Doug Thorley

Doug Thorley is an American Funny Car drag racer, hot rodder[1] and businessman. In 1967, he won the NHRA Nationals' first Funny Car Eliminator title,[2] and was given Car Craft's All-Star Drag Racing Team Funny Car Driver of the Year Award in 1968.[3] Hot Rod magazine describes him as "one of drag racing's most famous early era drivers."[4]

Racing career

Thorley won many drag races at the Santa Ana (California) strip in the 1950s in a 1938 Century coupe.[1] In the 1960s, he was the first in class to break 200 miles per hour at the Bonneville Salt Flats in a C/Modified Sports Corvette.[1] In 1964, Thorley match raced an altered-wheelbase (pre-Funny Car) 396 cu in (6,490 cc) injected big-block 1964 Chevy II he called Chevy Too Much.[5]

Thorley's Doug's Headers Corvair was the first seven-second Funny Car,[6] and it was in this car he won the NHRA supercharged A Funny Car (AA/FC) class at Indianapolis Raceway Park in 1967,[7] defeating Joe Lunati's The Dixie Devil Camaro.[8] It was the first time Funny Car Eliminator was held at Indy.[9] Indy would also prove to be Thorley's only NHRA national event win in Funny Car.[10]

That year 1967, he would also record the first (unofficial) 200 mph (320 km/h) funny car pass in his Corvair, at Lions Drag Strip.[11]

In 1968, Thorley bought a rear-engined AMC 401-powered Javelin TF/FC (one of just a handful of similar funny cars ever built, including Dave Bowman's California Stud[12]) from Woody Gilmore.[13] (The 401 cu in (6,570 cc) would later be replaced by a 392 cu in (6,420 cc) hemi prepared by John Hoven and Glenn Okazaki.[14]) The same year, he was given Car Craft's All-Star Drag Racing Team Funny Car Driver of the Year Award in 1968.[15]

Doug Thorley Headers

Thorley founded his header company in 1958.[16] Among Thorley's better-known customers were Carol Cox (through her husband, who Thorley was friends with).[17] Thorley headers would go on to be a favorite among drag racers.[18]

Thorley Headers is a leading producer of headers and exhaust systems,[19] favored by many rodders and racers.[20]

Biography

Thorley is the subject of the book Doug Thorley: Headers by Doug written by Don Pennington.[21]

Notes
  1. McClurg, Bob (2016). The History of AMC Motorsports: Trans-Am, Drag, NASCAR, Land Speed and Off-Road Racing. CarTech Inc. ISBN 9781613251775.
  2. Land Speed Racing newsletter (retrieved 2 December 2018); Motorsport.com (retrieved 2 December 2018)
  3. McClurg, Bob. The History of AMC Motorsports (CarTech, Inc, 2016), p.8.
  4. Biegler, Bruce (27 October 2017). "Re-creations of Doug Thorley's Historical Funny Cars". Hot Rod Network. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  5. Land Speed Racing newsletter (retrieved 2 December 2018); Statham, Steve. Nova SS (Osceola, WI: MBI Publishing, 1997), p.107.
  6. Pinterest (retrieved 2 December 2018)
  7. Super Chevy online (retrieved 4 December 2018); Land Speed Racing newsletter (retrieved 2 December 2018); NHRA.net 1967 (retrieved 5 December 2018); Motorsport.com (retrieved 2 December 2018)
  8. Power Performance News online (retrieved 4 December 2018); Ultimateracinghistory (retrieved 2 December 2018)
  9. Land Speed Racing newsletter (retrieved 2 December 2018)
  10. NHRA.com (retrieved 4 December 2018)
  11. McClurg, p.39 caption.
  12. "Gallery: The Best of 1970s Drag Racing", written by Dave Kommel on April 25, 2017, at Hot Rod online (retrieved 22 May 2017)
  13. McClurg, Bob. "50 Years of Funny Cars: Part 2" in Drag Racer, November 2016, p.40 caption.
  14. McClurg, p.40 caption.
  15. McClurg, Bob. The History of AMC Motorsports (CarTech, Inc, 2016), p.8.
  16. Doug Thorley Headers Company (retrieved 2 December 2018)
  17. Burgess, Phil, National Dragster editor. "Carol Cox: NHRA's first class winner", written 4 May 2018, at NHRA.com (retrieved 16 September 2018)
  18. Land Speed Racing newsletter (retrieved 2 December 2018)
  19. Business Week (retrieved 22 December 2018); California Manufacturers Register
  20. Hot Rod (retrieved 22 December 2018)
  21. Pennington, Don (2013). Doug Thorley: Headers by Doug. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 9781480214217.


Sources
  • McClurg, Bob. "50 Years of Funny Cars: Part 2" in Drag Racer, November 2016, pp. 35–50.
  • McClurg, Bob. The History of AMC Motorsports. Forest Lake, Minnesota: CarTech, Inc, 2016
  • Taylor, Thom. "Beauty Beyond the Twilight Zone" in Hot Rod, April 2017, pp. 30–43.

Further reading
  • Boyce, Doug. 1001 Drag RAcing FActs at Google Books.
  • Boyce, Doug. Match Race Mayhem at Google Books.
  • Engel, Lyle. The Complete Book of Fuel and Gas Dragsters. Four Winds Press, 1968.
  • Pennington, Don. Doug Thorley: Headers by Doug. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Apr. 23, 2013.


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