Everyone thinks their mom is the best, but my mom scores some extra points by owning some pretty awesome Mopars back in the day. One of those cars you’ve almost certainly come to know over the years. At 84 years old today, my mom just laughs at the thought that one of her and her first husband’s cars would end up becoming a legendary Mopar racecar.



The car I’m referring to is Butch Leal’s “California Flash”, the 1965 A990 Hemi Belvedere. Prior to Butch Leal acquiring the car is was owned by my mother and her husband, Tom Walls. Tom and my mother married right out of high school and drag racing was just part of her young life. According to my mom, the car was so expensive for them they had a hard time making payments on it and buying groceries. Tom’s race partner, was Gary Sutton. Gary (or Uncle Gary, as I’d come to know him) and Tom had been racing and wrenching together for several years. The soon-to-be legendary 65 hemi car wasn’t their first Mopar endeavor. Prior to that was a 1964 426 Max Wedge Lightweight Belvedere that they raced all over California at the various drag strips of the time. After they sold the 65 Hemi Belvedere, they’d attempt to campaign one more car together, but it didn’t quite go as planned.



Tom and Gary were very close with friend and fellow racer and engine builder, Tommy Grove. Tommy Grove of course is well known for his six different legendary “Melrose Missile” cars, prepared and sold by Melrose Motors. I don’t have all the details, nor does my aging mother remember them, but according to Dave Schmitz, Tommy Grove did Sutton and Walls a big favor by providing them the 7th and final Melrose Missile car to ever be built, A 1967 Hemi Belvedere RO23 car. When Dave told me this, it immediately resolved a bit of a mystery for me. My mother, Pat, had told me numerous times that she and Tom received one of the Melrose Missile cars from Tommy Grove, but couldn’t recall the details. As I mentioned, the campaigning of their Missile didn’t quite go as planned. About this time, Tom Walls and my mother would divorce and Tom would make an exit from racing for good. Gary Sutton ended up with the 67 Missile and according to his future and long-time race partner, Dave Schmitz, Gary didn’t like the car after putting a 4 speed in it. Gary liked to drive, it was his passion, and simply couldn’t make the Missile run the right numbers after ditching the automatic trans. Eventually the Missile’s drivetrain was pulled and replaced with something average and the should-have-been famous RO23 car was sold to an auto wholesaler, never to be seen again.



Dave Schmitz and Gary Sutton would go on to develop quite the partnership. Together they’d own and race a 1970 Hemi Cuda for decades. My mother would remain close to Gary Sutton and his wife Barbara. I came along in 1977 after my mother remarried. As a kid, I enjoyed visiting Uncle Gary and Aunt Barbra’s house. They had a pool, a well-stocked candy dish, and a really loud black race car in the garage! I have several memories being around the 70 Cuda and seeing it race at Fremont Drag strip with my dad in the 1980s is something I won’t forget.

As it does, life would move on quickly. My dad would pass away in an accident when I was a young teen and Uncle Gary would go on to win the 1991 Winter Nationals in the black Hemi Cuda just a few months after serving as a pallbearer at dad’s funeral. That long overdue victory would be Gary’s last, as not much longer he too would pass away. Dave Schmitz would keep the Cuda active and successful for years, running as fast as a 9.87 in the A/SA class.



I’ve intentionally kept these stories as condensed as possible, but I want to mention that I owe Dave Schmitz a great deal of thanks for taking the time to share with me a wealth of information pertaining to my family, their cars, and the small fingerprint left in the early days of the NHRA. I’m hoping to sit down with Dave once more in the future and perhaps record some of these stories to share in the future.

While the likelihood of me owning any of these cars is remarkably slim, if given the chance, I would be interested in that opportunity -Please feel free to reach out.

Below is a LINK to a short tribute video using some family video footage of the "SUTTON & WALLS" 1964 Lightweight 426 Wedge Belvedere mentioned in this post.

https://youtu.be/IruHc9uxGS0


If you made it this far, thank you for reading!
Dan Glenn
fordmandan@gmail.com

I watched both the Melrose Missle and California Flash run at Fremont several times
thanks for sharing the stories

The title made me think the thread was about the 1965 Plymouth A990 called Mother Mistake.

I know that it's currently owned a guy named Paul (I can't remember his last name) and the body has been restored and is be finished up last I knew..
Last Christmas it was just waiting on the engine and trans.

The car looked amazing paint and interior-wise.

Wow very cool!

Great story and history. Thanks for sharing.

thank you sir, for sharing a possibly unknown part of history.