We wrote about the triple, four, six, and even ten-fold champions, highlighting thus the first seven lines of the TOP-50 greatest drivers of all time according to the NHRA.
In turn, Bill «Grumpy» Jenkins, who celebrated in all thirteen victories at the event of the national championship. It is not enough for eighth place, it is reasonable to ask about any reader. At most times, we answer, because Jenkins was the standard ultimatum tough guy from the sixties, won the unquestioned authority in all matters concerning the technical component in the classroom Stock, Super Stock and Pro Stock, and managed with a four «mechanics», so that it seemed his head will not stand no mission. And yet he managed to drag a couple of times a cigar while his Camaro with a deafening roar of rushing to the finish line. Sit back, we again begin a tour of the times when men preferred garage fitness, and more love than the riders, women used the only rock star.
Jenkins was born in Philadelphia in December 1930, and first picked up a wrench when a neighbor asked the young boy to help him fix the tractor. Like many boys of that time, after school, Billy often zahazhival at local drag strips, because online games and computers have not yet been invented, and in the bars at that age though not too much. But at that time was a visit to the races for a way to spend more time in the company of their peers, rather than passion and dream. Later, the young Jenkins went to university on a specialty engineer, and his words were so-so student. After his father's death, the future star of his era abandoned his studies for a year before graduation. Despite the fact that his exam results were slightly above average for three years, Bill has got a no, but all the same base of technical knowledge. And when in 1955 there was the debut of Small-block Chevrolet, he immediately saw the enormous potential of the engine for drag racing. And in the early sixties on the East Coast in the amateur races on a quarter-mile has formed a full-fledged personality cult of genius mechanic.
Naturally, talent Jenkins could not go unnoticed in General Motors, and in 1963 he perepala lightweight factory Chevrolet Impala «63 with seven-liter (427 cu. Inches) big-block. Together with his partner Dave Stickler (Dave Stickler) Bill brought to mind the car and took his first win at Nationals in the classroom Little Eliminator. Union one of the leading automobile manufacturers and American design potential Grumpy promise a bright future for both, but a year later the bosses Chevrolet decided to shut down its sports program, and Bill lost his sponsorship. The solution was obvious, because the specialists of such class at the strip does not lie, and the following year Jenkins driving a Dodge became the first number on the Nationals, and a year later proved to everyone that he absolutely does not care what car to sweep away their opponents, winning the trophy Winternationals at Plymouth Belvedere „Black Arrow“ „65. However, bosses Chrysler Corporation did not suit the requirements put forward by the Bill, and the following season the driver returned to the cockpit of Chevrolet in a pilot and owner of a private team.
Later, recalling those days, Jenkins says, «I decided to bet on high-powered 5.4-liter (327 cu. Inches) Engine Chevrolet L-79. I had to compete in the same class with a much more powerful, but heavy the Dodge & Plymouth with a crushing 426 Hemi under the hood. For me it was a challenge, and I readily accepted it. » Selection of the power plant was not just good, it exceeded even the wildest expectations of the rider. It is thanks to this engine Grumpy set a new record for the class — 11.66 seconds, and at Nationals and World Finals will his Camaro was only Gir Stahl (Jere Stahl), in whose possession was undefeated at the time Hemi, the power of which is almost one and a half times higher than the impact L —79.
«It was my first serious machine with a manual four-speed, — says the driver. — We spent a lot of time trying to modify the transmission and find the ideal solution that prevents the rear axle from turning around its axis. As a result, by the end of the year I could not throw a grip on the problems of 6000 rev / min, without fear for the quality of the toe, while the other guys started in polpedali in wheelbarrows, clad in the width of the maximum allowed in our class seven-inch slicks. » These innovations subsequently become the hallmark of the Bill, and he has repeatedly stated that experiences much more joy as a designer, to create a machine capable of winning than the pilot, who first crossed the finish line.
In 1967, Jenkins came to the attention of Vince Pigginsa, became at that time the head of the department of Chevrolet, dealing with just the design and production of various tuning options for their cars (and later Chevrolet Performance). In fact, General Motors is not sponsored various motorsport activities, but there was nowhere written that Piggins has no right to keep the dollar under the guise of riders «Product Promotion Engineering». By the end of the sixties Grumpy was incredibly active on both fronts, taking direct part in the setting up of four command vehicles, and constantly competing behind the wheel of his white Camaro with the best racers of the time, like Ronnie Sox, Dick Landy and Don Nicholson. Vnezachetnye race between star drivers enjoyed so much love of the public, which in 1970 decided to withdraw bosses NHRA Mopar rivalry between General Motors and a new level by establishing a class of Pro Stock.
At the dawn of regulation division it was far from perfect, and in the first two years to oppose the murderous Hemi was simply nothing, but at the beginning of the 1970 season after Jenkins udelal Ronnie Sox at two events. Naturally, these circumstances have caused a storm of indignation from the fans, among which at least a third were committed to General Motors. Giving up under the onslaught of fans that regularly made cash by buying tickets to the stages of the national championship, the top NHRA still listened to common sense and made the necessary changes in the regulations. Logically, if we talk about fair competition, that the mass dregster should directly depend on the size and configuration of the power plant. Naturally, after a new set of rules came into force, the fans production Mopar, and do the division chiefs of Chrysler Corporation howled that their beloved Hemi again oppressed in every way possible.
By the 1972 season, Jenkins produced a lightweight Chevrolet Vega with 5.4-liter (331 cu. In.) Small-block. Kortkobaznaya machine, dubbed «Grumpy's Toy X», was frankly crude to the first stage of the championship, and with the result of 9.90 seconds, Bill was in seventeenth place on the basis of qualifications. It was a failure. So tightly screw up in the new regulations were an unaffordable luxury for an ambitious designer in the first place and the legendary pilot of the second. But Grumpy never would have acquired iconic status drag racing, if not managed in a couple of minutes before the races Shootout retuned suspension properly, which allowed him to send in boxes of five of its competitors with the Hemi under the hood on the road to victory in Winternationals. In that year, Jenkins became the number one in six of the eight stages. The size of the prize for victory at the event and sponsorship fees received over the season, allowed once a failed student catch up in the ranking of the most highly paid athletes from America's NBA star Wilt Chamberlain (Wilt Chamberlain).
Success was deafening, but here Jenkins could not help grumbling: «Vega cost me three times as much of my first Pro Stock Camaro. During the year I spent about two hundred races, during which never blundered with switching. But to do that I had to hire a special guy who is permanently engaged in servicing the clutch and transmission. And it is also worth the money. »
In addition Grumpy's Toy X became the first Pro Stock dregster based architecture is not carrying the body lay, and spatial tubular frame. Although another version Jenkins considered a pioneer in full is impossible, as the front subframe his car was completely borrowed from the stock car, but Vega «72 Booth Wally (Wally Booth) has been built around a unique farm welded pipes from scratch.
Which was released in 1974, the eleventh generation of Grumpy's Toy on the basis of the same Vega can not bring Bill as many wins as the tenth, but it was her first time in the history of the class was used front suspension is McPherson and the lubrication system of the engine with dry sump, which are still the standard in class Pro Stock. Many still Jenkins attributes the introduction of the rack, but this fact also has several interpretations.
Later Grumpy decided to still hang a helmet on a nail and fully concentrate on the design and configuration of cars. In 1976, he hired Larry Lombardo and Ken Dondero, who in the same year Bill brought two titles: Lombardo won the NHRA Winston Championship, and Dondero was the first of the season AHRA. Larry Jenkins, a pilot team finished third in 1977 and second in 1978, and later resigned. Five years later, Bill completely turned its program in NHRA and disbanded the team.
Almost until the end of his life Grumpy engaged in fine-tuning engines for various divisions of drag racing, founding Jenkins Competition, and helped to stand up to many novice pilots. In March 2012, one of the greatest racers of the so-called first wave died, leaving behind a huge legacy forever inscribed his name in the history of the world races in the Quarter. So prolific designers who were at the forefront of technological progress, can be counted on the fingers of both hands, and during the formation of Pro Stock class and race car factory in the sixties it was simply not equal. Potential Jenkins in the best years was simply inexhaustible and design ideas flowed from his never-ending stream. But always winners, as we know from history that does not happen.
