[QUOTE=Jimmy McKinley;33029]Bryan drove our car for a few years in the mid-‘80s. We had the #XII at St. Pete, and the #III at Inverness in 1984-5. In 1986, we went back to just plain ol’ #12, and Bryan won a buncha races against the best of the era: Pletcher and Moyer, Jimmy and Mike Cope, Butch Smith and Butch Yoakam, Carl Butts, Frank Barfus, Dave Dunkin, Dave Scarborough, Buzzie, Mike Bresnahan, Dave Yow, and a TON of other great drivers from the Gulf Coast. He got hurt in our car at St. Pete. I wasn’t there that night, but I remember Sunday morning when Dad brought the car home on the trailer. It certainly wasn’t pretty, and the top of the roll cage had been cut off.
After that, we were out of racing for over a year.
I never heard what happened to Bryan after that, until fairly recently.
I have a great story from before the accident, though. In the summer of '86, I was kinda seeing/dating a girl from Clearwater. We had gotten our parents to agree to letting each other stay over at each other’s house for a week during the summer vacation. Well, while I was over at her house in Clearwater (I was living in Vero Beach at the time on the east coast), this girl decided she wanted to break up - in the middle of the week - with me 160 miles from home. So I kinda had to find my own way from that Wednesday to Saturday, when I was going to go to Sunshine to get my ride home with Dad. I told the guys about my, uhh, breakup, including Bryan. And then he told me I shoulda called him, I coulda stayed with him and Jackie for the rest of the week…LOL…Bryan Jr. was just a tike then, and I didn’t want to impose on the family. But that’s the kind of guy Bryan was. All around great guy, great race car driver - and…well…probably one of the best friends on and off the track. I don’t think I had another one of our drivers over the years ever talk to me about that kind of stuff.
The first pic is 1985 at the Coca-Cola 50, which was part of the Triple Crown weekend: a 50-lapper at DeSoto on Friday night (LeRoy won it); the 100-lapper at St. Pete on Saturday night (won by Trickle in a V6 car), and the 200-lapper on Sunday back at DeSoto (won by Butch Miller in another V6). Billy Bigley’s All-Pro-legal #28 Airboats of Naples car is to the inside of our car.
The second pic is one of those early-summer 1986 nights at St. Pete, just before he got hurt in this car.
The last pic is late 1984, when Childers had driven for us most of the year, but moved over to the #22 formerly driven by Purcell. Bryan wanted to keep his points, so we duct-taped a #III to the door…LOL…Car owner Bob Kirk is third from right, and my dad is on the far right in the black shirt and red and white hat.
Hey Jim…that pic of Bryan from New Smyrna…I was there that night. It was a Thunder Car feature for the World Series in 1981. Bryan beat out track hot shoe Joe Coupas by like a foot at the line to win the feature his one and only time at New Smyrna for a 100% win record at that track 
At least, as far as I know, it was Bryan’s only time there. I don’t think they stayed the whole week.
RIP, Bryan.[/QUOTE]
Bryan did run at New Smyrna more than once, I remember racing with him several times and he was a real class act. I really enjoyed racing with him. I remember one night in particular, because it was the only time in my 9 years at New Smyrna that I ever won a fast heat. I time trialed 2nd to Bryan and I think he had some kind of a problem in the heat and I won it. Pretty sure Bryan win the feature that night.