Beeline Dragway Scottsdale, Arizona
The Event.. 1967 AHRA Winter Nationals
In 1967, the Original Rat Patrol got its name. They qualified 32nd from well over twicethat amount of cars. Joe Haggerty was the driver, Larry Ladue was the chassis owner and Buddy Smith was the cash man behind the motor. Bob Haggerty was crewboss and damage control. Prince Hughes was Larrys assistant. Robert Landrum owne
d the injectors and crewed.. We came to the track that morning without any lettering on the car, but we were going to call ourselves the AGGRESSORS. We had a cammo 55 chevy tow car and wore army caps and jackets. The trailer was a single axle open rigwith a luggage rack over the carthat carried tires, tools and fuel. We looked like a bunch of gypsy traders gooin down the highway. The place was packed, so we got down to business. The field was around 7.50's, with 8.10's being on the bubble. Not wanting to to make many runs, we put 100% in the tank and a little Hydrazine in as an additive. The fireup road was straight behind the starting line. In those days you didnt spin the tires. We fired and i stopped the car about 100ft from the line. The crowd came to their feet when we did a smokey burnout. I staged and smoked telephone pole high rooster tails through the lights. When we picked up our E-T slip it read 6.92 with an X over it with a note. NO TIME ON THAT RUN. I guess that means we were'nt the first guys in the 6's. The national record was around 7.49 so we figured that the just didnt believe it. We made another run and galled a rocker arm and shut it off with a 8.02. We werre in but at the bottom of the ladder.. When 1st round round came we were paired off with low ET qualifier, Goodson and Gore. They were #4 in the California T/Fuel list. When we lined up i put a hole shot on them and sent them down the road. We were getting ready for round 2 when an AHRA staff guy came up to us and said hey, do you know what the racers are calling you guys? No What? He sad the Rat Patrol!! That was our favoriye tv show.. We then won round 2 against Tulsa's Burt Bros. Round 3 i red lighted against Don Cook. On the way home we wondered what they thought of the qualifing 6.92 they didnt give us when we out run Goodson and Gore. Well anyway, I guess we can letter the car now, Larry said thats the first thing i'll do..
