Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
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Ray,...Yes, I considered it very strong. Dee Zellmer used to ask me every time I saw him when I was going to swith over to the OK circuit. It was 256 miles from Drexel to Knoxville & 210 miles to Tulsa.

Muskogee was closer than that. It was 100 miles to the Topeka track & 50 miles to Olympic Stadium in KC. I could have driven to Tulsa, Muskogee & returned to Drexel a few miles less than the round trip to Knoxville. I even considered building (or buying) a champ car & run the USAC mile dirt shows after I sold my last car. USAC was only having 6 to 8 champ car shows each year.

I don't think I thought it through or I probably would have went the OK circuit. I knew several drivers there. I bought a mile dirt car in July 1967. I used the parts, open tube, front end, steering, drive train to build the Watson 4 bar I built (it was the 7th car I built). I also got a Watson dolly trailer with surge brakes with it. The owner of Don Mack's car lived in Oslo, MN and that is where I bought it. It had Bob Harkey's name on the oil tank.

The 7th car is not on the site with my other cars. I just noticed that a few days ago. I will send it to the site......Luther

Mike,

My bad I did not know there were 2 differant Hank Malones, when I saw Malones name mentioned I thought it was the OKC Malone. I remember AJ sweeping that program and I remember that they were protested but they were found legal weren't they, I don't remember them being DQ'd. Who built the Singing 5 car? Remember JL driving it, did AJ drive it some also? Wasn't it #131 when Wainscott drove it? I was always curious who built them because alot of them were square tube roll cages I believe the first tubing version was the Cox/Gregory car do you know for sure?

 

Brian,

Didn't Ken Sweet have this car first then AJ bought it from him, or was Ken's car a differant car?

Good shot of Bobby in Plunkets car I believe this is the cross torsion car that they built and not parallell bars on the front, regardless look at the size of that RF tire bigger then the LR & I'm guessing about 8" stagger across the front!!!!! I wonder if this is a Gilmore engine or possibly a Cowett motor.

In 1976/77 Cowett built some motors for Bobby Walker. But if i recall in 78 Bobby had them built in by someone in OKC. I could be wrong. Seems the oldler I get the worse eyes/hearing/thinking and memory gets. Somebody correct me if I am wrong on this.

mlcole

David,

Gregory never got DQ'd as far as I know, Gregory always ran legal, He was the man that set all the standards when he first started running as far back as the coupe days which is my favorite era. Old #6 1937 Chevy Coupe with Ralph Parkinson the driver what a pair. I don't know who built all those narrow bodied cars, but there was a lot built. What I do know is that Jimmy Hysaw built Singing 5 that was a narrow bodied car that ran in 1968-1969 with JL Nash driving. AJ Little did drive Singing 5 a couple times during the 1970 season in OKC. This car was a new car sponsored by Coke and painted Coke Red. Jim Shaw was the owner and Hysaw was the mechanic for the car during those days. They sold the narrow bodied Singing 5 to Bobby Wainscott after the 1969 season trailer and all. Bobby painted it orange and used his number 13 in Lawton and bolted on a metal number 1 to make it #131 for OKC. He ran this car from 1970-1971 and than sold it to Robert McCune here in Lawton. Charlie Connally drove the car during 1973 but he broke his back one night here in lawton, just a freak accident. Singing 5 has lots of history around here even having Lanny Edwards being the owner in the early 1960's. The original Singing 5 came from Garland, Texas with Jack McCain as the owner. If you want to know more get my e-mail from Brian or on that guest book I signed at our last get together.

Mike

My dad was driving a wrecker for Tompkins Auto Salvage in the mid 60's always he always heard Gregory never would work on a motor at the track, if it meant more than pulling plugs and looking at them , then he would load up and call it a night, never would pull a valve cover at the track ,said with dust and dirt you were just asking for more trouble.

Bobby Wainscott had a teammate , I think it was #33 car and Bobby was #131 and both were sponsored by Holiday Gulf on Cache Rd. and both were painted Orange, would that be correct Mike?, who drove the 33 car?

Mike , Did'nt Ken Sweet sell his car to Doran Raine of Iowa Park, Tx. when he moved up to Wichita , Ks. and quit running at Lawton in the mid 70's?

JD,

|I remember the Tompkins' wreckers were painted black and white. Do you remember the 1958 Chevrolet ambulance that |Mr. Landers had at the races every Saturday night in the infield and also the ole big red Mac wrecker they used also. Stanley Landers still has that wrecker in their back lot. Bobby sold the old Singing 5 that he bought off of Walter Barrett and than sold it to Robert McCune who painted it like Bobby's new super which was another Singing 5 Jack Walker built super. JL drove a little until he retired during the 1971 season. Charlie Connally drove the #33. Ken Sweet bought the old #161 from 1968 season and the car changed to #6 Falstaff car during 1969 with Wayne Cox the driver. Gregory than sold #6 to Tony Layton and his dad Bill for the 1970 season. |Ken Sweet than drove the same car in1972 which he crashed and burned at the Enid NCRA. There is a picture of the crash in the 1973 edition NCRA Yearbook. The photo even made the front page of National Speed Sport |News. I have the Speed Sport paper article. This car is originally the #161 that Wayne Cox won the OKC and Lawton championshipsin 1968. I watched Gregory when he arrived in the pits when he raced and he would park his rig and walked around the pits checking out all the competition. If something caught his eye he just might show up the next week with an improved version of what he saw. He unloaded his car after checking out all the cars. He knew what he was doing all right.

Mike

Yes those Wreckers were black and white scheme, not much imagination, it use to sit in our driveway a lot especially when dad was on call on weekends back in the mid 60's.

I do remember both the Ambulance and Wrecker both use to sit in that infield for years when I was growing up, heck I think they just started leaving it out at the track in the latter part of the 70's when gas was going up in price back then for those days and only drove it when needed a trip to the Hospital, I often wondered if it would even start for as long as it set sometimes, but things were a little more lax back then than today , I remember after I guess they retired the Ambulance , it set on Landers lot that he used to run his Wrecker Bus. out of on F Street for a long time back in the 80's , not sure what happened to it, maybe the still have it along with the Red Mac Wrecker, That would be a collecters item today, need to ask Stanley L. next time I see him if he going to restore it someday.

So Charlie Connally was Wainscotts teammate?

I think I remember Ken Sweet missing some nights at Lawton , because of burns he recieved from that fire, would that be correct?, he was quite the character along with Richard Gillam who drove Hobby Stock/Late Models back then, always remember them when they would win a Trophy Dash , they would pick up the Trophy Girl every time and try to carry her off.

Mike , Do you remember a guy who use to run at Lawton back in the early 70's and he was from Lawton , his name was Sherman French , did he run a Modified or Super?

My dad and me were recently talking about stuff from Lawton back then and his name was brought up and neither one of us could remember what class he drove in. His car was black and brown I believe.

Another name I remember was Buster Daughtery from Grandfield , Ok. ran a Super #2 Red Car. Do you remember him?

JD,

Sherman French ran what they called Class B stockers in 1964 and through 1966 and really dominated that class during those days. One night during intermission his brother Thurman hot lapped his car and crashed into the rail fence on the south end just before the flagstand and the car exploded in flames. He got burned pretty bad but survived. During that time the car Sherman was a cut down '55 Chevy with the exhaust pipes comming outof the hood. After those years 1967 when I was 12,000 miles away from home Mom and Dad went to the races and sent me the programs, I saved all of them. Sherman French ran a 6 cylinder modified during that time and he was always up front in points during that year. Yes, I do remember Buster Daughtery and usually Royce Samples helped him in the pits.

Mike

Yes two Hank Malones, Anadarko and OkC. I just found this out myself. I was trying to understand why a builder from OkC would use square tubing during this time!

They were protested by Hahns' outfit. That night it seems they had a sweep, totally unexpected at the time since Hahn, Leep, Howerton, and several others were expected to keep them midpack.

The engine in the #6 turned out to be 1 or 2 cubic inches smaller than Hahns! I pick up Gregory got a kick out beating the best with less.

Not sure what the tubing on the six was, but all indications are it was square tube. There are at least three cars of this design that I know of still in Wichita Falls, thankfully they're still out there.

I don't know for sure who had that car first, but Ken was around those days. Ken was a big hitter, and always had good equipment from what I understand.

My Dad thought a lot of him after Ken pulled him out of his first bad wreck.

Sherman and Thurman! Twins they were. Sherman drove, Thurman turned the wrenches. They still had the operation until a few years ago. They sold to a collector that graces these boards on occasion.

Meet Doug Joyner in a racing related setting, and in less than five minutes he will be talking about this car, "The Orange Blossom Special". AJ Littles kids would most likely know a few things most would not know about it. Walk lightly, the 70's were tumultous times for Little family, some things are still hard to talk about today.

It was a springer front deal. Interesting how it seems similar to the Leep Jr Jelly no.2 from the same era.

Does anybody know where this car ended up, or if it exists? Ben Watson from my area was always talking about it, and when it sold to Lies. When Ben saw this picture in High Plains Thunder, he nearly cried, it had been 30+ years since he'd even seen any image of it.

Brian,

Even though the #2 LEEP JR car and the #7 pictured here were both built by Jelly, the #7 is a single rail chassis the #2 was a space frame. How ever the bodys are almost idenical, same top, tail piece, cowl & hood. We didn't have a nose piece when I owned the car but it did when JR had it but they took it off because of heating issues. I still wonder if Ken didn't have this car first then AJ, I think Jelly pretty well just built space frames after '74 or '75.

Mike

When did AJ stop racing and when did he quit driving for Clinton, I remember Clinton had Dale's car after Jeff was killed driving it at Tulsa, Dale brought it back to the shop and we fixed it. The car was not hurt bad at all, Gilbert also drove it to if I remember right. What happened to Clintons Edmunds body car that AJ drove, was it a real Edmunds car?

Brian,

I remember as a kid this car with Jimmy Harkness driving, owned by Larry Prather I believe. Later on it was painted Mid-Night Black it was a very beautiful car and VERY FAST with Harkness behind the wheel. Jimmy was one that got away from us to soon I believe he was every bit as good as Jackie or James.

There were alot of very pretty cars out of KS back in these days I remember another VERY FAST Black car from KS back in this time #54 he would drop in every know and then and beat our ass, do you remember his name the intials are D.R.

Those KS guys would come down here and they had a differant Garb about them almost every one of them used the Goggles with the old black leather face mask and alot used the Sam Brown belt even if they had seat belts on I can remember Jerry Myer standing beside his car at OKC after winning the A-FEA getting his pic taken wearing that SB Belt, I have seen Leep Sr,Bryant, Reed,Coleman,Lies,Ross,Copeland,Grady,Thompson and a couple others use that SB Belt. Don't remember many of the OKC guys using it.

AJ quit around 1990 and the Layton brothers used his car for a while at OkC.

Clinton said he had an Edmunds, sounded convincing, could even afford one, but I'm not absolutely certain he had an Edmunds. The tag would have said it all. Clinton would be the guy who would know where that car went. Could be in a barn/garage right now as we speak.

Gilbert drove the Parson 67 right after it came to Lawton, they just changed the number a bit.

Brian,

Thats Ken's Jelly car that I believe is the Joyner #7 right behind Gilberts car, later on they put that hood scoop on it that looks like the one on the #7. I sure wish KP could get this car and restore it to orginial!!!!!

Dale didn't build a ton of cars but the ones that he did were 2nd to none in craftsmanship!!!!!!! I was trying to remember the other day how many Space Frame 4-Bars he built I remember 4 Roland's,Evertt's,Craine's & DP's but I think there was another one that Dale built for himself, I believe he built 2 or 3 single rail 4-Bars Cody's,Sampsons and one more I believe. Of course he built quite a few single rail springer's of which the Old Man's was converted to 4-bar the orginial #13/76 and then the single rail/space frame car that was the 2nd #76, Maybe KP or DP will check in and freshen up my memory!!!!!

Brian,

Looks alot like an Edmunds, is that a tag on the dash? Could this have been Patterson old Edmunds and Clinton bought it? Remember this trailer not alot differant then the Old Man's during this time, look at that R-1 on the LR those were damn good tires back in those days, use to run them on the RR on the 6 cyl modifieds and a 13.5 Firestone or Goodyear rain tire on the LR, if it really got slick and dry some would run a Jaloney on the LR but until we got GRC 35's engine we couldn't run a Jaloney!!!