In Smokey's book "Best Damn Garage in Town" the main emphasis is on Nascar,his innovations,his involvement in pushing for safety equipment and safer walls and of course his bumping heads with the rules,he was known to bend them. He was also involved in Formula One,Indy Car,Can-Am and also drag racing but Stock Cars was his main focus. HRP
I LISTENED TO THE AUDIO, I THINK IT WAS HIS STORY TOLD BY HIM. VERT INTERESTING STUFF. LOVED THE PART WHEN HE HAD A CAM IN A TUB OF SOLVENT NEXT TO A OLD WOODEN WALL. HE PLACEED THE TUB BY A HOLE IN THE WALL.ONE OF HIS GUYS SLIPPED ANOTHER CAM THROUGH THE HOLE AND HE SLIPPED THE STOCK CAM TO HIS HELPER. GENIOUS !!!
I read a great interview with him, I think in Circle Track. Once he switched the Hudson cam in a teardown by having an associate throw firecrackers under the viewing bleachers as a diversion. He and Kekhaufer (sp?) who was the tech inspector for Bill France, didn't get along well. Another time his cam was in question, he threw it on the ground and broke in several pieces. He hands Kekhaufer a chunk with 3 lobes and says "If your half as smart as you think you are, this is all you will need" It was a cheater cam and Kekhaufer wasn't that smart. He did some crazy stuff to those Hudsons like moving the crank centerline and porting them with some kind of sandy sludge under pressure
"Its not cheating until you get caught" I was suppose to interview him for a magazine article just before he died and he was too sick to meet me. His vapor car is still running, an O/T Pontiac..... He invented the extended tip sparkplug..... your hero....my idol
There is a lot of difference between racing in the gray areas or any area they don't tech, and then there is out and out cheating. Smokey never saw a line he didn't cross.
He clamed to have helped Don Garlits solve the seering problem in the rear engine dragster in his book but i don't think so. Theirs a reason he had his wife publish his book after he was already dead. So nobody could sue him!
Isn't it great that the folks we admire were the ones who, "Pushed the envelope."? Genius, innovator.... outlaw? I think a good adjective that best fits is.... LEGEND. He is and so were the folks around him on his short span of time. I think it can be said, that he left a mark that many have followed. The will to be the "best" is strong. It's what get's you out in your shop or garage and in first place.
This is the copy I have. I believe it's a compilation of previous smaller ones which, individually, focused on different aspects of Smokey's "life and adventures". Mainly NASCAR (as Danny observed) and Indy. No references in this one to any involvement in Formula One or drag racing (not saying that it didn't happen, just no references to it in this book that I recall reading). Written as if you were sitting beside him and he was telling you his life story. A life that we car nuts can only imagine. An awesome read! Regards, Dave.
His way of thinking definitely helped me see there were words in rule books that people just knew they were there but I just couldn't find...gray is the most beautiful color in every book.
Her said he figured if it didn't say you couldn't then you could and always stopped if they told him to. This didn't end with him. Listen to some of DW's cheating stories about Bertha. At one time so many of them were lead shotting the frames for weigh and that the stuff was flying out of every car on the track.