{"id":7104,"date":"2014-07-31T14:45:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T21:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=7104"},"modified":"2014-07-31T14:45:32","modified_gmt":"2014-07-31T21:45:32","slug":"gunners-classic-corner-boss-bird-is-back-flyin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/gunners-classic-corner-boss-bird-is-back-flyin\/","title":{"rendered":"[Gunner’s Classic Corner] – Boss Bird is Back Flyin’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Wisconsin car enthusiast known as \u201cBig Nick\u201d says he was recently fortunate enough to be part of the resurrection of the \u201cBoss Bird Jr\u201d\u2014one of Arnie ” Farmer” Beswick\u2019s least known and rarest Pontiac drag racing cars. Beswick is a driver from a small Illinois farming town who found success in drag racing. Today, he is probably the best-known Pontiac drag racer of all time.<\/p>\n

Beswick grew up on the family farm in Morrison, Ill. and at an early age developed a passion for automotive mechanical work. By the mid-\u201850s he was racing Oldsmobiles and Dodges. In 1958 he purchased a new Pontiac Chieftain and a tradition was born. Beswick\u2019s continued success behind the wheel of Pontiacs became nothing short of legend in race after race around the country.<\/p>\n

In 1959, he raced a new Pontiac. A 1960 348-hp Ventura was his first special drag car. By 1961, he had a new Pontiac that was absolutely unbeatable. Beswick beat the famous Royal Pontiac team three straight times and also outran Mickey Thompson. By 1962, Super Stock wars were in full swing.<\/p>\n

Beswick raced a 1962 Super Duty 421 Pontiac.\u00a0In 1963, he achieved more success with a “Swiss cheese” Catalina and a Tempest wagon with 421 Super duty motors and aluminum front ends. Later in the year he also purchased one of the new 421 LeMans Tempest coupes.<\/p>\n

With the release of the GTO in 1964, secured the only one built with an aluminum front end and no sound deadener. Shortly after taking delivery, Beswick replaced the stock 389-cid V-8 with a 421 Super-Duty engine.<\/p>\n

In 1965, Beswick put a supercharger on his GTO and began running nitro. This car became a feared competitor on drag racing\u2019s new “match race” circuit where fans would either cheer or jeer the cars, depending on their brand loyalty.<\/p>\n

By 1966, the funny car trend was in. Beswick built a fiberglass bodied \u201866 GTO. The car was colorful and a crowd pleaser everywhere it went. Through a series of GTOs\u2014and later Trans Ams\u2014Beswick remained a force to be reckoned with. The Boss Jr. Bird Firebird came out of this era.<\/p>\n

Boss Bird Jr. ran in the Pro Stock class,\u00a0while the \u201cBoss Bird\u201d ran in the funny car ranks. The Boss Bird Jr. is a
\n1968 Firebird. With its white body and blue stripes it looks like a Trans Am, but that model did not arrive in Pontiac showrooms until 1969-1\/2.<\/p>\n

Boss Bird Jr. was raced for only one year in 1970 or ’71. It was not\u00a0as successful as other Beswick cars and was last seen at Great Lakes Drag-a-Way when it blew an engine. Then, it seemed to have disappeared. There was only one known photo of the car used for a restoration reference. Therefore, Big Nick says he and his friends may have taken some liberty in lettering the car up. Whether it is dead on accurate or not, it sure looks cool.
\n\"\"
\nThe graphics are of the correct style if not perfect.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe car was thought lost, but recently revived.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nSpoiler says \u201cBoss Jr Bird.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SONY
\nCharlie Carter and driver Chris Shenuk was involved in resuscitation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin car enthusiast \u201cBig Nick\u201d was fortunate enough to be part of the resurrection of the \u201cBoss Bird Jr\u201d\u2014one of Arnie “Farmer” Beswick\u2019s least known and rarest Pontiac drag racing cars.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470],"tags":[1134,1133,1135],"class_list":["post-7104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-arnie-beswick","tag-boss-bird","tag-pontiac-gto"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/boss-bird-at-the-track-7-19-14..jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-1QA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7110,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7104\/revisions\/7110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}