Foster’s best year hands down was 1972 when he drove the Ed Pink Racing Engines “shop car,” double-knit clothing magnate Barry Setzer’s Vega. For the latter half of that year, Setzer’s car was the world’s best performer, carding the sport’s first Funny Car 6.2-second run at 6.29 during the 1972 NHRA Supernationals. Foster was also the third man in the Cragar Five-Second Funny Car Club with a 5.99 in the Super Shops Arrow at Fremont Raceway in 1979.
On the negative side of the ledger, Foster was involved in one of the first nationally recognized Funny Car wreck fatalities when he slammed Mickey Thompson’s Mustang into Gerry Schawartz’s “Ratty Kat” Cougar during the first round of Funny Car at the 1969 NHRA Springnationals. I saw a tape of that many years ago and it’s one of the genuine sport hair-raisers. Foster only won one NHRA national event, but did well match racing, taking titles at the 1971 and 1974 Orange County Manufacturers race. If nothing else, he was never dull.
And then, there was Mr. Chadderton, This might sound like sacrilege to some, but the Riverside, California, fuel altered driver was one of the three or four best who ever competed and, without question, the class’s most underrated and unrecognized driver.
At the top of any Fuel Altered fan’s list would be “Wild Willie” Borsch and near him would be people like Sush Matsubara, Leon Fitzgerald, Dale Emery and Rich Guasco, Mike Sullivan, Charlie Hill, Ron O’Donnell, and (He cops out) others. But Chadderton … check out these accomplishments.
- Won Bakersfield in 1967 (with all of Southern California’s head-crushers involved.
- Ran Fuel Altered’s first seven, a 7.95 at Lions Drag Strip on May 27, 1967.
- Was part of the first Fuel Altered touring group, the Leon Fitzgerald crew originally consisting of Fitzgerald, Chadderton, Willie Borsch, and the “Beaver Hunter” first driven on tour by Dale Young and later by Henry Harrison.
- Ran Fuel Altered’s first six, a 6.89 at Tri-City Dragway in Michigan on Aug. 2, 1971 and followed two weeks later with AA/FA’s first 6.7, a 6.77 at Orange County Int’l Raceway.
- Won 1971 Irwindale Grand Prix with a 6.96/211.76 to 7.43 final-rounder over Randy Bradford and the Bradford’s Crank Fiat. (This particular race was a fast one with the late “Blazin’ Gary” Hazen setting Low E.T. and Top Speed at 6.71/216.86.
In this stretch, Chadderton drove the Riverside Motor Supply/”Magnificent 7” roadster with the name of the law firm being at least on one occasion Chadderton-Hawkins-Scull. The first six came aboard the low-slung and distinctively modern (considering the times) J&M Speed Center roadster.
In 1972 a significant exodus took part in the slowly dying AA/FA class featuring Hazen, “Pure Hell” jockey Dale Emery and car owner Rich Guasco, and Chadderton splitting to where it’s at … Funny Car.
Chadderton drove Funny Car only briefly, but distinguished himself well that ’72 season. He replaced Bobby Rowe at the wheel of Roland Leong’s “Hawaiian” Charger in early Spring and went on to enjoy a good year of 6.5- and 6.6-second runs, capping it with a Funny Car win at the Popular Hot Rodding Magazine Championships. The Pop Rod win did not come cheaply as Chadderton beat Don Schumacher, the “Super Shaker” of Kosty Ivanof and Terry Hedrick, and in the final some French guy, Don Prudhomme.
The last time I recall Chadderton putting the boot to something was at the 1974 NHRA Supernationals at Ontario Motor Speedway. Chadderton qualified his and Glenn Okazaki’s Okazaki- and Dennis Fujii-tuned Chevy Vega to a 6.31 only to lose in the first round.
At some point, I would suggest that Mr. Chadderton’s name be considered for a Hall of Fame bid, and if not that, certainly in any Fuel Altered Half of Fame selection. To paraphrase acerbic TV doctor House, “He was that good.”
And now we come to our fourth station on our stations of the cross trek … ME!!!!
Friends and friendettes, I’ll be going away in the next few days and, for a reasonably long time, at least, by journalism standards. My guess is that I’ll be off the streets for nine months, maybe a year to two years.
As you may have gathered from my last installment, I’ve had some social issues that were putting a hitch in my get-along. No, I’m not going to be a “bitch” for the Aryan Brotherhood or El Eme, instead I’m going to put myself away in a rehab/psyche program that could take awhile.
I started hitting the beer in 1962, the pot in 1963, and the cocaine in roughly 1970 and up to this past March have spent well over a million to a million and a half dollars financing those habits. Why? In just a few words, I never grew up … From my high school years, I built my world around partying and without an ounce of shame, I don’t regret a single second of it. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. So help me Lucifer, I loved it so very much.
I am now 60 years old, very soon to be 61, and unfortunately I can no longer sustain the crazed pace that I set for myself. It is literally killing me. This lovable boy, who described himself to inquiring shrinks as self-centered, immature, and irresponsible, has had his coat pulled very hard in recent months.
After my late 2007 stay at the hospital and nut observation center, I didn’t feather the throttle upon my release … instead I jammed it down even harder to the floor and just recently I had to pick up the tab. That wicked jag was too hard to blow off and I decided to get an opposition opinion to mine, hence the stethoscope incarceration. (And by the way, if you want to find out the particulars
of this recent rollover, I’ve told Mr. Burk to tell all as I am not even remotely embarrassed except for the theft).
I expect an ordeal ‘cuz this won’t be easy by a long shot. I don’t think the kick will be that hard, but actually becoming an adult and literally making a whole new life… oh baby, a tall order. At this point, I think the AFLAC duck would have better luck at this than me, but we’ll see.
Not only that, but as I’ve let fly in a few of my columns I am a confirmed 25- to 30-year atheist and communist. I no more believe in rehab staples like a “higher power” or “God” than I do the Easter Bunny. That might impede my reconstruction but hopefully not annndd… whatever. I’ll do a “Rocky” and go for it.
For 45 years, drag racing has been IT for me. S‘been my family, my friends, and my life, and I hope to get back to it in some way, shape, or form when I’m done drying out. Because like the witches I’ve danced with, I loved it with similar passion.
Sooooo and at the risk of sounding a wee bit corny, goodbye for now. And in the words of a great post WWII ballad, if I’m let alone at any time, with enough clock to think…
“and the night lingers on through
I might be looking at the moon,
But I’ll be seeing you.”