That was a cool giveaway, Dog. Thanks. Also thanks for the old Daytona bumper sticker. Members of the Dayton Auto Racing Fans outfit used to get those and cut the last "A" off.
One nite at Sandusky in the '50's Joy qualified his Dodge Hemi modified with a so-so time. Before TT were over Joy qualified (much faster) the same chassis with a Pontiac V8 engine. An engine swap in a very short time period. As a teenager, I was really impressed.
I believe that Jack flipped a car owned by Dean Hamblin in 1969 at daytona. I wish I still had the pictures of the car and the pictures of the car flipping in mid air. I grew up at Deans shop in LeRoy IL and Jr (Les) Snow was there alot of the time as well. I lived in Indy 78-79 and thought I knew the city pretty well. One weekend I hauled Jr over there and he showed me what I didn't know about Indy, While Jr ,Dean and I was over there we went out to I believe it was G W Pierce's place and picked up some used motors. What a trip
Les told me some Smokey Yunick stories. I would just roll my eyes and say yea. So one day in the early 80's I got up the nerve and called Smokey. I expected him to hang up the phone on me. When Smokey findlly got on the phone and I told him alittle white lie about me being related to Les. I asked Smokey a few questions about Les and he answered them all with some good stories about Les in the 50s and racing with him at the Mexican road race. When Smokeys books hit the market I brought them and Les is listed as one of the drivers that Smokey raced with and told alittle about him. There is even a picture of Les in the book. The last 3 or4 years of Les's life were kind of painful for me to watch and be around. The sad part was Les died all alone.
I 1983 or 84 they had a oldtimers get together at I believe Perioa IL. Dean Hamblin had a old 46 ford coupe stock car that he use to race years ago. We kind of fixed it up alittle and threw a old 3 3/8 X4 1/8 flathead together for it and took the car over there. It was the only old stock car there and they let Dean and Jr make a few laps in it. The crowd loved it. I wish I had thought to take pictures or a video of it. They even had a 10 lap race for the old timers. Dean drove the 46 in the race and I don't remember who's car Les drove. I guess I can say that I saw the last time Dean and Les raced.
Les was one of a kind. Rough around the edges, but he was always straight with me, and I never had a problem with him when I was flagging. Once he took advantage of me on a start, when ARCA didn't really have a rule about it. I told him it would never happen again, and John Marcum backed me up. For safety reasons, we would go ahead and start, but would black flag the guy who jumped. Never had to use it. In fact, the first time I ever did it was in an ASA race at Milwaukee when Rusty Wallace jumped a restart. We really didn't have a rule, but I thought it was the right thing to do and did it. Rex Robbins liked the idea and said it would be SOP from then on.
Once at Dayton, I was looking over Les' Plymouth, and saw a sign on the dash that said, "Remove Cat Before Starting Engine." I asked about it and it seems they lost their garage cat because he was sleeping on the Hemi and they didn't know it. "All kinds of fur flying out from under the hood. Finally figured out what it was," Les said.
man 'ol man does this stuff bring back the memories, I met marvin panch again this weekend at daytona ..he has a new enclosed trailer for the 'ol poncho, see thru trailer , its great the car the trophys etc, dust free and easy to see, and as always he was gracious as could be, just a great guy I could spend hours talking with him but I didn't . the guy never changes .
Here are a couple of more I found when I ran across the one of Les posted above. Iggy Katona Race winner Andy Hampton:
The Jalopy Journal
