Racers are a superstitious lot and one of the real taboos in the pit area is anything green&except money, which every team needs. But racers are so spooked by the color green that very rarely will you find a green race car and even more rare is the occasion when a green car wins a race let alone a championship. Well, when your name is Jim Green and youre racing a Keith Black elephant motor in your Funny Car the obvious name for that entry would be the Green Elephant, and so it was with this great team in the early 1970s.

Jim Green ran a successful speed shop center in the great northwest and he is most well known for his very competitive Green Elephant Chevrolet Vega Funny Cars. With a variety of drivers, Jims elephants had a tremendous amount of success including winning the NHRA World Championship in 1973. With Frank Hall at the wheel and the legendary Jerry Verhuel tuning, the Green Elephant won the highly competitive Division 6 title in 73, finished second in the western conference and then went to Amarillo, Texas for the World Finals and beat Joe Jacono, Al Bergler and Shirl Greer before squaring off with Bobby Rowe in the final round. Rowe, who had set low elapsed time of the event at a sizzling 6.28, was driving the potent Mr. Ed Plymouth Satellite and was a prohibitive favorite going into the final but he didnt count on Hall strapping a holeshot on him and he certainly didnt count on losing&to a green car.

The 73 World Championship was the first major win for Frank Hall as a driver but it was actually the second championship for Mr. Green as an owner who also owned the car that Ray Hadford took to the Competition Eliminator championship in 1968. After Halls win in Texas he would make the money round again at the first race of 1974 where he lost to Dale Emery at the Winternationals. A year later, the feared Green car made it back to the final round at Pomona only to lose to Don Prudhomme, and while the result was the same as the year before, the driver wasnt. Mike Miller was the newest wheel man for Jim Green and he made it to the finals only to lose to The Snake. A series of drivers would then take turns behind the wheel for Jim over the next few years but even with those new drivers the name of the car and the results stayed the same. The Green Elephant enjoyed success with Rob Bruins, Norm Wilcox and Rich Rogers driving, with Rich going to the final round at the sports biggest race, the U.S. Nationals. In 1977 Rich, another Hall of Fame member from the Northwest, wheeled the Elephant to the championship round at Indy where he, too, lost to Don Prudhomme. But while the drivers changed frequently, one thing always remained the same, Jim Greens car was a winner and he always enjoyed laughing at the notion that green cars were bad luck, in fact, he often laughed all the way to the bank where he would deposit a lot of green!!  Bob Frey