RICHARD CHARBONNEAU’S PSYCHEDELLIC 427 FAIRLANE WAGON RACER RIDES AGAIN

POMONA, Calif. – Drag-racing station wagons are nothing new. The late “Dyno Don” Nicholson raced a 427 Marauder-engined 1964 Mercury Comet station wagon running in A/FX known as “The Ugly Duckling,” which both he and “Fast Eddie” Schartman extensively match-raced. In 1967, Canadian racer and future Super Stock champ Barrie Poole also raced a 427 Mercury Comet grocery-getter called “The Collector” in SS/C with notable success. But undoubtedly one of the most successful quarter-mile grocery getters -- if not THE most successful -- was Minnesotan Richard Charbonneau’s psychedelically-hued 1967 Ford Fairlane 427 E/Stocker dubbed “The Trip,” which hauled the Division 5 racer all the way to the 1970 NHRA Stock Eliminator World Championship title. It also won him a seat on the 1970 Car Craft Magazine All-Star Drag Racing Team, effectively proving that station wagons can do a tad more than just than haul kids and groceries.

Last year we sat down with Richard, his wife Liz, and current car owner/restorer Dean Carlson on the 50th Anniversary of Charbie’s Stock Eliminator triumph during the 2020 NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California, where the recently restored multi-colored ’67 Fairlane was displayed trackside at the Mecum Auctions booth and later placed on loan to the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum.

The car’s had quite a history. Minnesota drag racer Richard Charbonneau first burst onto the scene driving a 1962 406 Ford Tri-Power competing in the Stock Eliminator brackets. “At the time, I had the quickest Ford in Minnesota,” he said, “running a 13.70 at 109.00 on street tires. Racing was pretty basic back in those days. We didn’t have expensive drag slicks, just street tires!”

Stock and Super Stock Eliminator racing was coming into its own on the national scale, and with it came big money. This caused Richard to jump ship in 1963 and begin racing a series of Brand-X super stock cars while advancing his career on the national stage. In 1967 Richard returned to the Blue Oval camp with the purchase of a 1967 427 Ford Fairlane ordered through Brookdale Ford in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, which he alternately campaigned in NHRA SS/C and the NHRA A/Stock through C/Stock classes.

“I saw in the NHRA Rule Book that Ford had listed a 427 V-8 in a station wagon,” he explained. “When I saw that I said, ‘Wow!’ The station wagon had a shorter wheelbase by three inches, and with the added weight from a full-length roof and that tailgate hanging over the back, the weight-transfer factor had to have been phenomenal, so I started looking for one right away.

“One day I was driving through St. Paul and this brown 1967 Ford Fairlane station wagon passed me going the opposite direction. I immediately turned around and followed the guy home. After several hours of talking I convinced the owner into selling me the car. Three days later, I completed transferring the entire drivetrain from my hardtop race car into the guy’s station wagon and took it up to Brainerd, Minnesota, to race. To everybody’s amazement, on my first run the car did wheelstands!

“In 1969 and ’70 the car ended up becoming Stock Eliminator’s high points winner in the country. Then in 1970, the car won Stock Eliminator at the NHRA Winternationals. Brookdale Ford was so excited that they wanted to pay to paint the car something more identifiable, and that’s when the car received its Peanuts & Minnick-applied multi-panel candy paint job, which became the car’s signature calling card and was the subject of numerous car magazine feature articles. It went on to win quite a few more races. In fact, the car was so popular that Chrysler tried to lobby the NHRA to get the car outlawed from competition on several occasions.”

After winning the championship and being inducted into the Car Craft All Star Drag Racing Team, the wagon was ultimately outlawed at the end of the 1971 racing season so Richard decided to build a Pro Stock Ford Pinto instead. However, that was about the time Charbonneau met his future wife, Elizabeth, and the two of them became involved in hydroplane racing. The Fairlane languished for awhile prior to being sold to some racers in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Then the wagon was purchased by the Cook family in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, who raced the wagon for a number of years. By 2016, Dean Carlson had purchased the car with the intentions of restoring it . . . and the rest is now history.

“Over the years I had kept track of the car, and when the Cook family finally decided to sell it, I jumped at the chance,” Carlson said. “The Cooks had been racing the wagon for approximately 15 years and the car was in good shape. The drivetrain was basically all there. All it took was some freshening by Richard and me. I chose custom painters Bruce and Kelly Bush from Wizard Custom Studios and St Croix Air Brushing, who had the car for a little over a year and were able to duplicate the race car’s paint job using pictures taken from magazine articles from back in the day.”

We asked Dean what it felt like to debut the wagon at the 2020 NHRA Winternationals at Pomona and then display the car in the Wally Parks/NHRA Motorsports Museum. “We had a great time in the Mecum booth at Pomona,” he said. “It was fun seeing Richard unite with many of his fans, especially with his family present, and then get in the car and drive it again after all those may years. I also feel pretty honored to have the car statically displayed for the year in the NHRA Motorsports Museum. That was the frosting on the cake!”

What was Richard Charbonneau’s biggest thrill from Pomona? “Making that parade lap at the 2020 NHRA Winternationals (commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Fairlane’s first big win)! The fans were on their feet cheering and waving at us from the stands. I had my three grandsons, Thomas, Luke and Christian, riding along with me and they were absolutely thrilled. To witness first-hand all the attention and adoration was amazing. You can’t believe how many people actually came up to me and told me that they saw this car win at the first drag race they ever went to back in 1970. I was totally blown away!”

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY BOB McCLURG