Its Going to get Ugly!
Coming in at #1 it's Larry Zunk and the Double Ugly Pontiac.
Voted by you the readers of ardmoredragway.com, I present to you the story of UGLY.
I had written this first section some two years ago. It has been posted on many of my other talk sights you can find dragnews stories on, The Hamb, Bangshift and others. So here we go with a Ugly story.
The year is 1970. Ardmore Dragway is under new management,
Lonnie Sears and Johnnie Laird have taking over the facility from the Ardmore Timing Association. The Vietnam war is coming to a close, and drag racing is on its second expansion boom. The new
generation returning from the war, is similar to the early hot rodders returning from the Korea conflict of the 1950's, They had a new look and new ideas for the sport of drag racing.. Larry Zunk from Gainesville Texas, was one of the many young Texans to cross Red River, and challenge the Okie's back in the early years. He also sported a different look and definitely a different idea on race cars. Larry was a young auto technician., (back in those day's we called them mechanics) that worked at Brown motor company in Gainesville Texas. Larry had that 70's look,really long hair, drove in cut off shorts, and wore Roman sandal shoes, but that car.....well that is were our story begins.
Larry's choice of race cars was a 1956. No not a Chevrolet or even a Ford, but a Pontiac. A big ol heavy ugly tin Indian. It was Painted Military tan,with 60's acid rock lace swirls and whatever else you want to call that paint scheme. Although Larry looked different than all the other clean cut racers of that time. He was way ahead of the game in racing ideas and mechanical ability. Larry called his hot rod Double Ugly, and sometimes, I think his appearance and automobile was just a diversion to fool the competition of his true racing abilities,
The Pontiac was powered by a big 455 Oldsmobile that made a big top end charge, and hard for the little 327 dragsters to play catch up. It had a automatic transmission, that gave it more consistent E.T.'s . Most cars including the dragsters still ran a manually shifted transmissions. The car had a 3 inch staggered front axle and really low slung headers. Back in the early days He could leave the line and not start the clocks until the back wheels
would clear the early scratched built staging beams. Larry was runner up at Ardmore"s first Cow Pasture Nationals, when he red lighted in the final to Jim Ragland. Larry went on to win many Sunday races before leaving the sport. Double Ugly has gone through many more owners and won a ton of races before being retired to pasture back in Texas today. As far as Larry, no one knows for sure where he is, but he sure left a ugly legacy at Ardmore Dragway
Now since I first published that info, I have been in contact with Larry on many occasions. He now resides in the Lake Texohma area and is neighbors with another past Ardmore dragway star Monty Nations, in fact Larry was a visitor at the 2009 Hot Rod Reunion.
Larry and I visited last Thursday night and he informed me that the car was loaned to him by Dale Brown who had been shipped out to Vietnam to take care of, and later Larry was able to purchased the car from Dale.
Big thanks to Gary Hinkle who kept kicking me in the tail to get this 50 car deal going and all the information he has supplied to me about Ugly an other great Texas race cars. Gary recently sent this infornation to me.
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It looks like double ugly could be #1. just in case I wanted to share what I remember about the car. When Zunk had it it had an aluminum rod BB Pontiac motor. That motor later found it's way to Zimmerer's Corvette. Lynn Johnson of Johnson Motors and Olds dealership in Gainesville had a 442 that he raced and drove on the street. He wrecked the 442 and bought Double Ugly with out motor or trans. He pulled the motor and trans out of the 442 and put it in Double Ugly. It was a 455 block with a 400 crank (425 cubes) and had a w30 hydraulic flat tappet cam and flat top pistons. It also had the w30 heads. One real trick item was the variable pitch torque convert or that would change stall speed at the click of a switch. Of course it also had the staggered front Axel and the tallest front tires you could get to take advantage of the stagger. Lynn sold the car with that setup to David Ferguson and Richard Dearhime. It ran a best of 11.70s at the valley with good air but would run consistent 12.0 anywhere. I remember when I bought my Camaro I told David that I was going to build it like Double Ugly, mild big block and automatic. So in a way Gary's Toy ids a tribute to the Double Ugly car. PS David said that he found another picture of the car from the back. I will try to get it scanned in and share.
The New Ugly
The car was found on Craigs list and is being restored by yes a Texas racer. i understand the frame was being replaced from all the years of racing fatigue and a huge wheel stand Ugly had that damaged the car sevearly.
Finally this is a from a conversation I have had with Ugly's current owner.
Rob: Just wanted you to know: please keep it to yourself, I am having a top 50 cars voted on that have raced at Ardmore over the years. And double is leading the list, hope you could find time to bring it to the Hot Rod Reunion, Larry is going to try and make it again this year.
Ricky: that news makes me like her even more. Unfortunately I have a race Oct 1 &2 at Temple. Don't see any way I can make it. After this race my full attention is on big ugly. I just built a new bullet for my little 35 P/U ane it is destined for the ugly. Larry e mailed so thanks for your help on that venue. Would like to talk to him a bit. I might could drag up to Ardmore after Temple but The Star , Ugly is another 250 mile drag to swap cars. I kind of don't want anyone to see her in the state of disrepair she is in. But I promise she will be in Ardmore more than one time next year in all her original look and glory. That paint job is going to be a chore but what a little time. We're racing into the past anyway. Again thank you so very much for all you do. Ricky G (Hill Rat)
Wow the Blue Max in 2010 and Double Ugly back in 2011, Is Ardmore Dragway fun or what?
Thanks again for everyone who voted and sent me information. Looking to do this in another 38 years, Top 100 cars of all time,
we will just have to wait and see. Thanks again and see you at the Cowpasture Nationals this weekend...Rob Ragland