Racing with the Rich

March 2024 • By Tony Thacker •  Presented by MicksPaint.com & USAutomotive.co.uk

It’s not every day you get a call from legendary drag racer Rick Guasco inviting you to the annual 63rd March Meet sponsored by Good Vibrations Motorsports. Rich, now 87, has been campaigning his iconic AA/Fuel Altered ‘Pure Hell’ since 1963. The March Meet is actually a little older and was first convened at Famoso Dragstrip (Bakersfield) as the U.S. Fuel & Gas Championships in 1959. You don’t say no to Rich.

The March Meet attracts some 500 racers and despite some inclement weather this year, they put on a fantastic race between showers thanks to the SO-CAL Speed Shop-sponsored track crew who worked tirelessly to keep the track dry and safe. It may not be 1964 when the March Meet attracted more than 100 Top Fuel entries alone but the nitro fields were well represented with 13 Top Fuel dragsters, 23 Funny Cars and 10 AA/Fuel Altereds, of which Rich was one.

Rich got his start while at high school. His dad owned a wrecking yard so he had easy access to raw materials and built his first hot rod from yard parts. It went on to win America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Award in 1961 and, he still has the ’29 Roadster on Deuce rails.

The Austin Bantam-bodied Altered came along a few years later. Originally built by Pete Ogden, the short wheelbase roadster featured coil-over shock front suspension, a blown small-block Chevy and legendary Dale Emery at the wheel. The pair were known for their wild, on-the-edge, almost-out-of-control wheel stands and smokey quarter miles. 

Although reliable, the small-block Chevy was eventually switched out for a blown 392 ci Chrysler Hemi built by Larry Huff. At the ’64 Hot Rod Drags Emery earned a National record with a pass at 7.25/208.80. Not fast by today’s standards but darned fast in 1964 in a stubby Fuel Altered.

Rich remembers, “At the last Hot Rod Drags at Riverside we qualified on Friday, packed up and went to Orange County Raceway on Saturday to run a round robin match race between Funny Cars, and returned to Riverside on Sunday to win the event. Those were crazy days.”

In 1973, due to rule changes, the NHRA more-or-less banned AA/Fuel Altereds and many of the racers moved onto Funny Cars including Rich. Amazingly, he kept the fiberglass ’72 Plymouth Duster body and the car was recently restored by crew member E.j. Kowalski of Kowalski Customs in Reading, PA.

As races went, we didn’t have the best of weekends. Part of the problem is that Pure Hell, a classic short wheelbase Altered is up against what are called ‘Transformer’ cars that are basically big-winged Funny Cars with longer, 125-inch wheel bases and 500 ci motors mounted low in the frame—they’re just built to go faster.

Driver Brian Hope made a good first pass with a 6.332/209.23 with a 6.000 index putting him in third position. Unfortunately, for the second run Rich had changed the tune up and it was just too much for the conditions and we slipped to fourth. Even more unfortunately in the 1st round of eliminations the fuel shut-off valve shut off and Brian had to click it off early. The win eventually went to Lyle Greenberg of Albuquerque, NM, in his ’23 T roadster.

For more information visit: FamosoDragstrip.com