Gary Cochran "Mr. C"
Gary Receiving his Honoree Award at CHRR XII
When Gary Cochran was born on
April 8, 1938 little did anyone who was at Magnolia Hospital in Long Beach
realize that a drag racing legend was coming into the world, but as time went on
and Gary grew to attend Jordan High School he began a life long love of going
fast. He started his street racing adventures in 1954 with a 33’ Chevy coupe
that he also made the occasional trip to Santa Ana with and moved on thru an
array of hot rods that included a 47’ Chevy, a 51 Merc. a 55 Chevy and finally
a 64’ Bel-Air.
In the midst of all this street
racing though, in 1955 Gary enlisted in the Air Force and served his country
until April 1960. While in the Air Force, Gary met his future wife Marie Alves
in 1957 and in 1959, they were married while he was stationed at Madera, CA.
After his discharge from the service in 1960, he and Marie returned to Long
Beach and Gary continued in the carpenter’s apprenticeship program that he had
started after his graduation from high school.
In 1963 Gary and Marie bought their first home in Fountain Valley, Ca and started their family, which grew to include two daughters, Dawn and Teri. But even with his working as a carpenter and raising a family, the go-fast bug would not leave him alone so in 1963 he bought a 23’ high-boy roadster from a couple guys in Lakewood, CA and started on his first “track only” car. The roadster had been previously set up for a Desoto engine but Gary found a 390 Hi-Performance Ford engine that he built from the ground up. Using an Algon Injection system, Gary debut the car with a 11.00 second run at 145 mph and with a little refinement, he got the roadster to 8.90 at 174 mph.
In the never ending quest for speed, in 1965 Gary enlisted Ray Standoff to build him a new 23’ T Roadster and put the 390 from the other car in it, but soon upgraded to a Howard Rapp built, cross bolt main 427 Ford engine, equipped with a 6-71 blower and running on fuel. While taking this combination to 8.14 at 189 mph this became the car that really got Gary hooked on the blown cars that he would go on to drive so successfully.
In 1966 Gary started work for the State of California as a construction inspector but was still racing on the weekends and in 1967 he bought his first dragster. An SPE car that had been campaigned under the “Gas House Gang” banner and added a blown 392 Chrysler running on gas. During his tenure in the gas class Gary won many races including the 1968 AHRA Nationals in Phoenix by beating the Shultz & Jones team in the finals but they got their revenge at Indy that same year when they took Gary out in the semi’s. However the car suffered severe damage in a 1968 fire at Irwindale and the decision was made to repair it and move up to Top Fuel.
Gary, Chris
Kielich and the late John Carpenter of "Gas House Gang" fame in
the
"Winners Circle" for Top Gas Eliminator at the 1968 AHRA
Winternationals in Phoenix
The newly rebuilt car was a very
light 1080 pound fuel car and on its maiden run on March 1, 1969 at Bakersfield,
Gary defeated such notables as Kenny Stafford and Connie Kalitta to go to the
runner-up spot losing only to Dave Babler in the finals. May 3. 1969 was the
first “King of the Hill” series at Irwindale, which Gary won and went on to
win four out of the five races, losing the fifth to his good friend, James
Warren on August 23. 1969, but while in route to Indy the next week the car was
destroyed in a highway accident in Springfield, MO. Gary went on to Indy while
the trailer was being repaired and then returned to California to build a new
car.
Gary went to Roy Fjastd at SPE for
a new car which he completed in time for the race at Irwindale on December 14,
1969, where he defeated Gerry Glenn who was driving John Bateman’s “Atlas
Oil Tool Special in the finals, with a run of 6.79 @ 219.50. Gary then went on
to win the All-Pro Series at OCIR in February and March of 1970 in a very close
race against “Kansas” John Weibe in the four race series. The rest of the
1970 season saw the “Mr. C” car in many finals at Irwindale, Lion’s, OCIR
and Fremont where he defeated some of the top teams including Kuhl & Olson,
Warren & Coburn, Abbott and Lee, Shultz & Glenn, Cerny-Manke-Lins and
Big Jim Dunn
Gary and Crew Chief Chris Kielich with the 1969 SPE Fuel Car
Ron Price, Gary and Chris Kielich in front of Gary's home in Fountain Valley, CA 1969
In 1971 Gary made the decision to
leave his job with the State of California and pursue a career as a professional
drag racer. The season started out on a very high note with a win at the AHRA
“Grand American” at Lion’s where he put “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, in
his brand new rear engine dragster on the trailer with a 6.58 to Garlits 6.66.
The following weekend at OCIR at the request of Keith Black, “Mr. C” climbed
into Carl Casper’s “Young American” and again defeated Garlits in the
final with a record setting 6.56 to Garlits losing 6.62. It was then on to the
AHRA Winternationals in Phoenix and again in the seat of the “Young
American” Gary defeated Marvin Schwartz, Fred Farndon, Dave Russell, Don Ewald
and “The Golden Greek” Chris Karmasines in the final with a 6.74 @ 218.96.
One
of many of the Saturday Night wins at the"Beach. Pictured is the Schiefer
Rep, Randy Foust, Willie Stone,
Mr.C, Sid waterman and Ron Price
With two National Event wins in a
row, Gary made the decision to follow the AHRA Point Series as far as the
finances would allow. Gary and crew ran the point series in 71’ and 72’ but
by the end of the 72’ season it had became obvious that it would take a rear
engine car to be competitive so one again he called upon SPE for the new car.
When the new car was picked up
Gary installed one of Ed Donovan’s all aluminum “417”s and spent the
winter of 73’ sorting out the new combination, but the “new car blues”
resulted in the lack of funding to continue to run at the national event level
and the car was eventually sold to Woody Duke of Santa Monica, CA in late 74’
or early 75’.While this was the last car owned, built, tuned and driven by
“Mr. C” it was not the end of his driving career. During the 1973 season,
Gary returned to the construction industry and remained there until his
retirement in September of 2000.
The new 1973 SPE Car racing the "Ridge Route Terror"
Throughout his career, Gary drove
many cars for many different owners, sometimes as a favor for a competitor or
car owner who was having problems for one reason or another. Even while driving
his own Top Gas car he took his first ride in a 392-powered Top Fuel car of
Melton and Richardson, which is what made him decide he had to have a “fueler”.
In later years, Gary drove the “Goodyear Blue Streak Special” entry of Dave
McKenzie and in the early days of the Funny Cars he drove the “Peanuts”
flopper with Dave Russell as his crew chief. From there he continued to drive
doing a stint behind the wheel of the Blanchard & Montgomery rear engine
dragster in which he won a number of events and then on to the “Genuine
Suspension” RED of Jim Thomas which he unsuccessfully tried to qualify at Indy
in 1981. Gary then moved on to Jim Terry’s funny car where he had very good
success with many wins and times in the 6.0’s
“Mr. C”s last ride was in Bob
and John Melville’s funny car which he drove at the opening race at the Texas
Motorplex but when he failed to qualify it became apparent that racing and
winning against the well financed teams had become an impossibility and Gary
hung the fire-suit up for good. It was never the same for Gary after owning,
building and driving his own cars and driving for others really never set too
well with him and to quote Gary, “The fun was gone”
Today Gary and Marie make their
home in Lake Havasu City, AZ and look forward to the frequent visits by their
daughters and grandchildren. They enjoy boating, golfing and the many trips they
take in their travel trailer. Gary likes to attend as many National Events as he
can and has only missed one of the 12 California Hot Rod Reunions. At 2003
National Hot Rod Reunion, in Bowling Green, KY Gary was honored to be ask by Tom
Hanna to be in the seat of his beautiful dragster for the push start and
“Cacklefest” which was his first push start in 30 years but the smile on his
face showed that the spark was still there.
"Mr.C" and Don McManus @ Bowling Green 2003
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