Backup Girls: When Staging Became Part of the Show

Jungle Jim Already Understood the Audience

Liberman never treated the burnout as nothing more than a technical procedure for heating the slicks. His were long, smoky and loud, and on certain occasions somebody decided tire smoke could use a little fire.

Jungle Jim worked the match-race circuit, where a promoter was buying considerably more than two numbers on a timing slip. The crowd came to see Jungle, and every minute between unloading the car and loading it again was available for improvement.

A few seconds of dead time after the burnout were therefore suspicious. Jim had paid spectators standing there with nothing useful to watch.

Pam Hardy fit that problem remarkably well.

Pam Wasn’t Looking for a Drag-Racing Job

Pam was eighteen when Liberman spotted her walking along a road in Pennsylvania in 1972. She did not come from a racing family, was not hanging around the pits looking for work and knew little about drag racing.

Jim stopped and they talked. Before long, she was traveling with one of the most recognizable Funny Car racers in the country.

There are more conventional hiring procedures.

There are also more conventional Funny Car racers. Neither one has much to do with Jungle Jim.

There Really Was a Job to Do

The title “backup girl” makes the job sound simpler than it was. After the burnout, Liberman had to reverse the Funny Car toward the starting line and get the rear slicks back into the useful rubber he had just put on the track.

Pam stood behind the car where Jim could see her and directed him left, right or straight as he backed toward the staging beams. She also had to tell him when to stop. A nitro Funny Car is a poor place for guessing games involving where the rear tires happen to be.

A crewman could perform the job, and plenty did. Jungle Jim put Pam behind the car.

Same procedure. Entirely different grandstand reaction.

Everybody Suddenly Watched the Backup

Pam did not show up in mechanic’s coveralls and quietly wave the Funny Car backward. Her shorts, halter tops and boots fit a 1970s Jungle Jim production considerably better, and she had enough personality to make the job look like part of the performance instead of track housekeeping.

Jim finished the burnout and the smoke began to clear. Pam stepped onto the track, took her position behind the car and guided him back while the same people who had just watched Jungle abuse two rear tires kept their eyes exactly where he wanted them.

That was the trick. Every other team had those few seconds too. Most used them to put the car back where it belonged and get on with things.

Jungle Jim found entertainment between the entertainment.

Pam Wasn’t Standing There Like Furniture

The idea worked because Pam was not merely an attractive young woman parked beside a race car. Promoters had discovered decorative women long before drag racing discovered fiberglass bodies and nitromethane.

Pam performed the job. She moved with the car, directed Jim, reacted to the crowd and became part of the rhythm of a Jungle Jim appearance. Burnout, smoke, backup, staging and race flowed together until the routine became nearly as recognizable as the car.

That distinction tends to disappear when an old photograph gets separated from the racetrack. Pam was not hauled onto the starting line after the work was finished so somebody could take a picture. The Funny Car really did need somebody behind it, and she really was putting it back into position.

Jungle simply made sure several thousand people considered watching her do it part of the price of admission.

Then Everybody Else Discovered the Idea

Drag racing has never required much encouragement to copy something that fills grandstands. Once Jungle Pam became part of Liberman’s popularity, women began appearing behind other Funny Cars and the backup girl became one of the unmistakable images of 1970s match racing.

Some did a genuine staging job. Some leaned harder on the promotional end. Very few became remotely as recognizable as Pam.

That was the difficulty with copying Jungle Jim. Another team could paint the car loud, stretch the burnout and put a young woman behind it. Those ingredients were available to anybody with a paint gun, a pair of slicks and a promoter willing to play along.

They still did not come in a box marked “Jungle Pam.”

Jim Tried to Send the Show Without Jungle

Pam eventually became valuable enough that Liberman sometimes sent her with one of his second Funny Cars when the operation had more bookings than one man could cover. The theory was easy enough to follow: a Jungle Jim Funny Car would arrive, Jungle Pam would arrive, and another driver would sit inside.

Perhaps the promoter would squint a little and call that close enough.

Usually he would not.

Pam later acknowledged that the arrangement was not particularly successful because the crowds wanted Jungle too. Still, the attempt says plenty about how large her role had become. Somebody believed the most famous backup girl in drag racing could help compensate for the absence of the fellow whose name was painted on the car.

That is a long way from pointing left and right.

She Became Famous Without Making a Run

Pam Hardy never had to drive the Funny Car to become one of the most recognizable people in 1970s drag racing. She was not setting elapsed-time records, tuning the engine or collecting the trophy at the end of the weekend.

She worked for a few seconds between the smoke and the starting line and turned those seconds into something photographers wanted, fans remembered and magazine editors could put on a page without needing much explanation.

Years later, somebody could forget who won a particular national event and still recognize Jungle Pam standing behind Liberman’s Funny Car. Racing keeps records with clocks and scoreboards. Show business keeps a different set.

Pam did very well on the second one.

The Machinery Still Needed Backing Up

The clever part was that Jungle Jim never had to invent a fake activity for Pam. Funny Cars still needed burnouts. Drivers still had to reverse afterward. Somebody still had to stand where the driver could see and guide a noisy, bad-tempered piece of machinery back toward the rubber and the staging beams.

Jim simply refused to let the necessary procedure remain boring.

The burnout got longer. The smoke got thicker. Pam stepped onto the track and brought the car back while the grandstands kept watching instead of using the interval to find the concession stand.

By the time Liberman staged, the crowd had already received several installments of the show and the race had not even started.

Other Teams Had Somebody Back Up the Car

That is why the story belongs in Racing Shenanigans instead of being reduced to a stack of old promotional photographs. The job existed before Pam Hardy and continued after her. Jungle Jim did not invent backing up a Funny Car.

He and Pam figured out that there was no good reason it had to look like work.

A routine staging chore became part of a racer’s identity. An eighteen-year-old who knew little about drag racing when Liberman met her became one of the sport’s most recognizable personalities, and rival teams copied the idea because the people buying tickets had already voted.

Other racers had somebody back up the car.

Jungle Jim had Jungle Pam.

Same job.

Much better show.