“Thanks for the Memories!”

— The Honolulu native came to the mainland as an 18-year-old to work for Dragmaster shop in Carlsbad, CA
— Crashed at 191 mph in his first attempt as a Top Fuel Dragster driver prompting his move to car owner
— His “Hawaiian” Top Fuel Dragster with Don Prudhomme driving became an instant winner

His father James was highly educated, earning a master’s degree from Harvard, the first Asian to achieve that feat. His mother, Theodora “Teddy” Leong, a college graduate from the University of Hawaii, a very rare accomplishment for a woman in the 1930s. They had big plans for him, the only son in a Chinese-Hawaiian family. But young Roland was crazy about cars and drag racing. And he didn’t finish high school. They were not pleased. His father wouldn’t talk to him for years.

 “My parents were businesspeople, I tried sitting behind a desk a few times, but it wasn’t for me,” Roland told reporter Kay Presto. “My mom bought me my first two or three Dragmaster cars, and my Top Fuel car. Without my parents, I couldn’t have done it financially.” Roland’s mother arranged for him to get a job working for Jim Nelson and Dode Martin at the Dragmaster shop in Carlsbad, CA, circa 1961, and he traveled back and forth not sure if he’d ever live in California.

While still living on Oahu, Leong had a Dragmaster dragster and eventually built up a supercharged Dodge wedge engine for it, setting a track record with it at the Kahuka Dragstrip with an 8.58-second run at 180 mph. It was Nelson that convinced Leong to relocate from Hawaii to California. His career in drag racing has been well told over the years, his last car was a “Hawaii Vacation” Dodge Charger Funny Car that raced in early 1993. Soon after, his talents in fuel car tuning got him employed by his old driver Don Prudhomme in the “Big Show”. Leong was also involved with tuning Nostalgia Top Fuel and N/FC cars.

RIP Roland Leong 1945 – 2023

KEITH BLACK 392 GEN I HEMI®

When Roland put together his Hawaiian Top Fuel car he relied on a Keith Black-built 392 supercharged HEMI, stock stroke with Cragar-sourced GMC 6-71, Engle #540 B-2 camshaft, Milodon girdle. In time, Leong became an expert tuner with tutelage under Keith Black, and went on to build his own race engines, using Keith Black components. 

A WINNING COMBINATION: HAWAIIAN DRAGSTER WITH DRIVER DON PRUDHOMME

The Hawaiian dragster was driven by Don Prudhomme after the high-speed crash that Leong experienced at Lions Drag Strip. The car featured a chassis by Kent Fuller and of course the Keith Black power. “If we had a race Saturday, Black would tune for us,” recalled Leong when speaking with National Dragster. “But he couldn’t ever go on Sundays, so Prudhomme and I would be on our own, but we didn’t care. Prudhomme wasn’t really an engine man, and all my experience was with gas engines. I can remember me and Prudhomme pulling out of Black’s shop one time and him saying, ‘There goes the blind leading the blind’ and he said, ‘I’m only a phone call away.'” This car is currently on display in Italy’s Museo Nazionale dell’ Automobile Museum, where it was placed in 1968.

Roland shared the whole story with Phil Burgess all about him crashing his Top Fuel car at Lions on the very first pass. “I tease him a lot,” Leong commented about Prudhomme. “I tell him. ‘Hey sucker, you’re lucky I wasn’t worth a shit as a driver, or you might still be painting cars.” The dragster was named “The Hawaiian.” Definitely sounded something very tropical, like looking at warm, crystal clear, blue waters of the Islands. Metalflake Blue paint and bamboo-shaped lettering on the sides really did the trick.  

VICTORY AT THE WINTERNATIONALS

Winning Top Fuel at the 1965 Winternationals was a real indicator that this new Hawaiian team was a formidable one! In this trophy presentation picture, driver Don Prudhomme shared this about that moment: “Roland’s mother, Teddy, was a big part of our team, not only with money, but she also really supported us in every way. At the Winternationals, she had Hawaiian leis already made up. For some reason or another, she knew that we were going to win the race. In the winner’s circle she started putting them on all of us.”

TRIP TO ’65 INDY = WINNER 

Engine builder Keith Black flew to Indy to supervise the Hawaiian and it paid off. Prudhomme went five rounds on Sunday to win class, and they won on Monday with a low E.T. of the meet run of 7.504 seconds to beat Tommy Ivo. “Winning Indy was a very big deal to me,” he told NHRA’s Chris Martin in 1990. “In 1965, you had every big Top Fuel dragster in the country racing, and when you won a race like that, you knew you really accomplished something.” Part of the prize that day was winning a brand-new 1965 Plymouth Barracuda. Roland had turned 21 and Don was 24. Leong’s accent was super strong, so strong, that people just didn’t understand him. When they went on tour Prudhomme had told him: “Hey, I’ll do the talking.” Roland wasn’t offended, it was just the best way to handle it.

For 1966 Snake left the ride as he drove another T/F car, and Mike Snively replaced him in the car, and with repeat wins at Pomona and Indy! Next saw Leong having two dragsters, Snively with a 392-cube engine, Mike Sorokin with the new “Gen II” 426. As told by Roland on the switch from Gen I to the new 426 HEMI: “Because of my association with Keith Black, I was the first guy on the West Coast to run a late-model 426 engine in a nitro car. The guy who was Keith Black’s boss at the time, who ran the Chrysler Marine program, came to me and said, ‘I’ll give you the engine. Let Black build it, we’ll just pay for the upkeep, and you can keep all the money it makes.” Don Garlits and the Ramchargers were the first to get the “late model” 426 for Top Fuel, and Leong was chosen for the third. “The combustion chamber was a lot bigger,” Roland explained to Drag Racer Magazine. “There were a lot of little thing things different that were pretty important. We had to find out what would make it go and not go.” Even though the Hawaiian dragsters were winning races, the real money in drag racing at the time was the Funny Cars. They had many more match race opportunities.

CHRYSLER MARINE POWERED

Chrysler’s Marine Division provided the funding for the second Hawaiian Top Fuel car, the “B car” which was equipped with the 426-cid HEMI engine, driven by Mike Sorokin drove in 1967. Keith Black standing with Roland and his mother Teddy.

ON TO FUNNY CAR RACING

Before the days of aerodynamic designs and knowing how a Funny Car body reacts to the air on top end charges, they ran stock body contours with little attention given to “lift” and “downforce.” That was the brand-new 1969 Dodge Charger that Larry Reyes raced at Pomona that year. That wasn’t a good day. “At the end of the ’68 season, we decided to build a Funny Car,” Leong told Mopar_® Muscle Magazine back in 1992. “I had a guy driving for me named Larry Reyes, the car was a Dodge Charger, and we were sponsored by Dodge. But on our maiden outing, which was Pomona at the Winternationals, we crashed the car in the first round of eliminations. We won the round. We went through the lights upside-down, but we still won the race.” With Reyes driving, the replacement to that car was very successful, it won often and came back to Pomona and saw victory at the ’70 Winternationals. Pat Foster was the next driver, but it didn’t last long. 

NEW BODY STYLE FOR ’71

Butch Maas was a new driver for the Hawaiian, and there was a lot of new features of this 1971 Charger Funny Car than just the new body shape. Logghe did up a new “narrow” chassis with a small, dragster-style roll cage and John Buttera did the intricate detail work. Gone was the Torqueflite automatic, replaced with a Lenco 2-speed incorporating a Crower-Glide clutch assembly. When the car was built it was immaculately equipped with a lot of “trick” quick-disconnect pins on various components, and in a story by Alex Walordy, the question was asked as to why these new items were used rather than the traditional way which used nuts and bolts? “We can’t afford the tools, so we use ‘quickee’ pins,” replied Roland. “And besides back in Hawaii I got used to the easy life.”

The mini-Charger body was chopped, sectioned, and narrowed, 120-inch wheelbase. Airbrushed grille and headlights added authenticity. “Keith Black Racing Engines” and “Engle Cams” were mainstays on Leong’s cars. The car ran a 6.93 at 212 mph to take the 1971 NHRA Winternationals win (F/C low ET of the meet). At a certain point an x-tire wiper was promoted to driving, Bobby Rowe. It was June 10, 1971, when Leong’s entire rig, car, truck, spare engine, tools, everything, was stolen out of the parking lot of the Holiday Inn, Gary, Indiana.

HAWAIIAN FOR ’72

Leroy Chadderton was next to drive for Roland, and the Charger had a slightly different look, and with Mac’s sponsorship. There was no shortage of aftermarket companies that wanted to be a part of the Hawaiian Funny Car program, and that included having Roland featured in their national advertising campaigns.

KING’S HAWAIIAN BREAD

The natural sponsorship for a car named “The Hawaiian” was to reach out to the “King’s Hawaiian Bread” company, and it lasted for the 1981 and 1982 racing seasons. The “King” in their name comes from the location of the Hawaiian bakery location on King Street in Honolulu, which was close to the Pacific Heights area of Honolulu Roland grew up in. And now, all these years later, the bread-maker was his major sponsor! Shown here is Mike Dunn at the famous OCIR drag strip in East Irvine, CA, this Dodge Omni had a Jaime Sarte’ chassis. 

A NICE HAWAIIAN PUNCH

The Del Monte Corporation came on board starting for the 1982 season, with their “Hawaiian Punch” beverage product and in was a perfect match-up to the long-lasting Hawaiian name for this popular, well-performing Funny Car. “Go Hawaiian” was the marketing campaign. The same colors of the soft drink packaging, bright blue and red, was also used on the car and with a large glass of Hawaiian Punch product on the hood of the Dodge Omni body. There was some rough going with the car though. It was April of 1982 when Mike Dunn, driving the Hawaiian Punch Dodge Charger at the OCIR 64 Funny Car race blew the motor and had a spectacular top end crash, and then during the next two seasons, he also experienced some violent, major incidents and even broke his leg in the car. For those reasons, Mike decided to leave the team, however they remained friends. Stuff happens. 

July 1984’s Drag Racing Magazine featured the brand-new Hawaiian Punch Dodge on their cover, shot at the Chandler, AZ, Firebird Raceway. The car was so fresh that the hood art had not yet been painted on. Mike Dunn was still the driver.

HIGHEST AWARD FROM CAR CRAFT MAGAZINE

In 1986 Car Craft Magazine’s “Ollie” Award went to Roland, the premise of the annual award was that of “a lifetime of unselfish, successful devotion and dedication to drag racing.” It was the sports highest, most important honor given. Here’s how the CC publisher, Jim Adolph, explained it to the readers. “We know him for instituting a level of professionalism that was unheard of in its day, and for mechanical expertise that’s the envy of most of his competitors even now. We also know him for his commitment to excellence that goes far beyond the limits that most other racers set for themselves. Roland Leong epitomizes the kind of solid professionalism that now permeates every aspect of drag racing.”

Next driver was Rick Johnson for the car, here’s the hero card handout that featured Direct Connection identification. “A 250 mph Funny Car that burns through the quarter mile in under six-seconds” is how the copy read on the flip side. At the 1985 running of the Winternationals, the Hawaiian Punch car had Johnson at the controls. The drag racing world was shocked when the car ran down the Pomona quarter mile in 5.58-seconds at 263.62 mph, an all-time record. In 1987 Roland was able to get his Dodge Funny Car into the Lockheed-Georgia wind tunnel, and also in 1990. Chrysler engineers used smoke streams and yarn tuffs to reveal how the air passes over the body.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company did up a two-page magazine spread that touted their new “Gatorback” line of Eagle VR-speed rated radials, as equipped on a new Dodge Daytona Turbo Z with Carroll Shelby-handling package. This was a tie-in to the Goodyear Eagle front and rear drag tires, as seen on Roland’s Hawaiian Punch Dodge Funny Car! Johnny West was now the driver.

Johnny West in the car, 1988, shown with associate sponsorship for that race by the Lucky grocery store chain (in coordination with Del Monte distributors). In these years Direct Connection was actively promoting the “Chrysler Powered” theme (see sticker by the supercharger) as a way to exemplify that Dodge and Plymouth bodied Funny Cars actually ran Mopar engines, and truth be told, so did the GM and Ford-bodied Funny Cars! 

The Hawaiian Punch Funny Car was popular not only on the drag strip but also in advertising! Del Monte wasn’t shy about promoting their Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juice with the car, and when the Direct Connection program was changed to Mopar Performance, Leong’s car was used in the marketing campaign, circa 1988.

Shown directing new driver Jim White at the 1989 NHRA Winternationals, the all-new Dodge Daytona body was so slicked up (in the wind tunnel) that in order to pass tech, the NHRA had to bring in a stock production car to compare measurements. It did pass, and it was even offered with a part number inside the Mopar Performance catalog! The car featured a Murf McKinney chassis, Brad Anderson billet cylinder heads on the HEMI engine and a 14-71 Mooneyham supercharger. It also marked the first time Leong had hired a crew chief, veteran racer/tuner Bob Creitz.

LAST YEAR FOR HAWAIIAN PUNCH SPONSORSHIP – 1991

A great year for Roland, driver Jim White and crew chief Wes Cerny — the first Funny Car to exceed 290 mph! The car won Indy and the Big Bud Shootout, flexing its muscles of superior horsepower. It also set the NHRA Funny Car national record that year with a 5.17-second run. Even though the markings on the 1991 car had additional brands added (Pringles, Citrus Hill, Sunny Delight) it was all part of the Procter & Gamble Company, which had bought the Hawaiian Punch brand and declined to continue this drag racing promotion for the ’92 season.   

HAWAIIAN VACATION

For 1993 a unique promotion was pitched to Roland, it was about the State of Hawaii to sponsor his race car, a tourism thing, he took the deal and re-hired Gordie Bonin as the driver. Leonard Hughes was crew chief and the crew included Larry Dixon, Jr. Unfortunately, the money that came from the State of Hawaii didn’t last more than three months, which was supposed to be a three-year deal. After that, he sold everything, and Don Prudhomme hired him. “I brought him on because Roland is good,” Snake had said years later. “He’s a real good manager of people and he knows what he’s doing.”

GREAT STORIES HEARD FROM ROLAND

NHRA’s Wally Parks Museum was one of the venues for some classic drag racing “BS” sessions, this one featured Roland sharing stories from the glory days…always was entertaining!

At one of the Don Prudhomme open house events in Vista, CA, a great time to visit with Roland and Dale Armstrong about the good ol’ days! War stories galore…

At the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage events, as well as other nostalgia races, Roland was always willing to sign autographs, pose for photos and tell some colorful stories!

Here with one of his numerous former drivers, Mike Dunn, who had some extremely wild rides in the Hawaiian Punch cars during his time behind the wheel.

ALWAYS PALS WITH SNAKE

The beginning of his Top Fuel dragster ownership revolved around Don Prudhomme being the driver, and at the end of the 1991 season (after his Hawaiian Punch sponsorship ended) Roland spent six months assisting the Don Prudhomme Top Fuel car, and then later Leong was the crew chief on the Ron Capps Copenhagen car of Snake’s, starting in 1997 until 1999.

STATE OF HAWAII RECOGNITION

In 2019 he was recognized by his native State of Hawaii for his positive racing impact.

The following is the proclamation Leong received. 

WHERE AS, The Governor of the State of Hawaii is proud to recognize Mr. Roland Leong “The Hawaiian “Drag Racing legend from Honolulu Hawaii for his 55 years of contribution and achievements in the Auto Drag Racing industry with the NHRA, National Hot Rod Association. and as Global ambassador in preserving and promoting Hawaii’s rich heritage and culture of motorsports and drag racing on the islands of Oahu, Kauai, Maui and Hawaii dating back to the early 1950’s 

WHERE AS, Mr. Roland Leong born and raised in Honolulu 1944, and as a student of Iolani Highschool in 1961 at age 17 took a leap of faith to the mainland to learn and build Drag Racing Hemi Engines with Keith Black and against all odds embarked on his legendary career in Drag Racing in which only 3 years later at the age of 20 became the youngest team owner and crew chief in the History of Drag Racing, whose team won an unprecedented back to back Championships at the Winter Nationals and US Nationals in 1965 and 1966 with Hall of Fame driver Don “ The Snake “ Prudhomme and Mike Snively. 

WHERE AS, Mr. Roland Leong throughout his international racing career, put Hawaii on the world racing map , by promoting the spirit of Aloha and the State of Hawaii as a premiere vacation destination and with his sponsors to support local Hawaii business’s such as “ Kings Hawaiian Bread “ “ Hawaii Vacations ” with a campaign of a variety of creative Hawaiian style racing team names such as “ The Hawaiian” and “The Hawaiian Punch”. 

WHERE AS, due to his strong identity and legendary title as “The Hawaiian” and his record setting accomplishments with back to back championships in both Dragsters, Funny cars and setting new low record ET’s, the drag racing industry recognizes the State of Hawaii’s racing community as respected leaders and serious competitors in the sport of auto racing. 

WHERE AS, Mr. Roland Leong truly feels that motorsports is a family sport, with his mom Teddy Leong at his side as a highly respected team member, and as a wild and mischievous teenager he truly attributes and thanks the sport of drag racing for steering him towards a straight and responsible path that led him to his legendary career. Now retired at age 75, he no longer owns or runs his own team but is contracted and hired to tune race cars in the Nostalgia Funny Car Racing Series today. 

IN KEITH BLACK’S WORDS

“So, we took the car to Long Beach to run the first Hawaiian, the fueler, Roland was in the car and Don was coaching him. So, we got down to the end, he got out of the car and of course there was minor damage. I was really scared. I told Roland right then and there: ‘you want to be a driver; I don’t want anything to do with this operation.'” 

IN ROLAND’S WORDS

Roland did share this about himself, about running a car at the racetrack, when he was tuning Nostalgia Funny Cars in the early 2000s. “You’ll never really get to know me at the races because I don’t go around. I’m not there to party. I’m not there to socialize. I’m there to win and to make the car run the best that I can.”

“I wouldn’t change a thing,” he had shared to the media in 2016. “I owe a lot to Chrysler, Dodge and Mopar. Dick Maxwell, Brian Schram, Larry Henry and Joe Higler from Mopar. Those guys were good to me.”

“I didn’t have any hobbies, never had time for it. From a very young age, when I came from Hawaii, I was 17 years old, I went to work for a company called Dragmaster, a company that built dragsters. At first went back and forth, from the mainland to Hawaii, and then when I got my Top Fuel car, Prudhomme drove it and went on and won the Winternationals in 1965, and off we went. Been doing it all my life.” 

“I myself didn’t have much education, I had something I liked to do, racing cars. I was fortunate enough, or was able to do whatever it took, to do that all my life, so I guess you might say I lived my dream.”

“All my cars had something to do with Hawaii, all the way around, and even when I wasn’t sponsored by a Hawaiian company, it always had the Hawaiian name written in it. Those are my roots and I’m proud of it.”

“I got spoiled at an early age, I mean we won at an age when we never thought we’d get beat and that continued for a good two or three years. When we started getting our asses kicked, we didn’t like it, and was a rude awakening, we had to figure out a way so it wouldn’t happen again.”

Watch this video highlighting Roland’s Hawaiian heritage:

NEXT TIME: The time Roland Leong’s was reunited with his favorite Funny Car, the 1969 “Mini-Charger” and we were there to cover it!

Author: James Maxwell