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To All,

Been a long week finished TX last week and been catching up on paper work all of this week, Sorry to hear about Bill Sr passing, I never knew Bill personally but watched that #00 SafeWay Taxi car race for years. When I first remember Bill they were running the Sedans on the quarter mile track at the fairgrounds, that was some good racing back then, in later years Bill had a Vicki bodied car that he won or run up front in quite a few races, later on I believe he had an Edmunds bodied car that possible Phil Hancock built, I believe Billy Jr started driving the Vicki bodied car and ran well with it.

Went to the ORA meeting Wednesday night, first one I've been to in years. I haven't been an ORA member since early to mid '80s just didn't always agree with the way they operated. Well now with the way that Lanny has been operating it might be time to join back up with the ORA and give them some support. It's going to be touchy, with issues already bad at the facility needing updates to bring it up to code, if you push Lanny to far he might say screw it and quit and I don't think the fairboard would put anybody in his place. However it's almost to that point now!! If Lanny doesn't get his rule enforcement and procedure enforcement in line it will probably be done in another year anyway. He also needs to do some promoting, be nice to get lap money some night as I'm pretty sure he won't raise the purse. It's the same body and same face that I first met in '74 at Lawton SPDY but it's damn sure not the same promotor as back then. Maybe if I had promoted 40/50 yrs like he has I would be like he is now, however I've been around racing since Taft Stadium days and I love it now more then I did then. I've raced pretty well all over the country either as a racer or mounting GDYR tires and I have never been so discussed with the words IF YOU DON'T LIKE GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. Just not the thing a promotor of Lanny's caliber should be telling a racer in the tone of voice that he uses. I know a couple of times this season that he was either drunk or on medication driving around in that golf cart like a banty rooster cussing at everybody. It shouldn't be a money issue he should be making some at the Chili Bowl but maybe he's losing it all between SFS & Devils Bowl. I don't know what his issue is but the way he's ran the racing in the ground at SFS, I'm joining the ORA and if enough other people do then maybe he will see that the racers take the racing serious at SFS AND DON'T LIKE TO BE TREATED WITH DISRESPECT!!!

Thank you David for backing up everything I've been saying for the past few years.

Not sure what to think of what all could come of this David, Still would like the man to make an appearance at the ORA meeting but like some have told me that is not likely to happen , because it really would not benefit him at all and the yelling and cussing and so on would happen, guess then if that does happen then he really is to much out there to ever make it work.

It is a shame,I remember him (Lanny) coming in to see a mutual friend of my parents that he knew as well at their business Lawton Iron & Metal there on East Lee Blvd back in the early 70's and like you said he was nothing like he is now from what I remember , would talk and kid around and even take advice on running his race track, something now that is a no no to discuss with him about.

Just was at Cowtown this weekend for the November Sprint Shootout and Bo Rawdon who promotes that place now really gets it and does an excellent job in promotion, showed in the car count as well as the crowd count which was really good Sat. night for a race in Mid November.

I hope something good comes out this winter or else like you said Racing in OKC is being run into the ground and with the future for the track looking worse every year , be a shame to see it go out on a bad note with ALL the history of great racing at the place.

On Norman's race team Mike Peters was the number 1 driver and everybody knew and thought that Gene See was driving the 117 because He was Norman's son-in-law. Well Gene was a better driver than he got credit for, on a heavy tacky track nobody but nobody could out run him in this region not Mike, Shane , Hershel Thompson or any body could beat him on a heavy track. He really had his problems when it dried out though. What I am leading to is a modified stand alone NCRA race at the Dewey track on June 22, 1975. I have my NCRA yearbooks and the Tulsa Programs from the week before and after, to help my memory. The night before at Tulsa there were 2 features, Jerry Rea won the makeup feature in Hershel Thompson's back-up car and Derrill Jennings won the regular feature, this was a surprise because he was from Oklahoma City and those modified drivers normally went to Lawton Saturday night , the only OKC regular that raced in Tulsa all the time was Don Engle and he retired after the 1974 season. Gene finished 2nd and 3rd in those 2 features so he was on a hot streak in the 117. Mike in the 71 had a 4th place finish in the regular feature and was not able to make the make-up feature because the week before it had started and he had broke a cam in the trophy dash and was not in the starting line up when it started to rain. The next morning I meet all of them in the parking lot at the Saratoga motel . We put the only spare engine that Norman had at the time into the 17. It was a 250 inch Ford 6cyl that Davie Moore had ran some at the beginning of the season. For some reason it is not the preferred engine the 240 inch six was a lot faster, maybe somebody out there can tell me why. We used the goose neck on the trailer and a come-a-long to install this engine into the 17. Mike had a bad miss in his car and we could not fix it. We changed everything and it would not go away, even the battery cables and it still would miss. Jerry Wilson meet us at Dewey and was going to work on Mike's engine. Norman was going to let Jay Davis drive the 17 to repay some help that he did earlier in the season, but he did not't get the message and did not't show so Norman let Courtney Granstaff drive it. there were 3 heats and Shane won the 1st, Paul Ott won the 2nd with Courtney 2nd in the 17. Gene won the 3rd with Mike 2nd with his engine still missing real bad. Shane started on the pole with Gene 3rd and Gene passed him on the 2nd lap and the race was all but over. Larry Wilson won the B and started on the back and got up to 2nd but could not do anything with Gene. Mike and Larry had a feud going back to Wichita the previous year when Mike was leading the feature and they got together and Mike had to go to the back. I was talking to Larry and Norman told me to not let Mike see me talking to him but he seemed pretty nice and came to me after the races and said that Gene had the fastest modified that night that he had ever raced against. There were several red flags and Gene pulled away every time. Larry finished 2nd withe Darell Jennings 3rd and Mike 4th. I remember asking Mike how come I saw grass and dirt in turn 1 when he passed Darrell once and he said that he had a sick race car and Had to do anything that he could, Mike and Darrell passed each other several times and did not touch. Hershel Thompson drove his back-up car that won a feature the night before in Tulsa and finished 5th in the B. Shane finished 6th the last driver on the lead lap. Courtney did not finish, a fan belt came off. Gene won $405.50. The miss in Mike's car cured itself and he dominated the modifieds after that, he won the last 3 NCRA features that year so Norman's cars won 4 of the NCRA modified events that year, the last 4.

Ray

Hey guys,

My Uncle dropped in to see someone ya'll might remember---HANK MALONE

He's got a machine shop down on 29th and High. Lots of pictures , knowledge and his mind is sharp as ever. He was surprised to find out that there is a lot interest in these old cars around here. Which brought up the next question, WHEN IS THE NEXT GET TOGETHER? I'm sure we could get Hank to show up.

Brian,

Spent lunch today in Tulsa at the Ledgends Luncheon and several of those guys wanted to know when we were having another get together. Some in attendence today Buddy Cagle, Ray Cates, Pete York(1st time there) Bob Hurley, Steve Foster, Ray Crawford, Denny Moore, Jerry Stone, Charlie Randolph, Benny Taylor, Harold Leep, Shane Carson, Harvey Hunter, Dave Grubb, Tony Armstrong (1st time there) just to name a few. It was great to see all of them but I was really glad to see TA, near as I can tell it has been around '89 or '90 since I have seen him, well he has aged well right along with the rest of us, I always had alot of respect for TA and his crew they were about the only people at Offixco that I never fought with physically but our on track rivilery was just as great as Ewell,Stone or Nance. Let me tell you those guys are just as competitive today as they where back then. Mike Pogue had a book with pic's of some of the old Super Drivers and alot of pic's from back in Amarillo Days Cody, Willingham, Glass, Lee, Hair, Brunson. Plus some other great shots one of which was a classic Jack Walker shot, Jack looked tired like he had just finished an all nighter on somebodies car but mean and wirey like don't mess with me!!

I'm up for a get together with the exception of the first week in December as I will be at the Indy show and Shane will be also but any time after that I'd make time, JD how bout you, Jim if your out there pitch in, also Jim if you get a chance you ought to go over to that Luncheon you would love it. Hell all of you guys would!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David , Are we wanting to shoot for something in Dec.?, would that be to quick or to much going on with Holiday stuff for folks or try after the Holidays and Chili Bowl ?

You bet on that Luncheon , would really like to go to that sometime, would have a few hundred questions to ask some of those gentelmen. To bad it does not happen on the week of the Chili Bowl in Jan. would be up there then.

Is this the car that Aaron Madden stretched to 100" and ran as a super?

From the Shane Carson collection

Scott Carson. Shane also had a few runs in this car too.

To All,

Hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving, man I was stuffed Thursday night, went to the Bishop's to eat and man they can put out the food.

Shorty came by Friday morning and we made a trip to Fairview to Paul Martens to pick-up some parts for Perry Tripps #94 restoration, well it turned into a 7hr meeting and I want to thank Paul & Jake for taking the time to allow Shorty & I to see there stuff, when we first pulled up there was a chassis that I remember well it was the single rail 4-bar Parson chassis that belonged to Tommy Sampson. Larry Holman & George Armstrong drove it, the car is basically intact frame wise, I have alot of interest in this car other then the fact I worked at Parson's when it was built, it is the same basic frame package that the Old Mans #76 Bi-Centineial Special that Leep Sr drove was except for the way the torsion was put on the front. It would be the basis for a replica #76 that I've been kicking around building.

There were several old frames rowed up outside and a couple I think we were able to shed a little light on as to who manufactured or possible drove them. Inside Paul is working on the restoration of a couple of cars, along with a couple that he has restored, also inside was Shorty's brother Scott's old McElreath Sprint car it is in pretty good condition, hanging up in the rafters was a car that caught my eye something was not quite right about it but it had some unmistakeable features that only Shorty or myself would know so I had to ask Paul if I could go up and check it out, and sure enough there hangs our 1986 model Gambler that we won the '86 NCRA Championship with and the '86 USAC/NCRA Race at OKC. I could tell the bracing in the front of the frame was not right but after climbing up there to investagate the car has had the lower rails stubed on and when that was done the bracing was changed in the frame, looking at the motor plate adaptor, brake pedal, radius rod sliders etc, Iwas pretty sure it was our car, after doing a little investagating work the past couple days I'm 100% sure it is it. We sold the car to Patrick Prescott who inturn sold it to Ken Whitehouse, it seems Ken had crashed it and later sold it to Mel Rowe who had Bear Chassis fix the crash damage, when Roger did the repair he changed the way the X brace was put in the bottom of the frame and he changed the front shock towers, from the motor plate back it is all orginial!! This car was bad ass it won something like 35/36 of the 46 races that it ran and ran in the top 3 in all but 2 of the remaining races it ran. This car was alittle tougher then the '85 Gambler as it was built a little heavier in the tubing, it was a Bandit on the smooth slick or rubbered up tracks and not to shabby when it was heavy, we ran the SS/BB pkg alot that the Old Man had give us and we wound up with a Shaver that Shorty bought from Larry Hill that was an old USAC Champ Car motor. We won the NCRA in a dominating fashion in '86 but more then anything we won that USAC/NCRA race which was redemsion for us as we were DQ'd in '85 after running 2nd but more then anything we beat those USAC'ers, Vogler flipped JJ over the fence on the start which created quite a comotion, Shorty followed Vogler on the restart and stayed in tow with him until about 20 laps to go and made the pass for the win off turn 4 and just drove off, what alot of people don't realize is that Shane was driving other cars in WOO & Promoting races, and that I was keeping the Beamon #97 up for Mr Bill and working at Carter-Maxwell's full time, it is amazing we did as well as we did as we both were stretched pretty thin but that Shorty has a lot of HEART and I was young and dumb and didn't know anything else so we just drove off into History!!!!!! Man What A Life wouldn't swap it for anything!!!!!!!!!!!

Brian, those last pic's you posted on here were great, saw Leep at the Legends Luncheon last week and he still has that look in his eye. Anybody heard from Jim, I need to talk to him, if you read this Jim give me a call. Well better go headed to Indy Tuesday for the IMIS show.

David,

If you do the Bi-Centennial car, I have some wheels you might be interested in. The left front would be awfully hard to return, but.............it would look good back in the right place. Either way, it sits just 15 feet from me at all times. Autographed by THE MAN of course.

Some of you guys just come to this thread, here's some footage from OkC, courtesy of Shane Carson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYDlzm7nBiw

Brian,

Thanks to you and Shane, MarCar still lives and so does Larry Nailon and long live "Black Magic" along with Evard Humphrey. It's great to see a race car start on it's own without a push truck. Great video from 1972-1973 OKC and Tulsa Speedway on the HALF MILE.

Mike

I agree , really nice stuff.

By the way Brian , heard Lupi will be back at Lawton next year running the deal , heard that from a pretty good source when I was at Lawton on Thanksgiving night. Guess they kissed and made up.

Might think about trying the place a time or two next season now IF Lupi returns.

I had a good week this week.

Got a video in Tuesday, have another uploading right at this moment.

The new car is coming together nicely, I got a grille for my Watson/Ward tracknose from Joe Lingle this week, cast aluminum, and it's nice.

Looking at an old frame out in the pasture today I stumbled across an old bomber seat that we got from Surplus City of Lawton back in the 60's. Second bomber seat I got this year! There is a hardcore rush for these things now and the values have gotten crazy! That makes 2 seats from WWII can't sell now!

I also got to finally talk a little with Hank Malone friday. Hank of OKC DID build the 161 of Wayne Cox fame, the 4 bar car. Turns out he and Wayne and Evard were all hunting buddies. Hank is very sharp these days, has LOTS of history to remember. He was surprised that there is an interested market for these old supers.

If you are closeby at 29th and High in OkC, he is running Midwest Machine and Compressor just like he always did.

Hank was promised to be in the loop for the next get-together. I will comply when ya'll decide the date.

Pat Suchy hangin' out with the boys, 1985

Shane and David Grace keeping watch.

Scott Carson and the#11, this was also Shanes first car.

The kid directly behind Scott with the jacket is Danny Jennings. He has been around racing since he was born. He and my son played with their hot wheels in the grandstand during races.

GRC35