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Wild Wheelstands, Intentional and Otherwise
By Tommy McNeely
I took my Falcon to the 66 AHRA Winternationals held at Irwindale, California. Hubert Platt and I were around the starting line when the Little Red Wagon came out. He held the wheels up maybe a couple of hundred feet and set it down. Hubert said he could do better than that and Bill "Maverick” Golden in the Little Red Wagon was getting paid to be there!
We went and loaded my trunk and pushed the Falcon out to the starting line. Hubert put it on the back bumper and did an outstanding wheelstand. Let the showman do his magic.
That was the beginning of putting my Falcon on the map. He continued to do giant wheelstands until eliminations and the crowd loved it. I believe Hubert embarrassed "Maverick" that weekend.
We even taped a video camera on the front bumper for one photographer so he could see the crowd with the car in the air.
At one point the Ford Motor people jumped Hubert because he was doing wheelies for the photographers on the far end of the track.
My Falcon wasn't hard to get on the back bumper. In fact, my first wheelie was a total accident. It was the beginning of my car becoming more famous for bumper dragging wheelstands than for going fast. Dick had always told me if you couldn't win, put it on the back bumper and the crowd would believe you could have won if you just could have kept all that horsepower on the ground!
I was very fortunate to have had Dick Harrell and Hubert Platt as mentors early in my career.
Tommy McNeely
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