As far as Ted Guth knows, there are only a few drag racing nostalgia cars in the metro area. Of these, only three are funny cars burning nitro fuel. One is the latest version of legendary local racer Doc Halladay's Plymouth Arrow "Telstar." Another is Stanke Motorsports' "Twin Town Shaker," a 426 Hemi Arrow expected to race at tracks this summer. You've probably guessed that the third is owned by the 53-year-old Guth. A reproduction of a 1973 Plymouth Duster that's dubbed "White Trash," the car is poised to make its Midwest racing debut this spring.
While Guth won't race in Minnesota because no state tracks host nostalgia funny cars, area racing fans can check out his car next weekend. Its unique public unveiling takes place next Saturday and Sunday at the State Fair Coliseum when Guth and the car's driver, Bruce Oja, put the car together during the 53rd Annual Gopher State Timing Association Rod & Custom Spectacular. A Stanke car will also be at the show.
Nostalgia drag racing involves cars and, sometimes, the drivers from drag racing's storied past. Caps on vehicle modifications keep costs from spiraling completely out of control, especially when purses don't come close to those won by top National Hot Rod Association drivers. But, because competition enters into the equation and the cars are basically the same as the top drag racing machines, it still costs tens of thousands of dollars to build and race nostalgia dragsters. As Guth notes, "There's some prize money, but winning doesn't cover the cost of running, even if you don't break a thing over an entire weekend of racing."
A Twin Cities resident who grew up in Richfield, Guth has made his living in the building materials industry since 1979 and is currently a product developer for a local company. But he devotes much of his time to cars. Someone who says he's "always messed around with cars," he spent the late 1960s and early '70s doing what many guys he knew did back then - he worked on cars. He dragged his street cars at Minnesota Dragways in the early '70s, then followed that with, as he says, "a little sports car racing and a little circle track racing." The former was in SCCA events at Brainerd International Raceway in a production Corvette; the latter happened at Elko Speedway in "cars you could buy from the winner for $300."
Never a top driver, Guth got into restoring and selling classic cars when he stopped racing. After fixing up 'Vettes and muscle cars off and on, he decided to concentrate on restoring what he calls "historically significant drag racers" about six years ago. He refers specifically to 1960s' nitro-burning funny cars and top fuel dragsters. "It was just more interesting than restoring another Corvette," he says of the cars he had watched race or read about as a youth. One car he restored was Drag Racing Hall of Famer Roland Leong's 1969 Dodge Charger, "The Hawaiian," which spectators saw and heard at the 2007 GSTA show.
Guth says restoring that funny car led him to build his own and get back into racing. He certainly doesn't do it for the money and says that winning is "just icing on the cake. What appeals to him are the competition, the people in the sport and the mechanical challenges involved. "Participating and putting on a good show is what nostalgia racing is all about and," he adds, "nitro racing is definitely exciting."