Jungle Jim Lvega Funny Car Pictures

As "Jungle Jim" Liberman probably would have exclaimed, having the No. 1 Funny Car of all time on the fan-voted top-20 listing is pretty "farrrrrr out."

Yep, race fans, when the final votes were tabulated, Liberman's vaunted '73 Vega emerged atop the pack, beating out John Force'southward record-setting '96 Castrol Firebird for the superlative spot.

Equally you tin can encounter in the final table below, the Insider Nation didn't agree with much of the fan vote, but they did concord on No. ane, as did ii-time Funny Automobile earth champ and electric current NHRA on FOX analyst Tony Pedregon, whose personal top 20 didn't mesh much with the other lists.

Machine	Fan vote	Insider vote
"Jungle Jim" Liberman '73 Vega	i	1
John Force '96 Castrol Firebird	2	6
Dale Pulde War Eagle '77 Trans Am	iii	10
Don Prudhomme '75 Army Monza	4	three
Raymond Beadle Blue Max '75 Mustang Two	5	five
Don Prudhomme Hot Wheels '70 Barracuda	half-dozen	7
Don Nicholson Eliminator '66 Comet	7	4
Chi-Town Hustler '69 Dodge Charger	eight	2
Kenny Bernstein "Batmobile" Budweiser King '87 Buick	nine	11
Jack Beckman Infinite Hero '15 Contrivance Charger	ten	xx
Jim Dunn/Dunn & Reath '72 Barracuda	eleven	13
Ramchargers '70 Dodge Challenger	12	12
Pat Foster/Barry Setzer '72 Vega	xiii	8
Ed McCulloch Revellution '72 Demon	14	16
Danny Ongais/Mickey Thompson '69 Mustang	fifteen	9
Kenny Bernstein Bud King '84 Tempo	16	xiv
Don Prudhomme Pepsi Challenger '82 Trans Am	17	19
Jim White/Hawaiian Punch '91 Dodge	eighteen	18
Gene Snow Rambunctious '70 Challenger	19	15
Jack Chrisman '67 Comet	20	17

And when I asked you concluding Fri for a quick caput to head between just Liberman and Force, the results were similar, with Liberman winning a shut boxing, 52 to 47 percent..

All of the votes favoring Liberman seem to reflect both the fans' love for nostalgia -- Dana Peterson, cylinder-head guru at Brad Anderson Enterprises and a teammate on my weekly recreational hockey team, opined in the locker room last week that maybe it was because then many of u.s.a. grew upwards building the Revell model of that famed Vega -- and the unmitigated fact that Liberman is notwithstanding a legendary figure in our sport nearly 40 years subsequently his passing. The fact that Force was right there, a bike length behind Liberman, also affirms his position in the class' history as i of its most popular figures. Add his winning record to his unprecedented popularity, and he's probably the top Funny Car driver of all time by almost whatsoever other measure.

Notwithstanding even Force remains in awe of Liberman. He shared several stories with me most his all-too-short interactions with "Jungle Jim," encounters that left a lasting impression.

"I was at Edmonton [Int'l Speedway], I'll never forget it," Force said. "His auto was up on jack stands, and he was underneath doing the bottom end and then reaching up to turn the motor over by himself. I'd never seen that done before. He was a ane-man band.

"I remember one race at Orangish Canton, and he was belatedly getting to the line. I come across the car coming downward the return route, and he'south sitting on the headers running the valves as the car is rolling down the return route. I'd never seen anyone do that, either.

"Another fourth dimension when I'm supposed to run him, and he's tardily once more, so they tell me I have a single. I do my exhaustion, and here he comes, burning out downwardly the return route similar a wild human, only they sent me on a single. Here'due south where the story gets interesting. I used to sell my quondam firesuits then I'd have enough coin to buy the next 1, and I sold it to some guy who concluded up working on the emergency coiffure. He was wearing it when 'Jungle' comes back upwardly the return road, and he runs over and grabs this guy by the shirt and starts choking him. I thought, 'He'south nuts!' I ran over there, and people were telling me 'Jungle' was beating up John Force because he wouldn't expect on him. I ran over and saw what was happening and told 'Jungle' that I was John Forcefulness. He looked over and said, 'I know who yous are.' I didn't empathize why he was doing that, but he told me later, 'It's all office of the show, kid.' "

Far and away the most emotional that Forcefulness gets when talking nearly "Jungle" is his interaction with Onetime Span Township Raceway Park owner Vinny Napp, who had the extreme fortune to have Liberman as a regular calling carte at his Englishtown track.

Force in Englishtown, 1978

Force recalls, "I got a telephone call from Vinny Napp, who told me that 'Jungle' had passed, and he told me he needed me to come to his track because he needed another 'Jungle Jim.' I told him, 'I'g no 'Jungle Jim'; I can't even win a race,' and he said that 'Jungle' didn't win all the races either, but he was an entertainer, with his long burnouts and 'Jungle Pam.'

"And then I went to Englishtown, and I told Vinny again, 'I ain't no "Jungle Jim," ' merely I did want a [comped hotel] room; no, I want two rooms. And I desire to have a life and make some money. He got all emotional, almost crying, because he really loved 'Jungle,' and he told me, 'I lied to y'all. No one will ever supersede 'Jungle,' but if you listen to me, I'll make you a star at our Wednesday night shows, and that'southward when I started staying on the E Declension, running Atco, Reading, New England. Staying back there, I ended upward at this piffling burger place – all-time burger I ever ate – and there was a picture of 'Jungle' on the wall because he used to swallow in that location. And then I'm sitting in that location with a couple of my guys, and two young girls walk in and said they wanted to talk to me considering I was a race motorcar driver. This is dorsum in 1978, before I was ever in the NHRA circuit. And they said, 'Did yous know "Jungle Jim?" ' considering he used to come in there all the fourth dimension. I gave them an autograph and felt like a existent big shot; it was amazing to be function of that era."

Mike Lewis, who ran Maple Grove Raceway when "Jungle" was its biggest attraction in the 1970s, shared a favorite Liberman retention with me.

"Our NHRA bounded races drew sixteen or more Funny Cars for eight-car fields dorsum in the 1970s," he recalled. "We negotiated friction match race fees with local and touring teams with the stipulation that they ran the NHRA race, and 'Jungle' was no exception. He honored his commitment each year, often bringing a 2d car with Roy Harris or Jake Crimmins at the wheel. The fact that NHRA officials were in charge didn't change his penchant for arriving concluding-minute.

"One year around 1975, he arrived with only minutes until NHRA Tech was scheduled to close. I followed his box truck with my visitor car and handed him my keys and a tow strap with advice to get his automobile into the tech line without delay. He fabricated information technology with seconds to spare. By late Sabbatum, 'Jungle' advanced to the final circular against Tom Sneden's Bob Banning Dodge. Although racing for a fraction of his match race fees 'Jungle' delivered his normal long, smoky burnouts, each followed by a dry burnout in spite of NHRA rules prohibiting second burnouts. (Fans loved the burnout ritual by and large because they got to meet 'Jungle Pam' twice each run.)

"Jungle" in the Maple Grove winner's circle; Mike Lewis is at far correct.

"His 2nd burnouts were just over the starting line in qualifying but were a fiddling longer each circular until NHRA officials issued a alarm. When 'Jungle's' dry burnout took him past the Christmas Tree in the final, an NHRA official had enough. He rushed out of the tower to declare a disqualification only to watch Sneden follow adapt with his own dry burnout to the Tree. In the ensuing race, Liberman won the consequence title afterward which he posed for pictures with the same NHRA official equally if nothing happened. He so ventured to the Maple Grove bar and broke out his harmonica. On a really special occasion, Lew Arrington would play alongside with his spoons. Then, well afterward midnight, 'Jungle' and Pam would typically climb into their truck and head off to Epping, Englishtown, or Capitol Raceway, where they would again go far with just minutes to spare.

"Jim Liberman gave a lot of us premature grey hair, but he never let our fans downward."

Vince Putt

So, what became of the famed Vega? It has been well-documented that Liberman sold it to "Nitro Nick" Boninfante, who had Frank Siti put a '74 nose on it and turned it into i of his U.S. Male entries, driven by Pat Walsh. Boninfante's son, Nicky, helped make full in the blanks after that, telling me recently that they then sold the car to Alex Hopper, a Philadelphia-based employee at U.s.a. Air and Piedmont who ran the car under the name Thor.

Although he only ran the car one season, Hopper held on to it for decades. Eventually, it came to the attention of Don Garlits, who reportedly saw a classified ad for the car in Hemmings Motor News. Garlits fabricated a few investigative calls, enough to convince him to claw up a trailer and head for Bloomsburg, Pa. He gave the auto a thorough await-run into, and because he was familiar with the style that chassis builder Romeo Palamides built his cars, was convinced (the behemothic embroidered "J.J." in the well-worn driver's seat wasn't a bad hint, either).

The machine now resides in the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Fla., and still features Boninfante'southward olfactory organ task. According to Nicky, Siti had the original flat olfactory organ on the wall of his shop for a long fourth dimension, but it was lost after his passing. Information technology'south also bad that Garlits couldn't reunite the two pieces, merely information technology's even so very cool that the bodily machine exists and is on display for all to see.

Besides, it's worth noting that although information technology was the flat-olfactory organ '73 Vega that nosotros were celebrating (and I honestly tin't tell you lot why the fans picked that one over others), Liberman himself did run the slant-nose Vega body in 1974 (well-nigh famously in the wheelstanding concluding at the 1974 Summernationals, as shown in this great Tim McDonough photo that graced the comprehend on 1 of NHRA National Dragster's Readers Pick bug that had a story on "Jungle" in it), likewise as the red version in which he won the event the post-obit year earlier switching to a Monza.

"Jungle Jim" Liberman certainly didn't need this laurels to cement his legacy in our sport; that was washed long earlier that fateful September 1977 crash, but I continue going back to how National Dragster handled his passing.

As you may know or have gathered, Liberman and NHRA could be at odds over a number of things, so it's surprising to wait back at the Sept. 23 consequence and read what was published.

Now, yous have to realize that back so, Wally Parks still had a pretty stern mitt on the tiller and frowned on overly sentimental prose in Dragster, only this 1 must have gotten an exemption. I sense plenty of a semi-black-sheep tone to suspect that peradventure even Parks himself may have written it.

The tribute to Liberman ("racer, innovator, promoter, showman and rebel") reads, in role: "Outlaw or superstar; flakey or fantastic, any one'southward personal opinion of 'Jungle Jim,' the sport will not exist the same without him. He'due south gone before his time, perhaps even earlier his prime. We all volition about certainly miss him. But equally long as there are Funny Cars, we won't forget him. His is a name that is synonymous with the Funny Cars simply because he did more than any other man to popularize Funny Automobile elevate racing. The success that those hybrids now enjoy is 'Jungle'due south' legacy. We are all indebted to him for it."

Mic driblet.

lipeshads1950.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.nhra.com/news/2016/farrrrrr-out-it-s-jungle-jim-s-vega

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