Been a long time , late sixetys since i have been there. I am trying to put things together to make it there again this year. I used to race on this track , it was the first time i raced with a christmas tree. Hope somebody remembers me and my car. It was a 52 henry j, corevett yellow, had large black letters on the sides. RIVER RAT, I got the name from the Tulsa World News paper plus channel 6 tv news Tulsa. The tulsa wealthy critics was critizeing the poor people who lived on the sand springs line.Yes we were poor people. They stated we were liveing a**** rat infested neighborhood. But we was one of the raceing hot rods people in the country.We was doing burnouts on the street and pretty well knew who had the fastest car.It was seldom that a cop could catch us. There was no point system of loosing your drivers license than.When you got caught back than you had to go to the police station and take instructions on how to drive a car properly Dorthey Young was the instructor in which i got very well aquainted with. I don't know how many lessons i took but plenty.We met people and cars we had never raced before, That was about all of us gear heads learned. Sometimes we would have to go to jail but not for very long periods. I Got married at 18, my wife barley 17. We got a letter in the mail from oklahoma city which kept violation records. They advised me i had more tickets in the state of oklahoma than anybody in oklahoma and urged me to come to okla cith and they wanted to show me my records in person. I wasn't interest and refused to go. My wifes father was a whiskey hauler that hauld moonshine out of the hills of Arkansas.His boss knew how i drove and tried to get me to haul for him also. I thought about it but refused.I liked street drag raceing and run from the cops every once in a while instead of every run to Arkansas. The henry j i raced at mokan was a c g***er. It was a 57 sbc bored ,125 which made it a 301, Chet herbert roller cam 330 degree. 13,5 compression ratio. Balanced ct crank rods etc i ordered from california,Xc8 staggered AFB carbs intake manifold. a 50 pound flywheel, Borg warnrt T-10 4 speed transmission, Special build clutch from Tulsa clutch on 11th street (rt66) 4.11 rear end limited slip ford. Sun tac with the sending unit outside and gage inside.I tried to leave the line when i could at 9000 rpm imagine running a 50 pound flywheel at 9000 to 9500 rpm and dunping the clutch. Mokan is the first strip due to its new blak top. that it would pull the front wheels up a couple of feet.I had good year wrinkle wall slicks, I hope to meet some one who can remember the good old days that can relate to above.Maybe there first days to rece at mokan. man it was a blast and i am still blasting.I will see if i can put a photo or two of old river rat. the man and his children on photo is my brother in law. He was the pit man, My picture is not on any of these, GO CAT.
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