Hi again Skip.....We sure look young in the picture....lol. I dont have a scanner and my computer skills are not what one would call first class. If I can get a copy made of it Id be glad to send it to you. By the way I was at Delmar as a spectator the day you nailed all of the stockers at the race mentioned on this forum. Again I will see about trying to get a copy made of the picture. Now I have to dig it out of the "Black Hole" where I keep memorbila. Take care. Terry
Skip, Welcome to the thread. It's better than any magazine article because it's written by those who have actually done it, rather than some 21 year old journalism grad who just got a job at a magazine (and doesn't know the FIRST thing about research) I just sold this '61 to the guy who actually raced it back then. I think he told me that was you in the other lane. Any comments or memories? Glad to have you here Verne
I made a post. Thought I was in the Junior Stock section but I guess I wasnt. Just an old Junior Stock racer trying to renew old aquantainces.
I dont know what took me so long to find this forum .It was by accident but once I did I tried to read every page. I subscribe to 3 Yamaha Rhino forums. For those of you who dont know me I raced Junior Stockers in California. in the 60's and the 70's and was a partner with Joe Allread in a S/S Plymouth Roadrunner in the mid 70's. I now live in West Virginia and spend my time trying to make my Rhino run faster.
"Hey Pete, thanks for posting the Raceway Park link!" "Pete! What CAN i say! Thanks man!" Thanks, it's my pleasure, gentleman! "Cool You Tube vidoes from E'town." Indeed! It's a damn shame VHS and DVD video cameras were not invented yet! Ditto for digital cameras. Can you imagine the quality and quantity of videos and photographs from Detroit's and drag racing's BEST era (in my opinion) we'd have today? Now we have technology out the wazoo but live in a doldrum era, i.e., cars, music, etc. And that has been the case for some time now! I ask you: what is there really to get all excited about these days?* Decal-smothered, cookie-cutter drag cars, many of them bracket racers, racing on super-glued modern strips, many of which are equally cookie-cutter in design? Sure, hp levels, ET's and MPH and the technology that allowed this is mind-boggling and way beyond what few, if anyone, ever envisioned back then. And yes, hearing the wicked idle of a race car in the pits, watching it do a burnout, stage (God, I detest hearing those two-step rev limiters, especially with stick cars!) and make a pass still raises the pulse but it just ain't the same. The electricity that once was in the air in that less-sophisticated, carefree, far-less-regulated, heretofore unseen creative and groundbreaking period just is not there. Bracket racing, well, don't get me started. Yes, it has its place but problem is it has replaced what once was the norm with an entirely different modus operandi. I'll just sum up bracket racing with one word, especially from a spectator's point of view: BORING. Just witness the 'packed' stands. I rest my case. Even more contemptable are the "imports" and the (for the most part) baggy pants-and-backwards-cap-wearing, cRap music-listening, "yo, wussup wit dat?," MTV generation that is involved with them. Can anyone say: fart-pipe? You guys older than me really "caught the era." I caught the very tail end of it, having turned 18 in 1976. But I began to experience it vicariously about eight years earlier starting out building model cars, collecting and racing Hot Wheels and Aurora HO slot cars. And I'll never forget that momentous day I first spotted an issue of Hot Rod magazine in the school library in the fall of 1969. Can it get any cooler, this young man wondered? Little did I realize just how affirmative the answer was! In addition, all those cool supercars I started noticing virtually everywhere I went with my parents or those that passed by our home, and more than once "getting on it" going up our street! I'm talking about circa 1968 here. My gosh, they were full-size versions of the model and slot cars I so enjoyed building, gazing at, and racing! I cannot leave out mentioning the absolute thrill I got during the very late 1960s/early-1970s everytime I saw one or more drag cars on trailers being towed home from Raceway Park Sunday afternoons on Rt. 18 as my dad, me, and the rest of my family drove down the highway southbound in the opposite direction. And speaking of southbound 18, one late afternoon (circa 1971), I'll never never forget the thrill of watching a 1968-70 Chevy Nova SS square-off against a 1969 Mach I Mustang from a red light as we sat behind them in my dad's 1966 Pontiac Catalina. Do I have to explain what a rush and thrill this car-crazy, young lad experienced? And my God, all those times and all those cool supercars cars I witnessed cruising up and down "The Ave." (Livingston Ave. in New Brunswick). Anyone here remember the Ave.? For those who don't know, it was the Van Nuys Blvd. of central Jersey. I used to hang out in the Pantry Pride shopping center, located about halfway down this, oh, I dunno, four-mile long, wide avenue. While my folks were inside shopping, which just so happened to be every Friday evening (circa 8:00 pm) at this particular supermarket during the 1969-71 period, I was outside the store watching the hot cars cruise into, others out of the lot, blipping their engines, grabbing a gear, and once in a while do a burnout. Man, it was so cool... Let me stop here. I didn't mean to ramble on and go off-topic but I just had to let it out. Pete *Exceptions excluded.
Nice I do not have any pictures of that car. I sold the car to John Farris in 1972. The picture was taken at Fremont. The car was the 2nd Keith Berg car ,became the Berg & Leo Kannon entry. Later it be came the Kannon&Janes car. I bought out Leo Kannon after the 1971 Winternationals. I used it for a bracket car rather than NHRA racing. The car was the #1 qualifier at the World Finals at Tulsa in 1968, mainly because NHRA had it down at 15.20 rather than 16.20 that it had turned. We told them of the mistake but they did not seem interested. The Olds was part of what I call the five car fiasco at the 1971 Winternationals. That is another story at another time.
Gary, There are a few of us hanging out here. I remember you very well from Irwindale during the days when I spent a lot of time working with Val Hedworth and occasionally driving a Super Stock Camaro owned by Richard Salcido. Those were during the transitional days when what was left of Junior Stock was being obliterated and we were all being pushed into Super Stock. Just a couple of weeks ago, Tony Janes and I had speculated on where you had gone. There are a lot of the old timers still around but precious few of us are still racing. Tony and I are a couple of the lucky ones. We see Marv Ripes from time to time but he moved to Portland with the business. I talked to John Barkley just a week or so ago. Hedworth moved to Missouri, Kempton passed away, Zoelle has pretty much dropped out of sight. Jay Payne is driving an alcohol flopper for God's sake and I don't know what happened to Ron Debler or Pat Foley. I have seen Joe Allread a time or two. He built the motor for Jim DeFrank's Hemi car and occasionally he shows up at the Winternationals. At our age, sometimes it's not always a good idea to ask too many questions. Glad to see you here and to hear that you're still "tinkering." Chuck Norton 7311 Stock Eliminator
Welcome Skip! Yes, indeed, wow!! FYI, I know Super Tom too! Though not as long as you. I'm sure I saw your cars run back then (first time I went to the strip was the 1971 WCS meet at Raceway Park) but can't recollect any particular instance. I do, however, remember your cars from the car magazines from the era, and one article in particular in SS & DI magazine (circa 1973) regarding the (single plane) intake manifold plenum divider you marketed. I really appreciate you relating the story. Don't let it be your last! That was a once in a lifetime golden era and it would be a real tragedy if those who were in the thick of things back then did not have their thoughts and experiences recorded via this Internet medium. Best regards, Pete
Hey Gary! Welcome! Being the long-time Mopar fan that I am, I recall following (back then) the SS/K 1972 Plymouth Road Runner project car series in Hot Rod magazine (sponsored by the same) you and Joe Allread were involved with. Care to share any details? Regards, Pete
Skip, cool story. does this look familiar. Put this on my compressor about 22-23 years ago form a pile of decals I had. Cool to see you here.
Gary, Welcome aboard! I had to do a double take when I read your first post and saw West Virginia. Thought maybe I was really getting forgetful or there was another guy by the same name. If you have not already done so, put the weekend of July 11 & 12 on your calendar and try to attend the York Reunion (yorkUS30.com). Darwin Doll, former Div. 1 Director, is the event owner and plans to feature Jr. Stock at next year's event. I hope we will have a bunch of old guys there this year to BS and plan for next year. Hopefully, there will be some cars rebuilt, or cloned. Tom
P426 --- keep them large photos coming! Love it man --- So the Jr. Stock scene was strongest on the East Coast from what I gather, most of them ran Stahl "Total Tuned" headers and the West Coast Jr. Stockers seemed to favor Hookers, obviously based on the locations. Right? Also, the Monster Mash '55, does anyone know what ever happened to that car? I think my all-time fav Jr. Stock is the white '57 2-door sedan that Jere Stahl ran, that thing looked wicked, so clean and simple.
I tried to get a photo of that car at Indy, but Linda kept following me around and tried to get in a lot of my photos.
As I come across them, I will! I just want to make it perfectly clear to all that these are not my photos. They are the property of the person who had taken these photos back then. My big thanks to him for sharing them with the rest of the online community. Pete Englishtown 1970.
Tom, you're kidding me, right? If not, it's: Ralph Truppi and Tommy Kling. The guy on the far right looks like Billy Mitchell from Motion Performance (but I doubt that's him). Pete
Thanks Pete, sometimes the pit shots are the best. Who took them, they look like scanned color slides?
TY, some great pits shots in there, for sure must be a great deal of old pics on those photo sharing sites, just to find a way to locate them using the search engines.
Question: A what point did Stock Eliminator cars become "Jr. Stockers." I mean which classes, something like K/S on down? Or was it based on older cars at the time.
I remember the Ave. Used to cruise it most Friday nights '68-'69 with this, sometimes with slicks. Sergeant Wolf used to chase us off on his motorcycle quite often. Verne
I downloaded these photos from here: http://drags.lookskool.com/ Super pix from Maple Grove but the web site is a bit irritating to navigate. You'll see. Pete
I never heard of Sgt. Wolf but did hear stories of one cop whose surname was Lyons (from some older guys I met in the '80s) who also patrolled the Ave. on motorcycle. Btw, Verne, your '62 Chevy looks very familiar. Seems I recall a car just like yours getting ready to pull out of one of the side streets in the very early 1970s in Milltown, as me, my dad, and my other siblings, were en route to the town's annual Fourth of July fireworks display. Could that have been you? Pete
Without going through my car magazine collection (where do I even begin?) I'm going to take an educated guess and say 1967. Pete
OK, thanks, and I found this remark on post #24: Same rules as Stock Eliminator at the time. A bunch of guys started building the 55-57 Chevies because of the countless number of stock class they could fall into. I'll try attaching a page from a 1968 Car Craft that shows all of the possible combos and the classes they fall into. A bunch ran Chevy sedan deliveries because the rules stated back then that you could run a Hydro trans in the Chev trucks. Don't know who coined the phrase Jr/Stock, but I first heard it called that around 1967. I always figured anything D/Stock and lower was a Jr. Stocker.
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