This is the story that I have
researched through Tim Beebe and several others including Tom
Hanna. To begin, realize that there were two cars with similar
green striped paint. The first car started out as the Beebe Bros,
Vincent and Sixt. It was a homemade chassis by Sam Vincent and
the car was driven by Dave Beebe. Around 1967 the car was lengthened
by Frank Huszar at Race Car Specialties and a full Hanna body
installed as well as the famous green striped paint by George
Cerny Jr. It was lettered Beebe & Mulligan and John became
the driver. This car was campaigned until the middle of 1968
at which point Woody Gilmore at Race Car Engineering offered
to build them a new car for a sweet deal so he could advertise
their success. As it was completed and prepared, the old car
was sold to Leland Kolb who painted it white and put a 426 engine
in it. After a couple of runs at Lions and Irwindale, he pulled
the engine out and took the car to Australia where he sold it
to Jim Reed. It was raced down under for a time and even painted
back to the original green stripes.
It eventually was converted to
a rear engine car and before they made a pass, the push car ran
up over the back of the car and destroyed it. It was cut up and
that was the end of the first car. The 68 Woody car that I replicated
made its first competitive runs at the World Finals at Tulsa
in Oct of 68. They debuted with top speed and a runner up to
Benny Osborne due to losing the clutch. After winning the Winternationals
in 69, they went on tour in the spring and late summer. They
installed a 426 that was purchased from the Ramchargers by Marv
Rifchin of M&H. They ran faster and quicker than the Ramchargers
the first weekend with the new engine. Tim and John returned
to California for the PDA meet at Orange county and then headed
east to resume the tour ending at Indy for the US Nationals.
Tim decided not to run the nose on the car since NHRA wouldn't
pay any appearance money and he knew that both Garlits and Prudhomme
were getting paid. I guess it was his way of boycotting NHRA.
As most people know they led qualifying with a 6.43 that was
a new record that stood for almost a year. First round against
Tommy Ivo, Mulligan was on an even better run that the qualifying
run. Tim said they were starting to slip the clutch more and
that was leading to some tire shake that they hadn't experienced
before.
If there was one thing about
this car in retrospect that was not right was the driveline coupler.
Instead of the traditional Greek coupler at the rear-end, the
B&M car had a conventional u-joint minus the needle bearing
cross. The u-joint connection was bolted rigidly by four ¼"
bolts. This arrangement worked well up to this point but Tim
said they were starting to slip the clutch and that contributed
to the record setting e.t. that they qualified with. On the fatefully
run, Moe was on an even better run than the previous low qualifying
run. From the initial launch the tires started to shake, something
that they hadn't experienced before. At about half track the
tire shake caused to coupler to break and that took the clutch
out and one of the discs cut through the aluminum pan which led
to the fire.
The car crashed and an oil &
fuel fire burned John severely. John was taken to the Hospital
where he appeared to be through the worst of it but died several
days later due to kidney failure as a result of infection and
complications from the burns to his lungs. After the race, Tim
brought the engine and back half of the burned chassis back to
Garden Grove. The engine went into McEwen's funny car and the
remains of the back half of the chassis ended up at Tom Hanna's
shop.
As a footnote, Tim said he never
used Hydrazine as has been reported and said that the engine
was not hurt during the crash. The nose of the car that was in
the trailer during the Nationals also ended up at Hanna's shop
where it was eventually cut to try and use part of it to repair
Kuhl and Olsen's nose. That front 6-8 inches of the nose eventually
ended up with an employee of Tom's who has kept it all these
years. He brought it out to the CHRR a few years ago before we
finished that car. It is the only original piece of that car
that I know exists. He loaned the nose to Bill Carter when he
painted the car to match the colors and stripes. The remains
of the burned roll cage and what was left of the car sat in Tom's
shop for almost a year. They finally cut it up and that was the
end of the legend.
I hope this explains a little
of the history of this car and dispels some of the stories that
have gone around since 1969. Although I never had the pleasure
of meeting John Mulligan, I know that he was the genuine article
and I've never heard a negative thing said about him. I think
that is one of the reasons they were such a popular team. After
getting to know Tim Beebe, I can say he is one of the sharpest
engine men out there including today's tuners. He is also a very
humble, unassuming person who I am very proud to say I know.
In building this car I have come to respect both of these guys
as the legends they are to this sport.
Commentary from Dave West
Johnny lived for 17 days and
was in terrible pain most of the time. The cause of Johnny's
accident was also a clutch explosion. Fragments put a hole in
the oil pan about 2" X 1" and fueled the fire which
eventually took Moe's life. 1969 was not a good year for Indy
top fuel and I've always been thankful I never watched the telecast
on Wide World of Sports which ran the crash, almost a first for
NHRA. (Back in the 60's and early 70's Wally didn't want crash
shots run on television or in the newspapers, trying to keep
the image of drag racing clean).
Commentary from Suzy Beebe
