X-11 Yenkos

[Stefano]

Joe C,
Very cool info. It seems to have evolved around a few Key players, kind of like the 'Big Bang' theory.
Harrell was also hot rodding Chevy IIs with Corvette motors,first small and then Big Blocks.
Which came first,Thomas'relatioship with Nickey or Thomas'relation ship with Harrell?
I still maintain that these relationships are not mutually exclusive. These guys were live'in it and making it happen and their paths had crossed in many ways.
The catalyst for these projects and ultimate Super Cars and disseminator of info may indeed have been General Motors.
Keep the info comming guys I just can't get enough of this stuff.

[68TopStock]

JoeC & Stefano,

I too agree that Bill Thomas was there at the beginning with Chevrolet. In Grady Bryants book "Match Race Madness" he relates how he and Dick owned a '63 Z11 Impala, which won the 1963 Winternationals. Bill Thomas had sent Dick some experimental high compression "fireslot" 409 pistons for the car before the event.

I have come to the conclusion that Dick's first AFXer was the Bill Thomas "Bad Bascomb" (a stroked FI sb) which was highlighted in a 1963 Hot Rod publication. I have compared pics from early articles on Dick, and the bumpers, dash/interior look identicle. Bill Thomas's name was on the 1st AFXer, "Retribution II, which I think Dick ran in 1965.

I think Dick went to work for Nickey in 1966, so he knew Bill at least 2-3 years before the move to the midwest. Maybe Dick's relationship with Bill Thomas led to Bill's relationship with the Nickey dealership? or visa versa? Dick's '66 AFXer ChevyII was wholly sponsored by Nickey. I think Bill Thomas may have built a '67 FunnyCar for Nickey and Dick, but when Dick left in the spring of 1967, the car was undeliverable? This "Nickey" '67 Camaro FunnyCar was for sale in the Fall of 1967 in several DragWorld Nickey advertisements. Maybe we will learn more this fall at the Reunion with the Nickey folks.

Dick was sponsored by Don Yenko for the summer of 1967, and maybe Dick's use of big motors in little cars was the seed that started the Yenko conversion program? I do not know when the first conversions occurred, but I might bet it wasn't until the spring of 1967. The earliest article I have of the Yenko/Harrell connection is from the June 23, 1967 DragWorld. It highlights the "Yenko" Sponsored Dick Harrell Camaro FunnyCar which I believe debuted at the AHRA SpringNationals. This was at St. Louis, which would have been in late May of 1967.

BTW, Chevrolet's desert proving grounds were in Mesa, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. I wonder if Bill Thomas and Dick Harrell visited there occasionally? On the map, it is located right in the middle between Ahaheim CA and Carlsbad NM.

[sixtiesmuscle]

"Top Stock", great info. Don't forget that the car that became a Yenko sponsored car driven by Mike Garfinkle was built by Nickey. That must have been around the Nickey split with Harrell, huh? That's the one I'd like to find. Heck, next to a Douglass-COPO/Yenk, how about a Nickey-Yenko Camaro? Now that's truly "one of one"!

[Stefano]

Sixtiesmuscle,
If you find that particular Super Car, I would be interested in purchasing it from you. I'm certain that since it is not on the Yenko Inventory Sheets it wouldn't be very desirable ,or even valuable for that matter



P.S. I just couldn't resist.

[Rat_Pack]

Topstock, that Chevy II was "Bad Bascumb" that Bill Thomas used as a test bed for the FI 327 which eventually became the altered wheelbase car that Dick drove. That car was replaced in 65 by the black car that had a stock wheelbase. The black car was built without help from Bill Thomas, even though his name was on the fenders. Then while the 66 car was being built, with help from Bill Thomas, Nickey Chevrolet came on board as a sponsor. Nickey was into road racing long before drag racing and that is the connection between them & Bill Thomas Race Cars (BTRC).

BTRC did not build the mystery Camaro funny car for Nickey in 67 but they did build a dragster. They built it sometime after the 66 Nova was finished but I am not sure if it was ever competitive. I think I have seen a couple of pictures of it somewhere but I cannot remember where. DragWorld? Also I am not sure who built the funny car that was for sale but it was not BTRC. Could this have been the car that DH ended up using for the 67 season with the Yenko/Courtesy sponsorship or was it too late?...................RatPack................... ..

[Stefano]

I can't wait till the reunion, to get more info, but I know Nickey was heavy into roadracing.
I have seen some Nickey sponsored early Corvette pictures from Road America, in Wisconsin.

[JoeC]

Here is some info found on the net,

Bill Thomas was a service manager at C. S. Mead Chevrolet in Pasadena, Ca.. Bill briefly road raced a white 1956 Corvette.

Bill Thomas and sprint car designer Don Edmunds worked together to put a fuel-injected 327 into a modified sprint car tube-frame chassis and enclose it in a stylized coupe body with a 90" wheelbase. Called a Cheetah, it was designed to compete with the Cobras. 1963-64

Jim Jefford drove for Chicago based Nickey Chevrolet in 1958. Jeffords was virtually unbeatable as he easily took the titles in 1958 and 1959 in the Nickey Chevrolet "Purple People Eater" Corvette.

Dick Harrell started racing at the age of 14. After 3 years in the army, Dick got back into racing and by the mid sixties, he was traveling all over the country to race. In 1965 he went to work for Nickey Chevrolet and after a couple years started his own performance shop in St. Louis, Mo. (fromZ/28 web site)