Image credit: vintage-nitro.com

The venerable and now legendary trio of Fred Stone, Tim Woods, and Doug Cook will forever be remembered for their exploits in the early Gasser wars of the sport as well as their lineup of wildly popular AA/Gas Willys Coupes that fans still flock to see restorations of to this day. But in 1967, the team shocked the drag racing world by swapping out their familiar Willys for a Mustang Funny Car. Considering their domination of the Gasser ranks, no one in their right mind expected them to move on to other pastures.

However, Funny Car match racing was where the money was, and so it was there that they went, with the blown, Chrysler HEMI-powered Mustang that they christened “Dark Horse 2.” Unlike most of the floppers of the day that were using flip-top bodies mounted on a racing chassis, the Dark Horse 2 utilized an original steel body on a lightweight tubular chassis, with a fiberglass front clip. Driver Doug Cook would enter through the door, while the front clip could be removed for servicing the engine.

Starting out on alcohol with a splash of nitro, the team slowly ramped up the amount of cacklejuice they put through the big HEMI, and the car quickly became a fan favorite all across the nation. Everyone wanted to see it run, and thus every promoter

Image credit: nhra.com

wanted to host the Stone, Woods, and Cook Mustang. And so the trio set off on a tour that took them to every corner of the country and back, match racing several nights a week at everything from state-of-the-art tracks to holes in the wall with little in the way of lighting, bringing the crowds to their feet with every stop. Along the way, Cook matched up with some of the toughest floppers of the era – that weighed much less than the Dark Horse 2 – and while he didn’t always win, he certainly won more than he lost.

Sadly, when at the top of his game in the Funny Car arena, Cook experienced a devastating crash in alton, Illinois that destroyed the Dark Horse 2 and left him with career-ending back injuries. However, the team preserved, building a replica of the original

Image credit: Cruisin' Times Magazine

Mustang and setting off on another torrid match race tour of duty with several different hired guns behind the wheel.

In 1969, with the steel-bodied car no longer competitive, a real Mustang flip-top Funny Car was constructed, with Dee Keaton assigned to the driving chores, and in the early 70’s, they campaigned the first Ford Pinto-bodied flopper with Mike VanSant at the wheel. Eventually, all three members of this historic team retired from the sport, and while Doug Cook passed on in 1999, his son, Mike Cook, intends to continue the legacy with the reconstruction of the dark Horse 2.