BILOXI DRAGWAY RESULTS OCT. 10, 1965

Pictured above, unknown, Jim O'Conner, Sidney Foster, October 10, 1965 Biloxi, MS
(Photos, Bubba Cummins)

Don Gay 170.45 MPH Biloxi

From DRAG NEWS

By Charles Meek

BILOXI, MISS., October 10th--Today's feature Match Race was to be between Don Gay's GTO and MR. NORM'S Grand Spaulding Dodge injected Funny Car handled by Jim O'Conner; but it seems that Jim wrecked his Dodge a couple of weeks ago and demolished it. Jim went right to work and built a brand new car -- an injected 396 Chevy II specially for this race for that "Texas Terror" Don Gay.

In regular competition today and some real fine cars touring through the pits. When classification was over there were 191 cars and bikes entered. In A 'FX Sydney Foster's "Quick Draw" Funny Fairlane was unopposed so Sydney put on a fabulous show pulling bumper-scrapping wheelstands for the fans and picture takers. B/S and Stock Eliminator gold went home to Jackson, Mississippi with Orban Thornton, NHRA National's Winner Labor Day with his B/S Corvette turning a best of 12.57 which is .16 of a second below the National Record!!

FIRST ROUND OF THE MATCH RACE: Don Gay and Jim O'Conner pushed their cars to the starting line, donned their fire suits and made ready for the first round. Jim O'Conner fired first and immediately you could tell from the exhaust noise that all was not right under the hood. Then Gay's metal flake red GTO Tiger emitted a loud roar and burned thru the rosin several times and all was ready. The lights flashed and Jim in the Chevy II put about a three car hole shot on Don. Halfway down the track the GTO pulled even and then the power of the 421 plus cubic inch could be seen as Don pulled ahead for the win at 9.84 167.91 mph. A new track mph record for exhibition stockers.

Back to open competition and to Gas Eliminator Final found Wayne McConnel's D/G from New Orleans ahead with a best of 12.90. In number one Eliminator Mickey Carrier's B/C from Amite, La put the burn on Loyd Lawrence and his B/A from Pascagoula, Miss with a fine run of 11.20 in the final run-off.

SECOND LEG - MATCH RACE: Jim reported he had lost a lobe on his cam but would still run and try to get another hole shot on Don and maybe hold on for the win but after green light it was apparent the little Chevy was no match for Intinity GTO as Don went through with a 9.91.

With only single lane clocks we couldn't get an accurate ET on Don because Jim was breaking the beamsfirst with his hole shots, so Don came to the tower and said he was going to make one more all out blast to try for the track ET record of 9.52, then held by O'Conner in the Grand Spaulding Dodge A/FX II, a little later on.

In number two Eliminator action the B/MP of Ray Knight of Biloxi came out on top with a fine run of 12.35 in his '57 Chevy.

Riley Clifton was Junior Stock winner in his K/S Triumph with a 15.57 and then came back to take Top Dog Eliminator and proved to be the biggest upset of the day. Our Top Dog Eliminator consists of all previous Eliminator winners coming back to run each other using national record handicaps for spots. In the final runoff for Top Dog it was the K/S in the tower lane with better than a five second spot on the B/C in the spectator lane. When the green light finally came on the B/C was off in hot pursuit after the little red Triumph and looked like he was going to catch him until it came to change gars and that's when the clutch gave up and the little K/S went through the winner of Top Dog Eliminator.

Then the crowd jammed the fences because Don Gay was pulling to the line. At the green he came out very strong and rally turned the "Tiger" loose. Exactly 9.37 seconds later the win light in his lane flashed and the top speed clock read 170.45 mph - a new track ET and top speed record for the exhibition stockers to shoot at.

Sources: Drag News, Copyright BiloxiDragway.com