Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
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I only raced this car a couple of years before I sold it and bought a car from Mike Allison when he had Walker build him a new car to run Super's with. The car I bought from Mike was the one I destroyed in the wild flip @ Lawton when the roll cage collapsed. After that was destroyed, I bought one of the #55 Walker cars from Jr. Hillenburg that Ray Crawford drove. That was when Hillenburg was switching to Gary Stanton cars. I won one feature @ Lawton, one @ Goldsby and one @ OKC with the car that you might have. I raced @ Goldsby more than Lawton. If Goldsby was rained out, I would go to Lawton. I have a lot of old programs from Goldsby with pictures of me, Terry Courtney, Jerry Havil, Wayne Wade, Dusty Lathrop, Jim Bean, etc.

GRC3

The rear bumper mounts are steel, caplike. On the outside face of these caps is the word "Ramset" and there is what looks like an old style adjustable wrench logo under it.

It's obviously a brand name.

I think we have a winner. We have to be talking about the same car.

The mount for the rear links is still on the frame. They are like gussets, 3/8"-1/2" thick and they in the same location.

Pretty cool to have this mystery solved after 33 give or take years.

Back from the Chili Bowl and Sammy Swindell is still a great engineering mind as well as a pretty darn good Race Car Driver, Had'em covered and smothered all week last week and the French Grimes Midget creation was quite a piece of work in itself and to bad it was not meant to crash though but still gotta admire the engineering in the car and I am convinced that there was more Carbon Fiber in the Expo Building last week than I have ever seen before and also on Sat. when you get through the Alphabet racing to about the D Mains , the transfer spots get really heated and drivers will do anything to transfer to the next Letter up as demonstrated numerous times Sat. afternoon and evening and even to the point of flippin across the finish line while in a transfer position, guess this race means that much to some and to me only ones making any money is the Car owners cause some of the prices I heard paid/rented for rides were quite expensive and looked as some did not get their monies worth and the 2 promoters and Expo concessions as the food is way overpriced , but isn't that the way of the world today.

By the way Brian seen a manual steering box in the auction on Thurs. did not go Friday as we went to Don Hubbards wife funeral , so don't know what it brought but looked like a nice piece.

How about that get together in the near future?

I'm kinda stepping away from Schroeder boxes if I can. I'd like to find a Ross steering box out of a forklift--that is IF i can even stand a manual anymore. Thinking about using a profile box I have when I actually do make a few rounds this year.

I wish I could have seen Sammy do it all this year, and it's hard to believe I am even saying that.

Brian:

Instead of building a center mount solid type wishbone to mount to rear center section and extend to front u-joint like a lot of guys were doing with the open drive line, we made the upper/lower bars with heim joints on the outside that you see to mount on top and bottom of rear end on both sides of car to keep rear end from rotating. Worked real good.

GRC35

I've got an enclosed housing quickchange and should I decide it needs to be in there, i'll be using your idea.

Pretty cool, now I'm setup for your style, wishbone, and modern style with 29" bars. Lotta options.

Brian,

It's neat you found out a little history on your car, amazing that it could survive 30+ yrs, it would probably tell you some stories if it could talk. Another thing that's neat is GRC35 is now checking on this site, we need to have another get together soon once race season starts will all be busy. I can think of 6-8 people besides the guys that were at first get together who would come.

You going to put a I6 or V8 in the GRC car?

v8, i only have 1 inline 6, it's in the coupe. Have all the stuff to go back to inline.

Next weekend is really good for me since I am off. this weekend I'm at Wichita Falls.

I know for sure 2-3 guys that want to come out for a get together as well. Earl Hall from KC i think will still be in town, he has some great reflections about the old days too. Allen Crawford is looking to show up too.

These get togethers will grow if we do them every now and again. Maybe we'll get to brag one day about being part of that first group.

Those of you out there that are hungry for new pictures you have not seen, stories you want to know a little more about, etc, be prepared to be inundated with a lot of information about anything related to this thing that brings us here.

WARREN VINCENT- Look at all the trouble you have caused! We owe you a steak.

"WARREN VINCENT- Look at all the trouble you have caused! We owe you a steak."

I think that the forum has finally taken off is great. 22,000+ hits on this thread who would have thought. The early forums I used we were lucky to get a dozen hits a week. Then everyone complained about them. I know most of us are not computer savy like the younger groups.

I just wish I had the time I had back in the early days to update the site. Back then I was home every day and all weekend. It has been a couple of years since I have even added a photo.

You know that most libraries have conference rooms you can get usually for free for your get togethers. It will out grow the big round table at a restaurant quick.

I blame (I mean give my wife the credit) my wife. She is the one that said I could do this website thing with all the photos I had. It'll be 9 years this summer.

Sioux Falls, SD headed to Bremen, IN and then St. Marys, OH and then back to Kansas.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

Warren, I'll say this , I have enjoyed your site from the beginning and glad I could contribute some of the pics in the early stages of your site, have gone to the picture pages many times just to look , seems to never get old with all the memories each that post and just read on here and everyone has their own to remember from wherever.

I appreciate the site and the Forum , It is a great Forum to post on , you can tell a story or ask a question and you get another story and an honest answer , Have enjoyed reading alot of David's stuff as well as Jim and Brians too, and with Jim Stewart posting on here lately has added a lot, to me this is what a Forum is all about , just writing what you think and know and people responding by what they know and think to and I agree with Brian , maybe you could get down this way and on a get together and buy you a steak or at least a pizza , cause with Race Season upon us , money is short in my pocket and Pizza might be all this poster could afford right now.

I am glad I got to wondering "Whatever Happened To" one Sept. Afternoon last year and got this thread going cause it sure has been enjoyable.

JD,

I think we're all glad you got to wondering.

I've known JD for 22 years now this season. I had the priviledge to ride with him and his family to various races for a while and luckily I got to experience the last 100" Hutch A Feature from the infield. They all impressed upon me what being real means. They are and were the genuine article, kind of race fans that this board represents and the sport needs more of. They are a watermark standard for me and the kind of people that inspire me to avoid giving a bucket full of bull and only a spoonful of substance. Please pardon the french, but JD lets me know every now and then not to bullshit, deliver. I only have a few REAL friends like that. He's really like a big brother in some ways to me. Thus if you hear him complain about me, I probably deserve it.

Most people don't know this because they never bragged about it. As I remember it being mentioned, JD's Mom bought Bob Ewells first set of good rods so that he could finally win an A feature at Tulsa without blowing up. Every few years i run into Bob somewhere, he doesn't know who I am but I know who he is. He always mentions that good deed when the Porter name comes up.

Brain , Hutch was dam sure was Hot that day and it was "The Event" back then, sure miss going to that show on a Hot July Sunday afternoon in South Central Kansas.

That deal with those Carillo Rods was quite a story , Steve Branch of Branch's Discount Auto Supply in Dallas sponsored Bob back then mid to late 70's and helped him with motors and stuff and Steve always tried different stuff with stock rods according to Bob and Ewell would go to Tulsa and break a rod it seemed like everytime he went to the place and my Mom and Dad just got tired of driving from Lawton,Ok. to Tulsa to watch Bob race and with him leading or running up front in the A and motor would let go and usually it was a rod , so they got him a set of Carillo Rods back in the late 70's and from then on from what I remember Steve Branch stepped up and bought better rods from then on with other motors he built and I guess his experimenting with stock rods kind of tapered off , I still got a T-shirt with Bob Ewell old Stanton on the front and Branch's Discount Auto Supply sponsorship on the back from I believe 1977 or 78 , little small for me now in the midsection,LOL, but back then I thought it was the coolest Racing Tee around , in Fact I was looking in a Suit Case that I have T-Shirts in from the mid and late 70's , some of the first ones I got as a kid and most were from the Devil's Bowl and a few from Lawton Speedway , the First WoO race I got a shirt with the Purple 4x Speedway Motors car on the front with the Spring Nat. on it from 1976 was one of the first Race Tee's I got and I believe the first WoO race they had in 78 at Dallas I have that Tee too and got some others from then like Jimmy Allard Championship T-Shirt and some others back then like the one that said on the front "Real Race Cars Don't Have Doors" and "Speed and Alcohol Do Mix" and of Course "Pushin the Cushion" , was fortunate that I had a inside track to the T-Shirts back then as Bob Ewell Sr., Bob's Dad or as they called him "The Candy Man" back then , he sold the T-Shirts back then at the Bowl and he would give me some that were Blems out of the order which did not lay out the design perfect or had a minor flaw on them and so I got them and so was able to get a bunch of Shirts back then and luckily I have kept them all in that Suit case and so I guess that Spring Nat. shirt might be close to 33 yrs. old in March of this year.

Well Dammit I guess the Carillo Rods story spilled over into a T-Shirt story and I sure wish I could fit into some of those Tee's today but really ,really doubt it ,LOL.

JD&Brian,

If your talking about the '87 Hutch race your right it was hot, of course most time I went to the Hutch Nationals it was HOT!!! I was lucky that day had been signaling MP going into turn 1, as you guys know there was a crash a afew cars cut through the infield and hit some crew guys standing on the infield (Tom Mercers son along with another 1 of Stan Constant's pit guys named Bruce) were seriously injured, I don't remember what car hit them it was just a swirl of dust I had just walked right past those guys when I saw a car out of the corner of my eye and dove to the right, when I stood up they were laying on the ground. They both survived but had serious leg injures, I know Bruce finally had a steel rod put in his leg from his hip to ankle which made it ridid. MP drove a great race if I remember right he led all 50 laps, it is funny how differant drivers run differant set-up's and there are not to many guys that could win Hutch on 16" of stagger but that's what we had on MP that day. I was not a very happy guy that day it had been a horrible weekend, we had crashed at OKC leading the A-FEA. by almost a straight away, MP was lapping a slow car that had been running on the bottom and when MP got to him going into turn 3 wide open on the outside the car moved up and turned MP into the fence it was lap 16, we wound up finishing out of the top 10, if we had just finished 10th we would have tied Bruce for the Championship, of course we were ahead of him at this point by almost 400 points. On Saturday night we were leading at Tulsa with 3 laps to go and a lapped car (bert woodring) clocked us as MP was lapping him on the outside in turn 3 it put us in the wall and knocked the rear-end out of it. So you can understand I wasn't in a good mood when we got to Hutch. Our NCRA car was stout though and it cared MP to that win and eventually to the '87 NCRA Championship. I 'll be honest with you guys I was spread pretty thin at this time, I was keeping up Mr. Bills #97 Champ cars, doing Shane and my deal on the #12 it was in '87 working at the tire shop, building Mr. Bill's first sprint car as NCRA had already announced sprints for '88, tring to help Stan Constant with his Nance deal & trying to take care of the old man. In '87 I was working at the tire shop 8:00 to 5:00 Monday thru Friday, I would leave work on Monday& Wednesday after 5:00 drive to Tulsa work on Mr. Bill's cars until wee hours of the morning, drive back sleeping on the Turnpike to arrive back at tire shop to work before 8:00, work on Shane and I's car on Tuesday and Thursday night until the wee hours of the morning, work on Friday at the tire shop, race Friday night at OKC, drive Mr. Bill's rig home on Friday after races, get up at 6:30/7:00 on Saturday morning work on Mr. Bill's car all day, race Tulsa on Saturday night, Get -up on Sunday and if there was an NCRA race we did that which was double for me with Shane and I's car, drive back to Tulsa then get up at 6:00 to dash back to OKC to be back at tire shop by 8:00 to start all over again. In my spare time I took care of the old man helped if they had problems at transmission shop and helped Stan on his car. Man what a life! The Beamon's took good care of me, I had a great boss (and still do) at the tire shop, Had great people helping on both cars (RIP Bill Reamey & my great friend Indian Tom Downing) great support from my family sister Janelle the OLD MAN (RIP), my good buddy Stan Constant, my very good friend & like my brother David Maxwell (RIP), 2 of the best guys you could ask for as drivers MP & Shane and the rivals that we raced against, that's what it took to keep me going with no sleep in '87.

Just before I started putting this site together I trashed all my shirts from the late 70's. After the site got together my wife wanted to make a quilt out of all the shirts. Well I hadn't told her I trashed them.

One that Fred Hembree gave me I still wore around the house once and a while. This was in the late 1990's. Some were pretty ragged so you didn't wear them in public.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

David,

Looked for you at the Chili Bowl but never caught up with you. I did have a great time visiting with Shane and he took me over to the Jennings pit area where he thought you were. That was the first time I had been in 16 years. I saw people I hadn't seen in a long time and got to see some good racing. Hutch was a big part of my life as a kid and as a driver. I won that race in '86 driving for Lloyd Stephens but the first time I remember going there I think George was driving for Pat maybe 1972. I witnessed the fire in '74 from the stands because back then kids weren't allowed in the pits. I remember it like it was yesterday, that fire burned what seemed like an hour. They called in the city fire trucks and I was standing there when they had to use bolt cutters to cut the gate locks to even get in to fight the fire! They took George to the hospital there in Hutch and I'll never forget seein Aaron being loaded on to the helicopter. He was packed in ice and all you could see was his face.

People didnt realize how busy we were in the early 80's did they? I think we ran 70 or 80 nights a year back then and still worked full time jobs. Lots of fun though runnin OKC Friday, Tulsa on Saturday, NCRA or anywhere we could on Sunday, and maybe Liberal or if we were lucky somewhere during the week. Keep the stories going, I really enjoy them. Man you have a memory for details but I told Shane I didn't remember gettin our butts kicked by you guys as much as you say we did. Just kiddin we had a good laugh and you guys really were the ones to beat everywhere we went. Take care.

Tony

JD, you should'nt promise Warren an expensive pizza for a get together. This is a great site and Warren most definatly deserves a Steak dinner at the very least, but with our racing budget and the fact we need to make him feel at home after his journey.....

Tell you what, you bring the Bologna, I'll bring the bread and mustard, we'll find some that knows how to brew ice tea, and we'll make a day of it.

B.Y.O.M. (bring your own mayonnaise)

Warren might like Coney Island in Capitol Hill. It has some character with the bullet holes in the windows. After eating there, they have championship wrestling across the street. Saw Skandar Akbar, Dr. Death Steve Williams and the Honky Tonk Man wrestle last year. Doesn't get any better than that!

John Stewart

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