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I've always considered Nance to be our Ted Halibrand. These days I have a higher esteem for a magnesium Nance part over a Halibrand.

The last time I was in Nance Speed Shop was in the mid 80s. I had to attend a 2 day meeting in Wichita & it ended early the 2nd day. I rushed out to the shop & LaVerne was there. He took me on a walk through tour with all of the bins of part, the jig where they built the frames. They were loading a new sprint headed for Dallas. I think Carol told me in the mid 90s they had built around 800 cars which means there is an awful lot of Nance cars out there. Probably 600+ in southern Kansas, Oklahoma and north Texas. LaVerne told me that day he had shipped 2 sea going containers to Australia and when they arrived, the courts impounded them because the business was in bankruptcy.

The T Coupe car I built had a Nance 1 1/2 inch rear axle, Nance hubs & Buick aluminum brakes that Nance had already machined when I bought the axle. and hubs. I bought these parts when Nance was still in the old shop south of the later one. That trip was just before Christmas in 1965.

LaVerne had a hugh part in racing during his time. Possibly, more than any of us realize....Luther

Brian,

This shot should be from '88, that's MP in Mr. Bills #97 this was a CRA race at the Bowl, we were struggling with this car, we had changed alot of the rear suspension geometery and it didn't work good with out a wing. Not long after this race MP parted ways with Mr. Bill and Tommy Estes started driving. This was not a happy year as I parted ways the Sunday after Knoxville Nats. I still think to this day Tommy had a 80% chance to win the Nats that year. If the motor had been freshened like we were told and hadn't broke. Wolfgang,Steve,Sammy etc. weren't any threat to Tommy at this race.

To All,

Drove over to Tulsa this morning to take a motor to Wesmar, while driving along on the Pike I thought about some of the many trips across this stretch of highway over the years and some of the people I've made trips with. One thing I can tell you for sure I felt safer driving a PU pulling a single axle trailer at 70 MPH in the early 70's then I did today driving 75MPH in the van, We used to leave out on Saturday afternoon and race across the Pike to race then drive like hell to get home or get ready to go to the races on Sunday. The first think we didn't have back then was all these dark or black tinted windows that people can't see out of, we didn't have any GPS of any kind to tell us where to go, no TV's hanging from the roof to be watching our soaps on and no cell phones. I don't know how many people past me running over 75MPH WAY OVER 75, one woman drove up on my bumper as a car was passing me in the fast lane and flipped her lights twice while she was yaking on her phone then swerved onto the shoulder to pass just as we topped a hill only to have a Turnpike Truck with work crew parked on the shoulder all I saw was brake smoke as she verved back onto the road only to get powdered by another car that she couldn't see because her windows were to dark and she was watching a soap and talking on the phone. I stopped and walked back only to catch her telling the Turnpike foreman that the idiot in the silver van caused the crash because he was going to slow.

Maybe this is part of what has happened to racing and other sports, we used to load up in a PU or a van and go as a family to the races, the windows weren't tinted so dark that you couldn't see, we used to count the Deer or Hawks that we saw or play Zip and count cars, mom wasn't watching a soap or talking on the phone and The Old Man wasn't on the phone, it was an outing and we didn't have any damn GPS telling us to turn right when we were 3' in front of the car next to us!!!! Now you have to have a Toter Home or a semi, nobody is looking out to see the senery there in the back watch TV or playing video games and used to if we broke down you could work on it and racer's would stop and help you out, now with all the electronic's & computor's your cell phone is your best tool in the tool box.

I remember losing the water pump on the truck and taking the one off the race car to get home, I've done the same with starter's and distrbutors, man points were easy and the cap and rotor on that Accel distributor worked on the truck. I remember blowing out the trailer spare and taking the LF off the race car and putting it on the trailer as it was an old US Mag wheel that had been redrilled for 6 pin, we always had a spare battery it was in the race car and usually it was a Sear's Die-Hard. We always had a spare jug of water for the race car so you always had water if the PU etc. overheated, always had a little extra fuel if you ran out of gas(hopefully it wasn't the can the Old Man had juiced up) wonder how these E85 vehicles would run on 15-20% Nitro or a shot of Hydrazine!!!!!!!!

You know when it went past a Dually and a Rezner trailer I think we lost a big part of our family and fans, my favorite Tow Truck was that old '85 Brown Dually with a tandem axle trailer that we had bought from Paul & Danny Shouse, It was big enough for crew and family and we could haul everything we needed to race. 2nd favorite was that '78 Red Ford PU with our single axle trailer that Darrell Clevland built, we drove it a 100,000 miles racing 108 events in '82 and 104 in '83 now that was the life we were a racing family with out all the frills and we had a blast wouldn't trade it, it is priceless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

racin has changed, the almighty dollar has impacted the sport. everyone misses the good old days you described in your post. a family man could build a competitive racer in his garage at home with money used for family intertainment or hobby, now days a racing team rolls out to compete with as much as 1/2 to a million dollars on wheels of a huge hauler. it was nice in the old days to come upon a race car on a open trailer and check out the car ect, see who it belonged to ect. now the only thing ya see is the huge hauler with graphics of a racer and a number. money has ruined racin for the family operations!!!!yep rolin down the road these days is totally different. i can remember when a pick-up truck would br rollin with all the window's down and the crew hangin out because it was 100 degrees out , of course there was no air in the rig !!!!!!!

Bushwacker,

I would have to agree with you. In the 60's & 70's the average Service Station or Automotive type business could afford to build there own cars, engines & trailers and use the shop truck or station wagon to get it to the track. I know when the avg fan looks at the trucks and trailers that teams use know they realize it's out of there league. Yes anybody can go buy a big truck and trailer, along with engines and cars but after a while they are broke and aren't having any fun so there used up!!!!!!!! I know I've been there more then once in my years of racing. When we raced back in the early 80's the Old Man spent a ton of money, hundred's of thousands of dollars but we had those PU's and open trailers, we didn't have an enclosed trailer until right at the end of '85 and we quit at the end of '86. When we started back racing again in '96 I spent $40,000 of my own money getting started, the Old Man spent probably another $10,000 of his money, Bishop probably dropped another $30,000 into it as he furnished the chassis and parts that they built plus we used his enclosed trailer, I have no idea what Henry spent in '96 I'm guessing about another $10,000 so to get back started from scratch would have taken about $100,000. When Gary won the Championship in '99 or 2000 I'm guessing we (Gary,Billy,Tom,Henry,Jerry,Me & Pat) spent about $60,000 to $70,000 and that was with the stuff we carried over from '96-'97 & '98. It was one of my favorite Championship Teams, great crew,driver,family & friends, used Tom's old dually and Henry's old open trailer.

Just think in the 50's & 60's $10,000 would have bought the race car,motor,tires,trailer/tow bar, PU, the house and more, dollars don't stretch as far as they used to and I'm at fault also along with most other racers for letting those fun time get away!!!!!!!

To All,

First off Happy Father's Day to you Father's, I can tell you this I still miss the Old Man and always will, we spent to many good times together and yes there were the bad times but the GOOD out weigh the bad. I can remember he never yelled at me but I knew when he was pissed at me, he would call me Mr. Grace and those eyebrows would turn up on the end like 2 devils horns, he never pointed his finger at me as he hated anybody to do that to him, you always knew when he was getting ready to hit you as he would hang his thumbs in his pants pockets, shortly followed by getting the shit knocked out of you. I remember standing on a hill side on South Shale Ridge in Colo. handing him a glass of water and it turned to slush by the time I handed it to him, I remember his hand on my shoulder laughing at all the aluminium in the drain pan when he mixed up some fuel for me to use in the #10. I remember him telling me we could beat Offixco and we finally did.

I watch Father & Son's today at the track, there are a few that have a special bond in racing and funny thing is most of them are the old guard racer's that raced with there Father's. There are a few of the new crop of racer's that seem to get along well, I wish there were more of them, oh and don't forget the girls as there is more and more of those combination's now also. I'm sure Jim will agree with me on this one, that the times spent racing or otherwise with our Old Men were priceless!!!!!

On to a differant subject, in Tidbits somebody posted for a fantasy team of drivers, well I'm going for a fantasy team of car owner's Super Modified's '69 to '75 and throw in a few crew chief's or mechanic's if you want. I'll post my picks tomorrow!!!!!

Need more rigs like this:

John Stewart

Retro Racing Custom Model Cars
405.922.6163
[email protected]
Oklahoma City, OK

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Retro-
Racing-Custom-Model-Cars/235624429834292#!/pages/Retro-
Racing-Custom-Model-Cars/23562442983429

To All,

List of my Car Owener picks for Super Modifieds '69 to '75 had to do a little thinking on how to do this, decided I would do it by city, I'm sure I'm leaving alot of owner's out but you have to remember I was just a kid in '69 and mainly I just went to 3 or 4 tracks back then.

Lawton: W.A. GREGORY & CLINTON HERRING would be the biggest that I remember at the time, Gilbert Hutson I'm sure was around back then and Carl Wyatt probably was also. Mike or Brian would best be able to help me here. I don't remember if A J owened his cars then or if he drove for somebody else. I remember he ran that #10 Orange car that looked alot like Gregory's.

Tulsa: JOHN ZINK, RAY CATES, JOE COX, DEL TORRANCE, JR TAFT, DAVE GRUBB, CHICK SHADDOX & BENNY TAYLOR were a small few, this town was full of great owners & drivers. I always liked Benny's cars the looked neat and Zinks stuff was always kick ass. There was also some of the best chief mechanic's anywhere in the country here DENNY MOORE, DARRELL TUTTLE, TOMMY VARDAMEN, JIM MORRIS to name afew.

Whicita: NANCE, WILSON, SCHIPPERT, PARSON, FORSHEE, SELENKIE, WALT, FRANKIE LIES, COLEMAN,WALKER ETC,ETC, At this time I thought this town had the baddest stuff!!!!!!!

OKC: AARON MADDEN, DE SUGGS, BILL LEWIS, MELVIN RODGERS, LARRY NAILON, ALL THE BROTHERTONS, DAVID SR & JR, BILL BISHOP, HANK MALONE, BOB BIBLE, STEVE FOSTER, HERB LOBDELL, HAROLD ARTER, TOM PICKARD, DALE CASE, STAN SCHOENBURG, THE OLD MAN & BUD CARSON to just name a few.

Now this doesn't include guys like Evertt Isaac, Kenny Stidd, Jim Plunket, Lyndon Moss, Shady McWhorter, Bill Payne, Randy Willingham, Les Sternett, Shot Hampton etc the list could go on and on!!!!!

Well this is just a rough list I'll work on refining it a little in next couple of days!!!!!!!

David , I believe A J did a little of all 3 , he owned by himself as well as partnered with Gregory on the motor some and then drove for Clinton Herring as well, from what I remember and was told.

Speaking of Clinton , his dealership that he sold in the last several years ,which a Clinton Herring dealership has been around Lawton for many years is now closed , was by it last Sunday while in Lawton and noticed it closed on the Intersate where it was located , which moved from it's original location on 2nd St. in Lawton.

David , The Bill Payne you mention , is he from around the Dallas area?

David, and JD

WA Gregory also owned the cars that Wayne Cox won championships in OKC and Lawton during 1967 and 1968. JD don't forget your favorite driver and owner (Shady Mcwhorter). Let's remember the Wichita Falls boys. Cope Miller and Ronald Guffey who owned Eugene Hair's supers and some of the other owners were, Jerry Douglas, Jack Benson, the Sims Brothers. One other owner were the Avant Brothers from Loveland, Oklahoma and Walter Barret who owned "Singing 5". I could go on and on but I don't want to bore you guys. I'm glad I got to watch all those races in OKC, Lawton, and Wichita Falls.

Mike

Just got back in.

My Dad and I didn't always see eye to eye on things, generation gap you know. Racing related conversations were always something to talk about when there really wasn't anything else to talk about. We found we could go to that subject and have a decent conversation. This works for my connection to my Brother and my Uncle too. Naturally if something works, you find it a habit to go there and keep an eye out for new stories. We always go for something with flavor to it.

You can learn a lot about people just through old racing stories- What they liked, didn't like, how much they'll exaggerate, what they find respectable and not. When the scene was hot for supers, the memory banks got pretty sharp. Bump one guy the wrong way, and it NEVER is forgotten.

Mike that is good stuff, J.W. Boren out of W.F. with Freddie Street driving it also comes to mind and Dale Shotts with Jr. Bruner, heres one I am not sure about but did'nt Frost Motor Co. own Buddy Jacksons car out of Marlow, this was before Buddy got the McDaniels car which is Avenger now out of El Paso.

Another Bill Layton with Tony Layton and Joe Moore Jr. with the Lawton Brace and Limb Racing team and Buddy Howell with Dwayne Howell driving.

David,

The #10 car you are talking about was in fact WA Gregory's #6 that AJ Little won the Lawton championship in 1971, he drove it again in 1972. In 1973 he bought the car from Gregory and used his number #10. It was the same color (orange), he ran it a few times in OKC during 1973, after that he sold the car to Doug Joyner. The frame has disappeared but Doug still has the body. This car first was built for the 1970 season by Hank Malone and Wayne Cox drove it for the first quarter of the 1970 season until Wayne finally retired. Gregory took over the car and AJ Little drove it of and on the remainder of the season, the number was #161. I watched Wayne work on the car at his house before the season started.

Mike

Mike,

Wasn't this car a 4-bar? I wasn't sure if the #10 was the old #6 but I remember they looked alot alike. I didn't know Hank built this car, did he build the other cars that were this design ( Bobby Wainscott, Joe Farley,Gene Scott etc)

I pretty sure that Scott's #10 & Shane's #11 were built by Les Lusk it was the same body style but used cross spring frt and quarter elliptic rear springs.

I know a lot of people think Parson had the first 4-bar Super in OKC, but I know when I worked at Dale's he helped do the set-up and fab work on Larry Nailon's car that Terry Doss drove it was actually a 3 bar if I remember right.

I know this, PARSON was a CRAFTSMAN he was 1 of the best heli-arc welder's that I've seen and when it came to tin work he was awesome, I learned alot from Dale P about tin, alot of it I use to this day!!!!!

David, If my memory is correct the original Hank Malone built #161 that he built for WA Gregory and Wayne Cox was a 4 bar car, but on our first play day before the1970 season started Wayne got crossed up and AJ Little driving his narrow bodied car #98 t-boned Wayne and bent the chassis. After that the car never seemed to handle right, too much flex. On the first night at OKC Wayne messed up the car again. Wayne did win a feature here in Lawton. He had Shady Mcwhorter drive the car a couple times and Shady won a feature here in lawton. Then WA Gregory built a complete new frame for it and I think it was a spring car. When AJ got the car all he changed on it was the number which was #10. Do you remember the night that AJ and Gregory showed up late iin the 1971 season at OKC and swept the show and Emmett Hahn's bunch protested and Gregory protested them. Gregory's car was more legal than Hahn's car. I was there that night. As for Bobby Wainscott's car which was a narrow bodied car too, was in fact the old Singing 5 that JL Nash drove in 1968 and 1969. I don't know where all the narrow bodied cars came from or who built them as far as the bodies go. Max Albright had one too. Remember when Joe Farley hit the light pole going into turn three upside down in 1971. It was on the front of an issue of the Oklahoma Racer. I hope I didn't bore you.

Mike

Guys I think we're getting our AJ #10s mixed up here, AJ had 2 #10 cars, the first one was the Malone built car (The Anadarko Hank Malone, not the OkC Hank Malone), the other was a Jelly, which Dwane Wolf bought a year or two ago.

Doug Joyner was a very good friend of AJ Little, and twice he bought AJ's used cars.

This is the ex- Gregory /Malone(from Anadarko) built car

The #7 of Joyner is on the outside here, this is also an ex-AJ Little car, a Jelly springer front

I had a chance to buy both cars from Joyner in the late '80s for less than $1k. Wish I had now........

Luther, Did you ever consider building a 100" car and racing in our area?

Ray