My Silver Bullet story ................................ Toledo, OH 1971
Addison showed up at "The Secor Hut"........the White Hut drive-in
on Secor Road.
The detailed Bullet was on an immaculate black Bock Dragstar open
trailer being pulled by a equally pristine black Dodge shortbed stepside
pickup......the whole outfit rolling on chrome Cragar S/S wheels.
With the car setting there on the trailer I had a close-up view of that
magnificient exhaust system. Those four 500 cu in Cadillac mufflers
were much larger than the modern "Flow-master" sized renditions would
have you believe.
Several other (4?) trailered outfits had followed him down from Detroit
hoping for some side action.
My friend Trigger's dark green '69 Camaro had a tunnel-rammed open-
chamber aluminum headed Rat motor and had, in fact, ran low tens in
NHRA modified eliminator at Indy the previous year. With it's "Grump
Lump" hood scoop it looked like Wally Booth's car in a darker shade of
green. It had a 3" exhaust sustem all the way back to behind and under
the rear end allowing some occasional street driving but tonight, it too
was on a trailer.
They jawed for hours and then the whole entourage, with at least a
hundred "spectators" in tow, moved towards a 2-lane country road in
southern Michigan.
It was after midnight when we pulled into the stone parking lot of a small
church. The pastor's house showed a hundred yards away under a single
bulb on a telephone pole in the yard. The assembled multitudes had
stopped on the shallow grass ditches at both sides of the road and were
waiting quietly in anticipation.
As those of us in the tow vehicles finally moved in unison to lower the
ramps and unchain the cars the loud "chop-chop-chop" sound of a police
helicopter rapidly approached with a spotlight scanning back and forth on
the ground. At the same time, all of the lights in the house came on. The
spectator's cars roared to life and scatterred like church mice. We threw
our ramps in the back of the pickups and left immediately.
Back in Toledo we went to a Sunoco station on the old East Side that was
closed. The manager was in our group and unlocked the doors. There was
talk of arranging another attempt on another night. By now it was 2:00 AM.
As the core group huddled and talked in the office, there was a deep rumble
outside. We were surprised as a fully uniformed Toledo police officer stepped
from a year-old Superbird. It became apparent that all of these guys knew
each other when he asked who won. He expressed disappointment after
learning that the race never went off.
He got into his Superbird and pulled into the street. He let out a big laugh
and yelled "Anybody want to go for top end"? Then he did a huge burnout
and smoked his way into the night.
We all made our ways home as the night turned to day. I didn't see Jimmy
Addison again until we took our Hemi Duster to Carlisle in 1997. He was there
with Harold Sullivan, and the Silver Bullet.
Now he's gone.
White Hut Drive-In Toledo, Ohio circa mid 70's
