Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

 The steve and sammy thread got me to thinking....   Greatest race EVER !!!!!   You get to pick 24 drivers from past to present . The baddest fastest drivers ever to strap into a sprint car .  Since this is my make believe world we will say the race is at Knoxville.  All drivers at their prime in equal equipment  . We could debate winged or not but for the sake of simplicity lets go nonwing since some of the entrants were racing before wings. I realize  this question should have probably waited until there was snow on the ground but what the hell. Ok boys n girls have at it!

Foyt, Andretti, Opperman. How bout we start there? 

Rex Mays.  Who knows what he could have done or been known for, dying at a young 36.

Bobby Grim, Jud Larson, and Tommy Hinnershitz.  And of course you've got to put Steve, Sammy, and Doug in there.

I will throw Sheldon Kinser in there. If its at Eldora, you cannot forget Jack Hewitt..

Real race cars don't have fenders...

Hewitt would b on my list no matter where the race was.

Ron Shuman, Jan Opperman, Tim Green & Leland McSpadden would all be up high on the list of 24, and if all the past winged 410 nationals were nonwinged...I think Ron Shuman would have at least 10 wins. 

Rich Vogler

Robbie Stanley

If you saw Robbie in a sprinter you know that Smoke very well might not have been a triple crown winner in 95 if Robbie had still been around.

Robbie Stanley, born November 16, 1967 in Brownsburg, Indiana died May 26, 1994 in Winchester, Indiana was an American auto racing driver. After winning the All-Star Circuit of Champions championship in 1989, he began racing in USAC. It was there that he collected three straight USAC National sprint car championships in 1991, 1992, and 1993, and was on his way to a fourth when his career was cut short in a fatal accident in a USAC sprint car event in Winchester, Indiana, on May 26, 1994.

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

I will take AJ every since I was a little kid it was always about AJ.

We need more sprint car racing at our home track.

 I'd pay good money to see Foyt and Vogler going head to head Randy, but I'd rather see it on the big bad ass half mile, Manzy, than Knoxville

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Johnny Rutherford, but AJ and Mario have to be on the front row.

I think the Wild Child should be part of this conversation. Equally good with a wing or without and has won some big races against the best.

Don Branson, Roger McClusky, Gary Bettenhausen, Doug Wolfgang, Ron Shuman, Richard Griffin

Ill go out on a limb here , I know everyone would say the opp,wolfie, kinser,foyt,swindell, ect ect , But  , now, maybe some of you will back me up on this one?   A guy that proved himself with a lid or without, always a gasser, and Always there at the end to contend for a podium pure talent in his fingertips and toes,...  Jesse Hocket..       He could run with the best,anytime anywhere.

 Leland McSpadden, Ron Shuman, JJ yeley, Billy Boat, Jerry Coons Jr,Richard Griffin all came up at Manzy and anyone one of them would be a threat anywhere.. Boat ran the fastest lap ever at Ascot on the closing night, a 17.958 and it was the only 17 second lap ever ran there. He also sat on the pole at Indy for Foyt... Never under estimate Boat

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

 remember it like it was yesterday when Jesse showed up at Manzy.... I was watching the hot lap session and I noticed the Massey's second car, the number 2, out on the track and it was being driven as deep into three as I've ever seen. Now since Massey had over time put a lot of top shoe's in that car, I thought for sure it was somebody who had been there before because he was driving it into three like most can't or won't. I was impressed who ever it was so I started asking around, "Who in the hells in the Masseys second car I yelled"? No one knew but speculations were all big names. I then yelled way over to my buddy Jerry, Who in the hells in the Masseys second car Jerry"? He yelled back, "Its this kid from Missouri named Jesse Hocket, they call him "the rocket". He had the best on this side covered that night and yes all the CRA boy's too, until the engine let go down the back stretch... I'm happy to say that Massey and Jesse had a long relationship and he blew that thing up more than just that first time while trying to get just a little more out of it going into that fast bad ass turn three at Manzy.

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Its comments and stories like this that make this forum worth coming to. Love to hear more from people who have seen some of the greats that im too young or land locked to have seen.

Steve Stroud from the Parker store and the Racers Advantage in Phoenix, yes the same guy who's helping out Dave Darlands team, told me the first time he saw Jesse he was sitting in the the dirt in the infield at Manzy blowing out his injector nozzles with his mouth. I think Steve bought him some tires that night.

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

I miss Jesse Hocket bad. It made it hard to go to a track and not see that great big smile when got in that car. There have been 24 guys from Kansas city to make that race a good one.