Nickey / Bill Thomas 1967 Autorama

[Stefano]

Nickey had several other sponsored Drag Racers at that time, including Dick Harrell.

Bill Hielscher already had his sponsors lined up. He won many awards and races in 1966.

You will notice that Dick Harrell has a sponsorship logo on Bill's Camaro.

Dick Harrell built the dedicated race cars. There were three Similar Red Rally Sports while Don Swiatek's team built the "retail" customer cars. Both Don and DIck reported to Al Selig, the VP of NIckey Chevrolet.

[1967Z28]

Who was it that was racing the other two similar red cars?

What is confusing to me is why was Dick Harrell the builder of these cars when Nickey went out and formed a business relationship with Bill Thomas Race Cars, also a very capable and highly regarded race car builder. Seems like Bill Thomas "should" have built these but didn't. Maybe Dick Harrell didn't understand the business relationship either and that's why he left when he did?

Did the Harrell sponsorship on the fender show up after he left Nickey or do you know if it was on the car while he was still involved with the dealership?

That whole '67 year is super confusing in terms of who was associated with who and at what time as we have also seen with Dana and Yenko having a brief pairing up.

-Jon

[Stefano]

Jon,

Dick Harrell was an emplyee of Nickey Chevrolet when he built the race cars, not a principal at that time. The cars were built under the Nickey / Bill Thomas partnership.

Dick was a very competent mechanic, from what others who were there have told me.

[Stefano]

[Stefano]