This season, after losing the 2007 ORSCA 7.0 championship by just one round of racing, the Penningtons hope to regain the number-one designation over there while simultaneously going after the NHRA Div. II Pro Footbrake title and again dabbling in Super Chevy’s Bracket II footbrake class.
Edwards Chevrolet, Alabama’s oldest Chevy dealer sold the Chevelle for $2,900 in 1964 and Pennington Sr. retains all of the original paperwork. He says the original owner sold it in 1971 and after changing hands again a couple of times, it was turned into a race car in the early-1980s. “But it’s still completely street legal,” he stresses. “It’s licensed and still has the jukebox and the stove (radio and heater) in it and all the lights still work. You can even start it with a key if you want to; it’s still a real car.” In 2001, Pennington and his only son picked it up for $13,000…and promptly put it in pieces.
“When the ’64 came up for sale, I knew I wanted it. Scott Flowers, who races in ORSCA 6.0 now, he had it when I was a kid and I always liked it whenever I saw it."
"It always caught my eye,” says Lil’ Ricky, 25, who attended his first drag race at just two weeks old. His father had raced in NHRA Stock and Super Stock in the early ‘70s and the younger Pennington continued the tradition, entering his first contest in 1998 with the same 350-equipped ’65 Chevy II that he drove to high school. He eventually graduated to a late-‘90s Firebird and then a ’65 Chevelle bracket racer before settling on his current ride.