Pontiac Pavement Pounders Shootout: Norwalk

Owner Bio: Denis "Diz" Dean

Denis is rather modest about his '74 GTO, which I just couldn't stop staring at. Let's put aside his 5 years of stock car racing experience and throw out his 15-year Tri State Auto Racing News columnist/photography background. If I was the owner of this gorgeous GTO, claimed to be one of the last five '74s to roll off the assembly line, I'd definitely think I was the cat's meow. Packing a mildly modified, yet torquey 455, this '74 GTO, despite being the smallest GTO, was the heaviest Pontiac present! Additionally, handicapped with small street tires and factory column shift, Denis hustled this lil' GTO (No NOVA) down the track to a best of 13.82 seconds! Also, Denis is among the special GTO owners who can claim their favorite GTO is their first new car purchase. Thankfully, others agreed this is a special GTO when they voted it to a First Place win at the '95 GTOAA Nats. Among the other unusual Pontiac muscle sharing Denis' garage are a '64 GTO, '87 Fiero GT, '94 Sunbird convertible, and '01 GP Special Edition.

Owner Bio: Royo Hess, Jr.

The '66 Goat here really starts with Roy Sr. According to him, "I started racing in 1965 with a '62 Oldsmobile 98. Well, I graduated in June 1966 from high school and I bought this car in July 1966. It was my first new car. Slowly it turned into a race car. It was my work car, date car, and race car. In two years with headers and 4.30 gears I couldn't drive it to work anymore. This one gets the first-class and high-dollar parts." Now, even though the car now belongs to Roy Jr., you need to keep in mind that Roy Jr. is what you could call a late bloomer. Dad shares "When Roy Jr. was little, he really wasn't interested in it because he was made to go to the dragstrip with us. Then all of a sudden, he got interested in it, so he started out in the slow one, my '66 GTO (#STRONG62) and worked his way up to this one." Obviously, dad tunes the cars. As odd as it sounds, all three Hess '66 GTOs have points distributors--Roy Sr. just likes adjusting the dwell himself. With nearly four decades of experience in one household, Roy Jr. was bound to know his way around a GTO and a racetrack as evidenced by his personal record-breaking 10.28 run at 129.99 mph. Coincidentally, it was also just enough and just in time to keep the '66 GTO in the forefront of this shootout gathering.