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Super User Published: 15 February 2000 Hits: 7237
Category: Historic in the news
My SuperBird, the tow car
By: Dave Kanofsky
Remember what you were doing September 11 and 12 of 1999? I will never forget where I was. Matt "Cowboy" Tolbert asked me to come to St. Louis (Gateway International Raceway) for the Monster Mopar Weekend to use my SuperBird to tow around his Texas Big Bird race car SuperBird! He was going to be match racing a '70 Challenger Funny Car. My job would be to use my 'Bird to tow his through the pits to the starting, drive up the return road, and tow him back down the return road after his run. He would get me passes for the weekend and try to get my motel room paid too. There was no way I could refuse. Matt told me passes would be waiting at will call when I arrived Saturday morning.
The Texas Big Bird is an IHRA legal ProMod SuperBird. It has a tube chassis surrounded by a carbon fiber body, with a rear deck spoiler the size of a picnic table. The IHRA rules state the spoiler must not exceed the height of the roof, but since the stock SuperBird wing does the IHRA had to allow it (to the protest of other ProMod competitors). A rules change for 1999 allows the use of a blown Hemi in the ProMod class but seriously limits the blower ratio. Matt believes in the combination even though he is the only one running it so development is crucial. This car draws a HUGE crowd in the pits all the time. My car was parked next to it and I've never seen so many people gathered around a stock SuperBird and not even know, or care, that it was there.
My friend Doug and I left Chicago at 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning and had an uneventful ride in my Durango towing the SuperBird to St. Louis. When we got there, the track personnel were absolutely clueless. They had no idea who I was or who Matt or his car were or if he was even there. They tried to deny us our passes, then they tried to give us a "2 for 1" deal, then they finally gave us our passes and let us in. We found Matt (who had been there for a few hours, not that anyone at the track knew) and waited for our first run. The crew serviced the car, warmed it up and were ready. It was really a thrill when we finally got to go. On the Big Bird's first pass it popped the burst panel at 1000 ft. but still ran 6.80 seconds at 205 mph. At the end of the track we noticed there was a small fire in the oil puke tank, not serious enough to pull the fire bottles but the only other thing we had was a bottle of Mountain Dew! It put it out! We pulled the Big Bird back in front of the cheering crowd to the pits and the crew went right to work on it. They spent almost all night trying to figure out why the burst panel blew. They suspected a bent valve but couldn't find one.
Sunday the weather looked threatening. We were hoping to get our run in at noon and luckily it held out long enough. Unfortunately though, at about 300 feet downtrack the engine (named Crazy Chicken #1) kicked a rod and our racing weekend was over. Matt was dismayed but took it incredibly well and even suggested that we line our two cars up for some pictures. Shortly after this it started to rain and the event was done. I have talked to Matt since the event and he tells me "Don't worry about our broken motor anymore. We have replaced it with the Crazy Chicken #2 and this new motor is BAD!!!" I can't say enough about how great everyone associated with this car is. "Cowboy" Matt, his wife Heather, Crew Chief Gerald, and everyone on the crew are the nicest, most generous bunch of people you could ever hope to meet. One "gentleman" I can say enough about is the event's promoter, Scott Sieveking. Scott has been giving Matt a total runaround about appearance money and any expenses, all of which were promised to Matt by Mr. Sieveking. (Chicagoland Mopar folks will remember Mr. Sieveking as the promoter who scheduled the Mopar meet at Rt. 66 in 1998 in direct opposition to our charity show at the Maryville Children's Academy).
To learn more about the Texas Big Bird or buy a T-shirt, go to www.tolbertms.com http://www.tolbertms.com or call Matt at (512) 339-9935. If anyone is considering sponsoring a race car, you will not find better people, especially in a high profile class like ProMod than the Texas Big Bird crew.
