TTM Success - Ed 'The Ace' McCulloch

While purchasing some older drag racing cards online a couple months ago, I checked to see if Ed "The Ace" McCulloch signed TTM.  I saw that he did, so I bought two cards (below) off of Ebay (more on them shortly), and also went through a card album that my Mom had found at Goodwill. I came away with several cards to send out.

The above 1973 Fleer AHRA cards (above, top row) were the Ebay purchase.  I never got to see the Revellution funny car race in person, but I remember it from a model car that my brother Kenny built when I was little.  I always loved the design of that car.  Overall, I was happy with the return, except the signature on the McDonald's dragster card smeared.

McCulloch (b. 1942) drag raced professionally from 1964 to 1993.  He won 22 NHRA national events, including 5 US Nationals (1971, 1972, 1980, 1988 and 1990). He was elected to the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2011 and the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2000.

I mailed to McCulloch on November 4 and got the cards back on November 15, for an 11-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Eddie Hill

One of my all-time favorite drag racers signed several cards TTM for me recently.  Eddie Hill is one of the most popular former drag racers around.  I was glad to find an album of drag racing cards that Mom found (probably at Goodwill) that had a bunch of Hill's cards in it.  Even better, he inscribed the above card "Thanks Boss".  He would always get out of his car and thank God before giving an interview.  I always liked that about him.

I don't recall ever meeting him in person.  Maybe I did years ago, but I doubt it.  I wish I had.

Hill even included a signed business cards of his own, which was really cool.

Hill (b. 1936) drag raced (on land) from 1955 to 1966 and 1985 to 1999.  He drag raced boats from 1974 to 1985 despite not being able to swim.  He held national records on land and in the water, once holding  both the land and water speed records simultaneously in 1987.  He had gotten back into drag racing after a boat accident in 1985 that tore his Texas A&M ring off of his finger, broke several bones and cause eye injuries.  He purchased Dan Pastorini's top fuel operation and salvaged his boat engine from the bottom of the lake.

In April of 1988, he ran the first sub-5 second run in a Top Fuel car at 4.990 seconds.  Hill would win 13 NHRA national events, and won the 1993 NHRA Top Fuel Championship.  He was voted #14 on NHRA's top 50 drivers from 1950-2000.  He was elected to the Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1978.

I mailed to Hill on June 23 and got the cards back on July 12 for a 19-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Chris Karamesines

He may be as old as 93, no one really knows how old Chris Karamesines really is, but he most likely is the oldest person ever to pilot an NHRA top fuel dragster.  After returning from a tour in Europe during World War II, Karamesines began auto racing in the early 1950s.  He finally retired after the 2020 season, and had his granddaughter, Krista Baldwin take over driving duties.  In between, Karamesines wo countless rounds of NHRA competition, but never a national event win.

I mailed to Karamesines on April 4 and got the card back on April 12, for an 8-day TAT.

TTM Success - Dale Pulde

This TTM success took some patience.  I got this card, which is a 1973 Fleer AHRA drag racing card that I got from the old card shop in Winston-Salem out of a shoe box of cards that someone brought in to sell.  I held onto the cards (there were a handful of these 1973 Fleer) for a while until Chris was old enough to handle them, and gave the cards to him.  

Fast forward several years, we were looking through one of the albums and I found this card.  I realized it was Dale Pulde, who I really liked when I was younger because he had one of the best looking funny cars of all time, the Miller High Life Warrior.  I wish they had cards of that one, because I'd have sent that off.  

Still, I thought this one was cool and would be a cool addition to my album.  I was unable to find his address, so I messaged his Facebook page and waited.  I finally got a response a few months later saying where I could send the card, and I sent it along.  It looks really cool now that it is signed, and I was super glad to get it completed.

Pulde has six career NHRA national event wins and was IHRA Champion three times.  It is pretty tough finding bio information on him, but I recommend a google search of his War Eagle and Miller High Life Warrior Funny Cars.  They were awesome paint jobs back in the day.

What I Did For My Birthday

I'm sure you all have noticed that I have been absent from this blog over the last few days.  The reason was because I went out of town for my birthday, which was Saturday.  My wife, son and I went to ZMax Dragway in Charlotte for the NHRA Carolina Nationals.  I had been to ZMax one time before, back in April 2012 for the 4-WIde Nationals.

This time around, it was only 2-wide and the race was part of the NHRA's 'playoffs' or 'Countdown to the Championship.  This added a bit of drama to the event.  I'm not the biggest fan of this setup, as I was brought up in the era of "He who wins the most races is the Champion", but it makes it so that no one racer is dominating the class, so I guess that's ok.

As with any sporting event, I went with a goal in mind.  This time, it was to meet, again, my childhood idol, Shirley Muldowney, the First Lady of drag racing.  I had met her before in 1995 at Bristol, but was too nervous to pose for a picture with her, even though she offered.  I felt terrible about that, and wanted to redeem myself before it was too late.  Well, after about 15 minutes on-site...

We spotted Shirley in front of the Don Schumacher hospitality area recruiting fans to attend the benefit breakfast for B. R. A. K. E. S. (Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe) teen driving initiative, which was founded by fellow Top Fuel racer, Doug Herbert.  This is a good program which teaches teen drivers proper safe driving techniques and was founded by Herbert when he lost his two sons in a road accident a few years back.  I've known Doug Herbert for several years and I was happy to contribute to his program while I was there.

We talked to Shirley for a bit outside of the breakfast area and she was kind enough to pose for a picture with the 3 of us.  She was really, super nice, I couldn't have asked for a better time meeting her.  She has always been good to me.  As you can see, the photo turned out awesome.  I'm going to print it out and hang it up with my Brooks Robinson and Nolan Reimold pictures.  Meeting her on my birthday meant the world to me, so you know I was happy.

On Sunday, Chris met current Top Fuel dragster driver, Leah Pruett and got her autograph.  I think he was a big smitten by her as he wanted to go back and congratulate her after her round one win over Tony Schumacher.  She was really nice as well.  She took the time to thank Chris for coming back by her pits and congratulating her.  She said she won the round because he had brought her good luck.

We had a great time, but I am now feeling it.  I didn't get much sleep over the weekend and am now feeling like a zombie.  So, that being said, I will retire for the evening and will return to my regular blogging probably tomorrow.

Thoughts From the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals

When I called my mom on Tuesday to tell her that I met Cal Ripken, she made mention that my dad was taking my niece to Z-Max Dragway this weekend for the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals.  She said that Dad had said how nice it would be if I could come along with Christopher.  Initially, I told her that I didn't think I could go, since we would be getting home so late Sunday night with Chris having school today.  I called her back Wednesday and told her that I thought about it and we would go, regardless of what time we got home.  My thinking was, I hardly ever get to hang out with my dad because the both of us are so busy.  Plus, I thought it was a great idea to have Chris do something with his Paw Paw as well.

So, we all got up early Sunday morning and made the hour-hour and a half drive to Charlotte from my parents' house.  I stayed over the night before, having gone to a minor league game with my little brother.

When we got to the track, we made our way to the ticket office, planning on getting Reserved Seats for $55.00.  As we made our way to the line, a man stopped my dad and handed him 4 Reserved tickets (since he saw that there were 2 kids with us).  Turns out, they had friends who couldn't make it and decided to hand them to someone with kids.  Man, were we lucky!

We made our way into the racetrack and walked around for a while, taking in the sights.  Dad wanted to stop and talk to John Nobile, father of Pro Stock driver Vincent Nobile, since Dad knows him from way back to when they both ran the IHRA tour, Dad in Pro Modified and John in Pro Stock.  John is a really great guy, who talked to me just as much as he talked to my dad.

John had Vincent come out and talk to us as well, and Chris and I got both of their autographs on Vincent's 'hero card.'  You can barely see John's signature on the right in silver Sharpie.

 Here are John Nobile and my dad chatting before the race.  We hung out there for a good 15-20 minutes.  The Nobiles were really friendly and offered for us to come and chat with them anytime.  Chris and I actually took them up on it after the first round of eliminations when Chris saw Vincent chilling out on his golf cart.  Vincent was really good with kids.

 I took this shot before the first round of eliminations when Chris got his autograph.  The thing I really respect about Vincent Nobile is that he is only 19 and goes to college full-time.  He has his class schedule structured to support his race schedule, but he was due to fly back to New York this morning at 6AM.  That's a lot of hard work, but I'm glad he is able to manage and follow his dream.

After we were done chatting with the Nobiles, Dad, Grace, Chris and I made our way around the pits.  I had to take some pictures of a lot of the cars I haven't been able to see in person, since I hadn't been to a national event since 1998 and I had never been to an NHRA race.

I did get a John Force sighting.  Here he is signing a bunch of stuff as he was heading out to the racer introductions.  We didn't get anything signed by him because his crowd was MASSIVE.  Oh well, I got to see him at least.

Here is the first 4-Wide pass I witnessed.  I'm not going to repeat the one word I said after these cars went down.  Let's just say I'm glad it was loud because my Dad didn't hear it and Chris had his headphones on.  The word rhymed with truck...  It was amazing.  I shot a video, but something happened to it, it keeps starting and stopping like it added extra frames to it.  I need someone with video editing softwar to fix it for me.  Any takers?

Here's Chris' reaction after a couple 4-Wide passes from Top Fuel Dragsters.  He had only seen one top fueler go down a track, and that was a couple years ago at a local track.  This was far different.

I can now say that I saw John Force race in person.  I don't recall ever seeing him at the races I went to as a kid.  So, I'm counting this as the first time seeing him in person.

Here is our new favorite driver, Vincent Nobile, during the first round of Pro Stock.  Vincent would go on to the final round where he was done in by tire shake.  He would wind up finishing third, which isn't bad at all.  We wanted him to win, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Another car/driver that I wanted to see was Doug Kalitta.  His uncle Connie used to tour with Shirley Muldowney in the 1970s and is a drag racing legend.  We didn't get to meet him, which was something I really wanted to accomplish, but I just didn't get lucky.  Oh well.  Maybe next time.

Chris wanted to watch a lot of the Sportsman cars race, so he and I hung out in our seats while Dad and Grace walked around a while.  I thought this picture turned out pretty good.

Here is a good shot of Doug Kalitta doing a burnout.  My camera did a really good job taking the pictures during the event.  I just wish my video did better.

Here is Chris in front of one of the old cars they had on display.  I'm certain he was the only person there rocking the 1989 Scotty Cannon t-shirt.  That shirt is old.

Here is the final round of Pro Stock, which Vincent got 3rd.  Not too bad.  Greg Anderson second Summit car from left) won the race.

Here is the final round of Top Fuel.  Spencer Massey (far left) won, followed by Tony Schumacher.  Doug Kalitta got 4th, I think.

In all, we had a blast, and I really think I'll be heading back to ZMax Dragway in September when they return.  I'm glad I could spend some time with my dad and my son.  Oh yeah, Grace, too.  We now have a new favorite Pro Stock driver, which will make it more interesting for Chris.  Thanks for inviting us, Dad!