Realizing that most of these "street legal" Willys had become true, race-only vehicles, NHRA changed the rules in 1962, adding safety regulations to reflect their ever-increasing speeds. Also, some street equipment, such as mufflers and horns, etc., was no longer deemed necessary. This was also the era when speed equipment manufactures began to realize an opportunity when they saw it and jumped on the sponsorship bandwagon. Sponsored teams then began to tour the nation's drag strips (which were anteing up appearance money), even traveling overseas, as in the case of K.S. Pittman and George Montgomery who took their show to England. And "shows" they were too, with these promotional-savvy racers making outlandish statements to the press for pre-race hype. It was little wonder that drag strips now had more money to lure teams to their tracks, as the grandstands were full and overflowing. Speed equipment sponsors also jumped in the fray in their print advertising, attacking the competition and touting their sponsored quarter-mile champions. These drag-racing pilots had become household names among fans, who either attended races or kept up with current events through Drag News and the numerous other enthusiast publications such as Hot Rod.
For those hallowed names who were bestowed the mantel of enduring racing fame, I'll refer directly to an article titled, "World's Fastest Street Rod...Yesterday," by Don Montgomery, which appeared in the August '85 issue of STREET RODDER. Referring to the "Glory Years" of '64-66, Don said the following: "Among the more exciting A/GS Willys racers of this era were the Southern California teams of Stone, Woods, and Cook; 'Big John' Mazmanian; Bob 'Bones' Balogh, Gary Dubach, and Joe Pisano; Gene Ciambella; the Dempsey Bros.; and K.S. Pittman. Others included Northern California's Hamberis and Mitchell; New York-based Eddie Sanzo and Jack Merkel; Oregon's Jack Coonrod; and 'Ohio George' Montgomery. Popular B/GS and C/GS competitors were the Southern California Willys of Junior Thompson; the Mallicoat Twins; Charles James; and the Marrs Bros. Billy Holt represented Alabama, and Ron Nunes and the Airoso Bros. ran their campaigns out of Northern California." And this is just a handful of the hundreds who campaigned such cars across the nation.