Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I don't have a problem with nearly every month his column talking about how drunk he/they used to get back in the day or how often he got in the car with a hangover. It gets old, but I love the magazine. Just read the preview issue to the last year's Knoxville nationals, w/Steel City Outlaw #83 on the cover. A little wacky to say the least. Anything in parenthesis is me, everything else is Olson verbatim. I really don't know him other than having read about him years ago in NSSN:

"to weed out the racers who really are only racing because they can, it will be harder to drive and less safe but the real racers will still want to race. First take away all the big wide tires and bring back narrow hard tires like the old Ascot tires which not only dig up the track but also pelt the guy behind you with rocks and dirt causing huge bruises on forearms and biceps. You will definitely get these bruises as I will also disallow any side panels. And gone are the space capsule seats. Guys will have to be in shape to drive these
cars, like the big boys at Langhorne. Gone are the high-dollar shocks replaced by over-the-counter passenger shocks. This will allow the car to tip over when overdriven, after a few hits to the melon (head?) and a trip or two to the crash house (hospital room?) a whole new respect will come to the drivers. (No 110 pound girls??, no slight of build
men?) I would also eliminate a lot of the safety equipment that is mandatory today. Arm restraints are banned. Fans always love to see drivers waving at them. Also, crowds were thrilled to see a driver waving at the fans as he flipped thru the air. Besides, I never heard of anyone dying of a broken arm. I strongly suggest open-facehelmets as a broken or bloody nose or knocked out tooth like Opperman and Hurtibise used to get gives the drivers character and thrills the fans. Hans and similar devices will not only be disallowed but confiscated by race officials. You may think that these are the ramblings of an ancient, worn out, washed up race driver and you might be right. I do not want to see anyone hurt but the element of danger and possibility of getting seriously hurt are what made the old drivers such heros. Guys like Vogler and Pancho push it to the limit every lap and sometimes go too far and give us a good crash. I
love a good crash as long as they walk away and they come back the next race to race again.
Olson's worst statement of the article: "a lot of today's drivers are the size of jockeys".

As far as arm restraints, I personally know of a former driver, and one of my favorite drivers back in the early 70s, who lost his arm in Minot, ND due to no arm restraints back then.

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

The job of a writer is to get people to think and I think KO succeeded based on your post. He made it clear that he wasn't advocating people getting hurt. Everyone talks about the old days and how great they were, he just takes it a bit further and points out some of the things drivers used to have to deal with. A lot of the drivers of my youth were ex WWII servicemen sporting crew cuts, smoked like a chimney, had arms like a linebacker, drank like fish and would deck anybody who looked at them cross eyed. No fly weight jockey sized driver, women not allowed in the pits and everybody had to wear white. He's just telling it like it was.

Stan Meissner

kevin's hero vogler would most likely have lived to crash another day if there had been side nets on the car.

same with Billy III i believe.

i like an exciting push it to the limit race just as much as the next person.

it is not exciting to watch your friends get hurt or killed.

to indy and beyond!!

Sadly, the time has come where probably half of these readers read what you wrote and are wondering "what the heck are you talking about?"

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

Or remember how Roger Ward didn't fit that mold, even though he had been a fighter pilot.

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Truth is, if these youngsters today had been put in a opened wheeled car back in the day, their parents would have been arrested for child endangerment.

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

I love KO's column. It's the first thing I read. I think some of you are taking him too literally and not the tongue in cheek side that I see. I laugh and laugh at what he writes. Yes - he misses the old days - but surely you don't think he's advocating to going back to the 40's (that's 1940's - to some of you youngsters). At least he's getting a response and maybe getting folks to thinking a bit - even if they don't have a sense of humor.

Good point, that's why I said "a lot of" instead of "all of". There were a quite a few clean living drivers but they still had to be able to stand toe to toe with their hard living competitors.

Stan Meissner

I agree completely with your thoughts about how a lot of those boy's were back then, and how many were war veterans. My dad who raced back home in Indiana after the war fit that mold, as did a lot of his friends in Torrance before we moved to Phoenix the first time.

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

I would only assume KO is speeking from a gone,missing,rememberance type of analogy , while kinda humorus for most of us, the safety of the sport has came a long ways in great strides , otherwise KO would not be wearing the firesuit in his coulum (ironically). these new additions to safety gear are all welcome in my opinion , loosing a friend, competitor, a complete stranger , on the track really makes a guy sick to his stomake and leaves ya wondering, "why is this suppose to be fun again?" Residing from Minot I had the chance to meet "Lefty" and I kinda liked the old guy, he made me laugh, without his seatbelt that day, maybe I would have never gotten the chance to meet him, as far as danger, and putting it all on the line, In todays world the cars are lighter, more HP , and faster , I personally , drive harder knowing im protected, (as my wallet will allow) and the next position is all that will do! I think many will agree.

Dirt raceorbust. I wonder if you have ever met KO. Voted class clown in HS, he has been the best of the best when it came to jokes. Practical or not. As far as paying his dues, and living the glory days, KO will admit he was probably born too late. But when you look at what he has done, well his record stands for itself. Perhaps you might check out the bio in the Midget hall of fame sometime. I for one have had the priviledge of knowing Kevin all my life. I can attest he paid his dues. from rescuing his first midget from a garage fire and taking burns over the majority of his body, and the susequent burn treatments, to breaking his back by getting hit by a car along the road as he was helping someone who had broken down, to winning championships over 3 decades, yeah I think KO has earned the right ro reminisque if he so chooses. For those that may not really click into what the good old days were like, he is a wealth of knowledge and insight. To those of us that shared his journey, it brings back really good times. And with Kevin, no matter what, they were always good times. The original STP kid, KO was, and still is my hero, and my friend.

As for midget racing today. I find it sad that technology has floated down to what should be a feeder class. The costs of the top cars and engines has taken the sport out of the hands of the backyard cornfield racer, and made it a professional deal. And that in my opinion is the problem. We need the low buck racers with cars in the back room of their garage out there every week. What we don't need is a bunch of rich guys in the minority controlling the sport because of the size of their wallet.

KO we love you. May you go on forever...

Little Rine...