Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
Moderators: Racing From The Past

Bushwacker, Will give you a call, Heated discussion, HMMM, Heck it was all good till we lost the brakes while leading that A , Ran Enid on Apr. 3rd. and hope to run again there this Sat. but that is not looking real promising.

Anyone go to Wichita NCRA Sprint show last Sat. ,Wondered how the track would be for Sprints since he flattened it out this past winter, heard it was follow the leader right around the bottom.

J.D, I THINK THAT DISCUSSION WAS WITH A DUDE THAT MAY HAVE BEEN AN OFFICIAL OF SOME SORT.. I WAS AT 81 FOR THE N.C.R.A SHOW. THEY HAD NUMEROUS CLASSES AT 81 THAT DAY, RAN HEATS ECT IN THE AFTERNOON, FEATURES AT NIGHT, SO YOU KNOW WHAT THE TRACK SURFACE WAS LIKE WITHOUT BEING THERE TO SEE IT, HELL WINGED SPRINTER;S WERE LOOSE AS HELL EVEN SPIN OUTS IN CORNER'S. PROGRAM DRAGGED ON AND ON, !!!!! THE TRACK SEEMS TO BE O/K FOR 3 WIDE, THEY JUST CUT THE LIP OFFTHE TOP, THIS WILL KEEP CARS FROM A VAULT OVER THE TOP, LOOKS TO BE FLAT SURFACE WITH NO MUCH DROP OFFF ANY AFTER YA SHOOT OVER THE TOP. HAVE SEEN SOME PRETTY NASTY VAULTS WITH SPRINTER'S THERE OVER THE YEARS.....

Bushwacker, Got the pics you sent , remember the $12 car of Larry Dewell's, good looking Nance car.

The other pic you sent , well it is not me in that pic, I however do know all 3 guys in that pic.

The guy on the 4 Wheeler is Barry Grable , he is the co promoter of OCRS Champ Sprint Racing Series out of Tulsa and the guy talking/pointing his finger at him is David Stephenson which is a driver of the #22 car out of Tulsa that runs the OCRS series and the guy in the back ground of the pic is Rob Forehand use to drive a Champ Sprint, I can give the photo if you would like to Barry or David or I can return it to you if you would like but will keep the $12 photo of you and Dewell's car with all the other photos I got from way back then.

By the way the guy who drives my car Joe Wood Jr. won the ASCS Sooner Region Show at Creek County Speedway this past Sat. night in his Family's Injected Sprinter , did really well. J.D.

There was an article in the Tulsa World last week that Emmett is meeting with the fair-board about having races at the old Tulsa Drillers baseball stadium. That would be the best thing to happen to racing in this area in a long time. He hopes to have several races each year. The fair-board were running sound tests last week and the neighbourhood associations were already raising a stink. I hope that the fair-board approves the races, they have been doing some funny things lately, they kicked Bells amusement park out and they had been there over 60 years and let the baseball team move without trying to keep them. Bells always paid their bill sand the water park that is still there was behind on several of theirs. I think that they are going to run mini-sprints and 1/4 midgets, if it gets started maybe he can run full midgets later.

Ray

Talked to a couple of ASCS folks at Creek Sat. night for the ASCS Sooner Reg. show and they said going to try about 8 shows with Mini Sprints and Midgets and the Midgets I would bet will be the class Emmitt has been trying to get started this season. Are they called Eco Tek motors, he ran them at the Tulsa Shootout this past winter, really put on a good show.

I know that neighborhood south of the Expo Ctr. does a lot of griping even about the Chili Bowl , so I would bet they will gripe about this as well , kind of like they did at OKC , but with City's having tough economic times with tax dollars , they might welcome in something that can bring out of town money to Tulsa and that in this day and time is a good thing for City Govt.

Trammel we just might be able to work something out on the front arms. Where you located?

I can get you in touch with Trammell. One of ya'll call me or I can call you.

You're both good guys.

later

In the past several years I've coresponded with Paula Hamby-Funk. Her dad was Chet Hamby and got killed in a race at the Topeka Fairgrounds back in the early 60's. Paula was very young and can't remember much about him and her mother has always been very tight lipped about him and him laying it all on the line for his racing and not his family. I hooked her up several years ago with Gordon Wooley and later John Yonke (before he passed) and she was thrilled. Paula's poor health has kept her from coming to the midwest from where she lives now in Georgia to research more about her father. She called me Monday morning and excitedly stated that she is in between back surgerys and will travel to Kansas City later this week to visit relatives and then go to Hutchinson to visit a girlfriend. We have planned to meet up at the Kansas Auto Racing Museum at Chapman, Kansas early next week so she can research anything they have. If anyone has any information, stories, photos etc. that might be of interest to her let me know. She would be most appreciative of anything you might have.

Scotty1n,...I read your post this morning and Ray Lee Goodwin happened to call me a few minutes ago. I asked if he could help any concerning Chet Hamby. He said he knew him well, a real nice guy. Ray Lee said he traveled from Kansas City to Des Moines to an IMCA race with Chet and also made a trip to Bellville, KS to a sprint race with him. He said he would be delited to talk to the daughter anytime. He did say he is going to the IRL race in KC, KS & I think it is this week or next. He won't be home during the race.

He now lives in Sedalia, MO and said I could give you & the daughter his phone number. It is: ...........660-829-0119 . Feel free to call him and he is a friendly guy & loves talking about racing. I hope this helps...Luther

Thanks Luther, I thought about Ray Lee and you saved me the task of looking up his number. Paula will be so happy to visit with him. By the way, are you still heading back sometime to live around Kansas City? I'd like to visit more and this summer I have a family member going to spend some time at KU Med and I'll probably be needing to get out and about some if you would be free anytime. Just let me know. Thanks, Scotty

go ahead and pass the pic to david, i guess i thought it was you not knowing you sooner racres all that well. the 12n was a specilal race car, dewell drove the wheels off it. good for joe on the win, now he can do the same for your team.....

Scotty,...We are planning to move back to Johnson County, KS when we sell our house. We have had more showings since Christmas than all of last year. Hope within the next year. Sales are increasing here month by month. We are leaving here May 6, travel to Jonesboro, AR for a college graduation (a grandaughter), then on to Johnson Co until May 28 and return through Little Rock to spend the Memorial Day week-end with my oldest daughter before returning here June 2. We also have a high school graduation for a grandson in Harrisonville, MO May 23rd.

I assume you must live around Salina somewhere. I went to an "Old Timers" race meet at the racing mesuem in Chapman, KS. It was before 2003 when we moved to Florida. Got to see Roy Bryant, Gary Mussatto and a lot of the old timers at that meeting. There was a NASCAR racing truck setting outside. It was yellow and a banker or someone locally owned it. They did not make all of the truck races but made several.

Keep in touch,...Luther

bushwacker , I will do that on the pic,maybe I'll get Grable to autograph it at the next OCRS show we run at. LOL

I am sure the 12n was a special car, seems when you put your all your efforts and all the and blood and sweat and $$$ and long hours in the shop to make it happen each week then it is special. More so then with not so much the availablity of mass produced parts and ya had to create your own.

But I can say I still put in about 3 to 4 hrs. a night of prep, maintenance, and just a general going over the car and trying to make sure nothing falls off of it for that 3 to 4 hr. period on Sat. night.

Again will get the photo to one of them and was good to talk to you last week and hope to run across you again in person sometime and sure would like for Joe make it 2 in a row, that would be a sweet deal. J.D.

They did it again, No racing at the Fairgrounds!!!! The county Commission controls the Fairgrounds and they denied Emmett's races at the old ballpark. They are afraid that it will disturb the neighbourhood. There were car races there before any houses were there. I will remember this at the next election.

Ray

That is a bad deal, but kind of figured something might come up about the noise, those neighbors around the Expo gripe every year about the Chili Bowl, but that thing is established and politicians know what kind of $$$ it brings to Tulsa and this deal is not proven yet to them , although it would be huge I would bet. Read where they are going to try and get Tulsan's to call the County Comm. but I bet that will be a tough deal to turn around , see SFS Winter 09/10 and you know when money people and politicians want it gone or don't want it to happen then it won't.

They supposedly had a noise check and it came out fine from 2 blocks away from the stadium. Karen Kieth the commissioner said that they just Did not want upset the neighbourhood i do not think that there was ever a chance that it would be approved. The OKC and Tulsa politicians do not like racing. My wife will retire in a few years and we are looking forward to moving, we don't know where, just out of Tulsa. This is just one of many problems that the city/couty leaders are having.

Ray

I have been going back and reading this site and there are some great stories from the 60s, 70s & 80s. I wonder if there is a way to publish these stories fore future reading?

Ray

It would be a lot of copy and pasting. Just C/P to microsoft word page and and keep saving

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

I saw a story about a race team on Tv that was doing real well, they had the complete package the announcer said. I started thinking about the '74-'78 seasons when Mike Peters drove for my uncle Norman Gumm. Norman was successful in the concrete business and was a fair shade tree mech but would be the first to say he was't a race car mech. I was about the same. Well Norman saw that the car had every thing that it needed except a good mech. he tried several times but it just did not work out. Mike won a lot of races on his ability, if we had a good chassis man there is no telling how many more that he would have had. Norman would try and I could change gears faster than anybody but you need the complete package to be at the top. When James Warren started driving the 17 he was shocked at how little we knew. The next year when, he often said the same thing to me when we would bench race in the later years.

I hope that everybody would keep my sister and her family in their thoughts and prayers. My brother-in-law was working in the evenig at Rib Crib BBQ to so my sister did not have to work . He was closing on may 20th and was robbed. The jerks shot and killed him then made the girls in the store lye down, they shot him 3 more times in the back on the way out. I don't know what this world is coming to.

Ray

It's a mean and cruel world and it just isn't getting any better. I say a prayer everytime I fire the big truck up and head out.

Why?

God Bless, thoughts and prayers go out to your family members.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

Agree with Warren in his first sentence.

Bkcr , thoughts and prayers as well.