Swamp Rat 6A: When Pat and I returned to Tampa after the 1963 tour, Garlits Automotive had two new things, a mandrel tubing bender and some "Swoopy" tail sections by Arty Ross of New Orleans. Swingle and I cut the rear section off of Swamp Rat 5-B and proceeded to build the first "Swoopy Tail" Swamp Rat, number 6, later to be 6-A. First we painted the car red and proceeded to California to defend the Drag News 1320 #1 Spot against Norm Weekly at Pomona. We ran an open race at Pomona the week before and had a bad experience with the car being red, so we painted it black for the Weekly match race, which we won. We were runner up to Connie Kalitta at the prestigious US Fuel and Gas Championships in March, won a couple of match races in Southern CA and returned home to Tampa. We had a car on the chassis jig for Spencer Krumholtz from NY, but when Spencer saw the new car, Swamp Rat 6, he wanted it instead. Spencer paid the extra money and returned to NY, leaving me with just a bare chassis and lots of money. The very next day Art Malone returned from CA with his Garlits "Swoopy Tail" car, the first one we built from scratch, saw my new car and was concerned I had found a new chassis secret on the winter tour. Art demanded I give him my new car fresh off the Jig and I did, trading in his old car. Arts car then became Swamp Rat 6-B. Years later I found the original Swamp Rat 6-A at the 1997 Terry Cook 50's party in New Jersey. The car was for sale, was pink and sporting a SB Chevy engine, I purchased it and by the middle of 97 SR 6-A was restored and running. SR 6-A has been to several "Cacklefests" and is now on display in the Drag Racing Museum.
