Butch Leal is a hero to many of us and a stand up bitchin' guy. I have known him a long long time and he is also a judge at many FORD events with Stroppe, me and our pals. HE's so funny, and friendly and cool. A pleasure to hang around and always smiling.
You mention Dick Landy and he'll quip,,'I kicked his ass all of the time !' LOL He has a million of them...
He was Cyndy Nicholsons first true love, a well known door car driver who could leave on just about anybody, 90% of the time. He drove a FORD Funny car in the high 7s, match raced Tommy Grove, the all time legend to so many of us, and he made so many FORD men and women proud ! Just like so many of you guys.
Butch and many of us, smoked a lot of cigarettes, we often laugh, did you quit again? Ya, last night when I fell asleep
He quit, started ,quit. We were all at a banquet a few months ago, and we had no clue? He looked great, fit, strong, slender, handsome, funny as all get out.
They found something in his throat that was causing him a lot of pain. They are testing, checking, and so on. The poor guys voice is so raspy it is a shame, we spoke today
He quit the butts, but us upset that he gained 15 lbs,,,,I said, get up to 200, just get well man !!
So if you could just send regards, I can forward this post, or any emails. I can't hand out his number or email. If you know him, email me HMStroppeVet@Gmail.com. If you want to be a friend to a cool FORD man, email your thoughts, we'll pass it along.
I sure hope that it is not the damned Big C. Many are praying, I sure did.
Butch ran medium risers, high risers, Tunnel ports, cammers, injected FE's, blown FE's and he is a FORD Hall of Famer
Some call him a defector but they were not on a team I bet. He had a family to feed. FORD stopped the funding, Dodge came waving checks to jump in to a Duster, and many had to? Whats cool is, many got the small blocks, he of course, got the 426 HEMI editions because he was The Big Gun...
This stuff just bumms so many of us out
I had friends call him, including Mr Grove himself. They match raced FE Funny cars many many times
His personal collections are full of FORDS too, looking back
The FORD DRAG Team needs him to get well and back in action, soon
God Bless you, heal you and hold you Butch !
