Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
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Good to see you fri.night david, glad you are back. Yeah looks like us & Butch are still doin the open trailer deal. I like it, we can load the car & it sits out in front of the shop all day Friday. People really do stop in to ask about the races!

Not sure how long we can keep goin though. This stupid new rule rule about drawing in instead of lining up by point average will just about do us in. I guess they just want their 6 fast guys up front every week & us poor guys can keep busting our ass at the back! If they just want a follow the leader parade every week they should grow balls & just tell us to go on home & quit wasting our money.

This IS week-end racing, NOT the WOO. There needs to be some sort of a handicapping system, it seems to have worked good for the last 40 years! Ernie is about ready to park the car & I can't say I blame him. This deal is hard enough, now lets let the money guys start up front every week. I don't get it.

Talked to Bobby Craft Friday, he allows that Troy Matchen had 1 of the Walker/Hillenburg cars & that Tommy Baker ended up with it. Lost track after that.

See you guys at the track!

Jim,

I am also stupified by this call, I agree what we have done for my hole racing career at OKC has always worked. I know this Friday was pretty well put it on the mat and hang on, Gas was the only one who really did any passing it was pretty well follow the leader.

I thought it was great last year when you guys won, I told DJ kinda neat didn't have to have all that monster we deal with, it takes DJ and Rick a full day Sunday just to clean the truck and trailer. When we had open trailers hell I would wash the P/U, trailer & car all at one time in about an hour give or take, it was neat towing the car in the open people always looked at your stuff and asked questions.

Tell Ernie we need him we don't need to loose any more cars, I know things are tight and it's tough to deal with but you guys are one of the main die-hard teams!!!!!!!

David, great story. In 1975 at Tulsa, they divided up the championship up to a 1st half champ,a 2nd half champ and an overall all champ.Mike won all 3 of these in the modified but the 1st half was awfully close. He was leading in on the last night of the 1st half, but Hershel Thompson and Alvin Bennett were close enough to pass him if he had a bad night. Mike came in after the trophy dash And said that the oil pressure was low. We started the engine up and the pressure would read between 0-30 pounds. We didn't have time to do any thing about, Norman told Mike to run it until it blows. Mike had me put a higher gear in it a taller left rear tire, just about what we would do for the feature every week. I helped him buckle up and get his Helmut on and saw that look that you were talking about. He went out a drove one of the best races of the season and the engine didn't let us down. He took the lead on about the 8th lap and lapped up to the third place car. Norman pulled the engine and took it to Wilson' shop and they pulled the oil pan and the oil pump came apart, they had no idea how it finished the feature.You need a "look" and luck to win.

Ray

Jim:

You are right about Troy Matchen & Joe John Moxley having one of the Hillenburg/Walker/Crawford cars. They had the car that had the torsion bars mounted inside the engine compartment. I bought the car from Junior Hillenburg that Ricky Walker built with the torsion bars inside the frame rails. I told Joe John & Troy that Junior had one more and they bought it. I sold mine to a guy in Lindsay, OK that ran it as a super in Lawton and other places and then he sold it to a guy in Lindsay that was going to run it as a modified. I don't think he ever did.

Gary Cole (GRC35)

I have a Walker like you described in my collection,it came out of the Lindsay area.

David

David:

I would be interested in seeing this car and see if it is the one that I raced after I bought from Junior. My email is [email protected]. Send me an email and let me know where you are located and if it would be possible for me to look at.

Thanks!

GRC35

David,

Why am I seeing black paint and chrome in your future? The odds of there being 2 cars of that design in Lindsey, Oklahoma are incredibly high.

This is going to be my long term project, only because my wife knows how much I have laid out on Skinners ride.

David, A long time in waiting for that win Friday night , still can't believe we got to run in misty rain, but glad we did, I guess I can say I finally won at least one at the Fairgrounds, Lil Joe has really brought it all together and is really what makes it happen, Seems lots of folks have the question to me as what are you doing different now and I tell them , still got my same ol feeler gauge for running the valves and still got my same ol grease gun to grease bearings and such and still got my same ol grooving iron that I got from Speedway in 89, but I did get a new pack of blades for it recently , so I guess I have changed some.

Really do feel fortunate to win one at SFS, tough place to win at.

I agree with you Jim on the draw deal,It is a bad thing to do, was really surprised on the thread on the other board that some fans that post on ther like the idea.

Heck next thing you know we will be Time Trialing, I wonder who thought up this idea and got Lanny to do this format after the class is off a week. Just be curious to know?

Way to go JD, I'm happy for you. As you well know winning a feature at the Fairgrounds was quite an event especially during the1960's and 1970's. I hope you win some more. I see your Dad time to time at theVeteran'sCenter.

Mike

Mike , I appreciate it,

Winning last Friday night was pretty neat deal and will always remember it , even if another one does come along, the first one ya just don't forget , I managed to keep a bottle of Champagne from a friend who sends me a bottle every New Year from Pennsylvania (he runs a 358 Sprint Car up there) and finally after all these years about 10 years he has sent me a bottle each year and have always had to wait till the next Holiday season to pop the cork on it and well that streak has been broken ,After we popped the cork on er and each of crew and whoever took a swig of it and we emptied er, I got Joe Wood Jr. to Autograph the bottle and date it and it will go by the trophy that is forthcoming and they will be a pair together on the trophy mantle at the house from now on.

That was really my whole goal this year was just to try to win one time at SFS in OKC and well that has happened already and so the rest of the year with whatever happens is just added gravy on the buscuit.

I realize it can all go bad in a hurry and have been down that bad road plenty in 22 yrs. of race car ownership but it is nice to get some good road to enjoy the bus ride on for a while.

Pops says he sees you on occassion but at his age just can't remember your name but knows you by seeing you.

Also Mike I have that Wayne Cox story printed out right by my chair and it is all of the pages this time and I WILL get it to you as promised.

JD,

It wouldn't hurt my feelings if you picked off another win or two this year. Congrats

From the Rusty Manning collection, and the RFTP main site.

This may be a big find.

That would be nice Brian to get several more and it sure would not bother me one bit.

Those pics you put up from Rusty Manning, I have several of close to the same shots of that car especially the one of the Oil Rig on the duck tail, We thought back then that was to cool and top of the line then, the top two pics are from Amarillo Speedbowl in the late 70's I am for sure and the other looks like maybe Enid or 81 Speedway from the same year. Me and Rusty met each other in Lawton at the Speedway in 1975 I believe and we would go to all those NCRA's back then from the mid 70's to the mid 80's and he had a whole lot of pics from that time but I understand he had his house catch on fire sometime back and lost some of them that got the negatives ,The guy was a good photographer and had a knack for it and Mike can back me up on this as well, Rusty was how I met Mike in the first place.

The good thing is, all these years later, those pictures taken and many like them, are helping everybody to network and find out the history and fate of these great old cars. Relatively speaking, these cars evolved very fast from junkyard coupes to Champ Cars in a short amount of time.

Brian:

If you look at the pictures you posted of the Hillenburg/Walker 55, you will see that they are two (2) different cars. Look at the tops, side nerf bars, lettering on hood and air cleaner arrangement on both. The car I bought from Hillenburg had the single side nerf bar versus the wedge design. I really wanted one of those tails that had the rig painted on, but Junior didn't have any that were salvageble when I bought the car. The tails were actually a little different that most Walker's as they were rounded on the sides versus more of a box design. When I got the car, Darrell Jennings had a spare Walker tail that I used on my car. I also took the car back to Walker's and had Rickey add braces from top of cage down to rear torsion supports. After collapsing the cage on my previous car @ Lawton, I decided to add a little reinforcement.

GRC35

Somewhere I have a picture of both Hillenburg cars nose to nose. I guess that was taken right after they were built.

As you can see, I also changed the top.

GRC35

This is a big find! Of all the cars and frames I've tripped over in the last few years, and knowing a little about Lindsey, Ok. Then you throw in the specific design. The odds against it NOT being the 55, are high. Copy or original, parralell bar front super frames have never been common. Then you throw in the part where the bars are inside the framerails.