Image: Steve Reyes

In a recent Flashback Friday feature, we took a look at one of the few rear engine Funny Cars that ever saw any level success: that being the California Stud Chevy Vega Panel Wagon of Dave Bowman. This particular was the only rear engined flopper other than “Big” Jim Dunn’s Barracuda to ever reach the final round of a major drag racing event. Because for every car of this nature that was relatively successful, there were a handful that weren’t. Case in point – or rather the finest example of why the temperamental rear engine Funny Cars went the way of the Dodo Bird – occurred during qualifying for the 1975 NHRA Winternationals in Pomona.

Bert Berniker had the Hindsight Plymouth Duster Funny Car built in 1973, and at the time he couldn’t have imagined just how fitting that name would soon become. Jim Adolph was the original driver of the car in the early part of 1974 during testing, but relinquished the driving duties to Fuel Altered pilot Dennis Geisler for the majority of the ’74 season. The car only ran in the seven-second range during a time when the front runners were running in the mid-to-low six second range at around 230 MPH.

During qualifying for the ’75 Winters, Geisler got a better look at the sky than he would’ve liked when the Hindsight flopper went airborne right at the hit of the throttle.  The car quickly climbed and over it went, the chassis departing from the body as Geisler went for a ride up and over before sliding to a stop upside down. Famed journalist Woody Hatten caught the entire crash on film and it was later replayed on television. It instantly became and remains one of the most remembered crashes of the 1970’s. The crash not only brought a fateful end to the short-lived Hindsight flopper, but marked the end of an era for rear engine Funny Cars at NHRA national events.