Kelvin Hasselt English driver in a europeen late model 2008
Tornado action at Sunshine Speedway
Jim Roder in the #88 Tornado with yours truly looking
to the outside in the #24 J & K Auto Body Tornado.
Sunshine Speedway. March 3, 1973.
(Photo: Courtesy Ward Blazer Collection.)
That Would Be Turn 3
Those plywood sheets would be the launching site for Jimmy Cope and Rosie Sloan who both ended up WAY OUT in the woods. They shut down the track the night Jimmy went airborne - Took over three hours to get the car out of the woods.
BTW JF… I am sure you got around that guy before the checkered flag.
OSF: :ernaehrung004: :ernaehrung004: :ernaehrung004:
Yep, yep. I had a chance to sit & chat for a few minutes with Jimmy a few weeks ago at a get-together for a mutual friend. Like so many others, I hadn’t seen him in years so it was good to catch up.
BWAHAHAH…along with suffering CRS, I’ve slept too many times since then so I can’t remember that particular outcome. However, Mr. Roder didn’t venture across the bay to SS too many times back then but when he did, we usually accomplished the aforementioned deed.
A cool wheelie shot of Cody Darrah from PA.
darrah.bmp (121 KB)
The Junie Donlavey 90, which I think was driven at this time by Richard Brooks.
I never knew Brooks was actually a HOT chick!
DIRT Mod superstar, and sometimes WoO Late Model racer, Billy Decker
Dick Anderson in a very cool Camaro. Track looks like maybe Golden Gate???
One of my favorites, Dave Blaney. He never seemed to get a good break, with a decent car. Now he is stuck as a “start & park” driver. What a shame, because he really does have a boat load of talent.
[SIZE=“3”]Sorry Jerry but I?m stepping back a few numbers to throw someone in that I thought was worth mentioning.
Here is the #92, 1971 Mercury Carling Black Label Special of the 1972 NASCAR Rookie of the Year Larry Smith.
Smith had acquired the Carling sponsorship in 1973 after winning ROY honors in 72?. However, he was having a miserable year in 1973 and was still trying to turn it around in August when he entered the Talladega 500. He spun the car on the 14th lap of that race and hit the wall in Turn 1.
According to witnesses it was a relatively light hit and his car suffered only minor damage which the crew was prepared to repair and get back out on the track when much to everyone?s surprise; the 31-year old driver was pronounced dead at the infield care center.
It was rumored, but never substantiated, that Smith had removed the inner-liner out of his helmet because it had been bothering him for some time. However this fatality still remains one of the strangest in NASCAR history.
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[SIZE=“3”]Another not-so-familiar driver associated with the #92 in NASCAR history is Skip Manning.
Manning was NASCAR?s 1976 ROY. He competed in 79 Cup events between 1975 and 1979 with his best finish being 3rd at the 1977 Talladega 500.
Here he is shown in that race leading the #1 Hawaiian Tropic Chevy of Donnie Allison which he had done most of the day and was poised to win when his engine went up in smoke in the final laps.
Darrell Waltrip, driving in relief for Allison late in the race took the lead away from Manning with six laps to go. Allison got credit for the win and Manning coasted across in third.
Here is Manning shown in the 1977 Darlington Rebel 500 behind the #5 Neil Bonnett and the then newcomer Ricky Rudd in the family-owned, unsponsored #22. In spite of fairly consistent top-ten finishes (he finished 8th in this race) Manning lost his ride later this season with Billy Hagan to another up coming hot-shoe out of Corpus Christie Texas, Terry Labonte.
Here is rookie Terry Labonte in his first showing later that year in the #92 Billy Hagan ride at the Darlington Southern 500. Labonte turned a lot of heads in his Cup debut finishing fourth at the most wicked track on the circuit in his very first outing.
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Jerry, that is in fact the 'Gate in that pic of Anderson, and is probably 1975 or ‘76. Looks like Ernie Bass’ Chevelle #28 (blue and white car on the trailer) and Billy Barnwell’s yellow Chevelle behind Anderson. I wanna say that this was probably Dickie’s last white car; I have a pic of a white Chevelle from about '73 at Palm Beach.
The picture of Dickie’s car was one I took at the 1976 Governor’s Cup… It was the last white car he drove…
I was also at Talladega the day Larry Smith was killed and that car was not badly damaged at all… It was also the same day that Bobby Issac got out of his car during the race because he was hearing “voices” telling him to quit…
I only met Terry Labonte once, but I asked him this question:
“Did you ever get a chance to thank Skip Manning for getting fired?”
He looked up from the table, got a little smile on his face, and said “No, I never did”.
I knew right there that he knew just what I was talking about, and I felt good about asking a question that he had probably never heard before in his life!
[QUOTE=Frasson118;25268]I only met Terry Labonte once, but I asked him this question:
“Did you ever get a chance to thank Skip Manning for getting fired?”
He looked up from the table, got a little smile on his face, and said “No, I never did”.
I knew right there that he knew just what I was talking about, and I felt good about asking a question that he had probably never heard before in his life![/QUOTE]
WOW that’s a pretty neat piece of personal race-related history man!
I never got to rub shoulders with too many drivers up at that level myself.
KEWL! :ernaehrung004:
[SIZE=“4”]Staying with numbers in the low 90?s, here is a pretty fast Tornado from back in the day (at least back in my day) at the Gate. This is the #91 Chevy of Bill McCormick.
McCormick and I weren?t exactly on each other?s Christmas Card list back then so I don?t really know much about the guy except to say that not only did his racer always look good sporting a cool paint job (I believe he owned & operated a body shop at the time) but I remember he was always fast and was a contender every week.
This first shot is a pic out of my collection and had to be in 1967 at the Gate because that?s yours truly in the 4-Jr underneath him in the corner. That is the first car I owned (the 4-Jr.) and started driving in that year.
This second shot of McCormick involved in a skirmish with three other unidentified Tornados at the Gate is out of the 1970 Golden Gate Speedway program.
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Terry Labonte in a Billy Hagan-owned Cup car. The color doesn’t match anything I’d seen in person, but it may be a different/special paint scheme.
Hall of Fame Midget standout, Mel Kenyon.
Son of Sterling, Grandson of Coo Coo, this is Steadman Marlin, the latest in the line of racing Marlin’s from Columbia, TN.
The car itself is owned by the Sadler Brothers (Earl & Check, not Elliott & Hermie), out of Johnson City TN. The Sadlers have had a bunch of racers behind the wheel of their cars over the years, including future-Cup racers Jeremy Mayfield and Casey Atwood. They mainly fielded ARCA class cars, but entered a bunch of Cup races to boot, including a Texaco Diesel sponsored car. Nascar rules didn’t allow Gasoline sponsors on the cars because of their deal with Unocal 76, so the Sadlers ran a Diesel-sponsored car. Nascar didn’t like the attempt at dodging around the rules, and the Texaco Diesel sponsorship disappeared.
The family business for them is hauling fuel to gas stations and other distribution points, so they had an “in” with the Texaco folks.
