Leonard Hughes
The Leonard Hughes began his foray into drag racing as a Chevy man, burning up the strip in his first race car, a ’57 Chevy Stocker. Looking to go faster, Hughes developed a partnership with Paul Candies, whom he had met a few years prior at Candies’ engine-balancing shop. Hughes left the slower shoebox behind for the first serious Candies & Hughes entry, an SS/A Plymouth with a 426-cid Wedge engine under the hood, and when the powerful Hemi engines hit the scene, the duo stepped it up another notch for heads-up racing. Eventually, the team graduated to the budding Funny Car class, where they quickly settled in and gained respect with Hughes at the helm with a wrench in one hand and the steering wheel in the other.
In the early days, the combination of a Logghe Brothers chassis and a Keith Black Hemi engine at the heart of the fiberglass Barracuda body was quite effective, and in 1968, Hughes set the national record with a 7.87 and claimed both low e.t. and top speed at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis with a then-blistering 7.60 at 196 mph. The following season, the first in which NHRA contested a separate Funny Car race as part of its regular schedule, Leonard garnered top speed honors at both the Winternationals (199 mph) and again in Indy (208.81).
During 1970 season, Leonard wheeled the brand-new ’70 ’Cuda into the winner’s circle at the Gatornationals, and an unprecedented one-two finish with Larry Reyes driving and Roland Leong wrenching their ’69 Barracuda. Reyes captured the best times with low e.t. and top speed, but Hughes collected his first win in historical fashion, and later that season, he ran low e.t. and top speed in Indy with a 6.80 at 214.79.
The following season, Hughes flexed his muscle as both tuner and driver to win the Summernationals in Englishtown, combining consistent six-second times with great starting-line launches topping the Ramchargers Challenger driven by Leroy Goldstein, Al Marshall and Phil Castronovo, before earning a final-round victory over then-reigning world champion Gene Snow.
Hughes made his way to his final money round and was runner-up to Ed “the Ace” McCulloch at the Houston Springnationals in 1972. The victory at the 1971 Summernationals was Hughes last as a driver.
Hughes moved out of the cockpit and focused his attention on tuning, and from 1973 to 1975, the Candies & Hughes team saw a string of successes with an array of drivers in both Funny Car and Top Fuel, including Leroy Goldstein, Bill Wigginton, and Dave Settles. In 1976, the colorful Richard Tharp nestled into the driver’s seat of the Woody Gilmore-built Don Long-finessed Top Fueler, Candies ensured the newest and best parts and pieces, and Hughes expertly twisted the wrench. The team collected a slew of low e.t. and top speed honors and scored victories at the NHRA Cajun Nationals, Summernationals, and the U.S. Nationals, ending the season with their first world championship title in hand.
Hughes tuned Tharp to four more final rounds and two additional victories before Tharp parted ways with the team.
Noted crew chief Mark Oswald hadn’t yet won an NHRA national event as a driver in 1981 but caught the eye of Candies & Hughes as their staunchest competitor for the IHRA Top Fuel championship, and the duo made the decision to bring him on board in 1982, forming a partnership that would immediately show promise and go on to last eight seasons.
The support of team owner Candies and the handiwork of Hughes matched well with Oswald’s proficiency as a driver, and in their first season together, they set a national record and earned top speed at the Winternationals and scored national event wins at the Cajun Nationals and the Summernationals, where Oswald reset both ends of the nation record, dislodging drag racing’s oldest Pro record at the time, a 5.63 set by Garlits in 1975. Oswald finished second to Shirley Muldowney that season, and the next year, the Candies & Hughes team moved to Funny Car.
The initial Funny Car season ended with a total of four trips to the final round, two wins, and another second-place finish, but they were just getting warmed up to win the 1984 NHRA Funny Car world championship.
In 1984, Hughes fine-tuned the team’s Old Milwaukee-backed Pontiac Trans Am to a slew of low e.t. and top speed awards, four semifinals finishes, two wins, and a season-ending runner-up at the World Finals. The team tallied enough points for the first championship title for Oswald and a second for Candies & Hughes, giving Hughes the distinct honor of being the first crew chief to win NHRA world titles in both nitro classes.
In addition to championship tuning prowess, Hughes, with the generous financial support of Candies, was at the forefront of advancing the way crew chiefs attacked a tune-up. He delved into the fine details of the technical elements within the engine and stayed abreast of the finest parts available.
The team became one of the first to design their own Funny Car body, with Hughes, an avid fisherman, enlisting the assistance of friend Roark Summerford, a boat racer and design engineer familiar with composites. Later the team called on car builder Harry Glass to build their ride.
Hughes tuned Oswald to 28 final-round appearances from 1983 to 1990 and when sponsorship evaporated the team dissolved.
Candies & Hughes reunited on the Smokin’ Joe’s Funny Car with Gordie Bonin as the driver in 1994 and collected another pair of wins before parting ways at the conclusion of the 1995 season.
“I think our ability to work together and think together [was key],” said Candies. “Leonard was a very, very intelligent mechanic, and my business-sense balanced the other side. I was able to keep it funded successfully and act as the go-between for him and the drivers and the rest of the crew. I think those things kept it pretty successful.”
Now retired and still living in his hometown of Houma, Hughes is no longer immersed in the drag racing world but instead is absorbed in family life, spending a good many years coaching Little League and relishing time with his grandchildren.
Adapted from a 2009 article in National Dragster
