Clyde Hopper's 1964 Dodge 426 Max Wedge that Forever Changed Grand Spaulding Dodge #dodge

Clyde Hopper's 1964 Dodge 426 Max Wedge that forever Changed Grand Spaulding Dodge, the beginning of a drag racing empire. When you think of Mr. Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge, a few things come to mind. Mainly high performance muscle cars, nitro fuel burning blown Hemi funny cars, match racing altered wheel base cars, and even the days of the Hustler I and Hustler II super stockers. But before the days of Pat Minick, Gary Dyer, Rich Moudry, and Kenny Safford, there was a young man from the southside of Chicago named Clyde Hopper. Clyde was an avid street racer and also was a force to be reckoned with at the Chicago Amphitheatre indoor drag racing. While he technically was not a sponsored racer at Grand Spaulding Dodge, he did open the eyes of drag racing to Mr. Norm. Clyde had a 1963 Max Wedge Dodge and in late 1963, bought a brand new 1964 Dodge 426 Max Wedge 4 speed car from Grand Spaulding Dodge. At the time, Mr. Norm really didn't know much about drag racing, let alone what was going on at the Chicago Amphitheatre. That being said, Clyde sure did. He was racking up win after win and the trophies and cash were flowing. One day Clyde went into Grand Spaulding Dodge and pitched a deal with Mr. Norm, he would put the dealership name on the car in exchange for some parts. That deal was struck and soon after, Mr. Norm started selling a lot of performance cars due to "win on Sunday and sell on Monday." Not only did he start selling cars, Mr. Norm had the dealership even sponsor some of the events and gave away trophies and prizes. Even one of Norm's employees raced at the indoor drags, a guy named "Lucky" raced his slant six 1963 Dodge Dart GT there, some say he was the first to win a trophy for the newly created Mr. Norm's Sport Club. Needless to say, Mr. Norm caught the drag racing bug. Soon he would have two super stockers, the Hustler I and Hustler II that were driven by Pat Minick and tuned by John Farkonas. After that, well the fuel burning blown Hemi altered wheel base cars ad funny cars driven by Gary Dyer and Kenny Safford were all the rage across the nation. Pretty crazy how a young man from the southside of Chicago forever changed history on the Mopar world. For more information on the indoor drag racing book:   / howard.crull   #history #chicago #mrnorm