind and felt that Bonneville was the best place
test them out.
He also has an masochistic streak a mile and a half long.
When the hood came up at Speedweek 1999, the practiced eye quickly noted
three S&S B model carbs mounted to the inline six instead of on a Harley
Davidson motor. Armond reasoned that if they were good enough for a 2
cylinder Harley, they were probably way good for a for the racecar. Attached
to the carbs was a fresh air box that took air from an ice water intercooler
that sat in the upper half of the area normally occupied by the stock
radiator. The lower half of this space was filled with a much smaller
radiator connected to a tank in the trunk that cooled the motor. The
interior of the 261 inch motor was really pretty stock with 8.5 to 1 cast
pistons from a 231" Buick V6 and an Isky hydraulic (?) cam. The ice water
intercooler never worked. The speeds however, climbed to 126+ -or more
than 8 mile per hour faster than ever before. The one thing that proved to
be right, however, were those S&S carbs.
Over the winter of 1999/2000, the coupe went with Armond to Northern
California for more work. He took out the original independent front
suspension and put in a beam axle. Front brakes were left on the garage
floor. This put the car so low that air shocks were put on the front so
that the car would go on and off the trailer. The rear was dropped six
inches more than it was before. Other underneath things were done but all
within the "letter" of the rules. The motor was freshened up with a new
solid lifter cam with a top secret grind and a set of new, hand made
tube
headers. The ice water intercooler system went to phase two….
Ray was to meet Armond in Wendover Thursday night August 10th. The short
version of the story is that the car showed up Monday afternoon August 14
still not having been fired with the new cam. It was unloaded and pushed
to tech where it quickly passed. That hurdle passed, Tuesday was designated
as "gettin it running and makin a pass day". The bets by nearby land
speed engineers ( AKA "pit derelicts" ) was that it would not run. When
it ran ( loading up. and mis-firing ) the bet changed to it would not run
well enough to make a pass. When the valves were re adjusted and the
timing reset, the bets were that it wouldn't make a run that day. At 4:40
PM, ( the line closing at 5:00 PM ) the car left its pit and was pushed to
the line. The bets were that it would blow up….
It was a dark and stormy night. Actually it was a dark and stormy
afternoon with rainsqualls on three sides and cross winds advertised at 10
to 15 mph. The starter recognized Ray from past years and said, " It's
real iffy out there. You can go if you want of be first in the morning."
Ray went for it and was the second to the last car to run that day. The car
was buffeted from one side than the other by the wind. It was all he could
do to hold it on
course. It shook so bad that he couldn't read the tach. It went 146.5+ on
a 141.593 record! They took the car to impound.
( Doug's note: during all this fracas, Ray managed to marry off his
youngest boy on the salt during Speedweek…-no wonder they "were a little
behind" and had a "misunderstanding" )
Due to a misunderstanding, they did not show up for record runs the
following morning until 6:45 or just when the cars were all being sent from
impound to the starting line. No time to charge the battery (nearly dead)
or check the tires (probably OK) or double check the water pumps in the
intercooler system. Out he went at a less impressive 138 and change. Ray
was so concerned about the state of the battery that he never turned the
intercooler pumps on. It turns out there was a broken impeller anyhow. It
didn't matter, they set a new record. It was by just a few hundredths, but
it was a new record. Something in the he clutch /flywheel /crank area let
go on the third run later that day and ended Speedweek for this year…...
Such is the story of a bunch of knuckleheads, lots of elbow grease, some
good ideas, and a car originally purchased for $125.00. Worked on over the
years by friends after work and on weekend, using a street motor that's 50
cubic inches smaller than the class allows (and incidentally, 50 cubic
inches smaller than the two preceding record holders going back to 1987)
using aftermarket S & S Harley Davidson V-Twin carbs, going off to
Bonneville and setting a record. Sounds like the basis for new
sport/hobby.
I know, Why don't we call it "Hot Rodding"?
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Doug's final note:
- a 9" Ford rear, running 3.25 gears replaced the chev rear, and the car
is
running "about" a 29 ½" rear tire at present…..
Just "tons" lot of "trick" stuff to be sure. AIN'T IT GREAT! That's
what I love about this sport! Perhaps the one last great place to race
for the "little guy" where he's still got a real chance to grab his fifteen
minutes of fame,-and most importantly the respect and admiration of his
peers….
I think you'd agree with me that this is another wonderfully inspiring story
of dedication and perseverance. By the way, the Inliners International is
such a great club, with so many neat happenings and members, that it makes
you want to run an inline just so you could join in on the fun. Food for
thought.
For any of you interested in learning more about INLINERS INTERNATIONAL,
-the Northwest Foreign Legion, or the SHI- Brothers Racing team fan club,I'm
sure you could ask Gary or Ray.
Here's their E-mail addresses:
Ray Hedstrom at; saltsix@earthlink.net
-and Gary Wise at; SPHAUGINC@aol.com
See ya! "Dirty Doug" Anderson, September 13, 2000
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