Post a Pic in Your 20's...Your Prime! :)

squatting dog said:
There was one episode out west where some guys showed up with 2 cars and the word in the pits was "that bi**h won't finish tonight. They were right, but, had it not been for a burly cop tackling me, there was going to be some split skulls courtesy of my trusty tire flat bar.
This happened on a fast racetrack (radar clocked us at 124 going into the 3rd turn), so, this could have been really bad.
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I am glad you and your wife were on the same racing page😇😇. I wonder how many times top fuel champion Shirley, Cha-Cha, Muldowney heard that. She is still around and has a Facebook page!
 
PeppermintPatty said:
Are you playing the drums?
If so, do you still play the drums?
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Yes, playing drums with the Mothers of Invention at a big rock club in Chicago in 1968. Had a good career, but wisely decided to get out while I was young enough to learn a more reliable livelihood. I haven't played in the decades since. It's not something I could do professionally, then reduce it to funsies. Nothing wrong with that, but it has just not been my bag.
 
ChiroDoc said:
Yes, playing drums with the Mothers of Invention at a big rock club in Chicago in 1968. Had a good career, but wisely decided to get out while I was young enough to learn a more reliable livelihood. I haven't played in the decades since. It's not something I could do professionally, then reduce it to funsies. Nothing wrong with that, but it has just not been my bag.
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Smart move. Trying to make a living as an artist / musician is exceptionally hard. You played it right. Find another source of income.
I am also a musician. I sing and play saxophone. I’ve had opportunities to play professionally but I just don’t want to. It’s a fun hobby and I plan to keep it that way.
Thanks for answering questions.
 
squatting dog said:
Turns out that not to far from me, a guy is selling one of those. (minus the hilborn injection... now carbed). So tempted, but where would I run It these days? :)



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They don't stick to newer asphalt tracks, unless someone came up with a modification. They're light and basically bottomless. In the 90s, they tried using an underside airfoil but seems they just couldn't get it right. The car would just as soon fly as stick to the track.

But they were a ton of fun (or, nearly a ton). Sprint cars got more popular, but were also better on dirt than asphalt. They do have a version of the super-modified that is built for paved tracks, but for the life of me I can't think of what it's called, and I'm not sure I'm looking at it in this photo. Most of the changes can be seen inside and underneath.

The Roseville-Sac drivers and crews, owners, and all their wives used to meet after Friday's races at a club in old-town Roseville called The Onyx Club; where many a fight either started or ended. We always knew when it was kicking off for dad on the way out to the parking lot because he'd take off his glasses and throw them, not caring if anyone would make the catch. 😂

That sux about your wife, though. The first lady driver in dad's circuit came along in about 1969-70, and was pretty well received, as far as I can remember. She moved on to rally cars after just a season and 1/2 in a super-modified hardtop.
 
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PeppermintPatty said:
Smart move. Trying to make a living as an artist / musician is exceptionally hard. You played it right. Find another source of income.
I am also a musician. I sing and play saxophone. I’ve had opportunities to play professionally but I just don’t want to. It’s a fun hobby and I plan to keep it that way.
Thanks for answering questions.
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I understand completely.
I've had many people ask me over the years about going into music as a career. I always tell them that they must love it to the exclusion of all else. AND...if they're willing to take a vow of poverty...:cool:
 
I was probably 30 or 31 in this pic, but it's close enough to my 20s to count, right?

A field exercise somewhere in West Berlin - probably 1987. A local mini-mart had a "buy one, get one free" sale going on for M16A2 rifles. I snagged a few of them. It wasn't easy moving that shopping cart through the muck, but somehow I managed.

Hermann - field problem (Lawless).jpg
 
For those that are into racing, Joie Chitwood used to live a couple of streets over from us. I was a kid and just knew he was a famous race car driver. I had no idea at the time how accomplished he was. He always had some nice cars in his driveway!
 
Murrmurr said:
The other track they competed on regularly was the Sacramento Raceway, which was paved long before the Roseville track was. That was a bummer for the drivers and expensive for the car owners because they had to switch tires and make various modifications for dirt-to-paved track racing every single week.

They raced at the Roseville Speedway every Friday, and at the Sacramento Raceway every Saturday and Wednesday.
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I hear you. We went through a phase similar.
Mid 70's was a hectic time for us racing. At that time, we were racing pavement with just a little bit of outlaw dirt racing. Then, just our luck, they started a touring series that called for racing 5 nights a week. Heck, we even had to journey up to Canada for one of the 5 nights.
We swore we'd never chase points again and wear ourselves out like that year.

We lied, because, Then, in the early 80's we started mixing dirt and pavement racing.
First, came Thursday night on a tight 1/4 mile high banked track. (serious banking... see pic). Built a new car for that.
Then came Friday night with a flat 1/4 mile dirt track. (racing 2 cars there).
Saturday was back to pavement... 1/3rd mile semi banked paved track.
Finally, Sunday was a 1/2 mile flat dirt track. (again, 2 cars).

Each time we ran the 2 cars, it meant we had to change the pavement car over to the dirt setup. (springs, shocks, ride height, spindles, and gears).
You know... I wouldn't trade it for anything. :)




5 nights.jpg banking.jpg granada.jpg dirt coupe.jpg
 
squatting dog said:
I hear you. We went through a phase similar.
Mid 70's was a hectic time for us racing. At that time, we were racing pavement with just a little bit of outlaw dirt racing. Then, just our luck, they started a touring series that called for racing 5 nights a week. Heck, we even had to journey up to Canada for one of the 5 nights.
We swore we'd never chase points again and wear ourselves out like that year.

We lied, because, Then, in the early 80's we started mixing dirt and pavement racing.
First, came Thursday night on a tight 1/4 mile high banked track. (serious banking... see pic). Built a new car for that.
Then came Friday night with a flat 1/4 mile dirt track. (racing 2 cars there).
Saturday was back to pavement... 1/3rd mile semi banked paved track.
Finally, Sunday was a 1/2 mile flat dirt track. (again, 2 cars).

Each time we ran the 2 cars, it meant we had to change the pavement car over to the dirt setup. (springs, shocks, ride height, spindles, and gears).
You know... I wouldn't trade it for anything. :)




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And that's back when a great purse was like $50-$80 thousand bucks (at local tracks). I mean, it was a lot of money; you could buy a really nice house with it; but the engines and parts and the constant rotation was a money pit.
 
Imogene said:
@Murrmurr That is some very interesting race track history, although the part about the tire and your mom is pretty scary.

Sharon Speedway opened in 1929 and is one of the oldest continuously running tracks in the U.S. I can’t remember when someone had the bright idea to pave the track but that idea was not well received by drivers or fans. It was almost the end of the track before someone put it back to dirt.

The Blaney family are part owners these days. I have been gone a lot of years so I’m not sure if they were instrumental in returning the track to dirt or not.

https://www.sharonspeedway.com/

What’s funny about the track name is that “Sharon” is Sharon, PA, a few miles over the border from Hartford, OH where the track has always sat since its inception, lollol
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Thought that was odd as well. We ran a URC show there back in the 80's. Ran Tri-City in nearby Franklin, PA the night before and wrecked. The following day we hauled to Sharon and started putting the car back together in the grassy parking lot beneath the only tree in sight. Other club members showed up and pitched in to give us a hand. With our own spares and a few borrowed parts we got it back together and finished 9th but at least picked up some points.

If my memory is correct. the Tri+City bunch were running 410's with the 5 ft. wings while we had our URC legal 366 c.i. engine and the 4 fft. wing. We ran rather than sitting around the motel that evening but it was a pretty costly choice:eek:
 
DaveA said:
Thought that was odd as well. We ran a URC show there back in the 80's. Ran Tri-City in nearby Franklin, PA the night before and wrecked. The following day we hauled to Sharon and started putting the car back together in the grassy parking lot beneath the only tree in sight. Other club members showed up and pitched in to give us a hand. With our own spares and a few borrowed parts we got it back together and finished 9th but at least picked up some points.

If my memory is correct. the Tri+City bunch were running 410's with the 5 ft. wings while we had our URC legal 366 c.i. engine and the 4 fft. wing. We ran rather than sitting around the motel that evening but it was a pretty costly choice:eek:
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I watched some sprint car races but I had to look up who the URC folks were/are. I sounds like you folks were a “no holds barred” in terms of what you could do with the car.🤠

I also must have been under a rock where the motors are concerned. Yours was a modified Chevy bigger than big, big block, while the other group ran modified Chevy small blocks?

My family has always been Chevy big block fans. My late husband preferred Ffffffffford small blocks.

I took these pictures of the walls of his office. Nearly all of them go back to the late 80’s early 90’s. They are mostly NHRA, with a few dirt track fotos.
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My memory may not be serving me correctly, but the 1967 Mustang fastback pictured at the Pomona Winter Nationals, had its own story. It was allegedly one of two fastbacks that for some reason came from the factory with no heater (that’s what I was told), and it also fell off the car hauler. Husband won his class in that car in that picture. It was someone else’s car.

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