Project 1320 – Drag Racing Action

So I was perusing the Internet the other day and ran across the picture below as part of PDF file that was created for Project 1320. See that site here. They are doing some cool stuff.

They may wish to look a bit closer at the images. Here is the caption:

“Before the famed four door “Tijuana Taxi” Maverick came the Gapp & Roush Pro Stock Ford Pinto. Jack pulls the wheels out of the lights at the 1973 Popular Hot Rodding Nationals.”

Ahh..no.

The original image is large enough that:

  1. You can clearly see that isn’t Roush
  2. The driver number is 358. WG’s number was 358.

Here is a bit of information about the NHRA Driver numbers that Gapp and Roush used. In general from 1971 to 1975 they used ‘356’ on the car when not using ‘1’ or ’51’. If they were running two events before 1975 they each used their own number ‘356’ for Roush and ‘358’ for Gapp.

After 1975 I haven’t seen a car that carried ‘356’…only ‘358’ or Dondero’s which I think was ‘1006’.

That’s because the two were operating as separate businesses and there was no need for Roush’s number.

Edit: I think this might be the Popular Hot Rodding meet held in Martin, MI

GandRProject1320

Bill Roell picture of the Red Gapp and Roush Maverick

ByBillRoellWeb

I really like this car. It’s the last Boss 429 ride. The red paint job with the striping looks great. It’s got a clean look to it and though you can’t see it in this picture it has an amazing paint job on the trunk lid. To see that go here and scroll down to the Red Maverick.

A couple of notes about this picture:

  1. The caption states that Gapp & Roush were sponsored by Ford at this time. That is not the case and as a matter of fact they were NEVER sponsored by Ford. Ford got out racing and that…was that.
  2. If the first point is true, why the big ‘FORD’ log on the side? I asked about that. They were trying to get Ford to sponsor them. Never happened.