From the January 1970 issue of HOT ROD: How does one make the transition from weekend amateur to full-time professional? 'Dandy' Dick Landy answered questions from John Dianna.
Every sport has its professionals, the top guns or champions who have achieved their stature only after working their way through a host of challengers. Drag racing is no exception. But due to the many variables present in a drag racer's career, professionalism is relatively new. It was instigated by the progressive attitudes of those amateur drag racers of yesterday, and Dick Landy is one of them.
There's a good chance you can catch Dick at one of your local strips. He's traveled over 170,000 air miles this year to appear at Dodge dealerships and drag strips across the country. If you haven't seen Dick at work, you should. He's quite a colorful guy."Well, I was born and raised in Granada Hills, California, so naturally I grew up with the Southern California car nuts.
"We wanted to go a little quicker, so we modified the truck, using other Ford truck parts. To run in this truck class, you could use only truck parts, but you could use any pieces — from the big tractors right on down. Anyway, we managed to work the truck up to 95 mph, and we won 34 trophies that year. In '57 they changed the rules for the class, but the guys lost interest and the class fell apart. Then I went back to racing boats.
HRM: "I can't see where you find the time to complete all your work. We've been trying to track you down for weeks. You must keep quite a busy schedule. " "Yeah, it's getting pretty good now. Between the cars and the clinics, I'm not at home very often. Right now I'm trying to put together three new cars for next year. One of the cars is a heads-up Challenger, and it has a new rear suspension under it, which means I have to make the rear suspension completely adjustable so I can flog rear springs.
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