The Daily Dispatch
Tri-County Tourism
Thursday, September 30, 2011
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Rockwell, Hoover among ‘Ramchargers’ members to receive lifetime achievement awards Several members of the Ramchargers — a group of engineers who worked under Chrysler who decided to build their own race cars during the 60’s and 70’s — paved the way for Dodge racing to achieve dominance over Ford during that same time period. Lifetime achievement awards will be given to 12 of the members during the hall of fame and awards ceremony at this year’s East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame. A pair of members, David Rockwell, author of the book, “Ramchargers,” and Tom Hoover, Godfather of Chrysler’s 426 Hemi Engine, are spotlighted here.
David Rockwell At age 5 David had become in-
volved with soapbox derby cars, eventually building go-karts and later disassembling and reassembling (with various degrees of success) several cars. By his mid-teens he began an association with the Ramchargers, with whom he worked and raced for over a decade. “I was the Ramchargers ‘Boy Friday,’ and it was an experience of a lifetime,” said Rockwell. “Around the shop I swept the floor and washed parts while jumping at being involved with practically everything else. On the road I did my share too — truck driving, between rounds maintenance, mixing nitro, packing parachutes, picking lanes, spreading rosin and seeing that the car got to the line on time.” Rockwell raced from 1963 to
1969 and then from 1974 to 1978 with the Ramchargers Super Stocks, Gassers, Funny Cars and Top Fuel Dragsters. He also participated with Paul Gentilozzi’s Dodge sponsored Pro Stock and Trans Am programs. More recently, Rockwell founded Kart Kinetics, an original design kart racing component company, winning several World Karting Association Championships. Rockwell graduated from Michigan State University with a Ph.D. and is currently an adjunct professor of clinical psychology at the university. He also maintains a full-time psychoanalytic psychotherapy practice in East Lansing, Mich. Along with his wife, Mary, and sons, Christopher and
Jeffery, Rockwell resides in Michigan.
Tom Hoover Chrysler engineer Tom Hoover is best known for the 426 Hemi engine, but his first Chrysler factory racing success was the Slant Six Hyper Pak, which he developed as Chrysler’s first race program coordinator. The engine blew away the competition on the Daytona road course in 1961. Before that Hoover won the C Gas title at the 160 NHRA Nationals in Detroit, driving a 1958 Plymouth powered by a strangelooking 392 cubic inch Chrysler Hemi. The engine’s weird intake manifold turned the left bank differently than the right bank. One side of the manifold had
long runners for high torque and the other had short runners for high horsepower. Nobody but Hoover would have done that, but it worked. Hoover is one of the original Ramchargers, the group of Chrysler engineers that built the famous “High and Mighty” gasser that astounded the 1959 NHRA Nationals. It was a 1949 Plymouth business coupe powered by a 354-cubic-inch Chrysler Hemi. The club went on to dominate the early days of super stock drag racing in its Dodge Max Wedge with the distinctive red ad white Ramchargers logo on its doors. This was all before Hoover even thought about the number 426. Please see SPOTLIGHT, page 10
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