The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
These two cars are two of the four race cars from the 1968 Fred Gibb-Dick Harrell performance race team. Three of the four cars were red with black tops and these two were the championship winners.
Dick Harrell was the 1968 AHRA Funny Car Driver Of The Year and Little Hoss was the National Top Stock Award Winner with Herb Fox of La Harpe performing the main driving duties.
Next year (August 2004) at the 6th Fred Gibb Memorial Car Show, Dick Harrell's second Funny Car, a 1967 Yenko Chevrolet sponsored car, will be coming to La Harpe to join these two cars. The red and black Yenko is in the restoration process by Craig Schindler of Michigan.
"This was the team that started the Fred Gibb-Dick Harrell legacy," Ken Boje said. "Saturday morning (at the Fred Gibb car show) was the first time these two cars have been together since 1968."
Boje said he only knew four weeks before the show that Tom Clary was coming with his car.
What a moment in history being repeated," Boje said.
"What led up to the success of the #1 1969 Gibb-Harrell ZL-1 Camaro owned by Bill Porterfield began with the unbelieveable season of this team of cars in 1968."
The fourth car, a planned red and black Chevy Chevelle, was never completed. However, during the summer of 1968 these 3 cars were joined by a new racecar developed by Fred Gibb in conjunction with Dick Harrell and Chevrolet. This was the famed COPO 9738 Chevy II Nova, designed to race in the automatic classes of NHRA and AHRA. The Super Stocker Chevy II 396 automatic was raced at the end of the season at Portland, Denver, and Minneapolis. It has not been located.