Old Photos / Articles / Sunshine Speedway Program

FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING KARNAC's FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING
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It is interesting what you’d find cleaning out the garage.

Click the links for the full albums…

Sunshine Speedway Program 8-23-86

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13794&l=7f2ba&id=505317901

Old Racing Pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13795&l=e0738&id=505317901

Articles about my Dad’s Crash

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13796&l=90019&id=505317901

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I was in the pit stands the night Bryan hit the wall. The article says he hit the wall at 65 mph, but the impact was a square hit to the drivers door and he stopped instantly. I remember him passing the pit stands sideways at 65 mph and him hitting the wall 50’ away. I believe many in the crowd feared the worst due to the magnitude of the impact. I remember that the crowd was totally quiet while the the rescue effort was going on. To this day it is the most scared I have ever felt at the track for a driver in an accident

3

the crash

I was there the night your dad crashed, I was standing on the pit ramp when it happened.I helped my brother, who is Craig Robinson load the car and take it back to your mom and dad’s house. I remember going to Humana Northside right from the house, your dad had a ton of friend’s and support that night.

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As you may know, before your dad was old enough to start driving, he was friends with my kids, started hanging out with us on the 24 Tornado car (seen in your photo 7 of 8 batch), then later helped us a great deal on the FOUR Late Model.

He once did a 1:24 scale model of the FOUR Late Model (the 65’ Chevelle version), where he applied all decals accurately, then hand painted the number as well as the sponsor names on it, then gave it to me for my birthday. I couldn’t believe the accuracy of it. He had to have spent hours and hours on it. I remember when he gave it to me it almost brought me to tears.

I just can’t say enough about your father’s integrity, honesty, ethics and overall moral values. You will not find a man more dedicated to the affairs and well-being of his family.

He was a good friend to myself and my family, a positive influence on everyone he touched and we miss him dearly.

Jim, J.C., Michelle, & Linda Fenton.

5

That was our car that Bryan crashed in. I believe he was three wide in the middle with Dunkin on the bottom and Butch Smith maybe up top. I wasn’t there that night (spent the night at a friend’s house), but when I came home the next morning and saw the car on the trailer with the cage cut off, I knew it wasn’t good. My dad was the crew chief on that car, and I think about two weeks later, brought home the video of the crash. Someone from (Jimmy) Cope’s “fan club”, iirc, was taping the feature that night. Took 'em about 45 minutes to get Bryan out of the car.
I was devastated when I saw the car. Took us over a year to get a new car and get back to racing, then we put Childers back in the car.

Bryan was great guy. Alaws loved that gold Roman-numeral III car.

I can’t access FaceBook pages here at work, though…guess that’s why the pics ain’t showin’ up, either. Any chance you could post the articles and pics here?

6

Can anyone help a brotha out and re-post these pics and articles, NOT in Facebook, please? I’m very interested in seeing/reading since it was our car.

Thanks.

7

Hey Jimmy,

Here ya go.

First is the 8/23/86 program 5 images or less at a time due to restrictions here;

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Next 5 of the program;

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Page 11 thru 15 of the program;

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Page 16 thru 20 of the program;

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Last 4 pages of the program;

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First 4 of 8 of the racing pictures album;

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Last 4 of 8 of the racing pictures album;

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First 5 of 9 newspaper articles;

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Last of the newspaper articles;

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Well… I was beat to the punch. I saw the reply last night and planned on posting the pics on here today. Thanks for posting them though…

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Thank you very much, Jim. 'Preciate it :wink:

Ya know, my dad never really did tell me how bad Bryan had gotten hurt. I think he may have been too upset to talk about it at the time, that one of his drivers got hurt in “his” car. Dad didn’t actually own the car (Bob Kirk was the owner), but Dad was the crew chief and we parked the car at our house every week.

It’s been years, but we stayed at Bryan’s house more than a few times when we were racin’ at St. Pete :wink: I couldn’t remember Bryan’s wife’s name (but now see that it’s Jackie…LOLOLOL…), and since I was the teenager (and closer to 40 now than 20…LOLOLOLOLOL) in the crew on the “Silver Bullet” and the red #12, I can’t for the life of me remember Bryan’s kid’s name…:smiley: I do know that I used to push him around the driveway in the stroller…:slight_smile: How old are ya now, kid? How’s Bryan doin’ these days?

Good to hear from all you old-timers! :wink:

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i remember it well
what a time for racing at sunshine
me and my new bride and daughter use to go both nights Friday @ the drags Saturday roundly round
i see a lot of familiar names
takes you back
thanks guys

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[QUOTE=Jimmy McKinley;4920] How’s Bryan doin’ these days?
[/QUOTE]

If you’re referring to Bryan Sr., Bryan passed away from a heat stroke while working on the job in Tampa twelve days prior to the 9-11 attacks on August 30, 2001.

Bryan’s son that you remember pushing around in the driveway is named Bryan Jr., and is who started this thread.