‘Dyno’ Don Nicholson - the 1st stock superstar

Racing events, drivers, cars or anything else from the past.
Post Reply
Red Baron
New Member
New Member
Posts: 4
Joined: 3 years ago

‘Dyno’ Don Nicholson - the 1st stock superstar

#1

Post by Red Baron »

Nicolson dominated Stock class drag racing fir 3 years in the early 60’s and aided in making the Chev 409 motor a household name.

Here’s a couple of stories from his opposition, and a well known historian.


NICHOLSON

- Buddy Martin, who along with Sox also ran a Comet A/FX car in 1964,
said, "The thing about Nicholson was that he was always looking for an edge. He never showed up just hoping that he could win. He did everything he could to come up with any kind of performance advantage he could get."

Sox added, "The thing I remember most about Nicholson is that sometimes he'd show up at the track at the last minute, and sometimes he didn't look very organized. He'd be working on the car right up to the first run, then he'd go out and make the quickest run of the day. He was amazing."

- 62 Winters - Nicholson vs Strickler - Raj Reddy’s personal view.

Nicholson broke a rocker arm on his run against Gas Rhonda.

Bernie Partridge (NHRA tech director) asked Dave Strickler if he would let Nicholson have the permitted time to repair it. Strickler the Gentleman and sportsman he was said “yes”.

When Nicholson went over his allotted time for the repair Strickler was okay with it because he wanted to earn the win not given it on Nicholson’s misfortune.

When they lined up - the flag starter who was tight with Nicholson - allowed Nicholson to roll forward before he waved the flag giving Nicholson a hole shot. This left a bad impression on Strickler about Don throughout his career.

When I was a kid at Don’s place in Orange CA he told me Strickler was running an illegal cam both at Pomona and at Indy. The blunt kid I was I said Strickler would never do that and how he gave Nicholson time to fix his 409 at Pomona. Nicholson yells at me and told me stop having such a good memory!

Image


Image
Outlaw68nova
New Member
New Member
Posts: 3
Joined: 1 year ago
Real Name: Cory Evenson
Favourite Motorsport: Drag Racing
Favourite Driver: Tim Wilkerson
Favourite Circuit: USSC

#2

Post by Outlaw68nova »

My Larson & Perkins Pro Stock Nova raced against Dyno Don in 1975 .
Post Reply