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Page 4 of 101   of  2004 replies
jdsprint71
September 25, 2008 at 04:33:47 PM
Joined: 05/02/2005
Posts: 1337
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I agree, but have to add Raymond the Flag Man at Lawton in with Roger Stories, Heck sometimes Raymond gets it right when the real guy flaggin cannot, but just wanted to add that in too.

This thread has been really good stuff , learned things I did not know , heck be cool to get together this winter say Hooter's in OKC and eat some wings and drink a beverage of choice and get David , Jim , Brian and whoever else would show up and hear more stuff, could'nt hurt anything and dam sure be a lot of fun listening and might just learn something.



sprintcar21n
MyWebsite
September 25, 2008 at 08:36:19 PM
Joined: 08/17/2005
Posts: 50
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I feel a group hug coming on now!!!


The older I get the faster I use to be

sprintcar21n
MyWebsite
September 25, 2008 at 09:09:56 PM
Joined: 08/17/2005
Posts: 50
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This has to be one of the best threads of all time!! Most of you don't know me but I have been following Warren and RFTP for many years. I was one of the original guys who actually sponsored RFTP. I was the official sponsor of the 70's super pages, or maybe it was the 80's supers page, but whatever, I have always checked on RFTP and passed the link on to all of my friends but this is the 1st time I have ever got involved in any discussions on here. This is the 1st one that I have actually felt like getting involved in. Man am I glad I did too. As I sit here and read everyday the new post, I cant be carefully read each and every word and I start re-living those times again in my head. Sometime I laugh so load and hard the wife has to come in and make sure I am not having a heart attack, and then there are times that my eyes tear up for the tragedies they have seen, but mostly it brings a smile to my face as I remember the great times I had at the races. My younger brother and I where as tight as thieves when it came to the races. I told him about this thread and he called me back a few hours later, after he had time to think and ran some stuff past me that he remembered and I thought I would share those with you. How many where there at OKC during a NCRA race when Darrell Jennings lost his left front wheel in turn 2 and it hopped over the fence and was last seen rolling down towards May Ave?? How many of you had to ask yourself "What The" when Stan Constant came wheeling into the pits driving a semi pulling that little bitty trailer behind it? How many of you always wondered why OKC had the pit gate at the wrong end of the track and if you where walking you had to walk all the way down the front straight to get to the pits, instead of putting a gate over by turn 4 where you could park and walk into the pits?? Did anyone else think Phil the Tulsa Speedway offical looked like Grizzly Adams?? Did anyone else ever try and figure out why Larry Slawson would bring his sprinter out to Tulsa Speedway and run it like 2 laps then put it up. It was like he was trying to impress someone, but we all knew Larry so that was gonna be pretty hard to do. You hated to hear that chopper fire up after a accident at Tulsa cause you knew it was another bad one?? Who thought the stands at Lawton where so steep it was like walking up a ladder? Who else thought it was so cool when Shane would come off the WoO and jumped into someone elses car and smoked the field?? Was there anyone else who would wonder why not everyone was not at the races? Did anyone else ever have to drop their current girlfriend because she didnt like racing, and go and try to find one who did? Did you ever stop and help someone broke down on the side of the road just becasue he was towing a race car?? And the last one. How many of you have yelled at someone and was mad enough to fight cause they "Ruined" your favorite racing shirt?


The older I get the faster I use to be


sprintcar21n
MyWebsite
September 25, 2008 at 09:25:31 PM
Joined: 08/17/2005
Posts: 50
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This message was edited on September 25, 2008 at 09:26:35 PM by sprintcar21n

Oh yea by the way, I am Dan Noble currently living in Springtown, TX (west ft Worth) and I grew up at Tulsa Speedway from 1975 until around 1986 or so. I got involved with Tulsa Speedway through 2 guys I went to school with. The first one's dad owned the car Jack Wickett drove in the mid 70's and the other was former driver Tony Armstrong. That 1st year for Tony was pretty much him and I every night in Harold Harris's mom and dad's garage working til midnight and having a ball. The next year was when Tony and OFIXCO got hooked up and all at once we had a 200 person pit crew. I slowly bowed out and spent the rest of the year helping Jerry Wilson and Dale Reed. Over the next few years I just kinda bounced around helping who ever needed my help. Spent sometime with Carol Nance the year Herb Copeland won everything in sight. Over the years I just got tired of the way things where going with the supers and sprints and just kinda moved on. I never stopped going but if I missed a race the world really would not end. I have met some of the nicest people and a few mean ones to going to the races. I have got to watch some of the greatest drivers ever compete, and I will charish that forever. I currently have got hooked on the dwarf cars. We race about every week at 5 tracks here in North Texas. Its fun and it's a drivers game. Check out our website @ lsdcc.com and remember life is to short to stop racing.


The older I get the faster I use to be

Racing From The Past
MyWebsite
September 26, 2008 at 01:24:49 AM
Joined: 12/04/2004
Posts: 2303
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Reply to:
Posted By: bsman63 on September 25 2008 at 08:14:11 AM

Bob Mays needs to write a book about David Grace. this is good stuff



Bob might be lurking out there copy and pasting all of this. I don't know if he stops by anymore or not?


Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

jimmessmer
September 26, 2008 at 08:56:45 AM
Joined: 05/30/2008
Posts: 161
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O.K. I'm in!! Anytime you guys wanna hook up I'm around, if we aren't racing. Worked a few hours on # 11 last night, changed brakes, set the valves etc. Still about 3 weeks before we get to race. Not going to do Lawton, just going to wait for OKC. If we survive that then we will probably do Devils Bowl.

I got home last night & read this & even my girlfriend agrees we should do something with all this. There's a lot of good stuff here that may just get lost if we don't do something with it. I love Bob Mays stuff in Flat Out, Always leaves you twisting till the end, great stuff.

Most Sunday mornings me, Ernie & Chris usually meet for coffee at Mama Lous on 29th @ 8:00 am. Just visit, talk racing & stuff. Sometimes we are blessed with Johnny Gilmores presence. He has also got some great racing stories.

I think a book is not out of the question. Something to ponder on. Putting my memory together now for my next little deal, gonna work on 1972.

See ya.




brian26
September 26, 2008 at 10:13:10 AM
Joined: 12/03/2006
Posts: 7918
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Looking forward to it.




jdsprint71
September 26, 2008 at 10:23:28 AM
Joined: 05/02/2005
Posts: 1337
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Mr. Noble , Dropped several girlfriends because of racing and I always thought they put the pit shack off turn 4 and made you walk in front of the stands to get to the pits to make you walk by and buy something from the concession stand , Always thought it was a marketing idea. LOL

The 5 tracks you run at is one of them Cowtown?

Jim, We are planning to go run Lawton and then try a couple of more 2 Bar. shows if it all stays together, like I said sure would be nice later in the winter to meet up.

I read Bob's stuff to on Flat Out, Be good to see him do a column on the old NCRA days 70's and 80's and use some of this stuff like on this thread, be a great read.



sprintcar21n
MyWebsite
September 27, 2008 at 12:01:43 AM
Joined: 08/17/2005
Posts: 50
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Yes we run Cowtown and KSP in Kennedale, Tx. 85 Speedway in Ennis, TX. 281 Speedway in Stephenville, TX and Grand Prarie Speedway in Grand Prarie TX.

I will be running special end of the year stuff at Grayson County in Bells, TX (Denison-Sherman area)in the Monster mash October 25th and 26th, Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, TX at the Texas Grand Natioanls October 9,10 and 11th , JRP Speedway in Tulsa OK on November 15th and Manzanita Speedway-Dwarf Car Nationals November 21 and 22nd. Check out some of the dwarf action at www.lsdcc.com or www.ddcc.com


The older I get the faster I use to be


jimmessmer
September 29, 2008 at 09:07:45 PM
Joined: 05/30/2008
Posts: 161
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Check it out!

Over the July 4th week-end of 1971, Harold Leep won 2 features in OKC to finally take the point lead from Jackie Howerton. Howerton left the first of june to go USAC sprint racing & it took a month for the boys to catch him!

Top 5 in points were Leep, Howerton, Benny Taylor, Evard Humphrey & Aaron Madden. Wow.There was this kid in 34th in points driving a # 51 car. His name was Jerry Stone! Bobby Reynolds held the 1 lap track record at a sizzling 22.77 seconds. He was driving Suchys car that year, in June he won the trophy dash & gave it to my dad. That trophy is about 3 feet behind me on a shelf. It has the Mar-Car logo on top & the plaque says"1971 Central Cycle sales trophy Dash".

The track was getting ready for the big Nationals on July 16-17th. The winners purse was $600 & the track had gathered up about $750.00 in lap money. Tiger Bob Williams from Missouri had won the 1970 nationals driving the # 37 car.

Billy Patton was leading the modified points & some kid named Terry Doss was in 14th. Larry Wilson was 15th & had only run about half the races. There were so many modifieds running then that only the top 48 in points got to run heat races. Everybody else had to run a consi, If they ran top 2 they got to run the B feature, if they ran the top 2 they got to tag the back of the A. It took Wilson about 3 weeks top make the top 48 & he had already won 1 A feature.

There was this guy running a black # 23 on the half mile. No money, guy just wanted to race. His name was Jerry Anderson. I remember talking to Jerry one night, & he related how he had blown the motor in his racer and wanted to race so bad, he took the motor out of his wifes station wagon, put it in the race car & raced!! Lets see someone do THAT these days. I thought he might have been joking around but he was dead serious. Said it was a hassle because he had to drive his wife to work!!

Emmett Hahn & Harold were tied for the NCRA points lead at 240 & Melvin Rogers from OKC was in 3rd! Man we couldn't wait for July 17th, that was to be our first NCRA race in OKC. Box seats for the Nationals with (2) 50 lap A features were $4.50!!

More later, Jim.

P.S. When I get my scanner working right I'll start putting some of these old pics on here.



jdsprint71
September 30, 2008 at 11:22:55 AM
Joined: 05/02/2005
Posts: 1337
Reply

That is pretty good stuff Jim, closest thing I seen to something like the motor pulling was at the track in pulling a starter off the tow vehicle to put on a 100" car to be able to start and race it through the night and then put it back on the tow rig after the show.

That would be good stuff to post some pics on here.

 

Grayson Co. in Bells,Tx. I like that race track.



DGM 7620
September 30, 2008 at 04:21:27 PM
Joined: 07/18/2007
Posts: 377
Reply
Reply to:
Posted By: jimmessmer on September 29 2008 at 09:07:45 PM

Check it out!

Over the July 4th week-end of 1971, Harold Leep won 2 features in OKC to finally take the point lead from Jackie Howerton. Howerton left the first of june to go USAC sprint racing & it took a month for the boys to catch him!

Top 5 in points were Leep, Howerton, Benny Taylor, Evard Humphrey & Aaron Madden. Wow.There was this kid in 34th in points driving a # 51 car. His name was Jerry Stone! Bobby Reynolds held the 1 lap track record at a sizzling 22.77 seconds. He was driving Suchys car that year, in June he won the trophy dash & gave it to my dad. That trophy is about 3 feet behind me on a shelf. It has the Mar-Car logo on top & the plaque says"1971 Central Cycle sales trophy Dash".

The track was getting ready for the big Nationals on July 16-17th. The winners purse was $600 & the track had gathered up about $750.00 in lap money. Tiger Bob Williams from Missouri had won the 1970 nationals driving the # 37 car.

Billy Patton was leading the modified points & some kid named Terry Doss was in 14th. Larry Wilson was 15th & had only run about half the races. There were so many modifieds running then that only the top 48 in points got to run heat races. Everybody else had to run a consi, If they ran top 2 they got to run the B feature, if they ran the top 2 they got to tag the back of the A. It took Wilson about 3 weeks top make the top 48 & he had already won 1 A feature.

There was this guy running a black # 23 on the half mile. No money, guy just wanted to race. His name was Jerry Anderson. I remember talking to Jerry one night, & he related how he had blown the motor in his racer and wanted to race so bad, he took the motor out of his wifes station wagon, put it in the race car & raced!! Lets see someone do THAT these days. I thought he might have been joking around but he was dead serious. Said it was a hassle because he had to drive his wife to work!!

Emmett Hahn & Harold were tied for the NCRA points lead at 240 & Melvin Rogers from OKC was in 3rd! Man we couldn't wait for July 17th, that was to be our first NCRA race in OKC. Box seats for the Nationals with (2) 50 lap A features were $4.50!!

More later, Jim.

P.S. When I get my scanner working right I'll start putting some of these old pics on here.



Jim, I can remember some of this, wasn't Emmitt driving one of Zinks cars also or was he in the Del Torrance #1 that Jackie had drove before? I can vaguely remember the single rail spring front parallel bar rear car #1300, I believe it had a 2spd QC rear end, they also had that converted roadster that if I remember right Cagle drove it it was that ZINK pink and white. Then they painted it yellow to match the other car that Jackie built.

Jerry Anderson there was a guy that just wanted to race he had a big old beard also. How bout Vern Brummett #26 or Bob Bible #302 who always ran Fords.

I can remember the maroon and gold #10 that Carl Fergueson drove I believe it was a CAE stretched car it was fast I think Johnny Reynolds was the crew chief a fuel line broke one night as he came out of turn 4 and he bailed out as the car was going down the track he rolled a few times on the ground and set up against the front stretch wall less his shoes that he had left in the car when he bailed out.

Where was Herb Lobbdell in pts in '71?

I remember Bob winning in '70 it was a red and black #37 owened by Al Wieland had floating frt hubs, also might have had a floating QC rear end at that time don't think it had open tube until Everhart drove it.

Remember that blue #711 that Everhart drove, I don't remember who owened it do you.

What was the man's name that owned the red & white #11 that DE drove had a parts house on western street I believe. Was that a Jelly car it sure looked like it.

How bout Richard Harvey who would have thought he and his kid would have wound up in the chassis business. I remember walking into the old Round-Up cafe at 2:30 AM and Richard was knocked out in a booth, Dutch was talking to the police seems Dutch had laughed at some guys shirt and he took offense waited outside and beat Dutch,Richard & Billy Huffine up, ole Richard was cut around his left eye BAD!! so Jack Davis and I took him to south community to get stitched up he kept telling us he had him he had him until he got hit in the eye, Richard had knuckle prints in his forehead I don't think he had him at all!!!

You knew that old cafe as well as I did lots of interesting things happened there, remember Jack,Perry Bodine,Bob Hurley & myself sitting in there one night late and some bikers came in they were pretty rowdy tough looking group 6-7 any way one of them said something to Jack, well he wasn't scared of nothing so the brawl was on Perry was tough also, he hit one of those guys in the head with a glass sugar shaker and knocked him cold, Jack used a chair on a couple of them then Frieda came out with a meat cleaver and threatened to kill all of us if we didn't stop well that ended it.

Remember Bobby Walker stopping on the front straight after spinning 2 times before the white marker in turn 2 and the pits emptied as the A-FEA was running I don't know how Bobby Reynolds kept from getting ran over as he was not well after his wreck and he just slumbered down the front stretch to the stage cars going by both sides of him.

More later!!




brian26
September 30, 2008 at 05:15:42 PM
Joined: 12/03/2006
Posts: 7918
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brian26
September 30, 2008 at 05:16:58 PM
Joined: 12/03/2006
Posts: 7918
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brian26
September 30, 2008 at 05:21:30 PM
Joined: 12/03/2006
Posts: 7918
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Now Dutch Ter Steege, there is another interesting story! From coupes to sprint cars, and a million miles in between.





jimmessmer
September 30, 2008 at 05:48:01 PM
Joined: 05/30/2008
Posts: 161
Reply

Yeah, the best I remember that was the same car Howerton drove, when Emmett got in it, they just changed the look a little. I believe they ran this car until late 72' or early 73' when Denny Moore built the new car.

One of my proudest times in racing I guess was in 78' when we ran Hill's # 11 Stapp car at Tulsa. It used to be a USAC 96" car & Gilmore & Horace gave it 4" to run super. We were kickin some tail at Tulsa that year & we were just shocked one night, Denny came over with a tape & started measuring the car! That was pretty special & guess who built a new car that winter?

Of course a lot of copies of that car were built & believe it or not there is still a frame in OKC!
Now Dutch, you are right, that guy did some racing & there are stories about that for another day!



jimmessmer
October 01, 2008 at 07:39:43 PM
Joined: 05/30/2008
Posts: 161
Reply

By the end of August 1971 Leep had won 7 A features & was pretty much assured of another "Leep Year". Joe Farley from Minco shocked everybody on Aug. 20th winning the A in a Walker car he had just bought before the Nationals.

Yeah the Nationals! Grady Wade came down in Schipperts orange # 4 Walker car & took the cash back to Kansas. Larry Wilson won the 50 lapper on the 1/4 mile. It just occured to me that in 71' Paul Ott, Gary Frizzell & Richard Harvey were all rookies in the modified class! Pretty good group of guys.

The NCRA guys were headed to Muskogee for a 50 lapper, Emmett, driving the Zink car, was 100 points ahead of Leep. Emmett had won features at Tulsa & Hutch and to this point was the only repeat winner.

David, I know Herb Lobdell ran for sure in 70', but not in showing up in the 71' standings.

Ron Fowler won the Tulsa weekly A, Ronnie Brotherton won in Enid & get this Ray Barrow won at Goldsby. Louis Weeks ran 3rd at Goldsby, he used to run around with dad quite a bit. I still see Louie almost every week in the grandstands at OKC.

By the way, crowd count for OKC'S weekly show Aug. 20th, 1971?? 4,597!! It makes me sick to look up there now & think that about 2000 is a good crowd. What the hell happened? I know of nights at OKC in 70' & 71" when there were 9 almost 10,000 people. Shoot at the big Tulsa track in the 70's & even early 80's, crowds of 12 to 15,000!!

We gotta find a way to get more butts in the seats, I'm really worried if the fair board can't make money off this deal soon it'll be another horse barn. How many of you remember when they raced hores at the OKC fairgrounds on the 5/8ths? Up until the 71' season they still had the wooden railing outside the 1/2 mile guardrail for the hayburners. Got pretty exciting when a racer would plow it & lumber flew everywhere.



brian26
October 01, 2008 at 09:51:16 PM
Joined: 12/03/2006
Posts: 7918
Reply

Once again, (no disrespect to sprint cars, but)

Sprint cars today are identical so much to the point I can't tell a '93 Gambler from a '08 Maxim if they are bare or painted nicely.

I think shape and color help express idividuality and thus make it more entertaining. Most people might mistake a Parson for an Edmunds, but they do sense something different.

Todays cars could be used as a backbone for a new supermodified class if only there was a 5 year diehard committment.

 

 





DGM 7620
October 02, 2008 at 08:57:18 AM
Joined: 07/18/2007
Posts: 377
Reply
Reply to:
Posted By: on at


Brian, This is the car I am talking about, it was really fast on the dry. When Emmett started driving this car Jackie drove the old roadster a few times when he would come back home (Tulsa).

Some where along the line I think they built another car similar to this one but with cross torsion rear and spring frt, then later converted to 4-bar. I remember the car that Jim is talking about that Denny built that was similar to Hill's car but there was a differant car that filled in the gap between the two, do any of you guys remember it?



DGM 7620
October 02, 2008 at 09:31:39 AM
Joined: 07/18/2007
Posts: 377
Reply
Reply to:
Posted By: jimmessmer on October 01 2008 at 07:39:43 PM

By the end of August 1971 Leep had won 7 A features & was pretty much assured of another "Leep Year". Joe Farley from Minco shocked everybody on Aug. 20th winning the A in a Walker car he had just bought before the Nationals.

Yeah the Nationals! Grady Wade came down in Schipperts orange # 4 Walker car & took the cash back to Kansas. Larry Wilson won the 50 lapper on the 1/4 mile. It just occured to me that in 71' Paul Ott, Gary Frizzell & Richard Harvey were all rookies in the modified class! Pretty good group of guys.

The NCRA guys were headed to Muskogee for a 50 lapper, Emmett, driving the Zink car, was 100 points ahead of Leep. Emmett had won features at Tulsa & Hutch and to this point was the only repeat winner.

David, I know Herb Lobdell ran for sure in 70', but not in showing up in the 71' standings.

Ron Fowler won the Tulsa weekly A, Ronnie Brotherton won in Enid & get this Ray Barrow won at Goldsby. Louis Weeks ran 3rd at Goldsby, he used to run around with dad quite a bit. I still see Louie almost every week in the grandstands at OKC.

By the way, crowd count for OKC'S weekly show Aug. 20th, 1971?? 4,597!! It makes me sick to look up there now & think that about 2000 is a good crowd. What the hell happened? I know of nights at OKC in 70' & 71" when there were 9 almost 10,000 people. Shoot at the big Tulsa track in the 70's & even early 80's, crowds of 12 to 15,000!!

We gotta find a way to get more butts in the seats, I'm really worried if the fair board can't make money off this deal soon it'll be another horse barn. How many of you remember when they raced hores at the OKC fairgrounds on the 5/8ths? Up until the 71' season they still had the wooden railing outside the 1/2 mile guardrail for the hayburners. Got pretty exciting when a racer would plow it & lumber flew everywhere.



Jim, Remember sitting in the stands as a kid and ole Joe sure looked fast on that night #750 it had a fancy paint job, and a high rise manifold with 2 deuces sure looked cool.

I tell you that Leep was a bear back then Darrell Tuttle I believe was his engine guy & crew chief they won every where they went on any type of track.

Remember all of those guys that used to come run the Nationals, Grady,Leep,Bryant,Reed,Lies,Walt,Fowler,Everhart just to name a few, throw in a few Texas guys plus a load from Tulsa and Lawton and what a race we would have, Firestone was big then when Grady won if I remember right he ran a pair of 13.5 R-125's. Somebody has to have a picture of him on the front stretch standing beside the #4 after winning that race, Jim didn't that race pay about $1300 or $1500 to win?

What ever happened to having big picture of the A-FEA winner in program, I used to collect those pictures, who sponsered that before Save Auto, Parr's?

Ray Borrow #107 gold and white he was always one of my favorite modified drivers back then along with Lloyd Beckman #98, Roy Patton & Ronnie Brotherton sure loved to watch Ronnie drive that #501.

You guys want to get together sometime I'd be in to.





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