Fast Fish: Bateman Drives 1968 Barracuda to Record Run at Bonneville
Garrett Bateman helped put another Mopar® in the Bonneville Salt Flat record books. The accomplished nitro dragster and funny car racer set a new AA/Blown Gas Coupe (AABGC) event record at the October 2010 SCTA/BNI World Finals, steering Paul Ogden’s 1968 Plymouth Barracuda to a record average speed of 222.788 mph, far surpassing the previous record of 211.331 mph. With the record Bateman joined the prestigious Bonneville 200 MPH club.
The brand-new Barracuda was built for Bonneville by Bateman’s uncle, Denton Hollifield. The speed machine is a stock bodied 1968 Plymouth Barracuda with door handles, bumpers and all. The motor, a 528 cid Mopar HEMI® with twin 88 mm turbos, was designed by Tom Nelson and pumps out an eye-popping 1,800 horsepower. Bateman, a 2006 NHRA Division 6 Rookie of the Year in top alcohol dragster and 2009 NHRA Heritage Series Champion in a nostalgia nitro funny car, was tabbed to pilot the Barracuda in its bid for history.
“It was awesome setting the record in a Mopar,” said Bateman, 38, a huge Mopar fan who also owns a 1968 Dodge Charger, a 1970 383 Plymouth ’Cuda, a 1970 AAR Plymouth ’Cuda, a 1939 Dodge and a 2003 HEMI Dodge Ram 2500. “On the final day we qualified for the record with a 226 mph average. On the final record run after impound, we were attempting to set the record at 230 mph until I felt a vibration and started to slow and deployed the parachute. When I saw the three-mile marker, I thought, ‘Man, I’m gonna blow the record,’ so I jumped back on the gas with the chute out and got the speed back up to 217 mph for an actual record average of 222.788 mph. The vibration I felt was a tire going away, so thankfully it held together.”
Mopar®-Powered Volkman Captures IHRA 
Super Stock Championship
It took Mopar-powered IHRA Super Stock racer Michael Volkman 12 years to capture his first win, but once he got that first “W” under his belt he wasted no time in following it up—and in a big way. Volkman scored just his second career win in the IHRA Tournament of Champions World Finals at Richmond, Va. last October, and in the process powered his way to the 2010 IHRA Super Stock championship.
The Moon, Pa. native, who is employed at the Chrysler Mid-Atlantic Business Center, lost a number of races by close margins over the years and was unable to get to winner’s circle until a victory earlier in the 2010 season in South Carolina. Facing off against the top 25 IHRA Super Stock racers from around the country in the Tournament of Champions, Volkman defeated Bryan Worner, Gil Carty Jr., Byron Worner and Edward Bolton to reach the final. Volkman drew Scotty Richardson in the ultimate round. This time the oh-so-close race went Volkman’s way, as he recorded a perfect 10.10 elapsed time on a 10.10 dial in his 2000 Chrysler Sebring to edge Richardson and seize his first title.
“It was a tight race. None of the guys I raced were cakewalks,” said Volkman, who earned free entry to all IHRA races in 2011 with his victory—as well as a $10,000 winner’s purse, which he promptly gave to his wife. “I changed some things around to be more consistent this year, and I went more rounds than ever.”
