He began drag racing in the Stock division at Fremont Raceway in 1964 and made a jump up to funny cars in 1965, driving an injected Nova on nitromethane dubbed "Hercules". Later that year he started on the national scene as the driver of Lew Arrington's supercharged GTO Funny Car, "Brutus". In 1966, Liberman went out on his own in his first supercharged (steel-bodied) Chevy II, the first to wear the "Jungle Jim" name. In 1967, he went on a tour that established him as a household name within drag racing circles across the country. Despite making eight-second runs in his Chevy when other top dragracers in factory-sponsored cars made runs in the seven-second range, he gained a large fan following. Liberman was more interesting. He won the hearts of the spectators after he did wheelstands for the full length of the track in a two-race match race against Don Nicholson.