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Midwest Pages 2-Updated 3/24/2001

10/23/2000

Ray Higley passed away yesterday.

For a lot of you, you remember Ray for his Red Line Oil funny car, which he ran on a low budget, but managed to get Roland Leong to come aboard in 1993 and tune him to a semi-final round at the US Nationals. When I think of Ray, though, there are no funny cars. Just Fuel Altereds.

Ray started a long ways back, with this Dragmaster Chassised, Wedge Motored car. Ran a lot of meets as an AA/A, but he had no aversion to pouring in the pop and making passes. He ran this car for quite a while...

Next I heard, he had partnered up with Nolen Pritchard and out of that came "Climax 1" Ray and Nolen campaigned that car from 1975-1977.

Then there was the Global Van Lines car...

Finally the return of the "Climax" which did double duty as the funny car...

I met Ray for the first time last year at Boise, at a Denny's of all places. For you guys who think I know everything about these fuel altereds, I don't...and it was a treat to meet someone who had been around and done as much as Ray. Ray didn't have the best weekend at Boise, tire shake and centerline crossing took care of that. But during it all, he was awesome to watch.

I'd been hearing that Ray's condition had been worsening...for the Nightfire Nationals this year, he had the car in the box all ready to go, but the chemotherapy had taken an awful lot out of him, and he wasn't ready to stick anyone else in the drivers seat...that was for Ray.

Then there was the California Hot Rod Reunion 2000. I'd been running around like crazy all weekend and heard bits and pieces that Ray was there, but in my haste, never took the time to find him.

Now I'll never be able to.

Thanks, Ray, for the memories.

Jim Sorenson October 23, 2000

Okay, we managed to get an ID on the last car, it was Al Carter from Oklahoma,
with his 23 T that won AA/FA at the U.S. Fuel and Gas Championships in 1964 AND 1965!

Thanks to Steve Garcia for the first heads-up on that!

So, Al's gone to the Midwest and Other places pages, and we have a new mystery car...

Only clues...Bakerfield, and not Frank Martinez!

C'mon you guys, help a guy out here!

Jere Alhadeff Photo © 1990

One more thing...here at Fuel Altered Central, we're a bit short on pics of Fuel Altereds, between 1980 and 1990...
these are mostly the later model Transformer cars (either Fuel Altered or Funny Car),
and we need to fill that chronological hole there...so we can bring in the newer cars.

So scan them pictures, and e-mail 'em to us here...at the "info" link below. Thanks!

Try the new search engine...just type in the name of what you're looking for
...just one word, and see what pops up!

E-mail me with any comments, suggestions, or boatloads of fuel altered pics...

Info@mysterion.net