Super Stock Racer Bucky Hess and his Kandy Kuda

The 1968 Hemi Barracuda did not just compete in Super Stock drag racing, the NHRA credits it with reshaping the class entirely. Bucky Hess keeps that legacy alive behind the wheel of his hand painted Kandy Kuda, one of the last SS/AH racers still willing to foot-brake a Hemi car deep into the eight second zone. It is old school drag racing discipline in a sport that has moved almost entirely to electronics. Read on to find out why he does it the hard way.

Most drag racers running eight second quarter miles rely on a transbrake to launch. Bucky Hess does it the hard way, with nothing but his left foot on the brake pedal of a Hemi powered car most builders would not dare foot-brake at all. That kind of old school discipline is exactly why Hess has become one of the last true believers in a discipline the NHRA itself says reshaped drag racing history. His car is not just fast, it is a rolling tribute, hand painted by his own son and campaigned in a class few racers still run seriously. What does it take to keep a fifty year old drag racing tradition alive against cars built with modern electronics?

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The Barracuda That Changed Drag Racing in 1968

The 1968 Hemi Barracuda arrived as a prototype that year, and the NHRA credits it with reshaping Super Stock drag racing, pairing serious Hemi horsepower with a lightweight, streamlined body that made it a fixture on the strip almost immediately. That combination is exactly what drew Bucky Hess to the platform decades later, choosing a nostalgia themed SS/AH Barracuda as his weapon of choice rather than a more modern race car.

Foot-Braking an 8-Second Hemi Car, on Purpose

Hess is one of the very few SS/AH drivers still competing in regular Super Stock eliminations without relying on a transbrake, instead foot-braking a Hemi car that runs the quarter mile in the eight second range. That is an unusually difficult way to launch a car with this much horsepower, and it is part of why Hess has earned respect among fellow racers who have largely moved to more automated launch systems. The Kandy Kuda itself is hand painted by his son, Travis, and Hess is often seen wearing a Sox and Martin racing jacket in the staging lanes, a nod to Ronnie Sox’s dominance in Super Stock and Pro Stock racing.

Hurst’s Assembly Line for Race Cars

The original 1968 Hemi Barracudas and Darts were not built on a normal Chrysler assembly line. Chrysler shipped partially completed bodies to Hurst, which installed the 426 Hemi, fitted lightweight fiberglass hoods and fenders, and stripped out anything that did not help the car go faster. They were sold with paperwork making clear they were not intended for street use, and only a small batch was ever produced. That scarcity, combined with their instant success, is why a genuine 1968 Hemi car is one of the most valuable Mopars in existence and why most racers, Hess included, run faithful recreations instead.

SS/AH: The Class That Outlived Its Era

The Super Stock/A Hemi class, SS/AH, was effectively created for these cars, and it has outlived nearly every other class of its era. Today’s SS/AH cars are far quicker than anything Hurst delivered in 1968, running deep into the eights on a package that still has to keep the Hemi architecture and the original body, and they remain some of the loudest, most dramatic cars at any NHRA national event. Hess’s decision to compete in that class rather than a faster, more modern category is a deliberate choice to race inside the tradition rather than around it.

A Race Shop That Doubles as a Museum

Walk into Bucky’s LTD, the race car shop Hess runs, and the first thing you notice is the walls. NHRA memorabilia and archival drag racing photographs cover the place, most of them featuring the Hemi racers who defined the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is less a shop with a museum in it than a museum that happens to build race cars, and it tells you everything about where Hess’s priorities sit. The Kandy Kuda is the physical expression of that collection, a car built to look and sound like the era those photos captured.

Why the Sox and Martin Jacket Matters

The Sox and Martin jacket is not a costume. Ronnie Sox and Buddy Martin ran the most successful Plymouth factory-backed Super Stock and Pro Stock team of the era, and Sox in particular was famous for his ability to shift a four-speed faster and more consistently than anyone else on the property. For a driver who foot-brakes a Hemi car, wearing that jacket in the staging lanes is a statement about craft: the idea that the driver, not the electronics, should be the thing that makes the difference on the tree.

Kandy Paint From the Next Generation

The Kandy Kuda’s paint is where the tribute becomes personal. Hess’s son Travis painted the car by hand, in the candy-style finish that gives the car its name, rather than sending it out to a shop. Nostalgia-themed race cars often get their look from decal packages and reproduction graphics; a hand-painted body in a period-correct style is a much bigger commitment, and it makes the car a family project as much as a race program. It is also a reminder that the next generation is already involved in keeping this corner of the sport alive.

The Names on the Wall

The racers on Hess’s walls – Ken Montgomery, Ronnie Sox, Dick Landy, Bill Bagshaw, Judy Lilly, Joe Smith, Arlen Vanke, John Hagen – are the people who took factory-built Hemi cars and turned Super Stock into a national spectacle. Landy campaigned Dodges with a cigar clamped in his teeth, Vanke and Bagshaw were fixtures in the Chrysler camp, and Judy Lilly proved that the class was not a men’s club. Hess’s tribute car is, in effect, a way of racing alongside all of them every time he pulls into the water box.

What Keeps Hemi Super Stock Alive

Hemi Super Stock survives because Mopar people refuse to let it die. The Dodge Hemi Challenge at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis brings the 1968 Hemi Barracudas and Darts together every year for a dedicated shootout, and it has become one of the most anticipated side events on the national schedule. Racers like Hess, who build, maintain, and drive their own cars, are what make that event possible, and they are a big part of why the sound of a wide-open Hemi still stops people in their tracks in the pits.

The Discipline Behind a Foot-Brake Launch

Foot-braking an eight-second car comes down to consistency and nerve. Without a transbrake to hold the car and release it at the flash of the tree, the driver has to load the converter against the brakes, judge the launch by feel, and hit the throttle at exactly the right instant, every single run. Get it wrong and the car red-lights or leaves late; get it right and the driver, not a box of electronics, is the reason for the win light. Hess has built his reputation on getting it right, and that is why his name carries weight in a class full of hard cases.

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