Just a hazy 1967 Thanksgiving holiday evening of Funny Cars at the packed, million-dollar Orange County International Raceway (OCIR) in Irvine, California, for the first- ever Manufacturers Funny Car Championship. Known as the “Supertrack,” OCIR was just a few months old. With its magnificent, three-story tower and actual landscaping, it seemed like civilization would never encroach way out in south Orange County, guaranteeing a beautiful racing venue forever—or so everyone thought.
Gaining popularity by the day, Funny Cars still had no class of their own in the NHRA hierarchy, but that would soon change with events like this. Forty-five Funny Cars showed up for a round robin with a guaranteed $22,000 cash purse. Staging just shy of the Chrondek “eyes” are the Samson Dodge Dart out of San Jose and the SoCal Keaton’s Komet. Rick Abate’s Dart ran an injected Hemi and was driven by “Jungle” Jim Liberman for a time, though not here. Keaton’s Komet was the former Jack Chrisman door car before he switched to the flip-top Logghe architype. Now raced by Dee Keaton and still running a 427 SOHC, it was a familiar sight at Southern California tracks throughout 1967. Chevy scored the most points for this premiere event that beyond Fords, Chevys, and Dodges saw Pontiacs, Plymouths, and Mercurys.
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