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NHRA: Toliver Racing and the WWF Team Zooming Into 2000

26 December 1999

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

Crew Chiefs Dale Armstrong, Terry Manzer, and John Stewart Join Toliver Racing

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA - WWF Racing Funny Car drivers Jerry Toliver and Jim Epler will be zooming into the 2000 NHRA Winston Championship Drag Racing series brimming with an armada of talented mechanical minds in their pits.

As Jerry Toliver was accepting his first Funny Car accolades at Pomona Raceway's victory lane, it-signified drag racing's end of the 20th Century and marked the beginning of a new combination for the Toliver WWF racing team. The initial taste of true success on the grinding NHRA tour gave Toliver and his "Stone Cold" Steve Austin WWF team a renewal of commitment and a huge sense of achievement at the highly competitive level of NHRA Drag Racing.

In 2000, Toliver Racing comes to the forefront of the NHRA stage with a wealth of engine tuning talent. After a complete realignment of crew personnel, veteran crew chiefs Dale Armstrong, Terry Manzer, and John Stewart have joined Toliver Racing taking over the tuning helm on the two-car racing operation.

The triumphant threesome will lead WWF Racing's Jerry Toliver and teammate, Jim Epler into the 21st Century with their many years of mechanical expertise.

"Our Stone Cold Steve Austin and Undertaker WWF teams are taking a fresh approach as we head into the upcoming season," said owner/driver, Toliver. "We'll be mounting a two-car assault on the NHRA Funny Car Championship with three crew chiefs, which have an impressive list of accomplishments in the Drag Racing world. We feel very fortunate acquiring the great talents of Dale Armstrong, Terry Manzer, and John Stewart and all the new crew members to our winning effort for the 2000 season."

"Dale Armstrong will be leading my team, along with the talents of clutch guru, Bob Brooks. Ed Otto and Jim Marcellus were part of my 1999 team and will be joined by long-time Dale Armstrong right-hand man Geoffrey Scarp, John Schultz and James Day. This crew brings an abundance of knowledge to our operation and I can't tell you how excited and eager I am to get started with testing in Phoenix. Both myself and WWF saw what Dale Armstrong was very close to accomplishing late in the 1999 season with Ron Capps, and that is why we worked very hard to put this package together."

"Terry Manzer and John Stewart will lead the efforts for Jim Epler and have brought most of their winning team with them. The combination includes Bryan Shipman, John Defilippis, Chad Worton along with two new members, Ronnie Thompson and Philip McPherson. Let's not forget that Terry Manzer, John Stewart and their Wilkerson-driven Hot Rod were the first team to dethrone John Force Racing in the 1999 NHRA season with their victory in Chicago."

"The Toliver WWF Racing team will be led by three highly-knowledgeable and expert mechanical minds and that gives us a great deal of momentum heading into the 2000 season."

Dale Armstrong comes to the Toliver WWF Racing team after a year and half stint with Don Prudhomme's Snake Racing, overseeing all mechanical aspects for that team. His major drag racing glory came from his 16-year relationship as crew chief for Kenny Bernstein. As real ambassadors to the sport of NHRA Drag Racing, Armstrong and Bernstein won five NHRA championships (Funny Car 1985-88 and 1996 Top Fuel) and 48 NHRA national events.

Armstrong personally won 12 NHRA Funny Car national events and set the 1981 National record in his final driving appearance with a run of 5.891 seconds. He was also elected into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1995. A 10-time member of the prestigious "Car Craft Magazine All-Star Team", Armstrong was noted for his innovative engineering and won the Petersen's Publishing Ollie Award with Kenny Bernstein for a lifetime of drag racing achievement in 1997.

In April of 1999, he became the first Top Fuel crew chief to break the 4.50-second elapsed time barrier, clocking in with a 4.486 second run in Houston.

Terry Manzer brings a family history of racing to the Toliver WWF Racing team with his family's background in sprint car racing in Northern California. Growing up Georgetown, California, Manzer started Auburn Speed Products in 1979, which led him into a vocation in the high performance industry serving as a crew member for a Federal Mogul Alcohol and Top Fuel team led by racer, Roger Primm. >From there, he began his crew chief career for Ron Capps, taking him to his first Top Fuel national event title in 1995 at Seattle, Washington. Four years later, he was crew chief for Tim Wilkerson's inaugural Funny Car victory at the 1999 Route 66 Raceway in Chicago, Illinois.

John Stewart brings a unique knowledge of the sport from his many years of experience on the NHRA tour to the Toliver WWF Racing team. In 1972 at the early age of 16, the Granite Bay, California native began a budding Top Fuel driving career and still holds the distinction as the "Youngest" Top Fuel driver in the history of the NHRA. After his stint in the driver's seat, he ventured onto numerous professional fuel teams as a mechanic and was associated with noted contingents such as Shirley Muldowney, Gary Ormsby, Shelly Anderson, Kalitta Racing, Bob Vandergriff and Cristen Powell.

The 1990's were dominated by John Force Racing in the NHRA Funny Car ranks, but Jerry Toliver was the last guy to give John Force the "spoils" by scoring an impressive victory in the final race of the 1999 season in Pomona, California. As Force stood on the stage accepting his awards, he looked at Toliver and told the entire NHRA crowd, that he was a guy we all needed to worry about, he's a driving machine. You add that to his impressive new lineup of crew chiefs Dale Armstrong, Terry Manzer, John Stewart and the entire WWF team -- 2000 will be full of Toliver Racing and the World Wrestling Federation-sponsored Hot Rods.

Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit The Racing Photo Museum and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.