Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
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No bikers this time. Biggest threat I ran into was my girlfriend when she found out how much pizza I ate!

If the fairgrounds go, we will definitely lose a lot of history. That crowd, large or small has been there for over 50 years. Their need to watch these cars is solid. The horse people could take the power of their show elsewhere on a whim when whatever contractual agreement is up. We've seen it before in OkC with

other organizations. Lose the Speedway, you lose a heavy part of the color of the fairgrounds. It happened to Tulsa.

I had a great time Sat. night , lots of old pics and stories and it was great seeing everyone , Maybe we can try it again after the first of the year in Jan./Feb.

I hope OKC Fairgrounds Speedway survives , but as usual it will be up to money people and politicians to decide it's fate, I hope it does not get the proverbial axe , enjoy the place and it still has that mystique about it that most other tracks have lost and like Bobby said Sat. night did you ever think you would see what racing has become in Tulsa , Ok., I thought you would see Tulsa Speedway survive and others struggle to stay in business but such is not the case. Guess it goes to show you ya just never know.

Been working on my Top 10 best Drivers for NCRA Super Modifieds '71 thru '80, pulled standings and Top 5 off of NCRA website for those years and after looking at all those pic's on Saturday night and doing some serious thinking I've selected my Top 10 drivers and a couple of Honorables for '71/'80.

1st Emmett Hahn he scored the most points during this 10yr span won 2 championships and was consistently a top 3 in points for 8 of those years, I know he probably had the best ride during that time and that helped his position but you can't deny he was tough anywhere he went during this period!!

2nd Harold Leep winner of 3 Championships during this period, and I know he set out 2 1/2 yrs, he won for 3 differant owners Cates,Madden & Suchy, overall best driver, probably but not always on the best team. Had the highest pt avg during this period.

3rd Frankie Lies 2 time champ, was always tough short track or long high speed joints expecially tough on dry slick pretty fast at the weekly shows also.

4th Ray Crawford I know alot of you won't agree with this but he did win 1 Championship and he was good on the slick and he was fast at the high speed places, big thing I rate here is he survived all those yrs at big Tulsa track and never got hurt bad.

5th Jerry Stone also a Champion during this period winning what I call the last Super Modified Championship, Stony was tough in the dry, good on the short tracks and could handle himself at the high speed joints.

6th Dave Frusher I'll probably catch some slack over this one also but Dave was smooth and he and King were tough and they did win 1 Championship during this period Dave was what I would call a short track specialist wet or dry and he was decent on the bigger tracks.

7th Dale Reed he was tough during the early part of this period equally good on the dry or wet tracks short or long, if he and Issac could have stayed together I am sure he would be higher in these standings!!

8th D.E. Suggs Alot of people aren't going to agree with this one either but D.E. was also like Reed very tough in the early years of this period but even later he still was good if in the right equipment, I think he accelled on the big high speed places wet or dry, he also wasn't to bad on short tracks either.

9th Ron Fowler Ron was good in any car he drove personnally I think he was as close to Leep in raw talent as you could get, he fell right in for Cates when Leep got hurt and I didn't see any slack in the #2 cars performance, Ron was equally good on wet or dry tracks, short or long.

10th I tied on this one with Grady Wade & Walt McWhorter that '71 OKC win for Grady in Schippert's car will always stick out in my mind Grady was always tough on the dry. Walt also was very tough on the dry I personnaly think he was the best low profile tire racer during this period any where any night. I also give alot of credit here because he did his own deal.

Honorables: Aaron Madden,Herb Copeland,A.J. Little, Eugene Hair,Shady McWhorter.

I realize there is a bunch of other names I have not mentioned and oh how much this could be changed if Jackie Howerton had stayed here or if Jim Harkness had not died so early, and a special thought should go out to 3 guys Aaron Madden, Jerry Sodeberg & Jack Petty who gave up so much at Hutch in '74, for them to have came back and participated in this sport during this time is a testament to the type of drivers who helped Found and raced in those early years of NCRA Super Modified racing!!!

Hey Brian how can i get ahold of Mike Monatoboy, or could you give him my email address, [email protected] , i aquired some stuff that his friend Cannonball had and think he would like to look thru it, alot of old racing stuff, and i think Cannonball would have wanted him to have it.

On it.

A Sam Ewing shot. I made a mistake earlier on the credit.

Is this Jr. Bruner?

Yeah thats Jr, i think that was RC Phillips car from Wichita Falls, he ran it a few times, Steve Young drove it most of the time.

David, Looks like a pretty good top 10 to me.

I have a question what kind of chassis was the 88 King car that Frusher drove to the 79 NCRA Championship and then later it had a Sprint Tail put on it , it was an older car from what I remember, was it a Nance? Just curious if anyone knows.

I'd like to know too. Someone told me it was an old Issac owned car. Isaac for the longest time had Edmunds chassis. BUT as we all know, a Nance or another frame could have been substituted. It'd be nice to clear up that mystery.

Don't know if I posted this one, think it's Bob Ewell. Note the Parson style top and the Nance tail. I'm sure it's not an old Suchy car, but you can easily get confused with pictures and memories like these

For you vintage sprint fans,

Life magazine released a few shots of 60's sprinters

JD,

I believe it could have been one of the old Issac cars as if I remember right it had a big X in the rear hoop but I'm not positive, I know that he had some Nance parts on it and it was very good in the slick. I'll do alittle investagating and see what I can find out.

Brian,

This is diffently not one of the old mans cars, he never had a true space frame car until '81 the Rich coil over car.

How big were those Nance front hubs? They look huge.

Then there was James McElreath as a notable mention. May have been green when he was here, but he learned very quickly.

Warren, it's in the mail.

Here goes on my Top 10 Drivers for Champ Dirt Era '81 thru '87, I printed off NCRA Top 5 list during this period and after Saturday night looking at the old pic's and discussions here's my picks.

1st Mike Peter's scored most points and finished in the Top 5 in points 6 of the 7 yrs of this period, winning the last Champ Dirt championship in '87, I know most people will say Stone but Mike can drive on any type surface on any length track, if Mr. Bill had been racing with MP from the start Stone wouldn't have won as much early!!

2nd Shane Carson scored the most points from '84 on, winning the championship in '86 and almost repeating in '87, only ran partial '84 and '85 was so dominating in '86. Not to many guys have his passion for the sport even today!!

3rd Bob Ewell Championship winner in '85 after a stirring duel with Carson this guy also could run on any type of track wet-dry long or short didn't effect Bob, I enjoyed our rivalery he is a great competitor equal to the 2 above.

4th Jerry Stone '82-'83-'84 Champion so why isn't he 1st, tough dission on my part I just think the car and team carried him, I'm not saying he can't drive a race car he can and very well I'm just saying until he got into Offixco cars he wasn't as dominate.

5th Herb Copeland '81 Champ very good on the slick, oh how proud of him for winning that 1st USAC/NCRA race, if Herb had ran this whole period he would be higher on my list.

6th Jon Johnson another Jayhawker who was so good on all types of tracks, didn't always have the best of luck.

7th Donnie Crawford a short track specialist, how many Tulsa championships did he win? Donnie was good on the dry or the wet, just a little intimadated by the fast high speed places.

8th Tony Armstrong this might confuse some but TA was fast on any track type or size here is 1 time I think Offixco hurt a guys performance, he would have been my pick to replace Shane if MP had another ride.

9th Stan Constant alot aren't going to believe this one either but ANYBODY that ever underestimated this guy was a fool, he did his own thing without alot of help, wasn't the best on any track but he had the most HEART to get the job done!!!!!!

10th Andy Hillenburg not much to say here he was a young talent at the end of this period with good equipment who would go on to become 1 of the best in WOO for a few years.

There is also a list of guys here that you could argue should be on this top 10 list some of them damn good racers but they just didn't support the series as much.

The one thing I most cherish about this period was the great rivalries between the Chassis builders, Tire Manufactures, Engine builders & Teams, I can promise you this the 3-5 guys on top of this list could have went about anywhere in the country and won and in this type of car more often then not!!!

I agree with those guys could have went anywhere and ran and won, Stone did try it up in Pa. for a year or so,not sure what happened and why he came back to Okla. maybe someone can enlighten us.

Like I asked the other night what happened to the NCRA with it's big time races in the 70's and early 80's and most answered greed and lack of promoters working together to make it what it was in its hey day, Will always wonder if the NCRA with the right people running it and with the tracks it had all working together if it could have been the World of Outlaws type series that Ted J. got started in 78. Maybe/Maybe Not?

I just know it sure was a great series back then and the races were BIG TIME EVENTS and not just a race.