Some old pics

[NickHolt]

This one is easy.

[NickHolt]

This one's easy too..

[NickHolt]

Getting a bit tougher.. LOL

[NickHolt]

Some of you may recognize this front-running SAS competitor.

[NickHolt]

No clowning around, do you know this twosome?

[NickHolt]

This young lady made quite a splash a few years back. Remember who she is?

[NickHolt]

I know these guys, do you?

[NickHolt]

Now, here's the stumper..

Who, what, where and when???

 

[ups88john]

first two i dont know. third looks like a lege maybe dennis? fourth is Bruce Krahn(spelling). fifth is john kelly and the clown they used to drag around behind the tow truck. sixth robin mccall, just taking a guess. 7th Anthony Jetter. the last one maybe ken neal. some i am sure of, some are shots in the dark.

 

Big John

[NickHolt]

john,

 

You have Bruce Krahn identified correctly. Bruce was one of the best natural talents ever to hit SAS. He drove his own line, kept his nose clean and did a whole lot with the equipment he was running. I forget what they called the class running just below the Late Models back in 1989, but he was always running with the leaders in that class.

 

You got John Kelly right, but who is the clown next to him? He has a real name and a clown name.

 

You got Anthony Jetter correct too. Can you name any of his crew?

 

That is NOT Robin McCall.. and the is NOT Ken Neal.

 

You are pretty warm on guessing Lege, but no cigar...

 

So, two and a half out of eight correct.. not so good bigjohn... LOL

 

I bet txtom get them all right..

 

Nick Holt

[txtom]

OK I'll take a shot at some of these.

1-Tommy Davis

2-Hubert Bean

3 David Lege

4. Bruce Krohn

5. John Kelly, and I forget the clown's name, just saw him recently.

6. Sherry Blakeley

7. Tony Jetter?

8. You may have me on this one, but it is Pan-American, mid '70's, and that looks like a very young Nick holt hanging out the passenger side window, But you got me on the driver. Maybe Johnny Ivy or Bruce Mabrito? I know you hung around with them back then.

[NickHolt]

txtom,

 

You hit the jackpot!

 

And the clown is the world renowned "Elmer Gene" who is really TSRS Director of Media/ Public Relations, Wynn Wilkerson. Anybody recall the night Elmer Gene ran down the front straight and jumped head first into a huge mud puddle just to the infield side of the front straight (before it was paved and before Frank Howell put those huge concrete barriers down pit road). He must have slid on his stomach for 20 feet in that mud. I've always wondered if he was born crazy or just ended up that way.

 

And the driver of the number 20 car was Johnny Ivy, with a much younger Nick Holt hanging on for dear life. The year was 1976 and the place was indeed the finest little quarter-mile ever, Ricci Ware's Pan American Speedway. Johnny and I were co-owners of that little Vega Mini Stock. The deal was that I would drive it at Paramount Speedway on Friday nights and Johnny would drive it on Saturday nights at Pan Am. Well, I did take it out for hot laps one time at Austin, but came in, handed the helmet to Johnny and said, "Here, you driver this F(%)#+_@# piece of *$%()_." It was at that moment that I decided to learn all I could about suspension because I knew that car didn't handle at all. Shortly thereafter, we changed four shocks and all four springs and purchased some tires that actually had the stagger going in the right direction. LOL...

 

Sherry Blakely kinda faded off the racing scene after a couple of years. Anybody know how she's doing?

 

Of course, Tommy Davis and Hubert Bean are two of the finest racers ever to compete at SAS. I was working with Ed Sczech back in those days. Tommy's bunch was always fun to hang with although they never could quite keep up with the party animals on Ed's crew. I see Tommy out at SAS whenever the ROMCO cars show up and Hubert is helping out with his son Damon's race car.

 

Can anybody identify all the people in the picture with Anthony Jetter?

 

Nick Holt

[FryarFan]

Don't know #1 or #3...but

 

#2 is Bandit Bean

 

#4 - Bruce bought our old Bomber #79 at the end of the 88 season after Rob finished 3rd in points

 

#5 on the left is John Kelly, and on the right is Elmer Gene(?). But the real question is.... which one is the clown???

 

#6 - Sherry Blakeley (is she back in SA? or the last I saw she was in NC running Dash series cars?)

 

The last one is at Pan Am but I remember that car(or one of them) being all black #20 with Mabrito driving. Is this the same mini stock that whupped the Super Stock boys in one of them combined races...only it didn't quite make it thru tech???? Nick???

 

 

Billy

[NickHolt]

Fryar Fan,

 

The #20 Vega car started out just as you see it in this pic. Red, white and blue in honor of the Bi-Centenial in 1976. The next year we painted it silver for part of the season and black the remainder of its life. Bruce started driving it about the time we painted it black.

 

One of the problems with running the Vega was that it had a composite timing belt that would not allow the head to be cut for compression. As I recall, it was either run it basically stock or run pop-up pistons. Well, pop-ups were not allowed in that class but we asked for, and received, permission to run pop-ups as long as the compression wasn't more than 10.5 to one. Most of the Mini stock teams were running 11.0 or more at the time, so after Ricci went around to the other Mini Stock teams to see if they thought it would be OK for us to run the pop-ups, he agreed that we could run the 10.5 to one pop-ups. In retrospect I should have gotten that in writing.

 

On the fateful night that that you speak of, Bruce started at the rear of the Super Stock race. We happened to have everything hooked up pretty good that night (I had learned enough about suspension by then to get the car to really stick in the turns) and Bruce won their feature event after picking of the V-8 cars one by one! Needless to say, the V-8 boys were all pretty upset that a four-banger had beaten them. Right after the race one of them recalled that we were running pop-ups and protested to Dub Hamiliton (chief tech at Pan Am at the time). He came over and asked us if it was true and we readily admitted that it was. He disqualified us on the spot and had it announced on the PA system that the 20 car was cheating. When I tried to calmly (?) explain to Dub that Ricci had allowed the pop-ups, he threw me out of the track! Oh well...

 

I'm surprised anyone remembered that obscure piece of Pan Am racing trivia...

 

Nick Holt

[FryarFan]

Obscure!!!! that's me......

 

As I remember also, they made sure it made the papers on Monday too....

 

Here's another one that sticks out.... how many remember the night Jimmy Finger put Waldo Harper's car through (not over!!)... through the first turn wall??? And then, a Stewart (Alvin, I think, maybe Danny(?)) put a car right through the same hole.

 

How many remember how dizzy the winner would be after winning the Firecracker 250 there?? I remember Bean couldn't hardly stand up after he won it around 74-75 or so.

 

And one of the most incredible pics I ever saw was the pic when the driver(don't remember the name????) with the Fiat flipped out of turn two and the fuel came out of it and ignited. The track photographer got this shot with the car on the roof, the guy on his hands and knees climbing out and the inferno around him.

 

But we all have our memorable moments.

 

Billy

[Jason]

Ive heard stories of when Johnny White's car flew over the first turn wall and landed in the junkyard next door. Johnny had a picture on his site but the page "cannot be found" now. Where has he been?

[txtom]

Hey Billy-

You're bringing back some old memories! I remember Finger punching the hole, but I don't remember Alvin or Danny following a few laps later. It was a red chevelle with white numbers, a local who only ran spradically.

Do you remember the night the cow got loose and ended up on the track in turn one? Off turn one was some pasture land, and someone left the gate open up by the little maintenance shack. Or the night all the lights in the place went out during a race? All the wreckers and safety trucks in the infield flipped their lights to avert a disaster.

I also remember when Lucian Wallace blew a clutch down the front stretch and shrapnel went up as high as the lights, and glass and clutch parts rained down on Bill Lay and Dick Caulfield in the flag box. He should'nt been running that aluminum bell housing!!

Speaking of Caulfields, I helped Bobby a little on the clean-up crew when I was too dumb to know better, and he would enlist the help of a bunch of younger guys who lived near him. He usually kept that orange Studebaker idling in the infield while the cars were running. If one of those guys needed to pee, they'd just go around to the side away from the crowd. As soon as the kid got a good "flow" going, Bobby would quietly put the truck in gear, then pull away real fast, leaving this poor kid standing there trying to cover up without pissing all over himself.

We had a lot of fun, and I spent a lot of my teenage saturday nights there.

Every one has their opinions about the place, but the facility was second to none, and with inverted starts, if you wanted to win, you had to RACE.

[97car]

Sounds like a bunch of good memories,the tracks around could take a bunch of notes on how to put on a show from Pan American,I only remember going there once and all the ambulances were full and my dad had to tide in the tow truck,but he just had a burn on his toe,during a sprint car race. I even found a post card souvenier from of all places San Antonio Inn where we stayed.

[racerjim2]

My memmory is of danny rittaman the yellow #33 camaro going through the wall in turn one and darrell godferson, sorry about spelling guys,followed in his red #3 gto convertable.I worked the pit out gate for about a year and a half .I have great memories as a fan and emloyee of the old pan am.

[Mel]

Folks in Anthony Jetter's Victory Lane Celebration:

Left to Right, Nick, Track manager at SAS when Mr. Howell first took track over (can't remember name, but remember that white tux he used to wear), Anthony, Trophy Queen, Gerald Jetter, Buddy Pavlich, Frank Johnson. BTW that SAAB would still be a front-runner today! Right Nick!

Surprised it hasn't found a new home on the track.

 

Mel

[NickHolt]

Mel,

 

Under the new carb and weight rules, that SAAB would definitely be a front-runner in TPS. When Anthony ran it, the rules required that it be significantly heavier than most of the other front runners, but he still holds the track record at TWS and won many of the races he ran at SAS. Under the new rules, the SAAB would be on even footing with the rest of the TPS cars.

 

It has been on jack stands in a heated garage ever since the last time Anthony raced it so it's basically race-ready.

 

Nick Holt

[Guest RandyBorlace]

my grandpa wants to know if any of ya'll remember Willy Charro "The Crazy Mexican" going over the wall at Pan American in the early 80's?

[txtom]

Randy,

It was actually about 1975 when Willie Charro vaulted the turn three fence and landed in the pit area. He ended up not real far from where a couple late models were pitted. He had car with #10 on the side painted like a Mexican flag. Something I remember about Charro; I think racing was a sideline to the party to come later.

[racerjim2]

Here are some really old pictures see if you can name them. Hope all the attachments take

[racerjim2]

heres another