Sadly enough a lot of the old stories have faded away with the passing of the pioneers of our sport, so while we're all snow bound for the winter let's hear some stories and tales from the "olden" days.. I know everyone here has a story about racing someone, meeting someone or just something crazy they saw @ the track ......

I remember Ried Wisniat at atco...
as a child i gained my affection for the duster because of that day..

I was standing in the staging lanes...i was knee high..."the back tire seemed soo big..."
the car was gold and looked like something from Egypt to me..
(we were learning about king tut that week in school)
My cousin told me that it was a plymouth duster....my family all owned plymouths...so i could relate...
Ried was awsome to me that day..
i met him a few yrs ago in Georgia and told him this story.. he loved it...RIP Reid..


...that was also a weekend when Jungle Jim was at the track..
that was the day.. for me...Jungle became bigger than life ...
they had his shirts on sale in the gift shop....
those days at the track for me as a kid were overwhelming
...i wish i could get that feeling back just one more time...!
.like the first time to the circus..only WAAY!! better..
Some time ..Later on...
jungles crew was trailering one of Jims floppers over the Walt whitman bridge and a gust of wind blew the body off....
dad and i were by chance ...came apon them on the bridge.on the way to his office...(orgegon ave south philly...under walt whitman.)
My father told them to drive it down to our trucking terminal/cold storage warehouse..
they could make arrangements to secure it properly ...for the rest of the trip...
i knew that car right away...when i saw it.
seem'd id seen that car everywhere in print as a kid after that.....
.it just sticks out in your mind...
i got more..
cheapst

I remember Shirley muldowney...showed up at the night of fire...??
now some of you older guys may confirm or dispute this..but i understood atco had Phenominal traction...back then..?
here goes my story..
We were hangin around their pit..i asked him what he thought of the track..(her son,,I assume?)
He said..it held that last past pretty good.
We all stated.."yea this track hooks good" something to that effect..what did i know at that age---10/12?
so He says...we'll see..on the next pass....
I was askin him if he was gonna put more fuel in it ..or more clutch..i dont remember his response..
i was trying to sound knowledge-able....lol..
but the next pass the car stayed hooked....the whole way down...dont remember if it was a fast pass or not...
...but when i returned to the pits we asked him what he thought...(you know standing near them as they worked on the car)
he said..while not looking at me...
"NO &**& that thing hooked hard.it almost burnt up the motor...?"
lean? i assume..?
he turned..and realised it was us...the same kids from earlier....
he said." i didnt think it would take that much clutch....by golly it did..."
he said he was gonna put a "tune-up" that was either gonna blow the tire off or run a hell of a number..."
next pass it stayed hooked...lit flames 4ft tall out the pipes...all the way to the end...
they announced over the p.a. it was something..a the fastest ET or the fastest MPH..for the track..
cant remember which..
we of course..hurried back over to the car..
and they were flabbergasted....
i got a picture of us there next to the motor..
..somewhere..i havent seen it in yrs...
fwiw...
cheapst

now its your guys turn....



still got more though

Back around 1976 I was working at a manufacturing company on a drafting board drawing up valves and welded pipe assemblies for nuclear power plants. There was a guy that worked in the shop that had a circle track car that I bought a SBC block and heads from to build a race motor. I bought a 294 hydaulic cam from RHS, and I asked the guy if he had a solid lifter that I could use to mock up my assembly. He said after work one day we'll get one. We met and he took me to the shop of Jim Bucher, who had set the record in Top Fuel in 1973 with a Chevy block. He was still running TF with the "SSP" dragster. We hung out for awhile and Jim gave me a lifter to use. I was in awe as a 19 year-old kid, as I had been to Indy and Columbus several times and had seen him run TF.

I think Jim died about 6 months to a year later from a blood disorder, I still have the lifter.

Fall of 1977 my wife and I drove to the Indy Nationals pulling an econo altered that a buddy owned. His dream was to make a pass at Indy. He was completely unprepared for the event, and after trying to help him for a while I concluded he was seriously out of his mind and gave up. I walked the pits.

The Valley Fever top fuel car was cleaning house running a big block Chevy. Watching those guys go through the car between rounds was unbelievable; they were having a ball! Laughing, joking around, answered any questions viewers asked. I remember commenting that they'd not port matched the heads to the intake. One of the crew members looks at me, smiles and says "why bother- it's a blower motor, the heads don't know the difference".

I walked around some more; hotter than heck out and I took a break sitting on the fenders of an enclosed trailer in the shade. A voice says "how're we doing today?" It was Don Garlits. We had a very cordial visit. Down the way my wife, 7 months pregnant at the time, was sitting at a picnic table visiting with Shirley Muldowney. When I got to the table Shirley was just saying "well, better get to work" She shook my wife's hand and left.

The only people we encountered that day that were rude were Don Nicholson and The Golden Greek. Don was still hauling his race car on an flat bed truck then.

A year later a business trip found me in South Florida and through contacts ended up at the shop of Dempsey Hardy, who at the time was running a Nova in SS. He acted like he had all the time in the world to visit. Let me look at anything in the shop I was interested in. I think that was the 1st time I'd seen gas ported pistons. Had a great time visiting the place. I'll never forget it.

I forgot one. A good friend from WI back in the mid 70's had done up a crusty 65 Belvedere 1 2 door sedan and painted in to look like Butch Leal's car: California Flash. Tony painted his California Trash. He even had cut a sun roof hole in the roof but didn't put the roof in, so would drive around waving out the roof at people. There was one of those local performance clinics at the Dodge dealer on University Avenue in St Paul, featuring Butch Leal. Tony drove his car there, went in, got Butch and took him out to see the car. Butch laughed till tears were running down his cheeks. They had a great time.

Last story and I'll shut up. 1972 in South San Francisco at Champion Dragstrip. That was an 1/8 mile track right smack in the Bay area. I was racing my 61 Lancer wagon. Beat out a guy in a Chevelle who was so upset at losing that he kept going through the lights, passed me in the shut down area, got in front of me and jumped on his brakes. I managed not to rear end him but ended up following him down the return road to the time slip shack.

He pulled up to the shack, got his slip and sat there waiting for me to pull up behind him. When I did, he unloaded his car, throwing gravel and crap all over the front of my car. I remember rocks bouncing off my windshied. I lost my composure at that point. I followed him to where he parked. He was sitting in his car laughing with a couple buddies standing by the door. I got out of my car, walked over to his door and literally dragged him out the window of his car. yelling at him the whole time about what he'd done to my car.

I then realized I'd gotten myself into a 3 on 1 situation. The 3 of them were preparing to pound me good. As I stood there, 2 guys I'd never seen before in my life stepped up next to me and said "this should even things out". Before it got any worse, the track officials showed up, threw the guy and his car out of the track and apologized to me for the trouble. By the time I turned to say thanks to my two guardian angels they'd already gone back to watching the racing.

My buddies who ran at Champion always have a fight story or two, so I believe ya.
In the '70s, I worked on funny car bodies, and spent a lot of time at a shop that Jim Hume & Pat Foster had.
I remember that McEwen's chassis' were wider than anyone else's they did, because he was wider.
There was a team out of Texas, VERY well known, who supplemented their income. Very creative modification to their Dually. 'Nuff said.
The chassis builders had their own rivalry going, and I remember a pick-it-apart session one night on a Brodie chassis that had tubes going EVERYWHERE. Mind you, Foster & Hume worried about the orientation of every fastener, every tube, and if the finished product wasn't a work of art, they'd probably have hung themselves.
Cecil Yother had a rocket car, and sent it to Dean Moon's shop for some work. It ended up missing. About 30 years later, he's talking to Garlits, who had the rocket car but didn't know it'd been stolen or that it was Cecil's.
I've told this one here before: Cecil & Sox are running their AWB cars, injected nitro by that time. Sox tries burning Cecil down at the tree. What Sox doesn't know is Cecil has a water tank & pump in his trunk for just this kind of stunt, so Cecil sits. And sits. And sits. Sox' car is now overheating, so he gives up & stages. Cecil sits some more, then stages. End of the race, Sox drives directly to his trailer with the motor literally smoking, only time Cecil can remember him angry.
A couple of years ago at MATS, Lindamood, Yother & Vanke were telling war stories & life-on-the-road stories, and I was alternately laughing so hard I couldn't see, and in awe that they were still around to talk. Vanke took us up to the starting line for the SS/A cars like he owned the place, and I'll never forget that either. Dart stick car had a chip malfunction and left nearly floating the valves.
I could go on for hours, including events at Lions, but let's just say I've been very lucky to be in the right place with the right people at the right time.

My husband worked for Connie Kalitta for a few years and talked with him many times. Connie was more interested in talking about current times with his Top Fuel team than the "good old days." But he had some good stories to tell.

About 5-6 years ago at Speedworld in Whittman Az , Bob Rigel(sp?) of the Hemi Under Glass took the time to talk and explain his car to my son who was around 14 years old at the time. Great guy, Same day a guy with a Challenger (I think his name is Billy) took the time to show and explain, demonstrate how the box shifted the car at set RPM to my son and I. He heard my kid ask me what the box was for and called us over to explain. Two great guys in one day.

My first time racing my GTX, back in 1983. I was 16, just finished building the 440 with my neighbor. Had it.030 over, 10.5 to 1, stock intake, TQ, ... Stock trans.. whatever..It was green, as in,, new, fresh, junk.. Whatever I could afford bussing tables.. I had my parents come, friends, everyone I knew. I really never could drive it on the street beacuse I HAD to have 14x32 FireStones, like every other "real" racecar I knew of..lol Anyway, I pulled into the water and smoked the heck out of those FireStones.. Boy did I and the rest of the people in the stands feel sorry for for the poor Mustang 2 in the next lane. My slicks made the GTX's rake look exactly like a Rat Fink Tshirt car. Anyway, we stage ...and my GTX sputtered and popped and vapor locked the whole way down. Ran a slower time than my VW ragtop. That Mustang must have ran a 14 and blew my doors off. We got back to the pits. I had no clue how to tune , just how to throw stuff together and go..My parents had it all on video. I pulled it right on the trailer after my dad asked what happened.. I told him I have no clue.. LOL

Was talking to my machinist a number of years ago, who happened to be an old time Super Stock racer. He was telling me a story where, at one national event, a bunch of racers staying at a particular hotel would rent one hotel room amongst themselves. What went on in that one hotel room would be enough to make any housekeeper scream - guys rebuilding short blocks, honing blocks in the bathtub, etc. He vividly recalled a Rod SHop driver, who shall remain nameless, freshening up a 727, ON THE BED, opened it up right on the mattress, dextron all over the thing.... .

Yup, that's true. Heard her called that a few times. IN all fairness to her though, the Fuel guys gave her a tough time.
I'll tell ya the nicest folks I met & talked with at the drags are Eddie & Ercie Hill. Ya just wanna hug 'em.
Garlits is pretty funny when you get him around old racing friends. He's always been friendly to me.

you mean "mean gene the fort worth queen"????