GeorgiaDragRacing.com - Information about Georgia drag racing history, personalities, activities and events.
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Jim CagleA "Cliff Notes" version of Jim Cagle's drag racing careerDreaming about cars from early childhood and growing up a "gear-head" who was convinced that some sort of racing effort was inevitable seems to have been my primary motivation. Drag racing was accessible and an obvious choice. My drag racing career was, by most standards, short lived but did not lack in excitement or success. While I can't claim to have been fully sponsored or to have won any national titles, I was actually fairly successful by local standards. It all began as a sixteen year old with a 1957 Pontiac Star Chief sport coupe. It was an automatic with a two barrel carburetor. The first race was at Dallas, Georgia, which became known as Southeastern International Dragway. I had little clue as to what I was doing but paid my fee, removed the hubcaps and air cleaner. Suddenly, I was a racer and I won my first race and a number of subsequent races, perhaps 12 or 15 over a 6 or 7 month period. Later they (the Dallas promoter) decided that I was winning too much and made me run in a class called "Cheat'n 2 Barrel." This was basically a "run-what-you-brung" class as long as it had a 2 barrel carb. I even won a couple of races in this class before any modifications to the car. Later I added two more carburetors and a few other changes. Running in several different classes, I enjoyed more winning rounds and some trophies but found it difficult to compete with the small block Chevrolets sporting Duntov cams and modified heads. However, there were a total of 37 trophies with this Pontiac. The next car was a 57 Chevrolet, Power Pack, which was raced successfully a number of times. Most of the success came after installing a 4:11 posi-traction rear end. However, this car was basic transportation and after breaking the drive line several times I attended few races because I couldn't afford the repairs. I did drive a few other cars and won a few more races but took a break for a bit while attending school. In early 1964 Bob Wells, of Atlanta, purchased one of the Ford lightweight Galaxies. Ford built 100 of them, 50 sticks and 50 automatics, to satisfy NHRA homologation regulations. They had 427 Hi-riser engines, no sound deadening materials, some fiberglass body parts and several other steps to make them light. Our automatic weighed only 3855 lbs, very light for a full sized Ford. Bob asked me to drive this car for him. We won many races around the Atlanta area with this car, mostly spotting others, sometimes more than half of the track. This car was supposed to be AA/Stock but NHRA seemed to have some early difficulty with the class. However, we continued to campaign this car in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. We enjoyed some success but gained little notoriety. Mr. Wells suddenly passed away in late 1964. His family and I sold the Galaxie and purchased Phil Bonner's 1964 Falcon in March of 1965. It was known as Bonner's Leaping Falcon and as the Georgia Peach but, more importantly, it was the first of the now famous Warbucks cars. This car was a handful to drive but I adapted pretty quickly. At first we attended local tracks around Atlanta but began to venture out into South Carolina, Tennessee and, of course, Alabama and Florida. This car was one of the best launching A/FX cars in the business. Most of the time I was able to get such a hole shot on the competition that they couldn't catch me. But this car also had kind of a secret weapon; it pulled very hard in third gear. So hard that even a Hemi, known for strong top end, found it hard to overtake this little Falcon. The Falcon was the highlight of my career. We won quite a few match races and some 'round-robin' type money events. There were two very special events that took place before I was drafted into the Army in March of 1966. The first was a match race with Richard Petty, arranged by Phil Bonner, at Jackson, South Carolina. It was during the NASCAR boycott and Ford wouldn't let Bonner participate in this match race. He asked the promoter if I could replace him explaining that my car was formerly his Warbucks Falcon. Since I was an independent, Ford could not object to my participation. All agreed and I faced Mr. Petty and his 43jr Barracuda for a best two of three match race in the summer of 1965. We won it in two rounds. The second special event was February of 1966 at the NASCAR Winter Nationals in DeLand, Florida. We arrived early in the week with a fresh engine built by Gene Wilson. Apparently our initial time runs were decent and Dick Brannan invited us to join the Ford Team in a facility they had rented in Daytona for the week. Here I was, in the same garage facility with the Ford Drag Team. I had a little parts help before but this was almost like arriving at the "Big Show." We had an unfortunate engine problem during the week and had to rebuild it in this garage. We lost a tenth with the rebuild but went two rounds in the competition before losing by half a fender to Tommy Grove. There is some consolation in the fact that Grove went on to win Top Eliminator and the big money. My next step was two years with Uncle Sam. Out of the Army in February of 1968 and looking to get back into racing, I tried to figure out what route to take. While moving into Super Stock with a Cobra Jet Mustang would have been the correct path (retrospect is amazing), I chose to try my hand at a fuel burning Funny Car. Again, I talked to Phil Bonner and we purchased his stretch SOHC Daddy Warbucks Mustang. A great car, originally built by Holman & Moody, then Bonner had added an additional 12 inches of wheelbase. A great car in it's time but it was already obsolete. Flip top Logghe chassis cars were all the rage but we tried anyway. There is little to tell about this effort. The car was too heavy, we didn't have enough money and my expertise with 50 & 60% Nitro was lacking significantly. We even tried to switch it over to gas and run for Competition Eliminator money at local tracks but lost an engine at Dallas with no money to replace it. This effort lasted the better part of a year. The irony is, my first and last race was at Dallas, Georgia. There were many races and lots of stories but it boils down to being one of the luckiest guys in the state of Georgia. While ultimate success was somewhat elusive, I must say that those years were some of the best of my life. How many guys get to literally live a dream, even if it is for a short time? I've had a reasonably successful career in the corporate world, first for a short time with Ford, then Honda and almost 30 years with BMW. I've raced motorcycles, vintage automobiles and been a basic adrenaline junky. All of that was great but the memories and the friends from the sixties and drag racing are among the most treasured today. Jim Cagle 1965
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