Prologue:
The
car was ordered in July of 1967 by Jim Crooke who visited Don
Long, Tom Hanna, George Cerney Jr, Ed Pink and George Klass (
P&G Trailers ) and discussed how they were going to build
the car/engine/trailer.
Don Long: The
original order shows a 180" wb ( I remember as 185"
) - actual is 183". The car is narrower than a standard
Chrysler powered car of the era by about 1". The car was
ordered with a foot brake to be used in the shut off area as
well as turning around on the starting line after push starting
as starters were not yet being used - a feature Don had built
on the Baney & Prudhomme car. All the aluminum parts were
anodized red with the mag parts Dow 7 treated.
Tom Hanna: The
body was designed to be used several ways.Tail section ( one
of the last to be made by Tom ) with the nose piece. Tom also
built a 2nd cowl and side panels behind the rear end to be used
with out the tail section - this cowl had the "foot bumps".
Tom also made a set of engine side panels to be used if the nose
piece was not on the car but the car was never raced in the shorty
body configuration.
George Cerney/Tom
Kelley: George and Tom had done the paint and lettering on Crooke's
Woody top gas car so he went to them for this project. They discussed
various colors etc. and Crooke shared with them that he was going
to name the car The Assassin - in and era of Kings (i.e. Jerry
Ruth) etc. he thought this an appropriate name.
Ed Pink: The
engine was ordered as a duplicate to the Baney & Prudhomme
car including Mag blower manifold, VanCharger supercharger, Enderle
injector etc with a complete selection of spare parts for racing
in the northwest.
The original
estimated completion date was to be in October. Like all projects
completion was a little later - the car first ran in December
of 1967 with Bob Muravez (aka Floyd Lippencotte) driving. The
4th run on the car produced an ET of 6.98.
In the fall of
1968 Crooke decided to return to school at the University of
Washington. He also decided to sell the Assassin. The car was
sold to Bob Painton and Pete Reimer of Vancouver BC.
33 years later Crooke renewed
his interest in drag racing after spending endless hours on WDIFL.com.
Looking at all the pictures on the site brought back many great
memories. Crooke found many shots of his close friend, Jerry
Ruth and pictures of the Assassin. This rediscovery of old friendships
and WDIFL gave Crooke a desire to see If he could locate his
old car.
Since the car was sold in Canada
that's where Crooke started. Don Ewald told Jim that he had some
connections in Canada and would see what he could find out. Crooke
was surprised several weeks later when Ewald forwarded to him
an e-mail from Steven Kendall from Pentection BC saying that
he thought he had the Assassin. Steven was racing the car with
a Chevy and a powerglide transmission. Jim called Steven right
away. They quickly determined that this was indeed Crooke's old
car. Jim attempted to purchase the car sight unseen but Steven
was still enjoying racing it. He did assure Crooke that if he
did decide to sell the car he would call him first. This was
in the spring of 2001.
In October of 2001 Crooke got
a call from Jerry Ruth who had been talking to Jim Green, the
owner of Jim Green's High Performance Center in Lynnwood, Washington.
Green had been a very successful drag racer for and number of
years and was now collecting Ford 427 SOHC engines. After attending
the 2001 CHRR Green decided he'd like to restore a Cacklefest
car but one that had a cammer. Ruth told Green that Crooke had
located the Assassin and suggest that would be a perfect car
to restore. This began to seen like a project that was meant
to be! Green and Crooke discussed the project and how they would
to do it. Green decided to proceed with the project with assistance
from Crooke. At this point they had to figure out how to get
the Assassin from Seven Kendall in Pentiction BC.