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“Once you
go nitro, there is no turning back!” |
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It's been a long time since I had to look back at my life and put it on paper. I guess I should start at the beginning. I remember deciding what my life's work would be during the summer of 1963, while I was building a 1/24th scale model of the Stone, Woods and Cook Willys Gasser. In the background, my old record player was blasting with the sounds of a race that took place in California. As kids, we could order these racing LPs from our local record store. I was 13 years old. The last two years of high school I worked at Quality Tool & Die after school. We made a lot of stuff for the U.S. Army. I got a lot of overtime in due to the war in Vietnam. When I graduated high school, I got a job at a Ford Motor Company assembly plant where my father worked all his life. I managed to get them to put me on the shape up crew. We would fill in for the guys that were absent. In this way, I was able to work all over the plant and learn how cars were built first hand. I was only able to take that place for 2 years. I don't know how my old man took it for 30 years. Anyway, I was there long enough for me to learn what I needed to know. The Shop Opens Back to top I opened Crazy Horse Speed Shop in 1969. It started out as a hobby shop where several of us young drag racers could build and maintain our hot rods. We did regular repairs for all the neighbors to pay the rent. We had a lot of fun back then. I started racing in Modified Production that year, NHRA. I got my first Harley-Davidson in 1968. It was an old Jersey City Police bike, a 45 trike. We put Cassler recap slicks on it and used it for everything from a parts vehicle to a beer cooler. I even remember using it to tow a couple of cars. I always divided my time between Harleys and hot rods, and in 1970 I bought a ‘49 panhead, also from the Jersey City Police. I paid $495 for it. She was a little beat up, but still ran good. I had that bike for 20 years. The Next Ten Years Back to top During the next 10 years, I traveled all over the country working and drag racing. I managed to work with many talented people in the performance industry. I also picked many a brain in the Harley world. I worked in Ohio, California, Florida, New York City... At one point, I came back to Jersey and got a job teaching Auto Shop and Diesel Engines in a trade school. By this time, I was racing a gasser that ran on the national record. Yeah, it took me 10 years to become competitive on a national level. We were always a low buck operation, which made things hard, but it forced me to buy the equipment and tools I needed. We couldn't afford to pay the big boys to do our work, so I learned how to do it myself. By this time, we had won so many local races that during one of my moves, I couldn't fit all the trophies in the truck! I gave most of them away to friends and relatives. H.D. Performance in Florida ended up keeping eight of them to put around their bike at the shows. At the time, we were racing for money, and the cups became unimportant. I was very bitter back then because I had worked so hard and spent so much money racing that having only trophies to show for it pissed me off. Sure, I won money racing, but it always went right back into the car. In retrospect, I wish I had those trophies now. As time went by, I built many winning race engines and countless street/strip hot rod engines. I was crew chief of a Funny Car in Florida. I was also on Sammy Miller’s crew for Vanishing Point, a rocket powered funny car & dragster, we set a record that year running 350 mph in a ¼ mile. The NHRA gave him a fine because he exceeded what they felt was a safe speed, even though his was an exhibition car and he was paid to put on a show. It had a hydrogen peroxide rocket engine; it was nuts! Once, when we pulled Sammy out of the car at the end of the strip, he was coughing up blood from the G-forces. The 80s Back to top In the 80s, my racing partner since high school, Bobby Klug (a.k.a. Buffalo Bob) got involved with dirt track stock cars and quit drag racing. It was also around this time that I had to come to grips with the harsh reality that I was a better engine builder, than a race car driver. Talk about ego loss! Racing by this time had become so expensive that I decided to break up the car and sold all the racing pieces. I ended up making the car a street rod. Bob and I teamed up with some stock car people and put our spare drag engine in their race car. It went right to the front of the pack and we were hooked! I think we did that for about 6 years. We did well, but got sick of fixing the thing every time it was crashed. I had built my share of Harleys along the way, so when I quit racing, I focused my attention on them. In 1989, I sold my bike, went into debt buying equipment and reopened Crazy Horse Speed Shop. My main thing was cylinder heads so I stuck with it. (I have always considered this to be "the business end” of any engine.) One by one, more people started bringing Harley top ends for me to do. The Late 90s Back to top It got to the point where I was doing as much Harley work as automotive. I took care of the top ends for seven bike shops and many private guys that built bikes. I also built several off shore powerboat engines that were very competitive. In 1995, “Drums” Brancaccio was released from his sponsorship with American Cycle. At that point, an old racing buddy of mine, Bill "Whipps" Kelleher and I decided to take over the engine chores and sponsor the Bammer Racing AHDRA Nitro Burning Pro Dragster. Whipps took care of the bottom end and the engine assembly while I took care of the top end. At this same time, Freddy Gauhs, my friend for over thirty years, bought the Top Fuel bike Drums was riding for D.J. Johnson from American Cycle. |
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The next thing I knew we were in a national points chase with two Fuel Bikes. We finished in the top ten with the Top Fuel Bike. And broke 28 track records with the Pro Dragster over the course of three years. Drums was the National Points Champion in the AHDRA Pro Dragster class 1995, 1996, and 1997. (I truly believe that Drums Brancaccio is the best rider in the country.) We were the first team to be successful in winning a championship using the new super stock chamber design, with heads and pistons from S&S Cycle with nitromethane. Unfortunately, the team we put together, which had so much chemistry, eventually broke up due to financial problems, family pressures, and the cost of living. I was forced to quit racing again in order to concentrate on my business. Drums kept racing, riding three different Harley fuel bikes, one in each of the three nitro classes. As of this writing (February 1990) I will be taking care of the top end chores for Fast Freddy on the “Freddy Goes Racing” top fuel bike. Freddy's building a new bike with a 165 ci “overkill” engine. Sadly, I doubt that I will be able to go to the track more than once or twice during the ‘99 racing season; my shop just takes up too much of my time. I've been told that a lot of people have called me their “secret weapon.” As great a compliment as this might be, it tended to hurt my business. It seems that when I help a racer start winning, instead of getting me more work, they keep me a secret so that I won't step up to help their competition! It’s funny the turns your life will take. Sincerely, |
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| Crazy Horse History - Page 2 | |||||
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© 1998-Present by D. G. Lambert.
All rights reserved. |
