Al segrini driver scott

They won more than 75 percent of their races and were consistent record breakers. Marshall and Vermilya split in and continued on their own paths. He had his best success with the car during the U. Nationals, defeating Jerry Mallicoat in the final and setting the class speed record at Seabrook, a native of New Jersey, was an unorthodox drag racer, not running with V-8 power and not racing an altered that was of the blown fuel variety. The car was a winner from the start, and Segrini loved driving it.

The brothers racked up a series of wins against their mostly Hemi-powered opponents but finally had enough of what they considered to be a constantly shifting set of rules and returned to New England Dragway, where track promoter Jack Doyle had a soft spot for them.

After a while, some of those guys got pretty pissed off because our car always went down the track. One of them — I think it was Lew Arrington — refused to run against me. I think we ended up in three or four finals.

We never won, but we gave them a race. It was during the season and regular racing trips to the Maryland area that Segrini met Jim Beattie, who owned ATI, a top name in automatic racing transmissions. Beattie, a big Funny Car fan, ultimately decided he wanted one of his own and put Segrini in charge of the project. A Woody Gilmore car was ordered, and Segrini wisely chose Kenny Youngblood to dream up a paint scheme for the car, which was to be named Black Magic. Youngblood responded with one of his all-time great designs, a flowing trio of stripes — orange, red, and yellow — on a brilliant black background.

The car also featured extensive chrome and polish and revolutionary faux-marble anodizing. The car was named Best Appearing Car in its debut at the Gatornationals, where the team also collected Best Appearing Crew honors, an unprecedented feat in those times. Segrini drove the Black Magic for three years, but the biggest highlight came early, in the season, when they reached the final round of the Summernationals and pulled in to face none other than Liberman, who also was appearing in his first national event final round.

We ended up beating him, and I remember seeing him on the return road with his head down. Beattie brought a second car — the Black Stang, driven by Pee Wee Wallace — into the fold, but Segrini had misgivings about the way that Beattie had the car built. Offered a chance to drive the ill-handling car at a match race, Segrini refused. Scott converted car to nitro in and hired Al Segrini to drive the "Bandit.

Al had some success in the "Bandit," running a good 6. The car was not without controversy, as the team had to prove the car was not too low and dragging the starting beams. The "Highland Bandit" was raced on nitro until the end of Here is one of the forgotten U. Marines funny cars. Two other teams ran the U. Marines banner besides the famous Mickey Thompson cars. He went through a series of funny cars including a Camaro, a Mustang, a Vega, and a Monza.

In , Harmon built an Arrow with U. Marines backing the car. The car was a standard match race combo of the era with a KB aluminum block with cast iron heads topped with a small blower.

Nick did not enjoy success on the NHRA tour with the car, but did have some good outings in local match races. Harmon ran a known best of 6. Harmon finished his nitro career in one of the former Pacemaker funny cars of Gordie Bonin. He later ran a jet funny car before retiring from racing. He said that out loud really loud because Brandt was standing behind us engaged in another conversation.

He never heard it, so I repeated it to Brandt. The party went well into the night, with favorite stories told, memories shared, lies embellished, and playful insults hurled.

As I wrote about the last party I attended, it just blows my mind how this group has stayed in touch and remain so close. They have bonds and friendships forged under the pressure of racing, bonds that will remain long into the future.

Attending it is like dropping in on someone's class reunion, but the stories are way better than remembering who puked on whose shoes at the big dance although some of those stories could probably cross over.