{"id":94246,"date":"2023-12-29T12:08:48","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T20:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=94246"},"modified":"2023-12-29T12:08:48","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T20:08:48","slug":"the-hawaiian-roland-leong-has-passed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/the-hawaiian-roland-leong-has-passed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hawaiian, Roland Leong has Passed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Roland Leong was recently inducted to the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame – NHRA National Dragster photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Hawaiian has left the building.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d been in failing health for quite some time and Roland Leong, 79, succumbed to the vagaries of older age on December 29th. A legendary NHRA team owner who elevated the careers of Don Prudhomme and fellow Hawaii native Danny Ongais, Leong\u2019s Top Fuel and Funny Car \u201cThe Hawaiian\u201d race cars were beautiful, quick and fast.<\/p>\n

A successful driver who raced gas dragsters in Hawaii, he left the islands to ply his craft in the hot rod center of the universe, California. In the early 1960s Leong began to build race cars at the famed Dragsters chassis shop near San Diego and his rail took victory in Top Gas at the 1964 Internationals with Ongais at the wheel, one of the driver\u2019s first major victories.<\/p>\n

While Leong had visions of driving in Top Fuel, crashing on his first run and only run – at more than 191 mph – scuttled those plans. His then-mentor, engine-building maestro Keith Black convinced Leong that he\u2019d be more successful as a car owner. Black suggested he hire Prudhomme, then a Southern California car painter, as his driver. They became fast friends and that friendship has lasted through the years.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Roland Leong and Don Prudhomme were life-long friends – NHRA National Dragster photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Leong came from a well-to-do family, Prudhomme emerged from more of a rough-and-tumble early existence. Still, the duo merged their talents and found success both on and off the straight-line racetracks where they plied their trades. The duo actually met in Hawaii in 1963, where Prudhomme was racing a dragster shipped to the islands with a Black engine.<\/p>\n

In his book, \u201cDon \u2018The Snake\u2019 Prudhomme: My Life Beyond the 1320\u201d<\/i>. Prudhomme spoke of their meeting and lifelong friendship: \u201cWe were total gearheads. All we talked about was drag racing. He was like a little brother to me,\u201d Prudhomme admitted.<\/p>\n

They won the 1965 Winternationals together with a Top Fuel car they put together, but by 1966 this duo would separate with Prudhomme going out on his own and Leong continuing to build his legacy as a car owner and tuner. He won both the Winternationals and U.S. Nationals in 1966 with Mike Snively, yet decided to work with Funny Cars in 1969, where he was successful once again, this time earning back-to-back Winternationals victories in the Flopper class with Larry Reyes and Butch Maas.<\/p>\n

As much as for his technical prowess, Roland Leong was known for building beautiful cars with the nomenclature that told fans exactly who he was and where he was from: the cars would have The Hawaiian nomenclature with bamboo letters, so that everyone knew whose cars they were.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Johnny West burnout in Leong’s Hawaiian Punch Funny Car – NHRA National Dragster photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the 1970s and 1980s, match racing was a big deal and Roland Leong\u2019s cars, driven by such well-known noon drivers as Gordie Bonin, Bobby Rowe, Norm Wilcox, Larry Arnold, Rick Johnson, Mike Dunn, Jim White and so many others, were as successful a draw as his NHRA entries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an experience,\u201d Leong recalled of those match racing days. \u201cFor the age we were, it was a helluva experience. We saw a lot of the country, and after we\u2019d been on the road for so long, we got to know people in almost every town. We\u2019d do something with them, whether it was to go to their house for dinner, or go out and do things with them. For me,\u201d he said, \u201cit was the experience of a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just before the turn of this century, Leong and Prudhomme reunited, with Leong tuning the race cars of upcoming star Ron Capps. In addition to returning to NHRA drag racing, Leong enjoyed tuning Nostalgia Funny Cars for NHRA\u2019s Hot Rod Heritage Series, gaining admiration of yet another generation of drag racing fans.<\/p>\n

Former NHRA competition director and current promoter of Nitro Revival, an annual celebration of earlier drag racing eras, Steve Gibbs lamented the loss of The Hawaiian: \u201cIt was \u2018his time,\u2019\u201d Gibbs said, \u201cas Roland had been in poor health for a long period. His presence and impact on the sport cannot be overstated. He absolutely lived to drag race. I certainly treasure every moment I shared with the man and the friendship we long enjoyed. My hat\u2019s off to Snake and Steve Levy, for the kindness and compassion they showed to Roland in his final days. This sport has a huge heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Epler, the first Funny Car racer to exceed 300 mph and now executive vice president of Top Fuel ace Justin Ashley\u2019s sponsor, Phillips Connect, thought he might have another chance to visit with Leong in 2024: \u201cHe was my last crew chief in 2001 with [Chuck] Etchells. He was a true racer and taught me a lot. He will be missed,\u201d Epler said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Leong was a hands-on car owner who was an ace tuner – NHRA National Dragster photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Leong was inducted into the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame – an induction that was intended for 2020 but actually occurred last year, Ron Capps was effusive in his praise: \u201cHUGE congrats to my mentor and friend Roland Leong for his induction into the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame. The induction was supposed to happen in 2020, and we\u2019re SO glad he got to share it with his family and friends, as well as his longtime friend, Don Prudhomme,\u201d the three-time NHRA Funny Car champ said.<\/p>\n

Details about a memorial are forthcoming. Racing Junk extends our sympathy to Roland Leong\u2019s given and chosen family.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saying goodbye to drag racer Roland Leong.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":94247,"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":[3465,3470,5029],"tags":[4257,433,10110,10111,7,1949,10109],"class_list":["post-94246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-danny-ongais","tag-don-prudhomme","tag-hawaii-sports-hall-of-fame","tag-keith-black","tag-nhra","tag-roland-leong","tag-the-hawaiian"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Roland-Leong-and-Don-Prudhomme-NHRA-National-Dragster-photo-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-ow6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94246","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\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94246"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94252,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94246\/revisions\/94252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}