Title: Half Fast
Date: 2001
Author: Phil Haskins

Just thought you would like to see this, I took this picture in the summer of 1970 at the Jackson Dragway, then managed by the Hassell Brothers. Danny Butler ran the starting line, and Gene Case ran the gate and occasionally a push broom! This is a picture of the legendary Mopar team, motor and transmission built by James Alexander, tuned and driven by Jim Haskins and Paul Summers, often called then, the Haskins & Summers Plymouth.

The 1964 Belvedere was purchased out of Illinois at auction, and was driven many years by the Illinois State Police. The car was black when first put together, and an old painter from Henderson, TN painted the car, his nickname was "Brains" ( David Russom ). The car put the power down via a 440 C. I. ( 68' block ) punched out over .030. It run a mild hydraulic Cam Dynamics cam, close to the big Chrysler purple shaft, with a .512 lift, Edelbrock Torquer intake, and 850 Holley D.Pumper, Hooker Headers, Mickey Thomas black wrinkle finish valve covers, and this was long before transbrakes, James Alexander built the tranny, it used the original shift linkage to shift all 3 gears, shifting at 6500 rpm. The Rear was an 8 3/4" running a limited slip, positive traction 4:56 gear, with axles out of a highway patrol car, compliments of James Alexander.

The car had the back seats removed, the headlights were removed and aluminum placed behind the headlight bezels. No aluminum floor, all stock body, with a hemi hood scoop feeding the carbuerator thru a velocity stack flushed out with the inside of the hood. (the original direct connection racing manual shows examples of this ). The car ran mostly at Jackson Dragway, occasionally at Halls, TN, a couple of times at Lakeland Dragstrip, and once or twice at Bowling Green, KY. The car was sponsored by James Butler & James Cupples (the original two that started J & J Machine Shop), Don Lindsey, Gene Case, Casey Jones (not the railroad guy, but retired from Consolidated Aluminum Corp. in Jackson, TN ), James Alexander, and others.

The best E.T. the car ran, I personally witnessed before Jackson Dragway started running 1000 feet, the car ran a best 1/4 mile of 11:03, on a cold saturday nite, on average it would run 11:17. When the 1000 foot track was initiated, due to faster cars not having enough stopping space on the top end, the Half Fast plymouth would consistently run 10:82 - 10:85, and the car weighed probably 3,300-3,400 lbs. Not bad for a hydraulic cam, 10.5: 1 pistons, closed chambered heads off of a 61-62 413 engine ( thanks for James Alexander ), and most of all a standard 8 3/4" rear-end, with a traction unit installed. This car won many races, I can remember seeing 50-75 trophies in my brothers house, he finally ran out of space and so did Paul, so they handed them over to me, I collected 10 or so. This car raced legends like Norman Gates in his 68 Camaro, Rickey Clayton in his 68 Camaro, Donald Todd who drove Floyd Sampson's Copper colored 1969 GTX, ( if you noticed the blue, 67 fairlane in the background, Todd ended up with this car ), Burton Carey ( 71 Challenger ), Bill Blankenship's white Corvette, Freddie Chasson's 68 Camaro, and others.

In 1975, Jim and Paul decided, after many discussions, to quit racing, and a guy that worked with Jim @ Conalco in Jackson, TN had his eye on the car, and bought it, his name was James Sowell. Those of you who know Jackson Dragway from the late 70's till the late 80's know James. James had the car painted Daytona blue, and him and Heyward Tomlin, both of Jackson, narrowed a Dana 60' and installed it in the old Half Fast car, as well as, aluminum interior. James built a roller motor and used closed chambered heads and was running some 6:80's in a 1/8 mile. Not bad, but James recognized quick the need for light-weight bodies, and sold the car to Bobby Hill, who drove it on the street while attending Northside High School, and later began racing the car, then later switched over to a Duster, like James Sowell. The old Half Fast was spotted back in 1990 by Phil Haskins & John Garner at a Mopar show in Paris, Tenn at the old car auction lot on Hwy. 79. The car had a '63 plymouth front cap, and the original rear body, and was fatigued pretty bad, don't know if she exists today or not !!! But it was a fine ride, I was 14 then and got to ride a couple of times in it, and Mopar is in my blood heavy !!! By the way, Jim's first car was a 1960 Plymouth with a 392 hemi, wanta here some stories about it and Lakeland Dragstrip ?

Phil Haskins, brother of Jim Haskins