Altered Flathead

My memories of "Flatheads Revenge" 1929 Model A Sedan
By Jimmy Gaboury

Flatheads Revenge was built in the late 50’s early 60’s as a D/Altered drag car by and as a club project for the "Dualateers" car club of St. Paul Minnesota who would meet at a place called the "Grease Pit Lounge". In my earliest memories of the Grease Pit my big brother Jerry "the Stomper"Gaboury, alias "Jed" Gaboury and more recently known as "Bones" would occasionally bring me to see the hot rods being built and worked on. I can see in my minds eye the back sides of 34 Fords, some cool custom lead sleds and of course drag cars sticking out of the garages as we cruised the grease pit parking lot in Jerry’s yellow 55 Chevy post. It was one of the first big block "55"s on the planet, with a "348" and a 4 speed which he raced in those early 60’s. At one time it had six Stomburg carbs under the hood and it looked great, sounded great and it ran great!

Little did I know how the "Dualateers" and the "Grease Pit Lounge" would have such an influence in my life and career in the "Hot Rod" business. I was at the impressionable age of eight or ten years old and seeing that I was born in 1950 the Grease Pit gang who were the real deal 50’s guys had at least nine or ten years on me. So in 1959 I was nine of course so the Dualateers were building cars at the ripe old age of 19 to mid 20’s when I first met them. To me they were the "coolest" still are.

Now back to the car story; Mike Struniski "the Indian" as he was called, ended up being owner of the car, and I’ve always assumed he bought it out from the rest of the club. He raced it at the local twin cities dragstrips. Do you remember Minnesota Dragways or how about the "tar pits" as Twin City Speedway was called or do you remember back in the day when you didn’t have to drive for hours to go racing? Hey Twin Cities wake up! When are we going to have our own dragstrip again? WHEN? Well, I guess that’s enough of that.

By the time I was old enough to drive, the Indian asked me to go with him to the track. In its earliest configuration the little flat head car had a Packard three speed transmission and of course the famous three deuces. To start the car back in those days you would push it with a pick up truck and pop the clutch to get it to fire. (Notice the push bar in the back) The Indian would then make the quarter mile blast and the push man would pick him up at the end of the track, tow the car back to the pits and help prepare it for the next round. I had the opportunity to be the Indian’s push man (not pusher man) yes, I said push man (that’s for all of you reading this that can’t remember the 60’s) and that’s no reflection on Mike but maybe the writer of this story for it was about 1966 or so. I remember also back then we would hook the race car to a tow bar and haul it behind the push truck back and forth to the track. These are very fun, and very cool memories for me. Eventually, I got my own hot car and rented a garage at the grease pit with some of my buddies until I got drafted in 1970.

I’m not sure when Mike put the car away or quit racing it, but the Indian was always active in all the car shows in the area and well known and loved with his other cool rides. I’m guessing about 20 years the flathead car was not used much if at all. In the late 80’s Mike freshened it up with an automatic transmission and eventually fuel injection on alcohol. At about this time a new racing club started called the O.F.T.A. which stands for the old farts timing association. By the time the 90’s rolled around there were quite a group of O.F.T.A. members with all kinds of vintage drag cars, to include: rails, altereds, and gassers. I had just returned to the twin towns and had brought with me my 1955 Chevy Handy Man wagon which at the time would run high 12’s, this would be around 1994 or there abouts. I now qualified to be an O.F.T.A. member for you had to be 40 or older pay $25 bucks and have a car to become a lifetime member. On second thought, maybe you didn’t even have to have a car, I’m not quite sure? Anyway, the Indian and I would pair up as we ran around the same ET’s. (See photo) It was fun having theFord /Chevy rivalry thing going and the Indian was the best at all that.
O.F.T.A. would race in Iowa at the Cedar Falls track, we would go to Cordova Illinois for the Sling Shot nationals, and we ran in Brainerd at BIR and Thunder Valley Raceway in Souix Falls South Dakota and Interstate Dragways in Fargo North Dakota. Mike and some of the other members made the trek to Indy for some of the "Good Guys" meets, and the "Flatheads Revenge D/Altered broke some records and won some events at the Bandimere Colorado Speedway.
Flathead’s Revenge and Mike "the Indian" made their mark on the Midwest and our hearts but unfortunately Mike Died suddenly a few years ago. (more below

Flathead's Revenge on exebition at Back to The 50s