black history month and early lakes racing

who cares!post suxs

 

Well, if you think it sux, you could at least tell us WHY you think it sux, and maybe why anybody should care what you think. Don't be shy....


Mutt

 

Fuck you rebstew.

Bruce Lancaster, that's funny you talking about Maryland. About 5 years ago I broke down in my '54 Chevy in East Marlboro and I musta had about a dozen black guys offer their help. I went to a huge speed shop that had mostly black customers, I'm talking a really serious speed shop, not some shithole that seels 8mm plug wires and seperators. I talked to some guys and they told me that 1/4 mile dragracing was serious business in these parts.

I had one guy I didn't know from Adam stop by as I was almost finished working on my car, I was wet, dirty and miserable. He told me if he drives by here at 6.00 pm and I'm not done that he'll take me to his house, let me clean up, give me a hot meal and let me and my wife stay the night.

The way you think rebstew, I doubt someone will even be willing to scrape your dead vulture eaten carcass off the road.

Don't forget Don Prudhomme.

 

PS, this rebstew tool made some comment on the Monster Garage thread about Agnostic Front, he said something like, "who cars if he's a neo nazi or not, why don't you go to the jewish forum."

I think we can all figure out what this guy's about.

 

Kick his ass C bass kick his ass!!

 

Nads, what is your background, anyway.
I mean, if there were no picture and one just had to go by your posts, I would assume, educated, well spoken, hip, and not bitter or big-headed.
Perhaps Canadian! haha...
G.

 

It's ASS CLOWNS like YOU that keep the majority of the population thinking that people from the SOUTH are Bigots!

Sorry for the RANT,,,,

In the late 60's when I was a teenager there was a black guy named Bobby with a bad ass black 64 nova that street raced any and all that dared to line up,,,,,,Bobby was about 27 years old at the time.

White Street,,,,was the strip,,,, inside the city limits but thats where the action was,,,,,,,I lost to him on more than one occasion,,,even in my GTO!

Bobby died a few years ago of a heart attack,,,,,I saw as many white guys at his funeral as I did blacks.,,,,,,,He was a hell of an engine builder and a good hearted man,,,,,and his laugh was infectious!

I talked to his brother ,,,, he didn't remember me but he did remembered my 63 Falcon Sprint and his brother blowing my doors off! ,,, HRP

 

Grow up!

 

I am proud to be part of this organization, the HAMB is full of stand up class act guys and gals. Things like this post show that we are more progressive than the average folks on the street. EVERYONE is a rodder at heart whether they know it or not, we are a community, one place where you can come to do what you love, talk about cars and the diverse people that have brought us to this point. God Bless the HAMB!

 

G Bomb, yeah that's it, I'm Canadian.
Ask Draglinks what my background is, he thinks I'm a redneck, shit my own family think I'm one too.

I'll tell you what I am one day, it's a real long story, and boring as hell.

Highly edumacated????? Hardly, but I am an eternal student in The University of Life.

PS, the dude that started this post, Sweats, is about as Southern a redneck as you'll ever find, but the guy's one of the most well rounded and down to earth guys too, like the vast majority of rednecks. The ignorant ones are a dying breed.

I'm gonna say it again, I love the South, I think Southern people are some of the best in the world, most of my friends are rednecks and very few of them carry ridiculous burdens that wear on their hearts.

Many years ago, long before The Draglinks and The Rumblers, I and my wife used to set up at Daytona and have a cold one with anyone who wanted to stop by our spot and chit chat. Eric was one guy who I clicked with immediately, we talked cars, we talked life and when he showed me the tattoo on his back I went whoa! His entire back is a rendition of Harvey Touched By Crossbreeding. Yup, he's my kind of guy.

See there comes a time when y'all have to let that shit go, if you don't, you end up like rebstew, you have a chip on your shoulder that weighs you down and cracks your back.

Fuck it, this isn't about me, lets get back to the history of hot rodding.

 

Lets me just say NADS is special, very very Special

 

Anybody remember Malcolm Durham? He was a pretty big name in Super Stock and then Funny Car racing in the late '60s-early '70s.

In addition to Wendell Scott..who is one of my biggest heroes because he did so much with so little, a black NASCAR driver named Charlie Scott (no relation) raced for the powerhouse Kiekhaefer Chrysler team in '56. Right now, I'm having brain fade.. and can't think of his name, but there's a black driver presently racing in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Just my opinion, but the reason that there haven't been more black racers has nothing to do with lack of desire, socio-economic groups, lack of money or any of that crap. It's been because of pure ignorance and bigotry on the white folks' part. The major reason that Wendell Scott never was able to really show how good he was was because no corporation including FoMoCo would consider helping a black racer in the '60s. Luckily in the 21st century society seems to be getting past that garbage....or at least I hope we are.

BTW, to the best of my knowledge Richard Pryor never raced. But he did a pretty good job of playing Wendell in the movie "White Lightning".

Jan

 

Just my opinion, but the reason that there haven't been more black racers has nothing to do with lack of desire, socio-economic groups, lack of money or any of that crap. It's been because of pure ignorance and bigotry on the white folks' part. The major reason that Wendell Scott never was able to really show how good he was was because no corporation including FoMoCo would consider helping a black racer in the '60s. Luckily in the 21st century society seems to be getting past that garbage....or at least I hope we are.

I agree 100%. I hope you are right about the future,too. I have seen more black hotrod owners at rod and custom shows in the past few years than before.

 

Here's a pretty good history of Wendell Scott and his racing career if any of y'all would like to read it:

http://www.thunderplex.com/project34/history.htm

Sorry if I've annoyed anyone by posting so much circle track related stuff. It's the form of hot rodding that I know best. But I'm learning a lot about Old Skool rods and customs from the rest of you....

Jan

 

If the corporations wouldn't help black racers, wouldn't that be lack of funding?

Of course it was also because of racial bigotry - that's how the country was in the 50's and 60's. That's why you see racers of color from the north and west, but little from the south. SWC ran into Jim Crow when they tried to tour the south, the major reason being that the track owners had no idea the owners were black.

The blacks I knew were damn lucky to be able to afford a car, let alone a race car. (Socio-economic) And that was in Ohio. (I was damn lucky to be able to afford a car)

I raced at the same time as the Trotters at Beechmont Dragway in Cincinnati, and there was animousity, as well as acceptance, among the racers. It's still like that today, but to a much lesser extent, and the geographical area has a lot to do with the type of prejudicial bigotry that surfaces. You will never be completely rid of racial bias. I'm still waiting for our buddy to tell me why the post stinks...

Mutt

 

Not at all!
I for one think circle track, especially dirt track racing, is way more exciting than drag racing.
It takes more tallent and some would say more cojones to get out there and mix it up in a full field of cars than racing just two cars side by side in a straight line that only get in each other's way when someone screws up, (not on purpose, like in circle track. )

 

I think this is probably why you never saw their pictures in the magazines.
They didn't want to stir up anything. They just wanted to drag race. And they were damned good at it. They let the car & results do their talking. In the 50's & 60's we needed movements and standouts to wake up the country. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, the indians at Alkatraz and all that. We also needed guys like SWC, Bill Cosby and a host of others who could just be successful Americans reguardless of race to lead the way. Today, I think we need to get rid of the hyphens and just let all Americans be Americans. The ability to do that is the result of all those pioneers who came before.

 

Wow! Malcolm Duraham was black? Not that the fact matters any to me, it just kinda surprises me that I never knew that. His '63 Impala Z-11 is one of my all time favorite cars, I've read tons of stuff about him and the car, and I never figured this out. Maybe I was just too focused on the machines, maybe I'm just dense.

Sounds like a documentery about the history of blacks in American auto racing would be an eye opener to a lot of us here.

Also, the movie with Richard Pryor was called "Greased Lightning". I love that movie, now I'm gonna have to go search for it on DVD.

 

That sounds like something that Ken Burns would sink his teeth into for PBS.

 

If my memory serves me correctly and it has not been mentioned, wasn't there a Hop Up article about a car bought from an old guy who was in a black car club back in the day?

 

Dooley, I don't know if the article was in Hop-up, or if I'm thinking of a different article altogether, but I read one about Keith Young buying his 12-port Chevy six from the son of a black guy who drag raced either in Reno or the Sacto-Central Valley area in the late '50's to early '60's. When Keith and his brother heard the car was for sale, they tracked down the owner, and found the car intact and covered with dust at the back of the family mechanic's shop.

Keith is familiar to many Inliner members; as both he and his daughter have raced his red '39 Chevy coupe at Bonneville many times over the last 20 years or so.

 

Well said bro.
Could'nt have said it better.

From the Bean Bandits web site

"Starting in 1948, Arnett raced with the Road Runners and the Southern California Roadster Club on the dusty surfaces of Muroc and El Mirage. In 1951 he and his friends started their own club. Comprised of kids from his neighborhood, their ranks reflected the composition of the multicultural environment of their home. While they had African-American, Caucasian, Japanese and Lebanese members, they were mostly Mexican-Americans and they flaunted it proudly, calling themselves the Beaners. During a reflective moment, club member Billy Galvin (who designed the original "Bean Bandit" logo) spurted out that outlaws liked beans, and the Bean Bandits were born."

 

Damn Ryan, is there something you don't know anything about?

I'd like to add that if it wasn't for Hispanics, and Mexicans in particular, the current resurgence of traditional hot rodding would never have happened to the extent it did. I doubt the HAMB would even exist.
We owe a huge debt to SoCal's Hispanic hot rodding community for keeping the torch lit.

It also helps people like Draglinks assume a pseudo-Mexican identity.....I love it.

I also agree with Ryan that we folks, as a whole, are a lot more enlightened than the population at large.

Now I've gotta try and figure out how to buy that hot rodded '31 Vicky out of that black owned junk yard in town. Believe me I've tried many times.

 

i think it's funny that your want ad/signature hasn't changed for this thread.
who's gonna wear it? i (just last week) saw your picture in The Horse, and i'm not sure you've got the figure for that.

 

Great thread. I never knew SW & C was anything but a great team. Don't care either,but I admire them all the more for persevering in those less than enlightened times. Over the years I have noticed an increased percentage and variety of non-middle-aged white guys at the shows and swap meets I go to. I think its great-the wider the fan base and support, the more our hobby and sport will prosper. We can benefit from good ideas from anybody.