Tag Archives: Ford Maverick

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Pro Stock Maverick – National Dragster – May 12, 1972

From National Dragster – May 12, 1972

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MILAN DRAGWAY, Michigan – Gapp and Roush’s “Shotgun Express” Maverick proved to be the class of the Milan Dragway’s Pro Stock field, as Wayne Gapp pushed the potent FoMoCo entry to a string of 9-second times on his way to an impressive win. Gapp ripped of a 9.69 at 144 mph in the final round to beat Terry Hedrick, who hit a losing 9.90 with his Camaro.

 

Gapp’s 9.69 Good For Milan Pro

Stock Honors

 

MILAN DRAGWAY, Michigan – Sunday was the day the Pro Stockers invaded Milan Dragway and in spite of the cold weather, there was a large crowd of spectators on hand to witness the action.

In the first round of action, Jim Wick in the “Matchmaker” Duster went up against Terry Hedrick in his “Super Shaker” Camaro. Wick passed through the top end lights first with a time of 9.73 at 142.64, while Hedrick was right on his bumper with a run of 9.90, 141.50. Unfortunately, Wick’s machine lost a master cylinder and ended up in the sand pit, ruining his chances to run the rest of the day.

Next it was the “Shotgun Express” of Gapp and Roush against the Gremlin of Gilbert and Maskin. The Gapp and Roush entry was working perfectly as Wayne Gapp put down a time of 9.79, which was good for a win at 142.86 mph. Rich Maskin is still working “the bugs” out of his brand new Gremlin and was only able to run a 10.10, 134.32. Rich has been one of the most feared competitors in the Modified Eliminator category in Division 3 for several years and when the Gremlin starts to run, watch out!

The final run of round one pitted Ernie McEwen in his Mustang against the Sutka Bros. McEwen on that race hands down with a time of 10.24 at 134.93.

Because of Jim Wick’s mishap, Terry Hedrick took his place in the final round o action. His opponent was to be the “Shotgun Express” of Gapp and Roush. Both drivers staged very carefully and when the lights counted down Gapp and Roush left first and they held their lead to win the honors with a time of 9.69 at 144 mph.

In spite of the coldest spring in 25 years in this part of the country, it looks as if “Drag Racing 1972” is going to be great!

 

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Winner – The 1975 U.S. Nationals

Not many folks get a win at NHRA’s U.S. Nationals. It is considered THE race of the year.

This is from the July 25th 1975 Issue of National Dragster. See the original entry here.

Pro Stock

Of all the evening’s winners, few enjoyed the ceremonies more than Wayne Gapp, the man who has been a frontrunner all year, but seemingly had some trouble with coming through in the final rounds. After losing the Winternationals to Bob Glidden on a holeshot and then fouling to Glidden in the Gatornationals final, Gapp admittedly had been the subject of criticism within the ranks as for his driving expertise, but the skeptics were silenced at this race as he came through in flying colors via a solid trouncing of Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins (8.80 to an 8.93) to claim the win and stop Jenkins’ own personal three-event winning streak at Summernationals events.

A major factor behind the Gapp & Roush win was their frantic engine change between the second and third rounds. After hitting an 8.96 in the first round, Gapp slowed to 9.03 in the second, and concluded that his engine had “gone south.” The subsequent engine change brought forth a resounding 8.84 in the semi’s, setting the stage for his 8.80 thrashing of “the Grump.” The 8.80 was, of course, Low E.T. of the Meet and also a new National Record. Jenkins did have the consolation of setting Top Speed with a clocking of 154.90 mph.

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Hi-Port Dual Spark Plug Boss 429

I post these images mostly because they are ‘What if’s?”

In the early 1970’s in Pro Stock the Hemi was engine to beat. As we know NHRA weight factoring changed that landscape. Before the refactoring G & R ran Boss 429 Maverick’s.
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The cars were competitive but the Boss 429 was not a world-beater in Drag Racing.

Soooo….what do you do?

Experiment that’s what. These heads look have been developed by G & R to help solve the breathing problems that the 429 had and provide more spark to the fire.

So, if Jenkin’s had not lobbied NHRA for small-wheel base vehicles it look like the 429 might have advanced a lot faster.

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Wayne Gapp – On High Speed Handling

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This comes from one of the NHRA event guides

Wayne Gapp

High Speed Handling…

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“One must be especially careful when piloting a short-wheelbase machine of 100″ or less. You have to have a lot of respect for them since everything happens so fast. The biggest problem is overcorrection, so the #1 recommendation for a driver who is starting to get a bit out of shape is to almost do nothing. You almost have to act by instinct, since you just don’t have time to think of what you are going to do and then do it. On a bigger car, like the Maverick or a Camaro, you can get by with lifting off the gas a bit, correcting, and then stabbing the throttle again, but that’s impossible with small car. If you do get out of shape, you must first forget trying to continue the run, since you’re going to get a bad time anyway, and you should never turn the wheel more than 2 degrees.”

“If you are crooked when you come off the starting line, the main thing is not to make your shift to second gear at the normal time, since that is when you would get the maximum jolt to the tires, making your situation worse. Another thing to try is over-winding past the normal shift point, which would also kill the power somewhat, as the front tires are likely back on the ground at this point and you might have more luck in making some kind of correction.”

“Handling problems don’t necessarily end at the finish line. On any good run around 154 mph or more, I’ll always try to stop very slowly, using the brakes as gently as possible until I get below 100 mph, and then I’ll start to hit the brakes harder. You never want to even come close to having them locked up at over 100 mph, since you’d never have a chance to correct the car if it ran over an oil slick. If you blow an engine, the primary thing is not to use the brakes at all, or at least until you have pulled the chute, and then use them only very gently.”

“Big cars are much easier to drive, but many experienced drivers have trouble when they go to the little cars since they think they can drive them the same way. Anyone can make a good run in them when everything is right, but it takes a lot of experience, gained through careful practice, to know how to react when something goes wrong.”

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Gapp Blasts 9.70 for Indy Pro Stock Win

Gapp Blasts 9.70 for Indy Pro Stock Win
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INDIANAPOLIS RACEWAY PARK, Indiana – Gapp and Roush’s “Shotgun Express” Maverick had the Indy Pro Stock field covered, as Wayne Gapp clicked off times of 9.75, 9.76 and finally 9.82, 140.40 mph for the title. His 9.82 in the final round edged Greg Brenneman’s Duster.
– Photo by Jim Campbell

This image is probably from 1971…

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Competition Plus and the ‘Taxi’

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Saw this article, which is pretty cool.

The industry I have worked in over the last 20 years has made me want to see correct information at all times. I think I got it right here…

– Jeff

———

Dear Editor,

I recently read the article posted on your site titled “THE TIJUANA TAXI: UNDER CONSTRUCTION”.

First of all, thank you for posting the information. It is good to see Roush McClenaghan and Roush interested in creating a replica of the ‘Taxi’.

I would like to make a few comments regarding the article.

1. Sourcing of the article

The author, David Exum, clearly referenced another article on your site by Brian Wood called “Hailing the Cab”. This should be acknowedged and linked to as it is a article that provides a great deal of background and is one of the few in-depth articles with Wayne Gapp that can be found.

Here’s the Brian Wood article.

2. Regarding loopholes

The NHRA Drag Rules for 1974 and 1975 clearly and definitively allowed use of vehicles over 105 inches of wheelbase and allowed for significantly different weight factors for those vehicles that equaled or exceeded that wheelbase.

The ‘Taxi’ was an effort to achieve maximum performance within the established rules…that is not a loophole…that’s just using the rules to maximize effect.

3. Years that the ‘Taxi’ was used in competition

The ‘Taxi’, as stated in the article, did not debut at the 1975 NHRA Winternationals.

The first NHRA national event appearance of the ‘Taxi’ was at the 1974 Summernationals at Englishtown where a runner-up finish was scored against Larry Lombardo.

The Taxi’s last run at a NHRA national event run for Gapp & Roush was on 12-October 1975 at Pomona where the car bowed out in the 2nd round of competition.

The article states that the NHRA changed the rules for the ’75 season and these rule changes prompted the creation of the ‘Taxi’. This is not a correct statement.

The rules that brought the ‘Taxi’ into existence were established by NHRA’s 1974 ‘NHRA Drag Rules’ and the 1975 ‘NHRA Drag Rules’ extended those rules but changed the weight factors in place.

You can see the applicable NHRA Drag Rules here:
1973 – NHRA Drag Rules
1974 – NHRA Drag Rules
1975 – NHRA Drag Rules

The ’74 rules provided a huge advantage in weight for vehicles whose wheelbase extended beyond 105 inches. There were disadvantages (weight transfer over the length of the vehicle for traction, placement of rear tires on the track area and aerodynamics) but the advantages were big enough to move in the direction of building these vehicles. Hence the rush to build the ‘Taxi’.

What’s more impressive regarding the ‘Taxi’ is the performance of the vehicle during the 1975 season given the increase of the weight factor from 6.45/c.i. in 1974 to 7.10/c.i. in 1975.

I did a little write-up of the effect of the rules here.

Lastly, most commentators have stated that NHRA removed a rule regarding the year of production for vehicles participating in Pro Stock and that this rule is the reason that Ford competitors (primarily Glidden and Nicholson) went to 1970 Mustangs bodies.

However, the 1973, 1974 and 1975 Drag Rules state the following:

“BODY: Must be a 1969 or later model/year factory produced coupe, sedan or station wagon.”

NHRA may have intended to keep the rule at 5 years but from what I can tell they never _changed_ the rule to indicate that intention. Given that the 1970 Mustang is 108″ wheelbase vehicle and had two doors the reason for choosing that body style is due to the wheelbase rule and appearance rather than a change in the year of manufacture rule.

Briefly stated, NHRA raised the weight break from 6.45 to 7.10 for the class of vehicle that ‘Taxi’ qualified as. The differences in these factors means that the ‘Taxi’ ran with 237.9 additional pounds in 1975 as compared to 1974. Yet, 3 NHRA national event wins and 3 runner-up finishes were notched in 1975 with another win at the 1974 GrandNational Molson event and a runner-up finish at the Summernationals in 1974.

Link to August 2nd, 1974 National Dragster cover:

Good thing for the competition that NHRA raised the weight breaks otherwise the ‘Taxi’ would have been unbeatable in 1975 given the gains in performance.

3. Construction of the ‘Taxi’

Time indeed was a factor in the construction of the vehicle.

However, it was BECAUSE it would take only 60 days to build the ‘Taxi’ that the vehicle was constructed.

Gapp & Roush were able to acquire the 2-door Maverick chassis and make few changes to the chassis, add the 4-door body from the A-pillar back and get to the track.

Once again, thanks for the information about the ‘Taxi’!

– Jeff Gapp

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Gapp & Roush promotional picture for press packet

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Update: There are indeed a couple of different images floating around from this shoot. So no airbrushing!

This is an image that can be seen in several places.

I believe it’s in book called “Mustang Race Cars” and it’s the one that Roush Performance uses here as part of the “About” page for Roush Performance. Except it looks like in that one they airbrushed my Dad’s right arm out of the picture…or he moved and this is not the same shot.

This picture was probably taken in mid to late summer of 1974. The Mustang II was built for that season, so was the Maverick and the Pinto was from ’73.

Anyway, that’s a lot of Pro Stocker’s.

Dad still owns this building by the way.
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