Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
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David,

You might be right but I don'tremember the 2nd car that fast, Troy might have got a 2nd car first and ran it as a modified, I just remember Bobby running Plunkets car that Ray had drove aft converting it to a 4-bar, it was a similar conversion to what they had done to Pat's Parson car. Then after Bobby ran it for a while they built a new car similar to your dad's. Do you remember going to Hutch in '75 with this car? We had problems with the inboard brake creating so much heat that in vapor locked the electric fuel pump on a Red Flag we worked on it and if I remember right when we went to 81 SPDY that night your dad remounted the pump to the right side of frame to get it away from the brake and Bobby ran 2nd or 3rd in the A-FEA. at 81 that night and we never had another problem with Vapor Lock. Remember this car had an automatic for a while but didn't your dad change it over to a std. and bell housing before Terry drove it?

On those wheels Walker & Dale both widened those wheels, I'm sure Nance and others did also, the old man had 1 that you could mount 2 tires on and run it as duals somewhere there is a pic of the Jelly #13 with I believe US ARMY sponser name on the hood at Enid with Benny driving and that dual pkg is on the car, In later years I had to dismount that damn wheel it is probably the hardest pair of tires I've ever dismounted of any kind!!! I believe John McDade may have been the one who came up with this idea, according to them it was bad ass which led to it being outlawed.

You were right. I looked at the pics again and the other car was the plunkett car, but it was already built and painted. I also found a pic of the inside of the same car from '76 showing the on board fire suppression system. It shows a standard and bell housing.

How;s everybody? Been a tough week at work, finally got some free time.

Just one week & we will be meeting! I am really looking forward to it.

Here's some more stuff from 1984, racing as it should be. On the 1/2 mile with no wings.

Cool!

Jim,

Understand tough week, I to am looking forward to getting together and looking at old pic's and shooting the bull.

This pic. above of shorty with a flat was just another part of a continuing saga with Ofixco & Stone, we were running 7th at the time and slowly moving forward probably could have ran about 5th but we had alittle get together with Stone and cut this tire down. Last half of '84 was a trying time I had fired Howard the Duck about 1st of July, Pat got with Shane and we decided to try it afew times, he had already drove Wooley's car and Caruther's car and had done pretty well. Well he won first night in this car at OKC started running good anywhere we went same car same motors same tires same people working on the car same set-ups I really don't know what happened to Sewell he must have went brain dead, Pat and I were arguing over the motors I bought that damn Carblown engine things didn't get any better, Pat kept telling me Grace there is nothing wrong with our shit, well after he about blew that Carblown motor up with an oil leak Pat was pissed so after a poor performance the next week and Howie was bitching about getting a Nance car, Pat told me to fire his ass, well I hadn't fired him by Wednesday so Pat told me if HE SHOWS UP ON FRIDAY TO DRIVE YOUR ASS IS FIRED!!! didn't take long to figure that one out, know what Old Man was right. It really set-up alot of excitement for the end of '84 because not only were we battling with Offixco it renewed our battle with Nance as Howie,Johnson & Ewell were driving Nance House cars. While WOO made there mid California swing we had time to work on our motor program some more and Pat came up with 2 differant combinations that really put us on the map, we changed cams and heads on the Carblown motor and renamed it Sonny Honey Bear, then he finally came up with that cam,head & injector pkg. for the MOTOWN MISSLE (name from Al Mahone) that thing was bad ass we put springs on it after ever night most of the time. When Shane came back from that California swing he started killing them we won I think 4-5 of the last NCRA races that year and throw in a couple of 2nd to go with it. I could go on but I've got to go cut hay, I'll tell you this the last race at dallas was a barn burning knuckle buster.

Here's one of "old reliable". Aaron had this car built prior to the 1971 season, he ran it 3 years & did pretty well. The first time he broke his back Jimmy Harkness drove sub for Aaron and did well also.

Dad bought the car prior to the 74' season, we put it all together (with the aluminum powerglide, which a lot of people laughed at. but dad made it work!). Ran this car on the 1/2 mile for 4 years, in 75' finished 2nd in points. I will always believe we should have won that 75' title but we got out rule-booked!!!!

Have a great story on that saga that includes fist-fights, hammers, wrenches, a lot of hard feelings, & soured friendships. Will tell THAT story when we all have a LOT of time.

Besides David Brotherton, several drivers drove this piece including, Thad Doisher, Jay Woodeside, D.E. Suggs, Gene Daniels, my dad on a couple of occassions.

Would love to have this car back!

Hey, I went on a test drive this morning, when I got back, guess who's standing in my office?

Bobby Craft! He's up from Texas, gonna be in town until after Thanksgiving. Got to telling him about this deal & he was really impressed by it. This guy has got a few stories as well. I know the summer he spent with Karl & Mark Kinser, he did some neat stuff.

Thinking about inviting him Saturday, But wanna check with you guys first. I know Bobby can be a little abrasive & I don't want to upset the cart here. I've known Bobby since I was about 15, think I'm the only one who gets along with him sometimes! LOL.

Let me know what you guys think, Jim.

More the merrier from what I hear.

Jim,

Bobby and I have a little history but I hope that would all be in the past, I have a lot of respect for Bobby he was 1 of the guys that I had to work hard to beat when he was with Troy & Ewell, I also know he turned in some good work at Karl's plus he handled Bankstons deal well. Funny story about Bobby he gave me a bunch of shit at the Starbird show one year over all those drilled out bolts,duez tabs, arms & stops etc, he was telling me what a waste of time and effort, well Bobby has built some of the nicest lightweight cars that I've seen!!

The pic of the #8 posted earlier was that shot at OKC, I do remember the P/G trans but don't remember if you guys ran that closed drive adaptor from Carl Wyatt or did you run it open drive line?Your dad and Mike Allison were the only ones that I saw could build them and last with any consistentcy. I think I know where your going with the story about '75 season, I know I have my take on that story so we should be able to have fun and laugh about it now, I do know at the time it did cause serious hard feeling among both camps!!!

Well leaving in the AM to go to Akron be in friday night see you guys on saturday, very much looking forward to it!!!

Shane received phone call earlier with sad news about his friend Chuck Amatie (a great sprint racer) who was killed in a car wreck today RIP CHUCK!!!!!

Well it's the 22nd & I'm ready. Planning on showing about 7:00. Guess I'll just bring some pictures & magazines + The best of my memory!! If anyone can think of something, let me know @ 417-2202. See you guys in a few hours, think this is gonna be fun, Jim.

Just so every body knows, it's Round-up Pizza @ 5004 S.E. 29th.

I've talked to the guys and it is a go! Should be fun.

Those of you who can't decide between the OU-Tech game or the get together, we'll tell you all about the pictures we saw and the stories we heard firsthand.

Thank God I didn't have to work tonight.

That's Round-up Pizza, 5004 SE 29TH

See ya there Jim

Here's a Little Bobby Walker from 1973. For some reason, they went away from the traditional Walker look here & built the "Okie Sprinter" type.

A little eye candy for the Lawton guys, The singing 5. Note the Nance magnesium wheels on the rear and the stock steel wheel on the front. Use what you need in those days.

The saga of this car appears to not be over. I do know everyone whom I have heard from regarding my mistakes in the story of it were telling in a pure spirit of the truth.

Let me be the first to acknowledge that EVEN I have doubts now about my accuracy in the story about it's final end. There doesn't appear to be one.That's the hook of this chase, the story never ends. I only wanted closure, and I would have owned it if I had the chance. I'm content that I won't. I met a lot of great people though.

The lineage of owners kept matching up from 2 critical ends on the owner list, yet one end did not even know the other. I kept getting a match, checked with a guy who was there when it was built, and went over this story time and again. But in a story chase like this,a simple common sense answer only makes a cameo appearance now and then , and it's never final.

I had a great time at the Round Up Pizza last night at Del City. We stayed so late the help was looking for a sleeping bag.

Jim,Bobby,Tom, it was good meeting you guys for the first time. Of course you throw in JD,Mike,David , you get so much experience in the room it's hard to focus on one conversation.

Jim,

Had so much going on last night that I forgot to ask you another question about this car, I still have it stuck in my mind that Bill Levescy drove this car a few times, wasn't this car owned by Ernie Lupp? If I remember righht wasn't this '74 as Bobby drove for Melvin in '73 and the #1 in this pic was little Madden and this is the Jelly car that he drove in '74, I think somewhere along the way Walkers and Lupp split the sheet and Bill took over for awhile, I believe didn't Charlie Blaine wind up with this car and run it under the #15?

Hey Guy's

Had a great time last night, we diffenitely need to get together again soon! There was no way to look at all those pic's in the short time we had. I know that Shane,Havill & Farley would like to have came this time but had prior engagements.

I'm going to start on my Top 10 list for NCRA, I'm going to split it up into Supers and Champ Dirt.& then a combined list of the 2.

I'll be watching for your posts so keep in touch!!!

What a great time last night. Thank all of you guys for being there & having your input. Like David says a deal like this is priceless! You know, some people do baseball or football stats, but this is what i DO! Race car junky, thats me.

2 or 3 years ago, Kevin Scrock asked me to take his 2 barrel car out for some laps, & I just had to say no. After the races gwen asked why I wouldn't hop lap his car. I just said it would be like a big shot of heroin & I would think I needed to be racing again. It's THAT bad.

The last year I drove in 97' in a late model I hit a concrete wall head on about 70 MPH. The ol body just didn't heal up like it used to! Really would love to drive again, but as an owner /driver paying the bills you just can't race like you need to.

Thanks again guys, looking forward to our next get together. SOON I hope. In the mean time, I'll be working on some sort of plan to save FAIRGROUNDS SPEEDWAY. Don't know how I'm gonna do it but it MUST be done!!!!!! Jim

Sounds like you guys had a great time. You didn't run into any bikers did you??

Hope no one left with knuckle prints in his forehead.

Good luck on saving the race track. Seems like only the racers have the fire to do that. Way too many good tracks just growing up in weeds.