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[
Dale Armstrong ] [
Jim Bucher ] [
Jon Lundberg ] [
Ken Veney ] [
Dave Wallace Jr. ]
[ Jim McFarland ]
[
Weekly, Rivero, Fox & Holding - The Frantic Four
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Jim Bucher
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In the world of AA/Fuel dragster racing, Jim Bucher has to be at either the top or very near the top of the ultimate underdog category. In his entire racing career, Jim never used anything but a Chevrolet engine for his power plant, managing to compete against the more popular Chrysler engine with significant success. Jim was very typical of a lot of racers when he first started racing, competing in his daily transportation car, a 1957 Chevrolet, in the beginning but less than a year later in early 1961 at the age of 21 this type of racing just wasn’t fast enough so he made the giant step into the dragster wars with a Chevy powered gas dragster. Jim competed in the gas dragster ranks from 1961 until the class was eliminated at the end of 1971.
During the time he competed in the gas dragster world he won the Popular Hot Rodding event in 1971, won the last Top Gas race at the Supernationals held at Ontario Raceway in 1971 and while working as a full time electrician to support his family, he managed to help support his hobby by competing in a series of match races through out the country. With the elimination of the gas dragster class in 1971, Jim moved into the AA/Fuel dragster wars still running a blown Chevy for power, a move that left him as the only competitor at that time using a Chevy for power in the class.
It didn’t take Jim long to get a handle on using fuel and in 1973 at the Gatornationals he set a new Top Fuel E.T. record at 6.07 seconds. Later that year he qualified in the number one slot at the U.S. Nationals in Indy and in 1975 his car became the only Chevy powered dragster to win the class when he took the Wally at the Summernationals. As he did during his gas burning days, Jim helped pay his way in Top Fuel by competing in a large number of match races, pairing off against the likes of Don Garlits, Tom Ivo and the Greek to name a few.
By mid-season of 1975 Jim was number one in the NHRA Championship points chase and it looked like he might go all the way but it was about this same time he was diagnosed with a rare blood disease and with the toll disease was taking on his body and the cost involved in its treatment, Jim ended the season in the number four spot. Jim fought the cancer as hard as he competed in the AA/Gas and AA/Fuel Dragster wars but in 1977 he lost his final race.
