Roland Leong, The Hawaiian, Is Gone. He Was Truly A Legend, In The Purist Sense Of The Word. RIP My Friend. – BangShift.com

(Words by Darr Hawthorne and Chad Reynolds. Photos by Lou Hart – LionsAutomobilia.org) The word Legend is often used for those we looked up to, but Roland Leong was truly a Legend in the purest sense of the word.

From his early racing career at Kahuku Drag Strip, on the Island of Oahu, Leong hot rodded the family car making way for his first blown gas dragster, a Dragmaster chassied, Corvette-powered winner in the early 1960’s. His dragster, with supercharged Chrysler power, was one of the strongest running dragsters in the State of Hawaii.

After moving to the Mainland, Leong continued his winning with the Top Gas Championship at the ’64 Winternationals with Danny Ongais driving. Later that year he drove his brand-new Kent Fuller chassied, nitro-powered “Hawaiian” crashing it at over 190 MPH on his first licensing pass at Lions Drag Strip. His new car was totaled with friends Keith Black and Don Prudhomme looking on. NHRA then barred Leong from a competition driving license as a result the accident.

In 1965 Don Prudhomme would then drive the newly rebuilt dragster to victories at local tracks like Pomona, Lions, San Fernando, San Gabriel, Phoenix, Detroit, Ohio and others setting track records and earning championship trophies across the country. Prudhomme and Leong solidified a lifelong friendship between the two.

Through a series of drivers like Mike Snively, Leong became a tuning wizard with Keith Black powerplants winning nearly 80% of all their races. By 1967, and with Chrysler’s help, Leong fielded two “Hawaiian” dragsters driven by Snively and Mike Sorokin in the “Hawaiian II” with 426 Hemi’s.

Leong received his Crew Chief of the Year award from the Car Craft All-Star Drag Racing Team in ’67 & ’68 along with engine builder Keith Black.

By 1969 Leong, with help from Chrysler, would debut his long series of “Hawaiian” funny cars at the Winternationals with Larry Reyes driving the Dodge Charger. The funny car became airborne at over 180 miles per hour crashing hard on the Pomona top end. After rebuilding by mid-year, the “Hawaiian” funny cars would dominate the drag strips across the nation that year.

Leong’s ability to bring in sponsorships like Dodge and Yamaha, by 1973 would lead him to Revell model kit company along with other racers.

By 1975, with help from General Motors, Leong would field Chevy Monza and Corvette-bodied funny cars. By the 1980’s, major sponsor King’s Hawaiian Bread

Came aboard with driver Ron Colson. Then in came Hawaiian Punch, probably Leong’s most visible and lucrative sponsor package with driver Mike Dunn.

By the 1990’s driver Jim White was winning Big Bud Shootouts and setting records for the Hawaiian Punch Dodge, carding the fastest run for a nitro powered vehicle at 288.27 MPH, faster than any Top Fuel Dragster at the time.

Leong would finally sell his funny car operation after running a Hawaiian Vacation Dodge Daytona bodied car with driver Gordie Bonnin, until sponsorship funding ran out.

Roland Leong would go on to Crew Chief for owner Don Prudhomme and driver Ron Capps. In all he employed twenty-one drivers in his racing career and, after fifty-five years in drag racing was honored by the Hawaii State Legislature for his accomplishments, a proud honor he shared with his longtime friend Prudhomme last year.

Roland’s sense of humor and his ability to listen to what “the motor was telling him” led to his long, successful career and his many, many friends along the way. He passed away at the age of 79 on December 29, 2023.

On a personal note: I first saw Roland in 1965 at Hawaii Raceway Park. We became friends years later when Roland needed a ride into Bakersfield from Famoso Dragstrip. He climbed into my truck and after a minute of silence, he said, “Hey, you ever been to Hawaii?” I said I’d seen him at HRP in the 1960’s when my dad moved to Oahu for work. A moment passed and he smacked me on the arm saying in Hawaiian pidgin English, “Hey, we’re bruddahs!” Roland Leong was a very special man. Aloha.

Chad’s Note:

Growing up in a drag racing family, and reading National Dragster every week, I knew Roland Leong’s name and reputation for as long as I can remember. But when we first started streaming Nostalgia Drag Racing events at Famoso back in the day I never would have expected that I’d get to meet and hang out with Roland. Those days had me hanging out with a lot of big name racers, but while a lot of them are wild and crazy, Roland is nothing like that at all. He was the most mellow guy you could meet, which in hindsight is totally the Hawaiian Island’s spirit so it makes sense. 

And while I got to talk to Roland on several occasions, one of my most memorable wasn’t even at the dragstrip. I was walking around the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona one year, and the show had just officially closed for the night. I was in a hall full of old drag cars, along with one section of lowriders, shooting photos for another group of galleries on the site and was just talking to my wife Daphne who had called to see how long it would be before I was home. While talking to her and shooting more photos, Roland comes walking down the aisle toward me. As he walked up to me, I told Daphne that he was standing there waiting on me, and she told me to “Get off the damn phone! Roland Leong is waiting to talk to you!” So I hung up and proceeded to walk around the show for another 30 minutes or so with Roland, shooting photos and talking about the state of drag racing, before they shut out the lights and kicked us out. 

It was awesome. 

We didn’t talk about anything “important”. We didn’t talk about anything ground breaking. We talked about nostalgia drag racing, which bodies I liked most, which ones he liked most. We talked about conversations we’d had with other racers and crew chiefs about changes NHRA should make to the nostalgia rules in order to make the cars more reliable and less prone to blowing up in the lights. We talked about how much fun racing was. He told me how much he enjoyed being a crew chief with people that really had the passion and yet knew this was all for fun even though winning was the goal. 

He was a normal dude. Quite honestly, all the big time racers I like are real normal dudes and dudettes. It will come as no surprise that a bunch of them worked together over the years. I’m talking Roland, Prudhomme, Capps, etc. These like minded people all seem to end up together. Folks like Densham, Rupert, Littlefield, Pruett, Fry, Cook, and so many more that would become friends from those days really do mean something to me. 

I haven’t seen Roland in the last few years, but have kept tabs through friends like Darr and Donnie Couch, and appreciate their news and updates. It’s because Roland mattered so much to Darr and Donnie, and so many of our friends, that this took a few days to post since Roland’s passing. We had to wrap our heads around it, and it makes me sad. He impacted all of us for a very long time and we could talk about him for years. 

Rest in Peace my friend, we promise to keep talking about you and telling our stories and yours because it will keep you close to us for years to come. Thanks for all the memories. 

Aloha…