GLORY DAYS

The 2021 Pure Stock Drags Was a Glimpse of the Muscle Car Past

By Barry Kluczyk – Photography by the Author

It’s been 27 years since Dan Jensen, Dennis Jensen, Lyndon Hughes, and a few other loyalists banded together to pull vintage muscle cars off the show field and shove them down the dragstrip. The Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race (PSMCDR) quickly grew into a must-attend event for owners and enthusiasts across the U.S. and Canada—a throwback kaleidoscope of color, horsepower, and tire smoke.

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“The goal from the very beginning was to give owners a place to enjoy their cars the way they were always intended,” Dan Jensen says, who also notes his trio gets about four hours of sleep for the entire month of September, as they and a few volunteers organize and stage the event at Mid-Michigan Motorplex, a rural dragstrip surrounded by lush farmland on all sides.

001 2021 pure stock drags red chevelle
“The Mayor” Charlie Lombardi came from Rhode Island to run his ’66 Chevelle SS 396. It’s a solid, mid 12-second car and Lombardi won his shootout against a 396-powered Nova.

The format for the PSMCDR is simple and straightforward: After a day of qualifying runs, Dan and his crew pair up the competitors by the quickest e.t.’s, followed the next day by three-race heads-up shootouts. The best two out of three wins.

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“The cars are as evenly matched as we can make them for heads-up racing,” Dan says. “It makes for some great matchups that often come down to a hundredth or thousandth [of a second] at the finish line.”

002 2021 pure stock drags red corvette
Ferland Elliot, from Tennessee, launched hard in qualifying. His 427/390-powered ’69 Corvette ran low 13s and bested a 440-powered Mopar in the shootout.

When it comes to PSMCDR rules they’re pretty simple: Participants’ cars must have been originally offered with a 12-month/12,000-mile warranty (to weed out the factory race cars). They must also have been equipped with at least a single four-barrel carb, dual exhaust, and other factory performance components.

There is some flexibility with the engine specs to accommodate rebuilds such as a 1.5-point allowance for compression, but the spirit of factory-stock performance trumps all. Ringer cars that, you know, run 10s are politely shown the exit. In fact, running quicker than 11.50 will get you pointed straight back to your trailer, but for track safety reasons more than the “yeah … surrrrre” implications of, say, a “stock” small-block Chevelle lifting a tire and running 11.15.

003 2021 pure stock drags white camaro
The ’70 Z28 of Charles Gilliland ran mid 13s and took two of the three shootout races against the black GTO in the far lane, despite the Goat driver getting Gilliland’s goat at the tree with each start.

Sandbaggers who amazingly run 4/10ths and/or 4 mph or quicker in the shootout versus qualifying are also disqualified.

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The cars must also run on tires no more than one size larger than stock, with 60-series rubber being the widest. And believe us, those repro bias-ply tires hook amazingly well. Fifty years of track prep advancements help a bunch, too.

004 2021 pure stock drags blue 74 Chevelle
John Lawrence’s ’74 Chevelle is 454-powered and ran in the 14s. He gave the shootout to a Buick in the third round after triggering the big red bulb.

More recently, the event has opened to a wider range of eligible cars, with an expanded model-year cutoff to 1979—as long as the vehicles adhere to the general rules, including four-barrel carburetion. That tosses a brown leather jacket over the two-barrel carbs of cars like Cobra IIs and Volare Road Runners, but welcomes like a warm fondue pot the Q-Jet-fed late-second-generation Z28s and later C3 Corvettes.

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“Performance is relative and expanding the model years allow more owners to participate,” Dan says. “Even if you’re not running an LS6 Chevelle, the qualifying times will pair you with another car of comparable performance.”

005 2021 pure stock drags silver 69 chevelle
With a 427 underhood, James Lerum’s ’69 Chevelle is a low 12-second performer, but he lost the shootout in the third race after snoozing at the light. His 12.503 e.t. was quicker than the 12.608 of his challenger, but the other driver cut a 0.078-second light against Lerum’s sleepy 0.431 reaction time.

There were nearly 60 shootout matchups for the 2021 event, although there would have been more if COVID-19 travel restrictions at the border hadn’t prevented the usually strong Canadian contingent from attending. Nevertheless, the 427-powered ’69 Camaros of Jeff Morgan and Jerry McNicol were two of the three quickest in the field. The quickest pass during qualifying came from Tim Clary in a ’69 big-block Chevelle, but he broke out with an 11.46 e.t. and pedaled the car straight from the timing shack to his trailer.

That meant a dude in a Hemi GTX was the quickest legal qualifier, and because of the odd number of entrants he was racing against himself in the shootout. Should have been an easy win for the Mopar, but his first bye run he went 11.42 and was tossed from the remainder the competition.

006 2021 pure stock drags classic red corvette
Donny Brass’ 327-powered/4.56-geared Sting Ray runs low 13s, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the big-block in David Byers’s ’70 Chevelle SS 396 during the shootout.

That left the Camaro shoes to battle it out for shootout supremacy and Jeff Morgan took the crown, edging Jeremy McNicol in the first two rounds of their three-race shootout. They were well-matched, in in the second match, both ran sub 12-second e.t.’s—11.905 for Morgan and 11.918 for McNicol, for the quickest side-by-side race of the event.

As always, the real trophy for a shootout win was the satisfaction of conquering a Brand X rival, while the fun and camaraderie of a weekend of gear-banging with dozens of other muscle cars was its own reward, regardless of the outcome. Go to psmcdr.com for all the rules and details on the next event, which is held every year on the second Friday and Saturday after Labor Day.

007 2021 pure stock drags blue 327-powered ’66 Chevy II
Longtime Pure Stock Drags competitor Thomas Payne runs hard in his 327-powered ’66 Chevy II. Here, he jumps ahead against shootout competitor Doug Mesman and his GTO. Payne won the shootout, running in the mid 13s.
008 2021 pure stock drags silver 78 Z28
Later muscle was represented well by Camron Miller’s ’78 Z28, which qualified with a 14.012 e.t. and even went 13.9 in one of the shootout races, but the shootout win went to Corvette driver Troy Tiechthesen.
009 2021 pure stock drags yellow 69 Yenko Camaro
Jeremy McNicol’s ’69 Yenko Camaro was one of the quickest cars at the event. It’s an automatic car, but with 4.33 gears, which helped it qualify with a strong 11.908 e.t.
010 2021 pure stock drags black corvette
With a 396 underhood and 4.56 gears in the axle, Troy Tiechthesen and his Corvette qualified with a 14-second flat e.t. and went on to win his shootout against fellow Chevy driver Camron Miller.
011 2021 pure stock drags blue 327/Powerglide-equipped ’65 Chevelle
Keri Radde ran a 327/Powerglide-equipped ’65 Chevelle. It ran 13.4s with a 4.10 axle, but it was Gary Place and his big-block ’69 Chevelle, in the far lane, that took the shootout win.
012 2021 pure stock drags black C3 corvette
No, Steve Lewis’ ’78 Corvette wasn’t the quickest car at the meet, but with its Pace Car paint scheme it sure looked good on the starting line (shown here during qualifying). Lewis was good on the tree, too, and drove around a Mustang-driving competitor to win his shootout.
013 2021 pure stock drags red 69 Camaro 396/four-speed
Mike Seibold, from Illinois, and his 396/four-speed ’69 Camaro gets the jump here on shootout competitor Dick Cash and his Torino. Unfortunately, the 429-powered Ford with 4.30 gears took the shootout crown. Both cars qualified in the 13.60s.
014 2021 pure stock drags Chevy SS
David Byers’s ’70 Chevelle SS 396 waits in the staging lanes. The ’70 396, of course, actually displaced 402 ci. With a four-speed and a 4.10 gear, the big-block A-body qualified with a 13.484 e.t.
015 2021 pure stock drags 67 Impala SS
With a 427, a four-speed, and 4.56 gears, Paul Vitale’s ’67 Impala SS is a quick, fullsize muscle car, qualifying with a strong 13.249 e.t. The combo helped Vitale take the win in his shootout.
016 2021 pure stock drags 396-powered A-body 69 Chevelle
With another strong 396-powered A-body, Kevin Radde made a strong, mid-13-second showing in qualifying with his ’69 Chevelle, but issues arose in the first round of the shootout and he didn’t make it back for the second and third rounds.
017 2021 pure stock drags black chevy chevelle
From Illinois, Steve Arp and his ’70 Chevelle SS 454 were good for high 12s—and even better at driving around the 455-powered ’71 GTO of shootout competitor Ron Hammer.
018 2021 pure stock drags 402-powered ’72 Chevelle
Along with a C2 Corvette, Troy Tiechthesen also campaigned this 402-powered ’72 Chevelle “Heavy Chevy.” Portly or not, it was good for mid 13s and took out the ’72 Buick A-body in the near lane.
019 2021 pure stock drags red 68 Nova SS
A lightweight, big-block-powered Chevy II, like this ’68 Nova SS, piloted by Floridian Chris Teed, is always a strong contender. The car ran in the 12s, but so did his shootout competitor’s ’Cuda—and the Mopar edged out the win.
020 2021 pure stock drags silver c3 corvette
Yvonne McNicol’s ’71 Corvette had a 350 and a tall 3.08 gear, so it wasn’t the quickest Vette on the track, but nevertheless a fun experience.
021 2021 pure stock drags red camaro 396, a four-speed, and 4.56 gears
Take a ’69 Camaro, add a 396, a four-speed, and 4.56 gears and you’ve got a 12-second muscle car. Bob Telep made his F-car hook, delivering consistent 2.0-second 60-foot times that helped him win his shootout.
022 2021 pure stock drags red C3 corvette
James Van Dam drove his 454-powered ’70 Corvette into the high 13s, but during the shootout, he red-lighted in the first round and got tree’d in the second round, losing despite a quicker e.t. than his competitor.
023 2021 pure stock drags 396-powered and 4.30-geared ’69 Nova
Jeff Ancil, in his 396-powered and 4.30-geared ’69 Nova, launches hard against Charlie Lombardi, but Lombardi’s big-block Chevelle eeked out the shootout win. Both cars ran mid 12s.
024 2021 pure stock drags silver second gen camaro
Veteran racer Jeff Morgan’s ZL-1–powered ’69 Camaro ran 11.9s and sub 2-second short times—a quick car with a driver who knew how to get it off the line.
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