My dad used to talk about a man in the Dallas TX area in the 60's nick named HANDS, that he would run into at the Cedar Hill or the Caddo Mills drag strips and local machine shops! My brother actually saw him, I was too young to remember, but every where we go now days to do a local show, some one older than me remembers him this man. My dads told a story of a man with super large hands / head. One where most people could barely carry a single sbc head in with each hand. This man could carry a single cylinder block in each hand, once carried two in and lifted each up to the mach shop counter for servicing. Supposedly you could slip a .50 cent pc thru his ring that he wore on one hand. If you to saw or heard of "HANDS", please describe and tell your stories of how and when you ran across this man. Would love to see some pictures of him.
His name was August Hands Hartkopf and he was all racer. You can see many pictures on hotrodchat.com gallery and look at album 13 and page 18. Hope this helps
Thanks, I also searched and found information on him: http://hechointexas.blogspot.com/2007/10/relic-iron.html Hand and his step brother were both into racing and has good pictures of "HANDS"! http://www.sixflagsdragway.com/butchlake/index.htm
My Uncle (Don) told me about this guy, he raced at Caddo Mills in the 50s-60s. It's cool to now put a face with the name. Thanks, Jim
We were fortunate enough to have the original Austin Speed shop car driven by Hands' brother Butch Lake at our shop during the Lone star round up.. so much history in that car.
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