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Doug Thorley

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Doug Thorley (died March 10, 2021) was 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

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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

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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

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

Thorley died March 10, 2021, at his home in New Harmony, Utah at age 92.[22]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c 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 Archived 2018-11-04 at the Wayback Machine (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 Archived 2018-11-04 at the Wayback Machine (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 Archived 2018-11-04 at the Wayback Machine (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 Archived 2018-11-04 at the Wayback Machine (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 Archived 2018-11-04 at the Wayback Machine (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.
  22. ^ Richards, Jeff (March 29, 2021). "Cedar City native Doug Thorley, drag racing pioneer and header manufacturer, leaves storied legacy". St. George News. Retrieved 30 March 2021.


Sources

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  • 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

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  • 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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