I was laying in bed, half asleep at about 3am this morning. The Military Channel was on wispering a bed time story when I heard the commentator mention a tank driver. The... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
good post! i found this from Gone Racin' Newsletter # 75 June 15, 2005 The May issue of Hot Rod mag had a short article about the passing of Don Francisco and how he was inducted into the Dry Lakes Hall of Fame. My stepfather and his best friend both ran cars under SoCal during the late 40's thru early 50's at the dry lakes in California. My step dad, Loren (Lory) Miller became a Ford mechanic after serving in the Pacific dur- ing WWII for the next 40+ years. He passed away in Carson City, Nevada several years back. His best friend and fellow racer was Clyde Sturdy. Clyde owned his own industrial and automotive gear business in L.A. for years. He was an avid boater and water-skier. I'm not sure what became of Mr. Sturdy. At the local So Cal shop in Las Vegas there is a poster from a magazine that has Lory Miller and his car along with three other cars at a Dry Lake all painted with the So Cal colors. If you have any other information about Lory or if you have anyone who knew of him, let us know, please. Sincerely, Steve Brooks Las Vegas, NV [email protected]
Yeah, I saw that too... It's weird. He was hugely successful on the flats, but just kind of vanished. You just don't hear as much as you should about him.
According to the B-ville 200 MPH Club, Clyde did 218.167 in 1974. It also states that he is in fact deceased.
I kinda ran across the same thing regarding Willie Young, the land-speed racer who died earlier this month. Could only find the briefest of information about him, but nothing further. Probably nothing at the AHRF about Clyde, correct? dan
"He was an avid boater and water-skier..." That might well cover his disappearance...he would have been flogging engines in a venue not much covered in our magazines. Try some digging in HRM from about 1959-64--they covered boats a lot in that time period, car engine powered ski boats and similar.
Clyde Sturdy was pals with a friends father and uncle. He hung out with Clyde alot as a kid. He even has stories about the roadster. I'll call him and pick is brain about Clyde....
There's a photo of Ray Brown with Wally Parks in the NHRA Museum at Pomona. I'll try to add it here. Surely Ray must be kin to Peter Brown, the actor who co-starred in the 60s TV Western show "Lawman" with Johnny Russell, and later was in a TV Soap. If he is kin, I wonder if he's a gearhead and has any of Ray Brown's stuff? BTW, the article here on the HAMB about Lee's streamliner has a photo that must be Ray Brown (see my 2nd attached photo (cropped) from that article/comment). Just my 2 cents. Great articles and commentary here.
Clyde Sturdy was a friend of mine, in the 70's he ran a '32 highboy with Al Teague and George Bentley. the car had lightning holes in the side rails of the '32 frame and was sponsed by Clyde's company which manufactured gears and gear drives. He built a set of transfer case gears for a friend of mine and refused payment. Sadly, those people are disappearing from our society.