Butch Leal – Mopar® Legend
– Called the California Flash
– Won in NHRA Super Stock, Modified and Pro Stock national events
– Known for his lightning quick starting line reactions
In his day, Larry “Butch” Leal was one of the very best drivers out there, no question about it. And for him, it all started very early on! “I guess I got my first training when I was 10 or 11 in my dad’s truck. He’d sit me up on his lap and do the steering while I’d shift the gears. By the time I was old enough to get my driver’s license, I had that shift pattern down pretty good.” At school as a kid, he was much more interested in drawing cars than the whole math and history thing, and at age 12, his mother got him a subscription to Hot Rod magazine. Pixley, CA, now had a future drag racing star in training!
He proved to be very good with 4-speeds and it was in 1964 that Leal was approached by Chrysler to become one of their 4-speed drivers, and it was in a Plymouth. And that was his start as a factory racer for Chrysler Corporation!
FIRST OF THE FUNNY CARS
The 1965 Plymouth that Butch ran was one of the A/Factory Experimental cars, which incorporated a “funny” look as the rear axle was moved forward 15 inches, plus the front suspension was relocated 10 inches forward. There was now 56 percent of the car’s weight on the rear wheels. Chrysler racing boss Bob Cahill had explained the decision for the factory to take such a dramatic departure from the normal: “The rules were clear on what could be done to the engine, but there was nothing on wheelbase modifications. Our cars met the rules as they were written, and as long as we were going to move them, we decided to move them a lot.”
Shown here with good friend Doug Thorley and partner H.L. Shahan at the Doug’s Headers shop in LA. Butch ran his headers in the early years.
Here’s Leal explaining the details of the HEMI® engine to the host of the Dick Clark American Bandstand television show. It was arranged by Chrysler and generated a great deal of publicity!
Here’s the A/FX car running with the switch from carburetors to Hilborn injectors, at Irwindale. “This was an excellent car, and I was able to make a lot of money with it,” Leal had reported in NHRA’s National Dragster. “I ran the car with a manual 4-speed for the whole year, and ended up with the quickest time ever for one of these cars on gasoline, a 9.69 at 140.92 mph. It was really a neat car.”
Butch built his own HEMI engines at the time and it was a real learning experience. “The HEMI really talked to me for some reason,” he tells the story. “Anything I would do it liked it, and if it didn’t like it, it would tell me which way to go. I’m twenty-one years old at the time, I’m going pretty strong.”
A SUPER STOCKER BUILT IN TWO WEEKS
Things were all about “winning” and the factory knew that Butch Leal was a winner, and with the success of the A/FX car he was running in early 1965, he was offered the opportunity of running another 1965 Plymouth, this time one of the special package cars “RO51”, which meant Super Stock 2-door sedan with “A990” race HEMI engine.
“Just before Indy, I get a call from Chrysler, they want me to run Super Stock, I had won in ’64 with a Ford and they wanted to see what I can do in ’65,” he recalled. I was sent to Tennessee to get a car, stopped by Sox & Martin’s place, prepped the car and went on to win Super Stock Eliminator at Indy with it!
BUTCH BUILDS A HEMI DUSTER FOR PRO STOCK
After a brief time with a Mustang and a Camaro, Butch came back to Mopar® for 1971 and with a HEMI engine-powered Plymouth Duster. While other Mopar Pro Stock racers had chosen the new E-body cars (Challenger and Barracuda), Leal rather chose an A-body Duster, a smaller platform.
The HEMI engine for the Duster was a masterpiece from engine builder Joe Allread, who had the ability of squeezing every last amount of horsepower out of HEMI engines with his attention to detail. Internals included beefy NASCAR rods, Venolia pistons, Kellogg crankshaft, Racer Brown 75R camshaft and Milodon deep pan and pickup. Up top, a pair of aluminum cylinder heads, Weiand Tunnel Ram intake with a pair of Holley 4500 Series carburetors, fuel pump by Duke’s with ignition by Mallory Super Mag. Hedman supplied the headers and a Savage clutch was used with Lakewood bellhousing coupled to an aluminum Chrysler Slickshift 4-speed, 5.38:1 rear gearing, Dana 60 housing.
Butch Leal was back with Plymouth with his ’71 Duster and with a well-prepped Pro Stocker.
In these early days of the Pro Stock class, the cars actually looked like their street counterparts, this Duster has the “shark tooth” grille. Because there was a great amount of effort in getting the weight out of the car, 100 pounds of ballast (fitted in the trunk) was needed to get the car to the required 2,895-pound minimum.
SHOWDOWN AT ONTARIO
This was a “race within a race” of sorts during the semifinal round of Pro Stock at the 1971 NHRA Supernationals at the OMS (Ontario Motor Speedway) in Southern California. It wan’t only about which of these two Pro Stocks were going to go into the final round, it was also about which of these two cars were the most potent of the Plymouth factory-sponsored racers!
After a great launch by both competitors, as they went down the quarter-mile track, it was door handle to door handle! As they crossed the finish line, Leal’s Duster was about two feet out it front, running a 9.553-second elapsed time against Sox’s 9.558.
Even though both were sponsored by Chrysler and both were “teammates” as Plymouth racers, Sox & Martin decided to protest the Duster. Once the car was put on the scale, it met the minimum weight requirement; however, it was repositioned on the scale to measure the weight on the rear end and it was deemed illegal, as 57.2-percent of the overall weight was on the rear, and at time NHRA had a rule that prohibited anything over 55-pecent on the rear … Leal was bounced and Sox was able to run in the finals. Soon afterwards, the NHRA eliminated the rule about front-to-rear weight bias.
FIRE BURNOUT AT OCIR
For a cover shot at the Orange County International Raceway in Easy Irvine, CA, Steve Reyes captured Butch performing a fire burnout with the Duster for the June 1972 edition of Drag Racing USA magazine. By this time, Leal had switched from Fenton slots wheels to the lighter Cragar Super Trick spun aluminum wheels.
It was December 1972 when the DRAG NEWS racing paper named Butch Leal as their Pro Stock Driver of the Year winner, his quick reactions on the starting line and holeshot wins were well noticed!
TRICK TUBE CHASSIS NEW DUSTER FOR ’73
Brand new for the 1973 racing season, and at a cost of $26K, Leal’s new Duster was another Ron Butler piece and built with a tubular chassis and with extensive use of building techniques to make the car as light as possible. For match racing, it had a weight of 2,450 pounds. Fiberglass bumpers, no drip rails (Butch said “We’re not racing in the rain.”), Magnesium firewall and interior panels, lots of weight-saving tricks built into this car.
For NHRA Pro Stock, Leal ran a 396-cube de-stroked HEMI engine (using a Velasco crankshaft) and heads ported by Bob Mullen to best deal with NHRA’s Pro Stock weight breaks. Power was listed at 690 horsepower. It also incorporated the then-new Lenco planetary gear 4-speed transmission that didn’t require the clutch for gear changes. This shot is from his win at the 1973 Popular Hot Rodding magazine Championships in Martin, MI, running Goodyear tires and with Goodyear lettering.
DIRECT CONNECTION AD
Butch Leal’s 1973 Duster Pro Stock was the prominent image on this Direct Connection advertisement that ran in April 1974 Car Craft magazine and the same car was featured on Catalog No. SP5 that same year. At this point in time, there were nine different DC dealers listed, and the “I Get Mine From A Direct Connection” T-shirts were $2.95 each, with Buddy Martin helping in the studio photography.
Running at Irwindale, it’s a launch that shows the deep oil pan used and running M&H Racemaster drag slicks, clearly good bite! With all the effort to get the weight transfer to the rear of the car from builder Ron Butler, there was 58 percent now over the rear wheels. Dual 50-pound batteries and a brick of 250-pounds of lead located in the most rear area of the cargo trunk area.
Paired up with Bill Jenkins’ Vega, here’s a shot from the AHRA National Challenge event held at the Tulsa International Raceway, this time running on Firestones and showing the Keith Black Racing Engines lettering on the snorkel hood scoop.
RON BUTLER-BUILT BOYCOTT BELVEDERE II
The Pro Stock weight breaks that NHRA had assigned to the various cars were not very welcoming to the Chrysler camp with their HEMI engines, and as a protest it was decided to boycott the class altogether for the 1974 season. Because Butch Leal (and others) had a contract with the factory, the decision was made to let them run in 1974 in the Super Stock class. Yes, a factory-backed car in the sportsman class, and it was a very quick car!
Built by Ron Butler, the Super Stock car that Leal ran in 1974 was a real factory lightweight 1965 Plymouth RO51 car that came from the factory with the A990 Race HEMI engine. This ’74 car that Butch ran was totally updated and ”tricked out” and built to be a killer for the SS/B class. After it was finished, Leal took it out to the track and immediately ran 9.70s with it, a time that was unheard of at the time!
With the Revell markings on the rear quarters and Cragar Super Trick wheels, the overall appearance was like his first SS Belvedere I from 1965. Leal saw victory at the 1974 running of the Summernationals and the car was considered the “most feared Super Stocker” out there throughout its time on the drag strip.
SS/NA BARRACUDA
Also for 1974, Butch had a “team car” in the way of a 360-cid ’74 Barracuda Super Stocker that Gale Mortimer drive, painted up with same paint scheme as the boycott Belvedere I car.
THE DIRECT CONNECTION DUSTER FOR 1975
It graced the cover of the SP5 July 1, 1975 Direct Connection catalog. “For 1975, they wanted me to do the Direct Connection program. I said OK. We built this car in ten days! There was five of us at Butler’s shop. It was on the next cover of Car Craft magazine, it went to the studio, we didn’t have time to put the engine and transmission in it. People don’t know that, you can’t tell. Chrysler designed the paint scheme.”
The 396-cube HEMI engine in the DC Duster came out of his Pro Stock car. “It went 9.61 every run,” he said about it, a winner in B/Modified Production! Accel made the special dual distributor setup for the 16-spark plug which runs off a crank trigger arrangement. A pair of Holley Dominators atop an aluminum Weiand tunnel ram, a great performing HEMI engine!
Beautifully restored by Denny Laube, the ’75 Duster is seen at one of the major Mopar events today, and the “Revell” Belvedere II is also a restored Butch Leal car. Seeing them both at an event is a special treat for any drag racing history buff!
PLYMOUTH ARROW
Butch built a Plymouth Arrow for 1976, it ran a destroked HEMI engine for B/Gas class. For match racing, a 455-inch stroker HEMI engine ran 7.96 at 171 mph. It was lightning fast!
The Arrow also saw duty at the dealerships he visited spreading the gospel of Mopar performance with clinics.
1981 PRO STOCK PLYMOUTH HORIZON
Willie Rells’ shop in the San Diego area built the Plymouth Horizon / Dodge Omni-bodied Pro Stock car that ran in 1981, running a 396-cid HEMI engine, it ran in the 8.50-second range at over 162 mph.
AUCTION CAR
Butch’s 1965 Indy-winning Super Stocker was put up on the auction block in 2015 during the Mecum Harrisburg, 1-of-101 R051 cars built, meaning factory lightweight HEMI Belvedere I 2-door sedan. It didn’t meet the seller’s reserve and wasn’t sold. It’s been fitted with a Ray Barton-built engine and Dana 60 differential.
GHOSTED DUSTER
It was a few years back when Butch had this ’72 Duster street car done up in Poppy Red and with ghosted lettering reflecting the graphics of his famous Pro Stocker that he ran in 1971-72. A fun ride with a potent 408-cube small block Mopar mill!
WHAT IF ’73 HEMI DUSTER
How cool would it be to have a ’73 Duster in two-tone Refrigerator White and Poppy Red with ghosted “Butch Leal California Flash” and “Direct Connection” lettering! Add in old-school logos, stretched wheel openings, E-body door handles and low stance? And how about a built Gen III under the hood with a massive Whipple supercharger and jumbo throttle body, all done in a clean and well-sorted manner? Stay tuned!
CALIFORNIA FLASH IN SCALE
While they are hard to find these days, in 1972, MPC released the 1972 California Flash Pro Stock Duster, 1/25th molded in Poppy Red and complete with a roll bar, accurate hood scoop and Tunnel Ram HEMI plus detailed decal sheet. Rare!
A built Moebius plastic kit of the original 1965 California Flash Super Stocker in 1/25th scale, and these are available directly from Butch Leal on his website: www.butchleal.com
1:18 scale diecast versions of the California Flash AWB ’65, S/S ’65 and Dodge Ramp Truck! Butch sells ’em autographed at the Mopar events he attends!
THE BOOK
Author Bob McClurg did an information-filled book in 2022 all about Butch Leal and amazingly he was able to assemble the full story, with amazing photography! Lots of “insider” stories and quotes from other racing industry members. 160 pages and a cover shot of Leal with the Duster at OCIR doing a fire burnout! The book was dedicated to the memory of H.L. Shahan (1936 – 2020) who was a very close friend of Butch Leal. His mechanical wizardry was a big part of Leal’s early success. Available from Amazon and other online sellers. ISBN# 1613257104
While Leal ended his drag racing career in 1991, driving a 500-cube Pontiac Pro Stock car, much of his fame came from him behind the wheel of HEMI engine-powered Mopar cars, and he was known all of his driving days as being first off the starting line thanks to his excellent vision and seeing the filaments of the Christmas Tree bulbs. He knew exactly when to leave and without redlighting! Readers of Car Craft magazine voted him All-Star Driver of the Year. He also was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame and the Mopar Hall of Fame.
Author: James Maxwell
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