You’ve Got Another Thing Coming – Racing, Writing and Remembering

During the fifties and sixties the world was becoming fast and to keep up with the boom we needed food that could keep up.   We went from Drive-ins like A&W to the likes of McDonalds.    From full-service filling stations to what are you lazy?   Fill em yourself.

While we were pumping gas ourselves the Motor City of Detroit was slowly evolving into what it is today.    From the quality and personality of the older cars to sedans like K-Cars,  Pintos,  Vegas and Chevettes.   From the handcrafted classics we got robots and automated systems siphoning off jobs while garnering owners and managers robust salaries with bonuses the size of a small town budget.   Pintos however were serviceable as race car bodies for all sorts of race cars and this includes the modifieds of Richie Evans,  Maynard Troyer (Troyer Chassis) and Geoff Bodine.

Our movies too were changing,   from the maudlin caricatures of old mobster wives to the clammy feel of NJ and the Tony Soprano-like wise guys.     Ozzie and Harriet traded in the idyllic trappings complete with white picket fences to apartment complexes and cookie-cutter modular homes.   I had a 1974 Gremlin-X with the old 258 straight six.   Really awesome car except when it was icy and low on gas.    I had to steer into my skids on numerous occasions.     I used to sport a ‘FLY NAVY’  license plate on base,  while being in the Air Force.   I was all ready for some gung-ho lifer to give me a hard time.

And Yes|!  Elvis had left the house and Pink Floyd found his way in,  leaving us to ask,  “Which one is Pink?”    But blurrier still was the androgynous look of the 80s like Boy George and David Bowie, while in racing circles we went from tail-fins to Camaro-styled bodies to the ersatz style of Rocket-Chassis and the Troyer Mudd Bus.    In the year 2015 we have cars coming on like big-hair groups sans the hairspray.    Even the support divisions have dapper cars who,  if they went to Joseph A. Bank,  John Gotti would be impressed.   I need to finish the Sopranos and then move on again to ‘The Game of Thrones’.      But cars these days look pretty cool.     Bradley will make your car the talk of the town and wherever you race.    Get it hooked up,   then traverse the cities and towns looking for events to show off your cars with.

Even today,   we continue to evolve as wraps have replaced traditional paint jobs with exotic and very good looking art work.   A kind of visual renaissance in an era of looking good means drawing quality sponsors.

Wrap stars like Bradley Poor bring home the bacon today with impressive styles at affordable prices and the feeling that all changes are not necessarily bad.  Please contact him at his website or online at Facebook.   He is not only an artist of a kind but a driver too.

As always this blog is in the memory of Senior Master Sergeant Floyd M.  Parton who died two years ago of complications from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).   Veterans get this disease at a much higher rates than the civilian population.

University of Tampa at night.   They won their 7th National baseball title in 2015.

Tino Martinez played there and holds most hitting records.

Paying It Forward; Racing’s Legacy in the Community.

This is a true story and the results of doing a good thing is often repaid richly.     This is no exception.   Back in the 90s I worked as a Support Group Facilitator for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America in Tampa.    During my stint as facilitator I also volunteered to do the annual Bowl-A-Thon fundraiser.

One of my first stops was the racetrack at East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa,  Florida.    The track manager was a former Air Force veteran and he got me going as well as connected with the track on a more or less permanent basis.   Ron Braaten  gave me the names of drivers who love to participate in charities,  so I purchased photographs of drivers and their cars and then got autographs.

We had twenty-two race car drivers from that track,   two big radio stations,  one TV station,   Jazz singer Belinda Womack and twenty-two football players from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.   The year previous the CCCFA had only two lanes and we had twenty-two.   That number keeps popping up.   Oh by the way,  we made a record $22,000 for that day and the drivers,  fans and football players all coalesced to a good cause.

I got mentioned on Channel 10 and Reginald Roundtree,  the anchor at NewsTen called me and asked me how I did it and I said,  “I didn’t,  we did”.    But I am going to tell you,  this event and others helped the track and the community.   I was also working with the Tampa Tribune’s Weather page and a friend of the sports racing division, a Miss Holly Cain.  She also helped with a friend who was able to get a week-by-week accounting of his racing exploits.

We’ve done events with the Taste of Town n’ Country,   Florida Blood Services of Tampa at Hooters near the Airport,  Crohn’s and Colitis of Tampa and a few others.   I even used to do tropical forecasts for a local Christian Radio Station DJ who was one of the sweetest,  kindest men of the cloth that I have ever known.   This while I was working for Q-105, WWBA and about 80-90 stations across the country.

#22 of Johnny Gilbertson of Tampa.   I remember Johnny’s old #10 sprint car owned by Gary White and later he moved on to the #3 owned by Kenny Mulligan,   #42 of Paulie Milum.   Johnny was one of the first and I knew him since he was around 20ish.

Bruce Watkins of the B12,  modified and limited late model.   Talked with him a lot on the phone and he too was there with the racing stuff on the day of the big bowling event.

Did a lot with David Schmauss shown here in the Cardinal #105 Late Model.  He went on to be track champion at least once in his career.

Bobby Alexander is an interesting story.   A big time star on both the asphalt and dirt tracks,  he used to race at Golden Gate Speedway,  East Bay Speedway, Tampa Fairgrounds and quite a few others including Tom Stimus’ Desoto Speedway.   While he was racing at what is now the Oldsmar Flea Market outside of Tampa,  he had befriended Gordon Solie,  the former WTBS-Ted Turner-owned Wrestling Program.   Tony Atlas and those days.   Gordon was track promoter at Golden Gate and had Bobby improvise,  TNT style.   Funny stories there but promotions and intel matter.

One of my first friends at this track and since the Bowling Event.  he has either won or came in 2nd in points around ten times.   One of the classiest level-headed guys going and well-respected for that.   I remember when he sons were young and now all grown up.

Kenny Adams was a national star in many respects and a big winner at East Bay.   I was told that his wife wanted him to come out of retirement just to beat Gene Lasker.  LOL.  Kenny was also a multi-time champ with ASCS Southern Tour and garnered some interest from upstate NY,  PA and CA.

Gene Lasker –   Too many people see the wild side but if you have a need and are his friend,  he would do about most anything to that end.    We have done several events together for charities.   Kids just love him to death and a lot of adults are wary or intimidated by him and I think he doesn’t care either way.    He was the former American Winged Outlaw Champion in around 1996 and East Bay Champion in 1997.     He has raced for Hulk Hogan and Bubba the Love Sponge (gimmick) Clem.

  I have known the DeCaire family since father Terry DeCaire piloted the USA#1 Late Model at East Bay.   The family also helped with that as did Dirt Devil’s Speedway.

The Lynch family is from outside of the Pittsburgh area where Ed Lynch Jr, a second generation driver has totalled well over 200 feature wins.    I have worked with his Mom for over 25 years and have done charities where they helped out with raffle items much as we did with the bowl-a-thon.    The Lynches are racing royalty with Ed’s father and mother in the Sprint Car Hall-of-Fame in Knoxville,  IA.   What gets things done is partnering with a common goal and the sky is the limit.   Not one of the drivers who have helped have failed to have a winning career.   That is no accident whatsoever because if you strive to help others,  good things will follow.    Drivers rally together to help each other and their families.

So rather than mumble,  get out and rumble with life.  It matters!

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Life of Illusion.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Oscar Wilde

Why are we so mean?  Why do we need to rain on each other’s parades?    I was looking at youtube and observing some beautiful young women playing drums and they were very talented.     But invariably we have guys ripping the girls.  Talking about their lack of skill and so forth.     What is it with people?

One of the worst things are those ads,  the ones who talk about celebrities and their ‘ugly spouses”!     Really?  Or child stars who are now ugly according to those ads.    I for one,  think we need to take the logs out of our eyes before we diminish another person.    Case-in-point,  the Duggars!   Leave those young girls alone because in a few weeks this will pass over and I have to wonder,  what was the objective?

What’s next?  I remember Tiger Woods peccadilloes and the sense of shame and dishonor perpetrated on Wood’s wife. Not our lives,  not in the least.   I find it sad that people spend so much time piling on the misery of others.   I might respect those same people if they helped the indigent every day and sacrificed but no.  the evening news frames discussions whether they have any factual information to back it up. or not and the Cardinals debacle is yet another scandal that drives the politics of personal destruction.

Instead of finishing people off,  how about making things better.    You know you can go to a retirement community and sit with a forgotten elderly person.     Saw a news clip about a Rescue worker who dumped a terminally ill patient from a gurney at a hospice facility?   Is that who we are?   Hastening the demise of a terminally ill patient.

In the movie,  ‘The Doctor’.  William Hurt is shocked by the callousness of the medical profession and how dying people are degraded and dehumanized.   Diagnosed with Throat Cancer he sees firsthand the cold.  impersonal manner of healthcare professionals.    They sing ‘Why don’t we get drunk and screw’,  in front of the patients and the Doctor stated that he would wish his doctor cared less and cut straighter.    Until that is,  it is him who feels like yesterday,  today and tomorrow is the same and sitting in comfortable chairs with the future darkly lit before them.

The other day I was at Walmart and had a major seizure and the police were called in and I was put in restraints and according to medical people I was being combative.   I had wounds on my wrists from struggling and I just wonder how much is the stigma of being a veteran while in actuality I am a Meteorologist.   My brother told the officers and medical personnel that I am the quietest least combative person he knows.

Take a look around any day.    The British police run over an older man and they could have avoided that.   Where is the rule that consideration of human life matters.    The individual who taped the mouth of a dog with duck tape and caused so much suffering    Pit bulls running amok and terrorising the elderly and children.

Society is getting more hostile and resolutely mean to ‘those others’.    We are so worried about our own perception of ourselves that other people fade unless they commit a crime or offend us in some way.

Let’s start helping each other..   today,  please.

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I took my chevy to the levy, but the Chevy was 55.

I remember riding back on a bus from a wrestling tournament in which I did fairly well beating the number one seed and then getting pinned.  lol.   Charlie Brown couldn’t catch a break either,   I guess.    On the bus with the snow heavily falling I remember Don McLean wistfully popping off esoteric lyrics;  many of which had resonated with me.   I remember dancing in the gym and being born in February and making me shiver and the thought of my crush possibly seeing someone else.

It was a day when Rock and Roll and God were permitted to be sung or said.   Idealistic maybe,  but at the end of the day, that will be what matters most.   And as we wax poetically in a cape of invincibility,  the pieces all fit together.    “And the jester on the sidelines in a cast.”    And my main blog being,  ‘The Times Are Changin’.    A reverent nod to Bob Dylan and the perspicacity of the young McClean.     Who like in Vincent painted an indelible statue on the pantheon of auto racing history.   Likewise with the brand of our cars and stock cars they seemed almost perfect in form and in function.

The eclectic poets put down their pens.   The past which was ours is stilled remembered,  like a Polaroid snapshot we sung with our whiskey and rye much like our school’s fight song,  “you bring the scotch and I’ll bring the rye”.

Good times,  a bit of self-delusion,   we built a city within arenas playing the National Anthem and the song ‘Proud Mary’ which blared from cracked intercom speakers  during breaks in racing activity and the intermission.   A time of Drive-in theatres and Woodstock.   We encapsulated in a bubble,  a kind of time capsule in an era of war and rebirth.

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I do not know of a time in racing in which racing that had so much mystique as the day of Chevy and in particular but not restricted to,  the 55 Chevy.    In fact,  the popularity today is continuing with restorations of privately owned personal automobiles as the stock car that once was such a fixture in short track racing.

Like the Pinto and Gremlins and J-2000s which dominated modifieds,  the 55 is a marvel in itself.    Our own dad helped Dick Casterline with his #577 which was not a Chevy but of that era.    Ike Edmister’s old race car hauler which we used to slide through our yard with.    The old truck with a Late Model engine and besides Ike was pretty cool.

I remember my dad and Dick partying, coming into my room and lifting weights with one hand (120 lbs) and me kind of shocked there.    Anyhow,  it is awesome how an era can say so much and the music reflecting the mood of those turbulent times.    We had this and this was enough.

To all my old and new friends,  this song is dedicated to you.   To the drivers,  our parents and our children.  These were the days!!!!

Victims of the Fury – Racing Legends Gone too Soon.

A history of fallen race champions.

Racing Short Track Style

I cannot begin to explain the feelings of our favorite drivers dying tragically,  too early and way before their time.   But for those who die on the track it is anything but unfair.   The ones who suffer are those left behind.  To fend off the losses and betrayal.    Daughters and sons,  wives and girlfriends,  parents and the racing community at-large.

Another aspect to us are the memories and they grow and they ebb and they grow again.    Born of clay and resurrected in photographs.    Sometimes the tracks met their own demise,  a victim of parking lots,  malls and apartment complexes.   A few have reminders by the way of old paths,  dilapidated stands or even bits of the concrete that featured these local and sometimes national superstars.

Some of these tracks even have landmarks like restaurants,  carnivals or maybe a beach.    But none of…

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Dalton Myers, 18 Passes Suddenly, East Bay Raceway Park! Seasons in the Sun!

This is a tragedy of the first magnitude! RIP and best wishes to the Myers Family and friends.

Racing Short Track Style

“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.”
― Shannon L. Alder

For most this young man’s life came to an end way too soon.

Death is something we are never really ready for but when I heard about Dalton Myers being dead and him being only 18 years old,  I didn’t know what to say.    When I left Tampa Bay in 2009 that would have made him only 12 years old.

So my racing friends we lost a good kid and a pretty racer too.   I want to extend my condolences to the family and friends of East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton,  FL.   Everyone will miss you soon and you will always be in our dreams.

Obituary

MYERS, Dalton

18, passed away unexpectedly May 21, 2015. Dalton was a free…

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Graffiti artists swarm the streets with murals in an attempt to save the bees (19 HQ Photos)

I am speechless, practically.. Wow is all I can think of. Thanks!