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I just saw a FB post that said that Raymond Godman, the Tennessee Bo-Weevil had passed away. Mr Godman didn't let his disability slow him down as one of early drag racing's pioneers. A string of Bo-Weevil cars, from A/MR to Funny Car and Top Fuel, plus owning Godman Hi-Performance Parts made history in the sport. RIP, SIR.

 

Condolences to the Godman family and friends on the passing of Raymond. Thanks @hotrodA for sharing this unfortunate news and giving insight into who this man was.

 

I never saw him or his cars in person but I have been a fan of his since the early sixties. Seemed like he was always in the thick of the competition and always in great classy cars. R.I.P. Ray.....

 

I had been reading about Ray since I was a teenager and finally got to meet him when he brought the restored 27 Bo-Weevil to the NHRR at Bowling Green. An absolute gentleman with an unbelievable history in the sport who accepted me as a friend from the first day that we met. My heartfelt condolences to his family and especially to his close friend and long time driver Preston Davis.
RIP mate!

Roo

 

Sorry to hear this. RIP

 

Raymond actually brought THREE of his cars to the BG HRR one year! Parking together at the Cacklefest was a special sight. He was one of the original Memphis Rodders. A sniper in Korea left him in a chair, but that didn't diminish his drive and passion for drag racing.

 

Have talked to Raymond and Preston many times in the past. Condolences to family and friends

 

I was a teenager in the 60's and my best friend lived 2 doors dow from Raymond. Sometimes at night we'd hear them working on the dragster in his garage and jump on our bikes or just walk over and drool over the coolness of it all. Later in life I opened my own body shop, located 1/2 mile west on the same street as Raymond's shop in Memphis. Raymond and I became friends again when I started buying parts for my hot rods and at the Rodders Memphis annual dinners and at the Hot Rod Reunions in Bowling Green. He was very interesting, entertaining, and a nice guy, and as others have said, he never let the wheelchair slow him down.

 

“From the Dave McClellan collection...One of the many versions of Raymond Godwin's Tennessee Bo Weevil. Raymond served in the Korean war, shot in the back by a sniper, never slowed him from building a lot of first-rate drag racing cars...modified roadsters, dragsters, etc...”

Tennessee Bo Weevil at the 1959 Detroit Nationals

Hello,

The name, “Tennessee Bo Weevil” stuck out in our young teenage minds from the time it was posted in one of the Drag News Papers, back in early 1959. We knew nothing of Tennessee, except for Davy Crockett and that Nashville was the capital. Tennessee was so far removed from So Cal at the time that it could have been located on the Moon.

But, the name Tennessee Bo Weevil was an odd name that just stuck in our ever, impressionable heads. That name kept popping up in the drag racing results and later, we finally heard the actual sound on the Hot Rods and
Dragsters in Hi-Fi/Stereo that was recorded at the Detroit Nationals in 1959.

Thanks for the memories and great drag racing career.

Jnaki

You were an inspiration to all drag racers, everywhere. (Even in So Cal.) Sorry, we never met. Condolences to the family.



Kimery photo