I thought the LSR Group might enjoy the story of my
introduction to Tony Nancy.
In about 1956 or 1957 I was a student at Cal Poly College in San
Luis Obispo, CA. At the beginning of my sophomore year I took my
recently fabricated 120" wb fuel Flatty powered slingshot rail to
school with me with the idea of competing at the Santa Maria and San
Luis Obispo drag strips. By the end of the school year we had grenaded
the Flatty and I was looking for someone with a fuel burning Flatty to
get my ride going again for me.
A student friend with connections in the LA area knew Tony Nancy,
owner of the Italamechannica(sp) blown fuel Flatty that he had been
running in the now-famous 22 JR roadster. Tony was looking for a
faster ride for his engine, but his wife wouldn't allow him to drive a
dragster at that time.
The 3 3/8" X 3 5/8" destroker engine was built by Sparks & Bonney
Automotive in LA and was set up to run at relatively low RPM's for
some reason. Tony liked the fact that my rail was equipped with a
quickchange rear end and chose something like a 3.25:1 gear to run.
I towed the chassis to Tony's shop in the LA area and left it
there for the engine to be installed. A couple of weeks later we met
at Santa Maria Drag Strip and blew the 39 Ford tranny's 2nd gear on
the second pass, after clocking in the mid 130's on the first run.
We geared the quick change down considerably to run high-gear only and
beat a local Pontiac powered Bantam Comp Coupe for Top Eliminator.
In those days before the Christmas tree the starter would point to
each car, and, when both drivers acknowledged their readiness by
nodding their heads the flag was raised and the race was on. What gave
me an advantage was the fact that the starter couldn't see the driver
of the comp- coupe, so he just had to assume that the guy was
looking. As it turned out the other driver wasn't looking at the
starter when he pointed. He then pointed to me, I acknowledged, and he
raised the flag, getting a pretty good jump on the coupe. The other
driver made a valiant effort but couldn't catch me. Needless to say
he was a little chagrined.
As I recall, following that race we removed Tony's engine from the
car right there at the strip, he headed for LA, and I resumed my
search for another loaner Flatty.
That blown Flatty pulled harder than anything I had experienced
until we installed the Fueler Ardun in my 120"wb Dragmaster Dart
replica 35 years later......
Ardun Doug King
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