Drew Duliba and I bought the car in 1987 to bracket race it. It was yellow and had a 454 chevy motor, carb on gas and a powerglide trans. It went 8.82 at 152. We raced it together until 1991 when we split our partnership. The engine had evolved to a 540 injected on alky. Drew took the motor, and I ended up with the car, I put a 454 together and raced the car myself till 1993, when at which time, I parked it due to lack of interest an the fact that i became a single parent and had my son to raise and my business to run.
The car sat in a bam till 2000 when a guy called me and said he was trying to organize old funny cars to race. The next day I dug the car out and got it ready to race. All i really did was change the oil, seat belts and tires. I renewed my license with three back to back 8.58 runs.I got a call from bob gibson about a race in columbus that paid $500 so I borrowed a truck and headed west. I had fun there and decided that i was hopelessly addicted and had to have a blown hemi. While at that race I made some important connections. I met Lou Sgro and we became friends, and someone told me about two web sites about old funny cars; "70's funny cars .corn" and "the funny car years". When I got home I went looking on those sites and discovered that my car was the "Rollin Stoned" Cuda campained by "Joe Jacono". After a few failed attemps to locate Joe via the internet, one day I dialed directory assistance and asked for the number. To my surprise the operator gave me the number.
Over the winter of 2000 I restored the chassis and put together the hemi- powerglide combo that is in the car today. I ran the car in 2001 with the hemi and yellow paint and had a ball. During this time, I kept in contact with Jacono, but he didnt show any interest, he moved from Del to Fla. in Jan 02 I sent joe an e-mail telling him that I found the original color under the yellow paint and that I was going to paint it the original candy red. I asked him if it would be ok to re-do the rollin stoned scheme, he never answered. Shortly after, I told him about the first FCR and that he should come up and hang with us. He answered with," why dont you paint it like it was" so i did. This restoration was all done in house with help from some good friends. We all just hung out and worked on different things, it became like a "contest" to make this car perfect. I could have put this car together myself, but it wouldn't look ANYTHING like it does now. Kevin Wilkinson, Robby Colantonio, Jeff Andersen, Tom Phau, Todd Hankinson, and JeffPisut(ofVP auto body who painted the car) all gave the best efforts and inspiration to make this car shine.
We showed up at the FCR and there Joe saw the car for the first time in 25 years. In fact, it was the first time he was even AT a race track since 1977. Needless to say, he was speechless. His wife told me later that she has known him 30 years and never seen him speechless till that day. Seeing the look on his face when we rolled it out made it worth all the effort. Over the next 2 seasons, Joe hung out with us and we became close friends. When we were at the NHRA reunion in bowling green in 03 it became clear that joe wanted to drive the car again. I told him that if he got a license in another car, that he could have a shot at the "rollin stoned" again. He didnt like the idea of having to get the license (he has trouble with authority) but he enrolled in Foleys school and did it. So in 2004, Joltin Joe Jacono made his return
to the seat. We call it the "Second Coming" tour. It has been a ball and we hope to continue for years to come. I am building a 74 Vega funny car and look forword to racing against Joe. We also have located Joe's old crew and hope to drag them to the track to help out,. It brings back a lot of memories for them.
