Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
Moderators: Racing From The Past

Everything involves a learning curve, with growth being the main objective, working down to the truth of what works is key. If we are to be a show, and a show is what works to bring out the older cars,hardcore racing is for the modern cars- LET US ACCEPT IT FOR WHAT IT IS. Trust me it's competition in a different way.

Whenever you see an old car in a picture that's still around, or even a driver that's still around, you might ask "What's that car like these days?", or "How's he doing?". This format gives either a chance to come out and prove just how well they are doing, without forging to the front making $250 hickies along the way. Opening things up is fine, just avoid contact like the plaque.

Building a show involves the promise of the cars that want to be there. No show, no cars, --no cars, no show, plain and simple. A vintage show combined with a regular or special weekend racing format gives the the whole crowd a needed break. The racers get more time to get their cars ready, the crowd gets a walk down memory lane, future vintage participants get inspried to get something done----it goes on and on and on.......5 laps to further ingite a movement.

I have lived here in Southern Oklahoma all my life, and these people are the absolutely hardest to impress sometimes. They know where the Metro areas are, they go there and spend their money when they want and then come back home to their quiet one horse towns. Between OkC and DFW, they get to see a lot. An 'impression' is something that STAYS with them. Finally, they are impressed with the old race cars that once graced the dirt. What was junk, or out of date has become 'cool' or 'period correct'. They deliberately stay behind the times, the rest of the country discovers the new things, and by the time the movement begins here, they have watched enough to pretty well know where to get on board.

WE HAVE MADE THAT IMPRESSION, AND WE ARE WELCOMED!

Since we are a "Vintage Group", we must nurture and protect the vintage cars.

The Saturday night (first night) part is where we make the largest impression, this is where we pay the light bill, or at least our part of it. in those stands are people who -used to be able-never could- or never will-- afford a modern race car. Many have been fans since they were born, and there are a lot of Baby-Boomers and their kids up there. Seeing these cars in public is one thing, seeing them throw dirt as the sun is going down is even better.

I was once told "People don't care anymore". That is not entirely true. They forgot WHY they did care. My spare time is dedicated to changing that, in the future there is not going to be a better time to get this thing underway, THAN RIGHT NOW. If you're serious about building a car, running it at a pretty good but SAFE clip, best start digging in your heels and looking for parts. Confirmation of what I'm seeing comes almost daily, I'm also seeing the need to find and secure a solid set of guidelines that I can bounce off of--to avoid being comprimised or in other words "Play Favorites". Playing favorites slowly destroys credibility, and I need credibility to build a 20 vintage car show.

We had these cars parked out front of a motel in Ada, Ok, we drew a crowd, enough so that I wasn't able to get all the pictures I wanted, make any changes on MY car, or even get to the track on time. The red car got the most attention. It went on to win our peoples choice award. Nobody has disputed since.

This car won Sunday with James Skinner at the wheel, 4 consistent laps, one car on the track at a time,

His laps stayed within .53 seconds of each other.

So, for someone to SWEEP the entire weekend, that tells me, the perfect car could be somewhere between these two cars.

I know there are surely some drivers and vintage cars out there that used to be able to beat a .53 range.

Where is this going? Watch

First day is a competition unto itself

Second day is a competition unto itself (with exceptions to be put here later)

Winning either, would be quite an accomplishment. Winning BOTH would be..................

We can't all bring in the perfect car, but we can bring in a spoiler for the perfect run for the whole weekend

Here's my spoiler, from what I'm seeing, I just might could win the first day(Peoples Choice), second day(Lap times, consistent) would be tough

Now, how about a few cars that exist, in top form now or in the future---These cars could be threats for the perfect run, the sweep-

I don't want to cause any touble, but I have to honest here,

If this car was done to what it looked like here, it could sweep bigtime! The potential is very high for this car.

Keep in mind. results would vary if this happened at a different track, each track has it's own history and memories, thus each track and it's demographic makeup would have an effect on the outcome.

There are more cars that could win either or both.

The crowd decides the first day winner

the stopwatch decides the second day winner.

The official is obligated to protect the findings of both.

Stay true to this idea, and FAVORITISM IS ONLY AN ANNOYANCE, NOT THE RULE.

Part of what makes this concept hard to accept, is forty plus years of racing to the front. That's all I've ever seen, and I know that's pretty much all that anybody has seen in the last forty as well. Yet I keep running across stories of OTHER kinds of strange competitions, from my Granpas days.

Somewhere there is still a picture of Lloyd Ruby and Hambone Harrell racing up a hill on motorcycles, WITH EACH CARRYING A GOAT! I did get to ask Lloyd 2 years ago what was the deal on that one. "It was somethin different to do" he replied.

This past weekend I talked with an old man that once had Ruby in his car at OkC in the 50's. Lloyd had torn up his car, was very unhappy, until this man and his brother offered their ride. Lloyd figured a junky running car was better than any nicely torn up car, so he took it. The catch- It was a race run in reverse, yes that's right, backwards and going clockwise! He still turned left , just for a different reason.

So, the next time one of us 'knowitalls' says "that's not the way to do it", let's go ask one of them oldtimers just how inventive they had to be in their day, when they filled the stands with several thousand poor people just looking for something to do. Objectives for competition were always being changed, most times it was to offset the damage done by ONE driver winning everything in sight. Sometimes just to be different.

Personally, I hate change. And I hate pushing unconventional ideas. It's hard enough at work, I'm wrong most times, but I accept better ideas in the interest of true progress, not false progress. A few times I have been right enough to make up for all the other times I was wrong. One home run for all the strikes I need forgotten. I don't push this hard unless I KNOW i'm in the right direction. We are a competitive kind, even if we don't race these cars. We are competitive. Some want to own EVERY SINGLE car they can get their hands on, some want to do better than all the others on the track or off with the only car they own.

There is a song, "I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good ONCE, as I ever was". Seem familiar? This program is being set up for a guy to prove it. I have talked with MANY people that have sat behind the wheel, MANY. The BEST never really say much, but the ones still trying to prove themselves will let you know right up front just how good they are. Often times the film says otherwise. Thus, if we give an incentive for the better drivers to tune it back a little so they will be in a better position to win what is up for grabs, and give time and a direction for the lesser drivers to work on their cars and driving, a more cohesive field COULD be accomplished.

Back in the fall of 2008, I was really looking to reward the RESTORED cars with a competition. There was a glitch-- Who would we get to judge these cars? Here's a list of my nominees-

Denny Moore

Jelly Wilhelm

Don Edmunds

Luther Brewer

Jack Walker

Bobby Walker

Ricky Walker

Dale Parson

Horace Mann

Jackie Howerton

I'm sure there are more, but only a few that could even match these guys in what they know. Still, who is the definitive judge? Can we count on him to be around forever? Once you have your car highly polished and restored, how many of you are afraid to even bring it out? Truth is, things changed all the time and memories get foggy at times and the total absolute truth is ever elusive. I am no historian, just a fanatic. Still I find that even the best historians are still learning and some things they think they know, and are wrong on, will never change in their own minds. The oppurtunity for drama and bad feelings is just too possible here to make everyone happy.

The perfect restoration means that even the imperfections have to be in place. I have seen some awesome restorations that are overly done, and will never look like they did when they made their history. I've seen some that are close, but not enough to make a case for a solid restoration class that a promoter could count on to be there. The truth is we get these cars close enough to suit ourselves, somewhere past the point of it being fun, then we button them up and call it good enough. Just like it always was.

Somehow, a car had to be rewarded based on the work and presentation in such a way that could not be comprimised by personal relations that would give off a conflict of interest smell. Giving that power to one person in the crowd, whoever wins that chance, is the most honest way I could think of. Even any of my enemies could win this thing on the first day. At some point, the decision for the winner on the first day, has got to be out of my control. THAT MEANS ANY VINTAGE CAR COULD WIN.

There are ways to boost your chances, I'll get into that later.

There are ways to be disqualified, I'll get into that later.

Okay we've established a few things

We all know I'm crazy

We love the vintage race cars

the fans love the vintage race cars

We are welcome back for 2010 at OSP for the second annual HLJMem.

I have been given permission to use my program procedure again at OSP(provided I fix my screwups)

--------------here's the rabbit

My goal for the next 350 days is to raise $1,000 to the winner of each session(1k for sat nite, 1k for sunday). Over time has kicked back on again at work, I have a few options to use, it'll come out of my own pocket if needed. I absolutely loathe asking for money. Should any money be donated to this goal, don't send it to me, we'll find a party that is agreeable to all. I know one person I trust enough for this purpose.

I would really like to pay it in silver dollars, but I've been told they don't make those anymore.....I'll still check.

Beyond that, should I make it early enough, I'll go for a bonus on the sweep, SHOULD anybody pull that off.

I'm ready to get this thing rolling and I'm serious. God willing we have a prosperous year coming back around to this time. Thought I'd tell you now because it's not going to leave me alone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlCUonYuwt4&feature=channel_page

Well we can forget the big SILVER DOLLAR IDEER, they don't seem to make those anymore and the prices they're wanting on e-bah are too much. I'd pay a dollar for one, not 5-15!

There's another option I have. It's too easy to burn through ten Benjamins, they go like water in paper form. I figure these will have to work for 2010, $1 for a $1