It was just another uneventful day in West Chester, Pa. when Pam Hardy's phone rang with a number or a name on the caller ID that had never called her before.

The name on the caller ID gave a clue what the call was about.

Hardy, known for her entertainment value as “Jungle” Jim Liberman’s B.U.G. (back up girl) didn't necessarily know that a random call from Don Garlits meant one was going to be inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame. 

"I'm going to tell you right now, I didn't hear a word he said," Hardy admitted. "I don't know if he was on a bad connection or what, but I heard that, "Pam, this is Don," and I heard Hall of Fame, and then I know he's talking, but I cannot hear him. And all the time I'm saying, 'Don, I can't hear you, Don. I can't hear you,' and he's still going on.

Garlits, who has suffered diminished hearing loss over the decades of fuel racing, likely couldn’t hear her either.

But, it really didn’t matter she had heard enough. Or at least heard enough to pique her interest. 

“It's a good thing they sent the paperwork or I wouldn't have believed it,” Hardy admitted. “At no time did I feel I was Hall of Fame material. That [life] was pretty far down the road. That's, what, 51 years elapsed between that incident and Garlits' call, 51 years.

“Well, if you read their [criteria]... How do I want to say this? If you read what they base their induction on, mine's a little farfetched. It's not actually spelled out there in the bylines anywhere, walk around half naked and garner all sorts of love. It's not in the criteria.”

Hardy represents a group of the drag racing entourage that neither drove or tuned a race car. They were in the entertainment sector, and not like an announcer. She was in the legends group of those long remembered for their exploits at the track. Turns out, being the dream girl of every teenage boy at the drag strip (and a few grown men) has been enough of an impact to keep her name household for almost a half-century.

In fact, Hardy’s Legends: The Series episode which originally uploaded to CompetitionPlusTV’s YouTube page, has garnered 2.4 million views since the first of two episodes was uploaded in 2017. That’s almost two million more views than the second-largest viewed episode of John Force. 

“Well, sex sells,” Hardy said. “You see it on the TV all the time, but back in the '70s, Jungle and I decided together that this would be worth a shot, so that's what we did, and it didn't seem to hurt his reputation at all. And he had more pictures taken of his car as long as I was standing next to it than anybody else.”

She might have been scantily clad, but amongst the drag racing teams she garnered a lot of respect. However, she’s not convinced it was immediate. 

“Maybe after a time,” Hardy said. “Nobody knew that I'd stick around for a number of years. I could have just been the last thing he picked up at a truck stop, really.”

A large part of that is she was willing to get her hands dirty. She might have had a well-filled halter top, but she also had grease under her fingernails. That was a big plus in the eyes of those who knew her. She had no problem whatsoever pulling her weight in the pits. 

“I’ve been on fire twice,” Hardy admitted in an episode of Legends: The Series. “I was on fire once when the fuel tank [exploded during a warm-up] in Englishtown. I caught on fire another time in Martin, Michigan when Jungle turned over the engine and didn’t take the mag wire off. I was underneath the body. I questioned why I was doing this more than once. You take it in stride, like I should have been bagging groceries instead.

“I remember after the fire in Martin, I walked up to Ed McCulloch and he said, ‘You stink [like burned hair]. He was right I was missing eyebrows and some hair was singed.”

But the steadfast Hardy knew she had a job to do, and was more than just a pretty face with a killer body to match. As she put it, “ass, gas or grass, no one rides for free.” While the drivers entertained with their cars, she entertained with herself. It became evident in this era, Hardy could have backed up a golf-cart and she would have still been the most entertainment at the track. 

“Well, drag racing back then was entertainment,” Hardy added. “You had the dry hops, you had the long burnouts, you had the crazy burnouts to where people would come and drive back up the racetrack and then turn around to the stage. You just added the sex to the speed angle, and as you well know, it's what sells tickets.”

“When I was 20, I was all that.”

And the biggest misconception? Hardy said her drag racing persona didn’t match the real her. When asked what was the most misunderstood thing about her? Hardy without hesitation pointed out that her provocative dress often labeled her as an easy mark for testosterone-driven males.

“Look at the way I was dressed,” Hardy said.

 

 

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Then it all came abruptly to an end in 1977, when she and Liberman parted ways. Yet drag racers and fans never forgot her.

 “I've said this before, and I will always say, drag racers are the best people on earth,” Hardy said. “They just are. Basically, they are helpful, kind, it's a great community. You really wouldn't want anybody else having your back.”

But the memories exist for what some would describe as the rockstar life, a notion she counters with rockstars didn’t often bathe in gas station bathrooms or eat Beanie Wienees regularly. 

“I guess it depends on what you think rockstars do,” Hardy said. “I think if you pick up an autobiography of anybody who started... Just starting off, there's probably five people in one apartment eating the Beanee Weenees and drinking and having sex and trying to create something. And until they hit it big, until their overnight success five years later gives them a platinum album, you don't get that kind of payoff in drag racing, I guess, unless you're [John] Force, but it really was just a traveling show. Just like a circus, the carneys that go from town to town and set up their rides, back then.”

Just to think, in just four years, Hardy made enough of an impression on drag racing that its followers still hold her in high regard five decades later. And, while Hardy still cannot believe her efforts warrant a placement in one of drag racing’s highest honors, she wishes two people could have been around to see the momentous occasion – her mother, who didn’t much care for what she did, and Liberman, with whom she believes would have loved the moment because it provided a good opportunity for a party. 

She might not have started the back-up girl fad, but clearly she set the standard.

“I'm still shocked that I'm supposed to be in this thing because I don't feel that I have... Other than starting an enduring trend or fad, I really didn't,” Hardy said. “Well, I guess I did innovate that part of it, but I didn't engineer, innovate, or do anything.

Hardy’s mantra was to entertain, and just be nice to people. 

“It's not hard to be nice to people,” Hardy said. “You're just putting on a show. It's like any other entertainer in any other venue. It was harder getting to a racetrack than being at the racetrack.

“It was a good time but nothing lasts forever anyway, especially when you're in your 20s. Everything moves a lot faster. It was a time. It was all good.”

Hardy might feel nothing lasts forever, but her legend might disagree. It has held up enough to get her in the hallowed halls of the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.