Retired Journalist Jon Asher once penned an article for Super Stock & Drag Illustrated titled “I Drove A Funny Car On Fire.”
As impressive as his expose is, Gordie Bonin, if he ever wrote an article believes he’s got a better storyline.
Asher drove on fire. Bonin drove through a door and down the highway.
“There was a point in the movie where the bad guy had taken the sponsorship away from the main character and gave it to someone else,” Bonin explained. “He also took the car. There was this one part where the good guys stole the car back from inside an auditorium and then I had to drive the car through a door and down the street.”
The auditorium was actually Leon’s Furniture Warehouse, located down the street from the speedway.
“We’re all set to fire this Funny Car up inside there, and inside there were some yellow fumes, and the business owner runs over and asks, ‘this isn’t going to hurt any of my furniture is it?”
“So we fired the car up and I could see all of this yellow smoke. I was supposed to drive the car right through this door and down the street. Jerry tells me once I crash through the door to stop and make sure nothing gets in the injector.”
Not to worry, the door was made from candy, not aluminum.
“I drove the car another two blocks to the St. Albert trail,” Bonin said with a laugh. “That’s when our hero – pulls up next to a couple of beer drinking guys. We had some off-duty policemen stopping traffic. I head down the highway, whip it around and come back and the producer asks if we can do it again.”
