With the tough decision made to retire two of the remaining stockers from the customized Ultra G Muscle Car racing fleet, 2 slots were opened up in the fleet. As you’ve read me say multiple times, I have more cars than I can race because, well, I can’t stop buying cars! So it wasn’t very hard to fill those spots. One is a new car that I only just recently built and profiled, which was originally not intended to be a racer but, because of its hot performance, is now going to hit the track in the hands of a veteran driver! The other is a recent rebuild by a former racer who retired years ago and is now back in town!
“ETERNA”
This beautiful anniversary edition ’57 Chevy was recently assembled just to be a cruiser, but when I put it on the track, it was so fast that I wondered if I was going to wind up robbing the chassis off it for another car! Well, now I don’t have too! This classic beauty is now the 2nd ’57 Chevy in the Muscle Racing fleet along with “The Black Knight,” as it is a recent purchase by none other than Jesse “HAMMER” Harrison, who, recently divested of his beloved ’58 Plymouth racer, was looking for a new and even faster rig while staying with his passion for 1950’s style! Converting from MoPar to GM, “The Hammer” is now flying in style like never before; his race-built 383 “stroker” small-block powered Bel-Air is going to be a handful on the road course, but he’s used to racing big, heavy iron. “Indestructible” has thus been traded for “ETERNA,” and this 4-speed, disc-brake equipped Chevy has already turned in awesome times in qualifying runs. The song may be over but the melody lingers on!
“U.S. CUSTOMS”
Returning to Drag City after years of absence is Isaac “Earthquake” Eisenberg, who’s red “barn find” ’41 Willys coupe was once a regular sight at Drag City many seasons ago. He told everyone he was going to Alaska but had no intention of parting with the car, so either he shipped it all the way there and worked on it in the great white north and shipped it back, or he’s been laying low a lot more locally while working on his car.
This type of mysterious behavior is par for the course for Eisenberg, who is definitely an “odd duck:” born to a wealthy “leisure class” family in upstate New York, he was a rebel from childhood that caused no end of headache for his parents, who fruitlessly attempted to discourage his interest in fast cars, rock & roll, and hard living. It was all to no avail: at the age of 17 after a massive fight with the family patriarch, he walked out on his legacy and made his way down to South Carolina to pursue his love for cars with only the money he was able to scrape together. He learned to race on dirt tracks with the good ol’ boys down yonder, and today in his mid 40’s he considers himself a “Southerner.” While he is still most comfortable on the dirt, he has now rebuilt “U.S. Customs” so that it is better suited for track duty! Originally equipped with a bored and stroked 396 big block, she is now motor-vated by a bored-over 377 small block with mechanical injection to a design similar to what was installed in Cheetahs, and has a new 5-speed gear box, new 4 wheel disc brakes, a new front end, and a new rear axle; the rough old faded exterior looks the same, but she’s all new underneath and ready for some new action!
Neither of these cars is anyone’s idea of a road course racer, but that’s the whole point of the muscle car road races: watching hyper-powered cars doing a type of racing you don’t typically see! The crowd loves it, and seeing 2 veterans at the track with new or rebuilt cars always brings ‘em in!
The Hammer definitely will be racing in style in that beauty. Part of me can certainly understand the change. I can’t keep up with all the things that keep going wrong on my 1:1! It’s interesting how you meant it to be a cruiser but it turned out to have the heart of a racer. These cars certainly seem to develop their own personalities. That Willys is just great and I remember when you built it. The lore is fantastic too. It adds another great layer to these beauties!