Funny Cars have been the drag racing petri dish of choice for introducing big personalities into the sport. We’d argue that none before or since have been as big as “Jungle” Jim Liberman’s. The Pennsylvanian’s legacy has surpassed that of all but the most accomplished drag racers in history. One of the reasons for that is “Jungle” Pam Hardy.
Attempting to define Hardy’s role in the madness that was Jungle’s life, career, schedule, and business is difficult. She held multiple roles in his life, but the most visible one to drag racers and fans the world over was that of “backup chick”.
With shorts that are not legally recognized as shorts in any of the 50 US states, and tops (occasionally knit that hid things about as well as a chain link fence) which left little to the imagination, Jungle Pam was as much a part of the show as Jim and his flopper. As you can see below, when Pam checked for leaks, the crowd usually went ape shit.
BangShift reader Super Sport tipped us off to an awesome collection of photos from Jim and Pal’s heyday. It is a window back on an era where match racing ruled the day, and there was no such thing as doing something to freak out a corporate sponsor, because there weren’t any.
LINK: Jungle Jim Liberman and Jungle Pam Hardy Photo Collection
