Some “winning” photos from 1975…
What do each of these pictures have in common that is not done at any track I know of anymore??
Victory Lap and Picture with checkered flag…
nailed it with the first half of your statement. second half isn’t true, you can check out any number of pictures on the OSW and NSS web sites with drivers posing with the flag.
Billy Gill - A Few Years Later
Speaking of Billy Gill. Even though we were the fiercest of competitors back then, he still, and forever will, hold a special place in my heart for something he did for my son and my family a few years after this shot was taken.
He along with several other drivers, wifes and many other folks in the racing community solicited donations and gave of their own time and money to help us through a personal crisis with my son’s accident as shown in a few articles below. Our son remained in a coma for nine months and if it wasn’t for some of the great people involved in the racing community at the time, including the promoters of both local speedways Frank Dery and Dan Jones, I don’t know how we would’ve done it.
Thanks again Billy and everyone else, I’ll never forget it.
Jim Fenton.
Todd… they pose with the flag in victory lane, but the “victory lap” has just about been eliminated… Note in these pics a couple of things… no window nets and no full-face helmets… You could actually get a pretty good picture of the driver back then… Today the nets, helmets, HANS devices and other equipment have the driver pretty confined in most classes… Still I think the victory lap is a pretty cool thing… The last time I saw it was at the Quarter Midget races…
Going back to Donnie Tanner… Mandatory window nets musta drove him crazy… I remember he would lean the top half of his body completely out of the window at Golden Gate… Pound for pound he is probably one of the ten best drivers to wheel a race car in the State and I think he still runs at East Bay…
Heh heh…
I liked that “pound for pound” qualification, Mr. Westerman…you may have to explain that for some of the people who never met Donnie Tanner.
I agree with you though.
He was/is one of the best wheelmen/builders in the state.
about victory laps
Too bad no one runs victory laps anymore. I swear that some of my proudest and most memorable moments were when I was taking the flag around.
Let’s just say… If you put Donnie Tanner and Dave Scarbrough together, they would weigh about half as much as I do…lol
yep, that’s pretty much exactly what i said Dave. glad you agree. 
that’s nothing. we’ll have to post pictures of Ron in his short sleeve ‘Firesuit’ from the 70’s.
