Images: Flickr

If you followed drag racing in the 60s, nothing hits home more than seeing old videos of the famous Little Red Wagon driven by Bill “Maverick” Golden, and HEMI Under Glass, driven by Bob Riggle. These are the guys that set the bar and started the wheel standing exhibition craze that was and still is a very important part of drag racing heritage.

Little Red Wagon became famous in 1965 when Bill golden decided to put a 426 HEMI in the bed of a Dodge A100 pickup, mounting it in the rear of the bed. Due to all the power and weight transfer it did nothing but wheelie its way down the quarter mile thus becoming the first and probably the most iconic wheelstander of all.

The Little Red Wagon made exhibition runs at drag strips all over the country finally retiring in 2003. All in all there were actually four Red Wagons, Bill crashed two in the 60s, used the parts from those wrecks to build another one which also crashed in 1975, was rebuild and debuted until 2003 when it retired along with Bill. You can see the full story at Allpar.

Hemi Under Glass was another very famous wheelstander campaigned as a ’65 Plymouth Barracuda with a 426 HEMI mounted under that huge rear window, appropriately named HEMI Under Glass. Bob Riggle driving the Hurst Corporation sponsored Barracuda to thousands of exhibition runs all over the U.S. There were several Barracuda’s as well, the original ’65, a ’66 model and, the ’68 HEMI Under Glass  Barracuda. Then in 1993, another ’68 HEMI Under Glass replica was built for exhibitions and ran until 2009 when it made its last run with Bob behind the wheel.

There were other famous wheel standers too like the LA Dart, Back Me Up Pickup, the Fugitive, and more as the sport went on. To the spectators these guys were crazy running the whole quarter mile on just two wheels and really we have to give credit to them as they were truly pioneers in the sport.