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I HAD BEEN WORKING TO GET MY NEW MODIFIED READY TO GO TO DARLINGTON..BUT MY PLANS WERE CHANGED WHEN HURRICANE "FAY" DID SOME WATER DAMAGE TO MY HOME..
I have fond memories of my first hot rod; it was a 1940 Ford sedan I bought in 1956. Next was a 1950 Chevy I owned from 1956 until 1957. It had a 265 small block and three speed transmission. Then in 1958 I started driving a 1958 Chevy D / S sedan for a friend of mine. We had a blast and hit most of the drag strips in the Washington D.C. area for a couple years. My favor ite track was Aquasco Drag way in southern Maryland.
I was in the Air Force at the time and had the good fortune to be at Tyndall Air Force Base for a rocket meet with my squadron. We had the F-106 Delta wing fighters and this was the same model that took the world speed record back from the Russians in 1959. The record set at Edwards AFB in California was 1,529.3 MPH if memory serves me right. One of the planes was ready to go back to our base in Maryland and I noticed the pilot was getting in by himself. The back seat pilot was starting a leave and not returning to the base so I managed to talk myself into getting a ride in the back seat. We went across Florida and out over the Atlantic and the pilot was kind enough to light the burner and take it up to mach two at 43,000 feet. We then had the Convair tech rep fill out the paper work and I became one of very few enlisted men wearing a Mach two pin. That really whetted my need for speed but the best I could do after that was a few races in a 1950 Ford stock car around Oswego speedway in New York while stationed at Griffis AFB in Rome. Next came a transfer to Colorado Springs, Colorado and building a 1929 Ford roadster. It had a full house 1948 Mercury flathead motor w/ 4 carbs and Lincoln tranny. I ran that car as a D/altered named Lil Red Romper all over Colorado and Kansas from 1964 thru 1966. I still have some super 8 movies of that car and look at them from time to time.
After getting out of the service and moving to Dayton, Ohio. I worked at Wright Patterson AFB as a hydraulic technician. There I went thru several cars from the mid 60’s including a big block 1963 Plymouth, a 1957 Chevy 2 door wagon, a 1968 Dodge R/T 440 and a 1969 GTO ram air 400. I moved to Tampa, Florida in 1980 and started building the first of many street rods. The best ones were a 1941 Chevy coupe, a 1932 Plymouth sedan, a 1934 ford coupe and a 1931 Dodge roadster.
I attended many shows at Zephyrhills and always found time to go over and enjoy the fine machines running around the track. Last year I got the itch to have a stock car again so I started looking and found the 1936 Ford sedan I am building now. It was campaigned many years in the Kansas City area .It was sold as a roller to someone in Indiana who sold it to me last September. I am building a mild 350 V/8 for power and am shooting for the February 2007 meet at Zephyrhills.
