Not So Stock

You'll never convince me that those headers
were an optional extra down at the dealership.

Doctor Elton A. Eckstrand

Lawyer Al Eckstrand of Detroit is driving Plymouth Super Stocks at the big national drag meets this year. To millions of drag strip fans, this leaves little doubt as to who is the man to beat. Eckstrand has a reputation in quarter mile stock car drag strip racing something like Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer hold in golf. He's the man to watch if you are trying to pick a winner.

He has never had any formal engineering training, nor has he ever earned a nickel as a mechanic. His approach to the sport is that of an amateur with an analytical mind and a great desire to win. He has mastered the engineering principles that go into high performance cars and is guided by them, rather than reacting to every weird rumor that goes around the circuit. He prefers stocks because they hold the greatest crowd interest and offer the toughest driver competition.

Having won his first major victory with a TorqueFlite Plymouth Fury as a Super Stock Automatic winner in the 1960 NHRA Nationals, Eckstrand was a pioneer in demonstrating that the automatics could give the sticks a run for their money.

But he is equally at home in a manual shift car. Plymouth builds both in its 1964 line-up of Super Stocks. They promise to be hotter than ever in 1964 competition.

Via : Winged Warriors