Oval trackers...stand up and be counted!

This was taken Saturday July 18, 2009 at Rattlesnake Raceway in Fallon Nevada. We call them Rat Mods.





The body is the quarters and roof from a 65 Chevelle....complete with door handles and tail lights...frame is also a later model Chevelle turned into a straight rail frame. Louie Miranda 21m

 

I raced outlaw modified on the dirt for nearly a decade, all around MO.

This summer makes the fifth in a row that I haven't turned a lap in.

I was behind the wheel of a race car four months after I got my license for the first time. I wish I could get back to it, but life has intervened.

Typical story really. When I've got time to work on them ('cause there's no paying work to do, like now), I don't have the money to race. When I've got the money to race, I'm so busy with work making the money, that I don't have the time to race.

I always tell people it's like having this whole other full time job that you have to pay to work at.

I've thought about doing a limited late model or something like that, or maybe just running a few races in the season, but I'm a competitor, and I know that half-assing it will just make me hate it, 'cause you can't be competitive in the open classes with no money and limited seat time. Besides, once you've run in the higher classes, the slower ones below just seem like a waste of time. I'd jump in an open late model in a heartbeat, assuming there was cash enough to keep us in tires and motors for the season.

If I race, I want a shot to win when I unload, otherwise, it's a waste of time IMO. Since it takes a lot of time and money to field such a effort, and I can't afford either right now, I will not be getting into a race car again until I can.

One day, it'll come together again. I'm still young, I can afford to wait a little while until it does.

I haven't scanned any of the pics of me on the track, our photo guys were always strictly analog, so we're talking film and prints, not JPG's.

The only digital pic I have is one I took in front of my fraternity house when they sponsored me for a season.

This car has always been my favorite, out of the half dozen or so that I've had:



That's me leaning on the roof.

Think IMCA modified, but without all those pesky rules.

Aluminum heads (hell, aluminum blocks if you could afford them), big spoilers, no minimum weight, methanol fueled, tire softeners and grooving allowed, no motor rules at all, etc.

That motor dyno'd at just under 800 HP, and took us to a 5th place finish in points that year. No feature wins, but I got close several times. Not bad for a 20 yr old kid whose family had never been around racing before. Just me and my old man to do everything. We bought the chassis, but we did the rest of the fabrication ourselves.

Loved ever minute of those years, even the ones spent upside down or swinging from the hook on the way back to the pits.

 

Anybody can go straight......www.weissglassspeedway.com

 

Look at it this way; When you go through the traps, instead of hitting the brakes, make a sharp left turn and put the pedal on the floor again.

 

Exactly.

I used to run at a little track that was shaped like a paper clip. Wicked fast down the straights, with VERY tight turns at the end, and big banks to help us out. The speed gun put us at ~130 MPH down into the corner, but just over 40 MPH at the apex. Used a lotta brakes and tire at that place. Very hard on engines too, because you used so much of the power band. Down to about 2,000 RPM at the apex, and bumping the 7,800 RPM chip at the end of each straight, for 30-50 laps a night.

My engine builder used to make fun of the drag racers who would blow about how strong their engines were.

He'd tell 'em, "Make 50 passes in a night with that engine and come see me after."

Now, I wouldn't expect a blown nitro motor to last very long, but those guy were never running that exotic stuff. Just naturally aspirated alcohol motors just like ours, and cars that were of comparable weight.

 

I've been known to turn left a time or two !! >>>>.

 

This is me back in 2001-2002 at Carnesville, Ga. One of my last karts I owned and drove, I loved my Champ/10HP Tecumsah. Raced karts from 1990 till 2005. After my divorce in Dec. 2004 I raced one time. I realized how I raced just to be gone from home. Miss it, but don't miss it if you know what I mean. Not to mention the cost now......crazy.

 

My daughter's ride. ASCS Southwest region. Collecting Barbies would have been a lot cheaper!!

 

started in 1972 was an old man at 27 year old did street stock modified stock and some late model on the last, mostly racing at the Winnepeg speedway , got a good tow deal there for running two cars
did a little diasterous sprint car tryout, was to slow on the reflexes and the cars were crap

never had any money and not the best parts but a little nitro and hard work will get you to the green flag, my cars always took the checkered, maybee 2 laps down but had to get a check to run the next week
quit after 18 years, too old and my health was suffering from asian orange complications

 

Back in the 50's I made my living racing.
Now it's just for fun.

 

I have been here for a while as stagernwings but lost my sign in and just started over ,that said i still race a limited number of nights at devils bowl dallas and have ran 1200 winged mini sprints and enduro or lay down road race karts and modifieds and midgets . craig huls 77h .

 

Sorry i just had to put this out there ,I have always been a Rich Vogler fan and last week at the eldora slash knoxville museum auction i bought this # 69 usac sprinter ,also i took the picture before i even owned the model so i had to be high bidder no matter what enjoy.c

 

Don't think about it, DO IT! This is what I was told when I was getting in my first race car. Twenty five years later, a few championships, and a whole lot of those plastic things, I decided to give it up for the kids.( Some politics helped the decision) Racing is worst than drugs, you can't get rid of the addiction. I still build, setup, and wrench on them, but try to stay out of the seat, because once your in it is REALLY hard to get out, plus hot rods can be driven to the grocery store, or wherever, and I have never seen a Sprint roll into the parking lot of Safeway! On it's own power that is. Drove all different styles from Wings to Dwarfs on asphalt and dirt mostly open wheel because of all the action., Now I am trying to pass on the tradition to the boys. My grandfather was an NHRA Champion back in 1955, and it runs in the family! The Need For Speed! Mine just happened to be going sideways instead of straight! I went by a nickname of Sideways Slick for a number of years, and in the last 8 or so, it turned to The Hot Shoe Hollywood 94!

 

Wow, just found this thread!

Here's a pic of the ol 74. It's called a "factory stock". Set the track record at the now closed Cajon Speedway in San Diego area RIP I'll have that record forever Now I race at Barona on the dirt. Got a main win a couple of weeks ago. It's fun beating up on the kids, I'm 57, ha ha. You just can't imagine racing 20 other full size cars, door to door, on a slippery dirt track unless you've done it. The car looks like a destruction derby, but it's a full on race car that hauls ass. I refuse to grow up.

 

Did you factory stock guys get into an arms race around the turn of the century (this last one we just had ) out there too?

Around here, in the space of three seasons, the factory stock guys went from knocking out the windows and cobbling together a cage that would barely pass tech, to full on jig built chassis with fabricated bodies and the whole nine yards. Enclosed trailers, big haulers, scales in the trucks, etc. All that for $200 to win. lol

It was like a totally different field of cars, but with the same guys piloting them. Very weird.

Similar things happened in the modifieds, but since we'd been open comp for the better part of a decade already, there wasn't much left to push, but where there was space around the edges, we did push.

The arms race is never ending, obviously, and rightly so, but it just defied disbelief to see guys spending tens of thousands of dollars to race for $200 to win, and a points fund that paid, I shit you not, $350 for the championship.

'Course, I ain't got much room to talk. That season we ran fifth in the points, we spent near six grand on tires alone. At the time, we were running for $750 to win, and the championship paid about $2,500.

The guy that won the points that year said he spent over three times the points money on tires to win it. lol

Ain't none of us ever grew up.

 

You are correct its worse than drugs. I have quit {racing that is} 7 times. Last weekend I spent 81 dollors on racing fuel finished 4 th in feature and had 50 dollars in the pay envelope. I think I am going to quit racing again.. RIP Junkyard Jan..

 

Yeah, at our track the factory's kept raising the bar, especially since the promoters kinda let em run loose for a couple of years with virtually no post race tech. Recently, they've started checking up on us a little more to try to reel us in a little bit. To me, that adds to the fun, since now it's not only about beating the other racers, but also the tech guys ..... It kinda makes you feel like Smokey Yunick. I'd love to get into what I've done to the car, but you never know who's on here. Fortunataly, the costs involved are pretty reasonable if you're careful and resorceful. We have to run DOT tires that will pretty much last a season, as will a motor if you're careful during assembly and don't over-rev it.

It's certainly not for the money. My last win got me a $59 check. WAJ ! And I won back my own trophy, since I sponsor the trophies for the class HA HA

Tony

 

08racer,
You guys have a fun track in Tucson. We used to come down and run the "Winter Heat" series. Infact it seemed that there was the Colorado invasion. We brought Modifieds, it did not pay much but we had alot of fun!

There was a slick track(go carts) next to a Sonic drive-in. You could always find the racers there after a days racin.

 

Here is a website that has alot of vintage racing history. It has a lot of Colorado history of Lakeside Speedway and Englewood.

check it out: Autoracingmemories.com

 

LMAO!

I know EXACTLY what you mean. $50 to start NEVER pays the fuel bill, even (or especially, depending on where you gotta buy yours) when you're burning methanol.

There have also been several nights over the years that ended with the car being so torn up that I had to sweep it back into the trailer, and the envelope at the pay window had but $50 in it.

That's just like getting kicked in the balls at the end of an expensive night, ya know?

I can't see how guys can possibly make a living racing modifieds or even late models (that aren't part of some big touring series) anymore. Some still do it, but I sure don't see how.

 

never did it but pitted for my friend at Lakeport in the 70's and 80's and again for my son in the early 90's--both ran real hard and held track records in street stock--the motor from 81 in in my wife's 55 today

 

My family has raced sprint cars all my life. My uncle was unfortunately the first person to die in a sprint car at West Memphis Arkansas Speedway in the early70's. My brother and stepfather race midgets and I am a former midget and sprint car racer myself.

 

Sorry Burl, didn't make it down to see ya'. Maybe next sping?

Hey EVERYBODY IN TUCSON, do you have any pictures from 1957-1960 at TACRA?Cheesburgh, Arnold, McClusky, Bisch, Bishop, Curtis?

Like I said, after I got the car to the track there would have been no money for bread and milk for the family if I'd bought a camera.

 

"Hey EVERYBODY IN TUCSON, do you have any pictures from 1957-1960 at TACRA?Cheesburgh, Arnold, McClusky, Bisch, Bishop, Curtis?".... Good times alright..Dave Caid and I used to pit for Hank Arnold back in the Rodeo Grounds days around '53. Pick up a copy of Windy Mc donalds book on Manzy. Here's a couple of early pics..Hank in the "Honey Bucket" jalopy and Hank with Jerry Coons Sr.

 

Garden State Vintage Stock Car Club gsvscc.org/ check it out.
Greetings from Long Branch NJ Americas first seashore resort,7 time US summer capital,early stock car racing at Municipal-Garfield Park Stadium and back in 1905 the scene of....google Long Branch Auto Carnival....auto racing at Elmwood Park.
I have been announcing the stock car races at NJ's Wall Stadium since 1968 and before that I came to the races with my high school buddies when my dad coulnd't make it....over 50 years of racing history at the Jersey Shore....so many drivers ....so many stories ....in the early days Lee and Richard and later Kyle Petty were among the drivers who took on the little one third mile high banked paved oval .
Ray Evernham,Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Truex and many more cut their teeth at Wall before going on to Cup racing or to Cup racing teams.
Who in the tri state area could forget Parker Bohn in the Skinner GMC 6 powered modified Chevy coupe that would shoot yellow-blue flames out of the header pipes when he was going around the turns or when ol' Parker would goose the pedal from idle....so many drivers ...so many stories.
If you are in the area during racing season ....we wrap it up on Thanksgiving weekend with our annual ''Turkey Derby'' racing program....stop by and say HELLO.
Lee Greenwood -Wrat-FM -
Proud member Garden State Vintage Stock Car Club Hall of Fame

 

Just found this thread. Seems I've been missing a lot. JunkyardJan? That sounds familiar. And that No. 38 looks a lot like it was built in Bullitt County, Ky. by a guy named Bubba.

Already familiar with a lot of the names on this thread like K9racer and Racer5C. They can back up what they say.

 

Used to practically live at ASCOT before it went away.

My actual oval track dirt racing though was limited to two wheels;


If pavement counts, this is me coming down pit road at Fontucky (California Speedway)

 

raced for 7 years on the dirt and one on the pavement. mini-sprints and midgets. drugs got nothing on a speed rush

 

Amen on the speed rush. I'm reminded of the sign the NHRA Safety Safari has on the door of their trailer...

"Inside this trailer lies a disease for which there is no cure."

 

Thanks Bill Van Dyke.