Hey: That girl use to date Tim Richmond for awhile. They were together at Michigan one year when we tried to qualify a car.
I have sure injoyed the photos and memories. I have been a member of H.A.M.B for a while but only a casual viewer. I happened on this thread and decided to look it over. indybigjohn and txtom, the photo below should look familar to you. I was the race director for Georgia International Speedway in Jefferson, GA and was also a sometimes photographer for Racing News in Charlotte. We would come to the All American 400 every year to premote our World Crown 300 which was later in the year and I would shoot while I was there. The photos of "Uncle Bob" Harmon, the Bull and (I'm sorry I can't remember her name) Ms. All Pro, she was also Ms. NDRA before it folded. I wish my memory was better with names, I also can't remember the name of the fellow who ran ASA at the time. I have several rolls of film I shot at Nashville and I will post a few along. I also shot many NASCAR races during that time and have a few photos from earlier when I was a spectator. I wish my scanner was better, the focus is not off on the print of this photo. This may be too new for this board, if it is let me know an I will hold off on the later ones.
Uncle Albert, Who is the driver in this photo. I see the car has Latham Pure in Chamble, GA on the finder. This old GA boy is just wondering.
I'll try to find some photos of Neil. I have the victory lane photos from Huntsville when he and Butch Lindley won the double features in the Frankie Grille (SP) - Neil Bonnet cars. I have several shots of Butch and Neil at various shows. I hated to see Neil get killed but I guess it was better than Butch having to lay in that nursing home in a coma for so many years. Bill Desman (SP), with NASCAR All American Challenge Series and I went to visit Butch during that time, is was hard to watch him lay there. Here's a photo of Butch: I'll try to get around to scanning some of Neil.
I have a Mercury Montego bodied Banjo Mathews car in my backyard. Near as I can figure, it was an old Roy Tyner car that got rebodied. Looks like the Bill Elliott #9 below. Also, this #9 was probably previously owned by Roger Penske and driven by Bobby Allison with CAM-2 Racing Fuel as the sponsor. When Penske stopped, Elliott bought all his stuff. The rest is history. AND, the #21 that Pearson won the '76 Daytona 500 with is the same chassis and body style as the #9. You can see the #21 right behind the #15 T-Bird. [/quote]
Oh yeah, Falconred, I recognize that car. One of my columns on Frontstretch.com was about the time my son, Steve Peterson, and I pitted for John Wilson at the All-American 400 the year after I left ASA and were right beside Jody's pit. I can't wait to see more of those. Got any of the lineup crossover from 84 or before?
Not real big on roundy round but theirs been some great photos posted and I love the history lesson. Thanks everyone for sharing. I came across this cool link I thought y'all would enjoy. Hope its hasn't been previously posted. http://www.checkerstowreckers.com/flashback.html
I will have to check on what I have. I spent most of my time on the tire pile in turns 3-4. Bob Applegate was also photographing for Racing News at the time and may have some. We used to buy parts from George Elliot back when Ernie ran the little speed shop and Bill was just a pup. I've got some photos of their first Speedway car which I think was one of the old June Dunlovie (sp) cars. It was a light blue Torino. That is Bonnet in the background not Pearson, this is after Pearson had left. Here is the Bonnet shot:
Thanks, Falconred. Appleget is an old friend. Once at an ASA/All-Pro deal, I was getting ready to start the race and somebody asked me on the radio what was going on. I turned my head, and Bob was standing up on the rail of the flagstand trying to get a good shot of them coming out of the turn to the green. He got the photo and jumped down before the vibration could knock him down on the track.
I was going to post this photo today, and I just found out on Jayski that Ron Hornaday Sr. passed away on Sunday. He was 77, and was a two-time NASCAR Winston West champion...
FALCONRED,are you the guy that had the newspaper out of ga. that covered shorttrack racing in the deep south? i was at the race that neil/butch ran,that was one of the best feilds of short track racers you will see. i worked at huntsville for about 18 years,been going there since i was 5. do you or anybody else have any shots of red farmer .thanks bruce
He always had the koolest looking cars on the track! Here is a picture of a post card that was the inspiration for the HO slot car in front of it. It is an HO scale Aurora AFX Dodge Daytona. Marty
Here is a picture from a calendar with Lee Petty's NASCAR 6 cylinder class Valiant and the Richard Petty 1/24 slot car I built: More pictures can be seen @ http://www.professormotor.com/43valiant.shtml BTW - I raced these slot cars, they are not shelf queens. Marty
Most of these shots are from my era, the others are from my Dads. All are from the south and close to home for me. We were at Atlanta one time with Dad's Busch car and were struggling to make the race. Billy Harvey blew an engine practicing, pulled it out, dropped it beside the pit area. After the races were over, that engine was still sitting there. Dad asked them what they were gonna do with it... They said it was junk, so take it if we wanted to haul it off. It was a BRAND new Prototype Racing Engine with a broken rod. We fixed it and ran the hell out of it for years after. I think Billy is still in prison? Does anybody know? They even had chrome jack stands... I'll never forget that! Mike Head's 54 car said on the back... "Give me HEAD till I'm dead" Kevin Ooltewah Speed Shop
#14 freddy fryar,thats the same car he ran asphat with. how cool is that. seen that car run huntsville quite a few times
Hello Falcon, Yeah, I have seen that guy a few times; I got to talk with Jody Ridley a few minutes at this year's Snowball Derby. He was there helping GA. racer Justin Wakefield. Jody still looks like he could teach a few guys a lesson behind the wheel. Also got to spend about an hour with Freddy Fryar, I used to help him a bit when he was based in Beaumont, Texas, and racing at San Antonio and Austin, and later a few All Pro events here and there as my job allowed. I have been to Peach State a few times, watched a great race between Darrell Waltrip and Dave Mader III in the 1987 race. I made several of the All Americans also, and Lord only knows how many Pensacola, Mobile, Birmingham, etc All Pro races and all the ones since. I just finished my 36th year of racing involvement; started young, as I am now just 50. I don't know if you have seen these, but they are from the personal collection of an old friend of mine you may have known, Len Hayden. He worked with Bob Harmon from the 60's at Montgomery. After Len's passing a couple years ago, his family sent me 55 POUNDS of mostly his personal photos, and I have a significant number of them posted on a FOTKI site. Check it out at http://public.fotki.com/txtom/auto-racing/the-hayden-family-c/all-american-400-ra/ This site is a work in progress; I stopped posting for while while I go a huge job change finished. Plans are to restart posting in late January or so. Tom
As for Billy Harvey after he got out of jail he started a tow truck busisness a landscape business and a night club. Sadly a little less than 2 years ago he had a heart attact and died, His partner in crime Gary Balough got busted a second time. He is serving time at the min security fed pen in Penescola fla. a old navy base suronded by a fence. This place is about 3 miles from 5 flags speedway. I have a friend who works their he talks to gary about racing and watches him mow grass and pick up trash. The judge said he wanted Gary to hear the cars running. Gary is scheduled for release in 2010 the monday after the snowball derby. For those who dont know its the bigest short track race around and carrys the most prestage. G B has won it..... Bobby..
Thanks for the update on Billy Harvey, K9racer. I didn't know he was gone. Gary Balough, interestingly enough, was and still is a friend. One night at Nashville after his first indictment, he said he wanted to talk about me possibly being his PR man. I told him I didn't think there was much I could do to help him. And txtom, yes, the photo of Jody Ridley brought back some memories. I also remember some pretty good times at Georgia International when it was called Jeffco.
Oh yeah, OoltewahSpeedShop, Jim Head was selling shirts like that back in the day until NHRA made him stop. When I was at IRP in the late 80s, I told him I had one, and he said, "You're showing your age, Potts." He once told me that the Winston sponsorship in the early 90s was the best thing that ever happened to him. I told him that the best thing that ever happened to him was that his mother didn't name him Richard.
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