To many NSS Racers, Dave Duell was the God Father of NSS Racing. Dave was a Super Stock driver of the Dragon Wagon in the 60s — who was born again years later as a NSS Racer. He handled virtually everything having to do with the NSS race in St. Louis — from lining up the sponsors to lining up the cars. These races went smooth because of Dave Duell. Sadly, we lost Dave to cancer last December. Fittingly, the race in St. Louis is now called the Dave Duell Classic — and run equally as well by Dave’s son Doug Duell.

Dave (red Shirt) watching his son in the white Barracuda

I most likely would have never gotten into NSS Racing had I not met Dave Duell. In 2003 I owned a Pro Mod Superbird by the name of Texas Big Bird. I was asked to bring it to the Monster Mopar, and promised a pit area right next to the staging lanes. When we arrived on Thursday morning, Scott (the promoter) told me to park in the front row, closest to the tower. When I did so, out of no where appeared a heavyset man on a little red scooter to tell me to move because the area was reserved for NSS cars. I told him to take it up with Scott — and he left after giving me the Evil Eye.

For the rest of the day he’d scowl at me when our eyes met. The next day I see all of these NSS cars appear — and decided then that’s the kind of racing I wanted to do. I went up to Dave and asked him how to get involved — and the rest is history. I had a lot of respect for Dave, and very sorry to see him go.