Dave Duell becomes the first Inductee to the NSSRacing.com’s Nostalgia Super Stock Hall of Fame
I think most NSS Racers will agree, that to this point, no one has done more to grow the class of Nostalgia Super Stock than Dave Duell. Dave raced in NHRA Stock since a young man and was there from the beginning of the NSS Class.
He not only completely handled the entire NSS event at the Monster Mopar Weekends, Dave, also ensured that the class was the most organized class in drag racing. From getting to the lanes quick, to pairing up quick, moving up the lanes, into the water box, burnout and staging – no class of Racers better handles the efficiency of making a pass than NSS. Much of that is because of Dave conditioning the original group to start racing at the MMW. He arranged the Driver’s Dinner sponsor and the big Class Winner portraits. He scheduled the busy schedule of time trials qualifying, Class Eliminations and the Big Show. He got us the best of the pit spots. He arranged for the big portraits given to the class winners, and the Swag handed out at the dinner. He was the guardian of the rules, and the application of penalties. He was Mr. NSS at the Monster Mopar Weekends. Everyone from the promoter, to the crowds to the NSS Racers appreciated Dave Duell.
Not only was Dave a great racer and had a big part in the growing of NSS as a class, he was also a self-made man. He worked for Chrysler taking over and straightening up poorly run dealerships, until he became a Chrysler Plymouth Dealer himself, owning Dave Duell Chrysler Plymouth in Evansville, IN.
While many might consider Dave a bit of a hardnose, he was actually a very charitable man. For many years, he was a heavy hitter in a Charitable Organization “Santa Clothes”, which sees that children in need have warm clothes for the Winter.
Dave died of lung cancer in December 2005. Three months earlier he hosted his last NSS Driver’s Dinner at Monster Mopar Weekend in St. Louis, while on oxygen. In the first round of Eliminations I was the car in back of his. It is forever burnt into my memory, watching Doug helping his Dad get buckled into his car. I watched his burnout, and then the Drag’n Wag’n pull a Monster Wheel Stand. I was fully aware of the fact that I was watching the end of an era in NSS history.
Starting in 2006, the NSS portion of the MMW was renamed to the Dave Duell Classic. I know of no man better deserving of an event being named after him, and I was proud to have won Class in C/FX during the Inaugural DDC.
