Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
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My favorite OFFIXICO car, the GK silver crown. I have no idea where these came from. If you sent them to me, please respond.

tony,you did not here me say anything bad,allthough i did not feel very good when i left.i allways though you were a class act.you still married to that same good looking woman.ha.you remember fort smith when you had two engines laying in the grass with steam comeing off them.yall changed them things pretty fast.carbone may have not bought a dyno,if not for me.i hope everthing is well in your life.later.

ROLAN

I for one would like to hear some of the stories from Mr. Nix.

How about those Zommie Headers on the Ofixco car, I remember back in 81 when WoO ran at Bellville,Ks.and Ed French had a set of those Zoomies on his Big Block and they would ring your ears setting in the middle of the infield at Bellville when he was on the hammer.

talking about headers,i had built a 312 for stone.that was the first engine i built for ofixco.tulsa had set up a db. meter,and everbody had to be at 95 db. or lower.i had allready had some step headers built for the car with a long collector .stone and i ran the collector all the way to the back of the car.because it did not point at the meter, it passed.i was in the stands with l.k. and he said ,that is the loudest s. o. b. i ever heard.i then drilled some small holes in the headers.that thing would blow flame,5 feet past the back of the car.being behind stone was not good.hehe.

ROLAN

Wasn't the 21 a car that Lloyd bought from Johnny Cannell, I know that is not the right spelling , I think that he was a high USAC official. I think that it was a Grant King built car, look at the cage. At the 1985 at the NCRA/USAC show in OK City Kramer Williamson was driving this car, withe a different roll cage on it, the old cage had rust in it, Is this right Tony? Tony in the late '70's did you spot trailers at the Tulsa Glass Plant?

Ray

I'm thinking Roy Caruthers told me the car was his step-dads car when it sold to Stephens. Not sure.

Roy spends a lot of time on the HAMB.

Ray,...You are probably thinking of Johnny Cappels (The Golden Greek). He had a USAC sprint for a while. I saw it somewhere, maybe on this site. He was crew chief for Al Unser Sr on the Johnnie Lighning USAC dirt car....Luther

May be a stretch, but it seems to me the Offixco car is the one on the right, with Al.

Notice how Marios car is just a touch shorter on the cage, that car was built with his height in mind. It's obviously a standard set of GK bends, just cut short on the rear upright.

Tony,

OFFIXCO was notably the big outfit for most of the '80s, naturally you'd get the most ribbing. Even the V6 that Hailey brought to Lawton and OkC was tough, and it wasn't even based in Tulsa! Today the colors are very much liked around the world even when the enthusiast has no idea as to where they came from. The OFFIXCO team made it's mark all over, and it is part of history.

And of course there is you, Tony Armstrong. You're right up there with the best in the books from that era. nuff said

David wasn't the car that Mike drove for Larry Hill in '79 originally a USAC champ car and did Steve Stapp build it ?

Ray

Just found this, my introduction to the WoO, and the new era to come,

Johnny Capels it is, his stepson Roy Caruthers confirmed it.

Vintage Greg Wooley:

John Stewart

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Brian, It sure looks like the same car. The cage and nose look identical and with Johnny Cappels as he crew chief. Is this the car that Big Al was driving in 1974 that he finished 2nd to Jackie Howerton in the Hoosier 100 ? Luther what do you think that they are the same car?

Ray

Ray,...My guess is that it is not either of these cars. If you notice, the top frame tube is under the headers making room for the large heads on the engines. I built 2 frames like these, only mine were spring front ends. They were cars #10 & #11 on the link here. OldTom that shows up on here once in a while said he drove the 11th car I built once at Grand Forks. It was like these frames before it was changes to a cross bar front end. The car is #92 and painted Hondurous maroon & white on here. The roll cage is also different on the 2 Vicory cras,..Luther

Ray.... If I remember correctly, Loyd bought that champ car from Johnny Capels. It was red and I believe Pancho Carter was the last to drive it. That thing was so cool but it was hard to work on. The top rail did go below the headers. Billy Anderson wrenched on it while Loyd had it and I remember he dug those zoomies out of the sprint car trailer and put em on as conversation pieces. Shuman ran well at the next race with em so they left em on. I always thought they looked out of place on that big ole cadillac.I did work at the glass plant backing trailers in and out of the dock. Did you work there?

Rolin... Good to hear from you. Hope all is well with your family. Yep, I'm still married to Cathey, it'll be 27 years in October. Been a long time since the Ofixco days. Thanks to these guys and this thread us old guys can stay in touch and relive some great times. Who knows where Brian and all these guys are goin with all this nostalgia stuff.

Tony

Tony, I told you that working at Ford Glass would someday comeback to haunt you............lol. Man that had to be back in 79 or so. I remember going by to see the above car, and either Billy or Maynard told me that Poncho use to drive it and it did come from Johnny Capels. Thats the only thing I knew about it but man it sure looked cool and fast. I remember that thing has a big old fuel cell for those 1 mile tracks. Now was this the same car that Shuman drove as the 721 a few times??? Congrates to you and Cathey for 27 years. Sometimes when I need a laugh I think back to when you, me, Woody and Gary took your moms stationwagon to Devils Bowl to see the WoO and you let Gary drive and we fell asleep and when we woke up he had us down by Paris. He had forgot to get off the turnpike at McAlister and just kept on driving. That was also the first time I ever met Pete Frazier. Man there is a guy you could tell some stories about!!! I miss old Pete.

The older I get the faster I use to be

I just have one thing to say, I am so thankfull this thread was started because it is the old stories that I love hearing about. I started going, when my dad would take me, back in 1969 and went through 1977 - the strike year. He quit taking me and it wasn't until the fair of 1982 and me having my drivers license and '77 brown El Camino that I went back to the races for fun and have been hooked ever since.

After going all the time at Fairgrounds Speedway every Friday night, it wasn't until 1984 when I ventured out for good. The first driver I ever met was Ricky Jennings over the cb radio as I was asking if anybody was going as I had never been to Muskogee and it was the second NCRA champ dirt car race of the year. We talked over the cb almost all the way there and they coached me to the fairgrounds. All that year I think I missed just two NCRA shows and that was only because they were at I-70 and Knoxville.

All the Jennings' I hold alot of thanks to as they treated me as one of their own and would give me rides everywhere. Going to Little Rock or Dallas and at the hotel parking lot, me and a little scrony Danny Jennings would throw the football around. He would also sit by me for a bit at the fairgrounds, in the stands, and throw stuff at people.

Also in 1984 I met Jack Moulton and Steve "Scat Man" Carithers and became friends with them as well. While I do know stories I do not judge as I give people the benefit of the doubt until they do me wrong. I miss seeing both of these guys.

"Tiger" Tony Armstrong was my favorite driver Harold Leep retired. And yes it was because of his driving, not his sister (or maybe it was his cousin) that use to be at OKC every Friday night. Tony, your excursion out of the facility in turn one over the 4th of July was one of the wildest flips I had ever seen.

Reading portions of all of you alls stories makes for some great reading and I will read all of it this winter when things calm down. I don't think any of you all realize just how entertaining and informative your posts are. So much, in fact, that I posted on my message board for all to come here and read.

This is your commercial break, now, back to the old racing stories.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

David,...You need to remember as one of my favorite remarks on here was, "The older I get, the better I was". I am one of the "older" ones on here (maybe the oldest)....Luther Brewer