A FUN, SUCCESSFUL RACING CAREER I hope this story doesnt sound like bragging. My intent is to show todays up and coming drag racers what is possible in this sport and how much absolute joy it can bring you while you are doing it and also how the great memories will stay with you long into your retirement years. As most of you NDW readers and Facebook members know, I saved a lot of articles and photos from my racing days that I have been sharing with you and I have a lot more to post so I hope you dont get tired of reading them and seeing the race cars way back in the 50s through the 70s when they were really gorgeous! The funny cars looked like Fords, Chevys, Dodges, Plymouths, are supposed to look. All American cars with owners, drivers and teams names on them instead of twenty different sponsors like todays cars. The dragsters also had beautiful paint jobs and clever names like the Frantic Four, Hemi Hunter, Swamp Rat, Snake, Mongoose, Blue Max, Jungle Jim, etc. Some of the friendships formed in your racing days will also last for your lifetime and some will surprise you, because they will be former opponents that you had bitter battles with on the drag strip but the passage of time will smooth out the wrinkles in those relationships. Youll meet with those guys and gals and laugh together about those good old days. I am lucky enough to be a member of just such a group that meets for lunch in Dallas at a local cafeteria. Sometimes we have a dozen show up, sometimes as few as three or four. We have a great time bench racing for a couple of hours usually. We try to meet once a week. Our annual Christmas party has become a huge event, with ex-racers coming in from as far away as California and includes cackle cars in the parking lot at a steakhouse north of Dallas. When I was racing I relied mainly on two talents: mechanical skill and driving consistency. I was a mechanic before I was a driver and I think that was vital to my becoming a good driver. Bones Carroll taught me how to build a winning Chrysler fuel motor. He was the most meticulous person I have ever seen. No detail was too small to warrant his attention. I have seen him sit on a stool and hand file the end gap in a set of piston rings for hours, fitting each three-ring set to a particular cylinder before assembly. God gave me my second talent; a very consistent body clock that synchronized beautifully with the christmas tree that all drag strips used in the 1960’s and ’70’s, and very quick reactions that enabled me to earn the reputation as a hole-shot artist...one that never red-lighted but almost always left first. And also the ability to shift a 2-speed or 3-speed transmission by feel, body timing and the sound of the engine without the need for a tachometer or any red light shift warning. All I ever had was an oil pressure gauge and I rarely looked at that after the engine fired and the needle jumped to 50 lbs. That talent enabled me to make back-to-back runs many times with no more than a tenth of a second or two between them and also within one or two miles per hour in speed as well. The exceptions were at NHRA National events where I had to run as close as possible to my class national record without going under it but still qualifying in the top half of the field to keep lane choice in the first round. Try that trick today without a tach, on-board computer, delay box, trans brake and whatever else you use today and see how far you get! Every car I ever drove was either a class winner, a National Record Holder, an Eliminator Category National Winner or a World Champion. Not all due to me of course,since the cars also had to be highly competitive and the crew members all had to be top-notch people too. If any piece of that combination were missing then I could have been just another struggling middle-of-the-pack racer instead of a National and World Champion with a 20 year winning record of close to eighty percent. My success was not bought with Cubic Money either, so dont think you can buy your way into a long-term winning career. I was always under-financed when I owned my own cars and I still won like many others in the same boat. I remember Don Garlits when he towed his Swamp Rat Top Fueler on an open trailer with his street car to races all over the USA and he was winning too. My crew members were all volunteers, not paid employees. I paid for all the motels and meals so it didnt cost them anything to go with me but they did it for the love of the sport and the thrill of the competition. And for the thrill and satisfaction of being on and contributing to a winning team. We were all just a group of friends winning races and having a good time. Much of my success was attained when driving on OPM...Other Peoples Money. This was only possible because I had proven myself by winning with my own cars on my very limited budget. My engine building, tuning and driving skills did not go unnoticed and neither will yours. I also managed to have a clean, attractively painted and chromed, good-looking car and a uniformed crew (no greasy t-shirts and dirty blue jeans) on my limited funds. Money was spent in the right places, not just on engine parts. Thats why so many of my cars were featured in national publications which definitely helps any racing program. I am not saying that the way I did it is the only way, of course. But I hope that anyone wanting to get started in drag racing will gain some insight into one racers path to great success and loads of fun!
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 18:50:56 +0000
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