Chuck Finders

[Bob Drury]

  Although not well known on the west coast,  A/ Gas Supercharged legend Chuck Finders has passed away.  Chuck built and raced many varietys of gassers, but was most famous for his 1933 Willy's.
  He was THE MAN as far as building chassis or at least modifying the majority of the mid west and east coast gassers during the "Gasser Wars" era.  R.I.P.

[GH]

Bob, was you an old A/GS racer?

[Bob Drury]

  Gary, I was involved in drag racing for over thirty years, working on alcohol and fuel dragsters, and a nostalgia 33 Willys that I built the body and tinwork on for Mel Bryson.
  I followed the "Gasser Wars" closely, reading Doris Herberts DRAG NEWS cover to cover throughout the 60's and 70's.
  Over the years I built a couple of Willys, and bought and sold 33 to 36 parts in the northwest.
  I met Jack Coonrod in the late 80's, and he gave me access to his scrap books from the Gasser Years.
  The funny thing is, Jack hated Wally Parks, and only ran the East Coast Gasser circuit while living in Vancouver, Wa.
  Chuck built Jacks chassis, along with Junior Thompsons, The Hill Brothers, Gene Alitzers, and many more during those years.
  Chuck also built the first "aero" 33 Willys nostalgia race car body which I copied for Mel Brysons race car and is now the norm for 33 Willys race cars...............Bob

[GH]

Bob, I was lucky enough to win A/GS at Bandamere in 94 at the Gasser event, I ran Bill Fitting in his 33 and beat him only because he beat me bad the day before and he knew that the purse was $1500. He was over confident and thought he could beat me again.We ran right after Mel Bryson crashed his 33. I have bought quite a few parts from Jr. Thompson. Had a lot of fun match racing for 13 years.

[Bob Drury]

  Gary, that was the body I built.  I later made Mel a wall hanger out of the left side of the body.
  I have the rear window and grill hanging in my shop.
  Bill Fittings dad built a beutiful brass windshield frame for the 33 street rod I built.  Bill is a hell of a nice guy.
  Mel Bryson and I opened a wood stove store in Grass Valley, Ca. in 1978, but neither of us met Bill until we started racing the Willys in A/GS. 
  Bill built Mel's second or third chassis ( he had a penchant for guard rails), and Bill also built Jack Coonrod's current nostalgia A/GS.

[Gwillard]

I was introduced to Chuck when I was getting my feet wet in the world of auto racing by a mutual friend. He helped find a radiator and front axle for the old spring front sprint car I was running at the time. He asked why I chose racing as a hobby and suggested buying a set of golf clubs instead.
I'm glad I ignored that bit of advice. 

[Bob Drury]

  Amongst the trove of material Jack Coonrod accumulated during those years is a great picture of Chuck and Doug "Cookie" Cook (Mikes dad) working on the Stone Woods and Cook Willys in Chucks single car garage.  Jack said Doug lived on coffee and cigaretes, and Chuck lived on beer and wild women............................

[GH]

Wayne Artega, out of St. Louis ran an Olds powered Willys way back, there is a photo in Don Montgomerys gasser book taken in Waynes garage of KS Pittman, Doug Cook and onother guy. Wayne just recently died and KS is in a veterans home just west of Springfield, he has alzhimers (sp) real bad. A couple years ago Bob Clayton brought KS's old 33 to the home and I went to see it and KS, poor old KS sure looked bad.