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Quote:

"I decline to label him an innovator."

No flame, but a correction. You must not have been around him much in the old days....he certainly wasn't my favorite guy, by a long shot, but an innovator he was indeed. He had to be, as he was outgunned by the MoPar bunch.

Figuring out the small block Vega as a competitive package was one. As illegal as it was, and it was illegal (right, Fred?), it worked. He also had a deal where he was sawing the carbs in half and running them as four two barrells....the man was a genius. Also, I think he had kind of hard feelings against Chrysler because they didn't pick him up as a factory driver after the 1965 season.

Ronnie was the best, best, ever, period. I saw Ronnie race the Grump many, many times, and the Grump was the only Chevrolet to be in the same ball park. You gotta give him credit.

I never said I didn`t respect him. Fiery competitor. I put him in the same class with Chad Knauss; A genius, but playing a little loose with the rules. Grump was one of the guys who pitched heads up S/S to NHRA,& when he couldn`t stay competitive,he broke every rule they had. NHRA went along with it & killed Hemi development for 25 years. Nascar saw NHRA was healthy without Mopar & they hosed us too.Wonder what that cost chevrolet ? At the 2001 gathering to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Hemi,Wally Parks apologized to Tom Hoover for killing the Hemi. In retrospect,maybe I blame Grump for what happened to Pro Stock. Look at the 70-71 cars; Nothing that exciting since.



You can't blame Jenkins for making the most of the rules. He worked within the specs and used them to his advantage...the definition of innovation. All of the big names of that era took advantage not only of what was in the rulebook, but more importantly what was NOT in the rulebook. It was not Jenkins the wrote the rules, he just used them to his advantage.

The big names of that era were a special group...Sox, Nicholson, Jenkins....and the list could go on for a while.

I'm pretty sure if you talk to the racers of that era, if they didn't like Jenkins, it was because of what he did on the track (i.e. win). But they virtually all respected him as a person, mentor, and his important role in the early days of pro stock.