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Courtesy of David Smith Jr and oklahomatidbits

Lotta cars showed up for this one

part 1

pt 2

pt 3

A Main intros

50 Laps!

A main part 1- it's on!

part 2

To All,

This was quite a race, Bob had everybody covered right up until the last 10 laps. If there had been no yellows he probably would have lapped the field. It started out a long night for the 76S Team, we burnt a piston in hot laps and had to change motors, then that motor burnt a piston in the heat which we just barely made, so we put in motor #3 for the B-Fea, (just barely made that) and won the B-Fea but just as he came off of turn 4 it blowed smoke everywhere. On arriving to the pits we pulled the hood off and oil was everywhere but Shorty said the motor was running great it had not blown -up. We pulled the plugs and #3 was oily so we leaked it down and it was 15/20% also I could see that the timing chain seal was pushed out, so we decided to pull the front cover off and I was able to knock in a new seal and stake it hard. Fly cleaned everything up dumped fuel in it and changed gears, we made a couple of changes to the car and bolted on a new set of tires and just barely made it out to line up. Shorty and I had decided he would just take the green and run a couple of laps to see how it ran. What had happened was we had ran out of air cleaners in the first 2 motor blow-up and we just put some chicken wire over the stacks to run the B-Fea and #3 swallowed a rock and beat the top ring land down abit at the end of the B-Fea. anyway we didn't expect to do anything, but surprisingly that ring sealed right off and the motor ran good. On the first start we cut a RF down and had to change it and almost restarted a lap down, as Bob took the green we were still sitting in the infield and as we came back on the track on the front stretch Bob was coming off turn 4 luckly there was a quick yellow and we were able to make up all of that ground. On the restart Shorty was able to move up to about 12/13th but it was a struggle in traffic being tight up until that yellow about half way through. From that point on Shorty was quick he started running the top in 1&2 and with everybody hugging the bottom he was able to make a couple of good moves, at the end he was able to run Bob down in traffic but when he showed Bob his nose Bob picked the pace back up and won it was exciting at the end!!!!! Our pit area looked like a salvage yard motors laying all over oil everywhere it was a mess. I was proud of Shorty and the crew they never gave up!!! Bob would go on to win the '85 Championship and Shorty would win in '86. It is interesting how rivalerys go there was Kinser/Swindell, Opperman/Weld, Hahn/Leep, Stone/Peter's in '85 it was Ewell/Carson it was great fun and I have only the highest respect for the drivers and crews that we raced against!!!!!!!!!!

This was the Black framed Gambler right? Very strong certainty it's been identified and living now. 99% sure

Brian,

Yes, this was the black frame/1st Gambler. I'm not sure if it is still around, Rick Barksdale bought it and ran it for awhile but he crashed it bad and tore the front of the frame up bad. If somebody has it I could tell them for sure if it was this car.

Now THAT was good insight. Thank you for the read. After parents quit taking me all the time in the 70's, I got my drivers license in 1982 and caught all the races, especially the area NCRA and loved the champ dirt cars. Gosh I loved them things so stories to go along with these videos are a bonus.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

Best we can tell from what we've been investigating, here you go. Rick Barksdale owned it and said he bought it off of you guys, and it was the black frame.

The twist here is this,

It turns out there was something special about these heads on the MOPAR engine. Billy Turner had been working on a MOPAR setup since 1989. Somewhere along the line it seems , Billy and this car got together and a MOPAR got fitted in it.

When Billy's deal was begun in 1989 however, the motorsports program at Chrysler was not interested in messing around with racing pushrod v8's on ovals. Nor were they even interested in NASCAR. SOMEWHERE, between Billy's deal starting up, and maybe a few late models racing up north, somebody at MOPAR/Direct Connection got a bright idea of getting in contact with Gary Stanton and having him place a MOPAR motor into a USAC Champ Dirt Car. Then Gary gets Karl Kinser, and the MOPAR/Stanton/Kinser World of Outlaw team is going along. After that, and a few late models running up north somewhere, Dodge goes into trucks , then Busch, then cup through Evernham.

But for some reason , it seems the first venture with a MOPAR began with a Billy Turner super right here in Oklahoma (I think the first car was a Barnett chassis?). Could be just a coincidence, but it doesn't look like it.

Now it looks like this car above has 2 histories. I'm trying to talk Trammell into painting the frame black so that he can get another Gambler body and painting it to the colors and lettering you guys had it in 1985. THEN he could have it both ways-albeit with a MOPAR engine. He's thinking about it. But he loves the car even more now that he knows.