GeorgiaDragRacing.com - Information about Georgia drag racing history, personalities, activities and events.
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Billy Holt : My Drag Racing CareerMy Drag Racing Career by Billy Holt (See, also, these photos of the various ALABAMIAN cars. Sorry, photo album is no longer available.) My drag racing career started in the mid-1950s by racing motorcycles in non-professional drags and road racing; however, in 1957 I switched to a drag car which was a 1957 Chevy with a 270 hp engine which wasn't as competitive as I wanted to be. The following year I built my first V-8 Chevy engine. It had a 327 cubic inch displacement with a set of cylinder heads with 1/8" oversize valves. The intake valves made from a 1954 Chevy powerglide 6 cylinder valve which had a 1-7/8" diameter head and cutting the stems to V-8 length and regrooving and did the same thing to flathead V8 Cadillac exhaust with a 1-5/8" diameter. I used Jahns pistons, an Isky RR-1 roller camshaft, two four-barrel carburetors, Hedman headers and Schieffer aluminum flywheel and pressure plate. The engine was complete and I now needed a car to put it in. I went to Denny's Junk Yard and found a burned 55 Chevy. I removed the frame, cleaned, rebushed the frame assembly and painted it. I am now ready for body parts. We looked around and found a good 55 Chevy 2 door post body that had been totaled in a head-on collision. Then I found another 55 Chevy that had been totaled from a rear-end collision. So now I had a front cap which completed the needed parts. I then went to work assembling the parts of the three 55 Chevys to complete my first "built from scratch" DRAG CAR!!! This project was completed by the spring of 1958. I was ready to RUN, to go DRAG RACING!!! This project was so successful I couldn't believe it. The 1958 season yielded wins of all weekends except two. One of which was caused by a clutch disc failure and the other by an ignition wire grounding out on the firewall. This car set track records throughout the Southeast in both elapse time and speed. In 1959 I had a year about equal to the '58 season. I then decided to try my luck at the first NHRA US Nationals that were being held being held in Detroit, Michigan. I did well up to the final run that paired me with Doug Cook. Doug won the nationals and that gave me the runner-up spot. In 1960 my employer put my drag racing career on hold for about four years. I was employed as a field engineer with a space firm, a job that required extensive travel, not leaving time for my racing. I returned to the Drag Racing sport again in 1964 in a big way. Campaigning various gas cars, blown and un-blown, during the next five years holding NHRA National Class Champion title twice and class runner-up five times. During this period I was a three time NHRA Record Holder for BB/G - retaining the record for over two years, plus holding the NHRA D/G record twice during this period. After successful match racing of my supercharged gasser against injected funny cars, I decided in 1970 to build my first Funny Car that was named the ALABAMIAN I. This was a Logghe-built Corvette powered by a 392 Chrysler, but disaster struck and the car burned at the Turkey Trott Meet in Gainesville, Florida, that year. The ALABAMIAN II Funny Car was built by Don Hardy having a 1971 Vega body. With the first pass ever made by this car, it qualified well in the field at the Gator Nationals. Had a good year, winning about eighty per cent of scheduled match races. Also, won several open competition funny car shows and set numerous track records. The ALABAMIAN III Funny Car was built by Don Hardy also, sporting a 1972 Vega body, powered by a stroked 426 Mopar Hemi that I built. The first time out at the 1971 NHRA World Finals the car qualified and proceeded to defeat the Assassination Funny Car (NHRA Record Holder at that time) losing in the semi-finals. Then in 1972 the ALABAMIAN had a great year running all of the IHRA Nationals and a couple of the NHRA Nationals qualifying well in the field and being runner up in two events. Also campaigned the car in the Southeast and Midwest setting many track records and winning numerous races, always performing well and being very popular with the fans. The ALABAMIAN was invited to the 12th Annual Auto Show SCCA in Dallas, Texas, and took first place. The Alabamian's IV through VII were built over the next two years to support and sometimes replace the fatigued earlier ALABAMIAN funny cars. In 1973 I teamed up with the former Virginian pilot, PeeWee Wallace, for a crack at the North Eastern tracks with the ALABAMIAN. The car was a big hit with the Wallace crew, their appearance was immaculate and performance was exceptional. The ALABAMIAN won NHRA Division One and won the Englishtown World Championship Series meet and the York, Pennsylvania, Funny Car Nationals the same weekend. The car was so popular it was booked for as many as two to three funny car meets weekly, winning more than half the meets. During this two-year period I was working a full time job, going to the races occasionally and preparing engines and related parts during this time to support the ALABAMIAN running in the Northeastern United States and Canada. In 1976 I decided to stop actively campaigning drag cars and spend full time with my automotive machine shop. I continued to build engines for active racers, both drag and circle track, staying very busy until in 1989 I had additional health problems so I had to call it quits. In 2001 I got the urge to build another drag car, this time I chose a 290" wheel base top alcohol dragster. My sons, Greg and Scott, campaigned this car one season; however, it is now in storage at Greg's shop. I gave it the name ALABAMIAN VIII.
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