One of the three best Figure 8 drivers I ever saw was Richie Bisig, and he won the Figure 8 championship at the old Fairgrounds Motor Speedway in Louisville in 1964 and 1969. (For the record, the other two were Andy Vertrees and Kenny St. John.) We had a rule that from the spindles forward, …
Funny how some topics come to mind…. I had been going through some notes, trying to decide what to write about this week, when I took a break and went web-surfing. There’s a thread I started some time back called “Historic Stock Car Photos” on the H.A.M.B. section of jalopyjournal.com. I wanted to post some of my …
I was happy to hear that JEGS is stepping up to do some NASCAR sponsorship. Although they’re primarily known for drag racing, going back to the days of Jeg Coughlin Sr. and his top fuel cars, into the present with Jeg Jr., a Pro Stock Champion, the huge mail order parts firm from Columbus, Ohio …
I suppose it’s a measure of your age when everything you see reminds you of something that happened years ago. A few weeks back, during the Camping World Truck Series race at Charlotte, Brent Raymer‘s truck suddenly suffered a serious problem. The entire front end of the truck was on fire, and it was even …
Somebody saw a photo of me flagging a figure-8 race from the track at the old Fairgrounds Motor Speedway last week, and wanted to know if I was in my right mind back in those days – the ’60s and ’70s. Maybe the biggest thrill in flagging was getting to emulate my idol, Bill Vanderwater, …
The segment that TNT did last Sunday on Davey Allison brought some memories flooding back. I met Davey’s dad while flagging for ARCA and then ASA and, just like everybody else, I really liked Bobby. I recall his description of the high-banked half-mile at Winchester, Ind. the first time he ran there. He had run …
Back in 1972, after I became editor of The Scott County Journal and The Chronicle in Scottsburg, Ind., my reputation as a race official apparently preceded me. During the annual county fair, a demolition derby was the biggest attraction of the week, narrowly edging out the queen contest. It was always held on Wednesday evening, …
This weekend being the weekend it is, I felt it might be time for one of these columns with the Indianapolis 500-mile Race as the subject. First, I want to correct a few people. When the short practice day that is always scheduled in the week prior to the race is mentioned, these folks continually …
A few weeks back during the Frontstretch live blog for the Talladega race, one of our moderator participants at the track mentioned that he had taken a ride in the pace car with Brett Bodine. Naturally, we all wanted to know about it. He told us it was a real thrill to go up on …
Amid all the discussion about NASCAR’s perceived “invisible” debris cautions, or cautions for debris that wouldn’t really affect the race, one of our Frontstretch writers raised a question a couple of weeks ago. The writer asked whether the rest of us thought one particular driver might have deliberately spun out another to get a caution …
We’ve all heard stories about race cars being driven on the road. In fact, back in the early days many of them were driven to the track, headlights taped up, and then raced. But some of my favorite memories are cars that were taken for impromptu “test rides.” I think I’ve already told the one about Allan Barker …
That UPS commercial with David Ragan pulling a couple of trailers in the racecar, drove me back to the past on Sunday. We had a series in the 1970s we called the “Amateur” division at the old Fairgrounds Motor Speedway in Louisville. Nowadays they’d be called “Bombers” or “Slammers” or something like that. Anyway, it was what (also …