Another old racer passes....

[copo69]

Just heard Malcolm Durham has passed.

[PeteLeathersac]

Salute to the STRIP BLAZER! .

Probably lining up against Ronnie Sox tonight on the Gold Paved track? . Wonder w/ altitude you account for up there? .



~ Pete

[SmallHurst]

Last week, Oldsmobile guru Dale Smith passed away. He was not a racer, but he was the one who made certain that performance was not forgotten within Olds. He was the back door resource for every Olds racer in the day.

I have a feeling that with all the racers that are passing on, that St. Peter is seeing more than his fair share of white clouds (smelling of burning rubber!)

[sYc]

[ QUOTE ]
Just heard Malcolm Durham has passed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hate to hear that...


The first year at the York show I visited with Malcolm, and last year did the same with Ronnie Sox.

[bowtie3168]

I did not expect to check the board and see this post. Malcolm Durham was truly a hero both as a drag racer and as a person. I was lucky to get the opportunity on several occasions to meet and hang around with Malcolm, and his son Bernard. What a true gentleman. A true loyal Chevrolet racer Malcolm stuck with Chevrolet thru the 1963 racing ban, into the dawn of the Funny Car era and continue to be a major competitor in Super Stock and Pro Stock. Malcolm was an original ZL1 owner. I pioneer, tough competitor, a hero, and a great family man, he will be missed.

[olredalert]

------I met Malcomb a little late in life when I was running Red Alert about 1992 or so. He made such an impression on me. I was in awe of him and how much he accomplished in life with so little, and I still am. We were pitted next to each other and as chance would have it our motel rooms were also together. Because of this we spent that weekend getting to know one another, and he was the real deal. Im sure everyone who knew him even a little bit would say what a family man he was. Family was everything. It showed as his kids (grown) were with him and his wife and were polite and respectful of all around them. They showed just what a great upbringing they had with every move. This, of course, had as much to do with his wonderful wife as Malcomb, but Im sure he would say it was all her as thats the kind of Man I found him to be, God rest his soul.........Bill S

[71-LS6]

I had no idea who Malcomb was, until I started reading some books on super stock drag racing a few years ago. What a neat guy. It's kind of sad to see all the legends passing away.

[Seattle Sam]

No. 48: Malcolm Durham


In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier when he became the first African-American player to sign a Major League contract. In the 1960s, a drag racer by the name of Malcolm Durham accomplished a similar feat, establishing himself as the sport's first black superstar.

"We encountered some problems in the South because those people didn't want to accept us," said Durham. "But for me, being black was actually a plus because it made me unique, and I tried to capitalize on it as much as possible. During the late 1960s, I averaged $800 per appearance, and that made me one of the highest paid drivers in the business."

In the mid-1960s, Durham was given the nickname "D.C. Lip" in an attempt to ally himself with the controversial Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay. But Durham was actually a soft-spoken, hard-working individual whose storied match-race accomplishments were the result of many long hours of hard work.

Raised on a family farm in Goldsboro, N.C., Durham gained his initial mechanical experience working on tractors. He began racing in 1957 at Easy Street Dragstrip in Newton Grove with a 225-horsepower '56 Chevy.

After moving to Washington, D.C., Durham took automotive courses at a technical trade school and campaigned the '56 Chevy at Aquasco Speedway with great success. In 1962, while working as a mechanic for Hicks Chevrolet, he began campaigning a 409-cid '62 Chevy with Z-11 heads, winning nearly 90 percent of the races he entered.

After moving from the repair department to car sales, Durham was able to devote more time to racing. He campaigned the first 427-cid Z-11 '63 Chevy available in Washington, D.C., under the name Strip Blazer I and improved from his 409 best of 12.26 to 12.01 his first time out at 75-80 Drag-A-Way. Later that year, he defeated both Dave Strickler's A/S Chevy and Bill Jenkins' A/FX entry, and before long, Durham was regularly booked at match races on the East Coast, campaigning against Don Nicholson, Sox & Martin, the Ramchargers, Hayden Proffitt, Strickler, and Jenkins.

Chevrolet dropped out of racing at the end of 1963, prompting Durham to drop the '63 Chevy Z-11 engine into a midsize '64 Chevelle, which he called Strip Blazer II. "It was my answer to Ford's 427 Thunderbolts," explained Durham. "We had the engine moved back eight inches from the stock location, but we did it in a way that few people could detect."

Ronnie Sox and Buddy Martin won the A/Factory Experimental title at the 1964 Winternationals, but Durham's Chevelle beat them on consecutive evenings at 75-80 and Cecil County, then defeated them three more times at a New York match race.

Durham kept pace with the Funny Car revolution of 1965, updating the Chevelle with 1965 sheet metal and adding injectors and nitromethane; those changes netted bests of 9.56 and 150 mph.

In 1966, Durham switched to a tube-frame Camaro, which took him to a win at the UDRA Nationals at U.S. 30. After he extended the wheelbase another 10 inches, he dropped into the eight-second zone.

The addition of a supercharger in 1967 made Durham as quick and fast as 7.98, 178, and Durham spent the off-season completing a new Logghe-chassised Camaro that proved to be one of his best rides. He clocked 7.5-second elapsed times on a regular basis in 1968 and broke the 200-mph barrier in 1969.

Durham also competed in Pro Stock with a '73 Vega that clocked a 9.17 best. He later converted the car to B/EA, then quit racing for a while so that he could send his eldest son, Bernard, to college.

Durham returned to racing with a 1984 Pro Stock Camaro, but after he crashed the car in Rockingham in 1985, he retired.

Durham made a comeback in 1989 with a nostalgia version of his '65 Chevelle, and Bernard began campaigning in Super Gas with his father's former Pro Stock Vega. Durham has two other sons, Raynard and Byron, who builds racing engines for a living.

Though Durham keeps busy with his nostalgia programs and his sons' racing efforts, he still has dreams of returning to Professional racing. "But we'd have to have the resources to do it right. When I started, one or two guys could do it themselves, but it's certainly not that way now. Drag racing has sure come a long way since my career began."

Malcolm Durham

[olredalert]

-----I want to apologize for spelling Malcolms name incorrectly. I should know better.......Bill S

[musclecarjohn]

Wow...what's with all these superstar drag racers passing lately...?
Malcom Durham was one of the greatest to ever turn a wheel on the 1/4 mile.I have a picture of my dad's '67 flip-top Buick Skylark F/C (yes,430ci wildcat buick-powered)running Malcom in his extended wheelbase blown '67 Camaro.The Buick,appears to have gotten a holeshot in the picture but as well as Malcom always ran,he probably won that one too.

RIP Malcom,you will truly be missed.