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

" fast cars ALWAYS starting at the rear" Yep, thats one of the best parts too. Back at Eastside in the early 60s, total invert by points, Smokey Stover always started in the back & won 22 out of 24 features (1962). He had a SBC with that factory fuel injection. Everybody else sounded like a Harley, he sounded like a dentist drill as he buzzed thru the pack. One of the few times he lost, 3 guys boxed him in. Then they pulled into the infield & had a fist fight. Welcome to Appalachia!

Early 80's at Fremont, OH a buddy said let's go watch the races and we drank some beer and I saw sprints for the first time. The power was unbelievable coming out of turn four the first time I saw them. Now I fly to Florida and Iowa every year with my good friend Tommy Bahama (hosehead's name). Met Tommy B thru a mutual racing friend aisn't we became best friends. I changed my career because of him and have a great life because of it! All because of a chance meeting at a sprint car race!

On a snowy Sunday morning in the Spring of 1983, my brother-in-law, who has watched from above for almost 20 years now,  in need of a fuel effecient ride and pilot, commisioned me, my hangover,  and my Volkswagen Rabbit for the then 5+ hour trip south to the Williams Grove Speedway.  We arrived to warm temperatures and sunny skies - Spring had arrived in South Central Pa.
We entered through Beer Hill - on the backstretch - to the sounds of big blocks, and the sights of cars pulling their left front wheels off the ground under the bridge.

Seems like yesterday.....sometimes.......

Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce!

Crewed fo a good friend who raced locally and the NCRA Dirt champs back in the late 1970's and into the mid 1980s.

Went to OKC to see Outlaws in June 1981. Instantly hooked on sprint car racing ever since.

After joining the Air Force, I would usually plan my leave back to the states around a sprint car race.

Now I go and do photography to stay connected. I miss working on the cars, but my back is wore out.

I enjoy the races, people and just being around it all. What a rush!!!

Jeff 

I lived in Western PA, just outside of Pittsburgh, and my father took me to my first dirt track that had just opened up in 1978 called Pennsylvania Motor Speedway.  I was about 14 years old, and the first car that I saw when we walked up into the grandstands was Lou Blaney in the Crash Bros. #10 sprinter.  They were still running non-wing at that time, and I couldn't believe the sounds and smells and speed that was coming out of those cars.  I was hooked when the 24 car feature started and Lou Blaney won the race.  At that time, my Dad told me that he had been a part owner of a sprint car before I was born, that was driven by Dale Johnson and Dave Lundy (the Deuce #2), and that one of their main competitors was Lou Blaney. 

So, the next weekend, he took me to Lernerville Speedway, and I really fell in love with that track.  We would hardly miss any race there in the following 10 years!  That first night at Lernerville, they ran seven divisions of race cars, and Lou Blaney won in both his sprinter and his big-block modified, further cementing him as my first "hero". 

Then, the next year, the WoO made their first appearance at Lernerville, and my next hero became Sammy Swindell.  He was running away with the race in the Federal Express #91 sprinter before he burned a fork in the rear-end, and Steve Kinser inherited the win.

This is a great thread that is bringing back all of those great memories when my Dad (now decessed) and I traveled all over the country following the WoOs.

Those were the best times of my life!

John W. Byrd - Austin, TX

I don`t remember. Been going racing my whole life. I guess because my Dad took me.

I grew up in Huron, South Dakota, home to the annual state fair and weekly racing during the summer months at the fairgrounds 1/2 mile dirt track. Labor Day weekend races during the fair drew big crowds and big fields of cars. IMCA sanctioned events, one night featured the open wheel Big Cars and another night the late models stock cars. The late model feature was always a 100 lapper. I think what really hooked me though was the first time I saw an open wheel race car. This was in the pre-cage era and they were just so beautiful and exotic looking, like nothing I'd ever seen or even imagined. Even as a 10 year old kid it was very obvious to me that it was a 'serious' purpose built race car, not a production automobile that had been modified for racing. Over the years I've attended almost every kind of motorsport event in existence and enjoyed them all but, for my money, nothing can compare to sprint cars on dirt.   

Looks to me like we have the same problem on this board that we have in the grandstands, a bunch of old farts! lol

Like some of you have already said I was just born into it. My parents house was walking distance to West Capital Raceway. Attended my first race at the ripe old age of 2 weeks and was there just about every Saturday until the place shut down in the spring of 1980 right before I turned 8. After that went with my dad to Placerville when ever I could. I remember playing in the mud out behind Mike McCreary's shop while the grown ups were inside working on the car. Then it was San Jose in my early teens when my dad was working on John Viel's car. Learned a ton and had a lot of good times hanging out in the garage while the guys were getting the car ready before the races. When John retired after the 88 season my older brother introduced me to his friend Glen Boune. Spent the rest of my high school years in the pits with the Boune's during Glen's early years behind the wheel. Eventually I got married, had kids, got a hair cut and got a "real" job. Now I live out in the sticks in Northern CA near the Oregon border. Don't get to go as much as I like, but still get to the races whenever I can. Still addicted to the noise and the smell of methanol making my eyes tear up.

As a kid I grew up only knowing northeast dirt mods and the associated support classes being a regular at Orange County. As soon as I got into racing seriously in my teens, it all became sprint cars for me. The thing that got me hooked is the that to me, a sprint car is the ultimate dirt racing machinee; they're simple, weigh nothing, have a ton of motor, and it's all about driver ability and setup. 

On top of that, the history of sprint car racing is fascinating to me. I could sit all day and listen to stories from guys like Van May and Doug Wolfgang about the earlier eras. The staying power of the division and how geographically diverse the areas they run in make sprint car racing a lot more appealing to me than my local offering of big block mods. 

Just an FYI, "Big John" is still racing, he just downsized a little bit. He's been racing 1/10 scale Nitro Powered RC Sprint Cars in Antioch for several years now at Delta RC. 

Goldang whippersnapper!

Did anyone else used to read those William Campbell Gault books about racing as a kid?

After reading all these great stories and how we got our start in this sport and being the great fans that we are (die hard fans) kinda puts to bed that die hard fans are bad for the sport.

I've just go to say that I think it is outstanding that many of you that are much longer in the tooth than I am are on a chat board telling stories of races and event you remember. Great insight and thanks for sharing.

My family moved 1 block north of the 3rd turn at Knoxville in 1976 when I was 6 years old. We didn't go to the races the first year or so. This was before the tall fence, sign boards, back stretch bleachers or mufflers. It was so damn loud you couldn't watch TV or even have much of a conversation in our house because for the noise on Saturday nights. We started going because it was too loud to do anything else. LOL. Once we saw a couple shows and started to know the names and numbers we hardly ever missed a night. Leavitt, Brooks, Stevenson, Robinson, Hopp, Smith, Pinkeny, Redman, Woodward.......

Another thing that helped hook this kid was weekly programs with the previous weeks victory lane photo on front. After the races all the kids would run as fast as we could to get to victory lane for the photos. Great pride in getting on the front of the program for the next week. They should bring that back, great memories.

After the war my dad started racing for the most part Midgets back home in Indiana. We then we moved to another hot bed of open wheeled racing, Torrance Ca. I was eight months old and my first race I'm told was at old Carroll Speedway, Ascots predecessor. My Dad ran for awhile but got out after my little sister was born. J. C. Agajanian was a household word in our house not only because of his number 98 cars (Troy Ruttman etc), he also picked up our garbage for his Pig farm. We were always at the track and around racers and during that time I remember Gardena Speedway the best."The first CRA race was held there on Labor Day, 1946."Read more: http://www.hotrod.com/whereitbegan/hrdp_0710_gardena_speedway_history/#ixzz2mmt2rozI

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

Hey BIGFISH, I was born & raised in Torrancs, Ca. I'll bet we were being hit by alot of the same clay over the years.

Ascot....Was also born into it...Uncle Ted and my dad Teddy ..Halibrand Eng...Then I married Dean Thompson....Had alot of fun!Some great times back in the day......

Hope you don't mind but for those who don't know or are to young;Dean Thompson..http://www.wagtimes.com/deano.html

During its ownership by Ted Halibrand from 1947-79, Halibrand Engineering cast parts for just about every racer-even boats.

Read more: http://www.streetrodderweb.com/tech/1008sr_halibrand_engineering_wheels/viewall.html#ixzz2moL69dkA

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