byron

If you get Speed Sport daily news on your computers, just a few days ago there was a story about Bobby Hamilton Jr moving his season ending open wheel special for midgets, sprints cars and super modifieds to Irwindale Speedway to be run mid November this year. The first special was run last November at the Bullring in Las Vegas and it was a success. I don't know the reason for the move.

Wayne Mcnally ? car no. 20 or 10 white in color ? He was a Dallas regular, ran Meyer Speedway also. He was one of the regulars at the Meyer super modified events. You nailed it Nick.

More of what I remember was that Tom was driving a Chevelle at CC and he was a front runner. One night during hot laps he pulled into the infield and decided to go to the pits not realizing another car was still out there. When he was crossing the track he was T-boned by the other car and his car was destroyed, after this is when he was offered a ride in one of Johnny's cars. At this time Johnny had two 1968 Dodge Chargers Former USAC, ARCA or CUP cars, both painted white and purple. Later they were replaced by two early 70's Dodge Challenger's painted yellow with red. I don't remember Johnny or Tom ever winning at Meyer in either cars. The part about Tom at CC was told to me, I never saw racing at CC until Years later.

Tom Riley did race at Meyer Speedway. As I remember he was from the Corpus area and he always drove a Johnny Unities team car always Mopars.

I was considering going however Easter Weekend is as much a family weekend as Christmas is for us.

Look for this next year at Martinsville, that will not be white paint on the turn walls it will be Elmers Glue.

This may help, go to Map Quest or whatever you may use Google or otherwise. Start at Navasota TX, get on Hwy 105 east <roads> Just a short way from Hwy 6 you will find county road 415 now click to Ariel photo, just to the right from 415 there are 2 driveways off of 105 and on the property there is a round corral easy to spot. This is the property where the track was, the last time we went by it the original pump house was still there close to the wooded area on the east side of the land. The land has been cleared farther south than when the track was there. I hope this helps. Byron.

Sure thing I would love to see some. Oval track and road race would be great. Did Butch drive a rear engine car with a turbo charged Volkswagen engine for about one season. I think the car was black and no. 24 and owned by Carroll Cheek. Also do you know anything about Butch and Cheek preparing a car for an attempt to run the Indy 500. Some friends of mine were renting a shop space in a business center off of Campbell Road and Cheek was renting shop space across the street. My friend was an engine builder after finishing his day job and one day someone from Cheek's shop came over and invited him and a couple of friends who where there to come over and see the car and talk racing. I believe Cheek was unable to secure proper funding for the venture and that ended their hope of going to Indy.

Thanks for posting your photos. Nice quality shots , not the kind I would expect taken from the stands.

Thanks for sharing Oldtimer, love the old stuff. Those open wheel guys where the bravest, no worries about those rollbars getting scratched in a crash.

Time for an update. Yesterday (Thursday) The weather allowed me to go out and hook the battery charger up. This is the kind of charger you would find in an auto repair shop about forty years ago, it's stout. After about five minutes I put the key in the ignition and the engine fired right away without any spray. I did this a couple of times and it was the same result. Then I unhooked the charger and tried to start it, the starter would spin but the engine would not even try to fire even with the spray. So it looks like battery time(My son had to replace his battery in August, His wife a new battery about a month ago, my wifes car 2 weekends ago) so it's my turn now. Before I finished my work I noticed the belt tensioner was at odd angle, the bolt that holds it in place had snapped off. I spent most of today removing the support bracket and then drilling and easy outing the rest of the broken fastener, it had seized in the tensioner arm. In 25 years of owning this truck I have replaced several batteries but It was always obvious that the battery was going dead. This problem started in July, it was an odd problem but I didn't think much of it until we weren't able to solve it. I hope I've learned my lesson, I should have come here first. Thanks for taking time to help, all suggestions will be noted and added to my Haynes manual. I won't be able to get the new battery until sometime next week, after I install it I will report back. Thanks; Byron Oh I did spray around the intake and connections, everything seams OK.

OK I need to get back on this, I was going to use the truck this past weekend, gassed it up Thursday, parked it, loaded it up and it would not start. It would fire with the spray but would not catch. If the rain lets up in the morning I will hook up the battery charger and then try to start it, If it starts with or without the spray I will do the spray technique and see what happens. I am my wife's driver and It's difficult to just concentrate on the truck, she has another doctors appointment tomorrow afternoon. I am also going to contact a friend of my sons who works near me, he is a fleet truck mechanic and has helped me before, I can't pin down a day which I can ask him to stop by after work right now. Thanks for the advice , eager to let ya'll know what the problem is and the solution. Byron.

Thanks Nathan, my diagnostic buddy mentioned a leaking vacuum line could be the problem but we weren't able to test any of them. I will get on this this week and report the outcome. Thanks; Byron

I'm having trouble with my 1994 Ford F 350, 351 EFI gas engine, 2 fuel tanks. The engine will not start on it's own, I have to spray engine starting fluid in the air intake hose to start it. After it starts it will run fine, if I shut it off I have to go through the same procedure to restart it. We have run fuel pressure checks on both in tank fuel pumps, the rear pump was OK the front side tank pump showed low pressure. There has not been a check engine light coming on but we did a trouble code check anyway, no codes showed up. We just replaced the side tank pump but it has not cleared the problem. We have tried starting the engine using suggestions from the Haynes manual but nothing has worked. We also ran a test on the pressure regulator and it passed. The problem is the same no matter which tank we use when trying to start it. My brother thinks crud from the gas is clogging the injectors because it sits so long without being used. When I turn the key on the sound the engine makes is like an engine that is not trying to fire, it just spins until I release the key. I have swapped the fuse for the pump system but that did not work either. My friend who has the diagnostic tools lives in Tomball and I live in Channelview, he's been down here twice to help me, he's not a professional mechanic but he is pretty good at finding a solution. This has all of us stumped. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks; Byron PS, I am retired and the truck doesn't get used much anymore, but I do still need it.

Your off to an excellent start Nathan, I will be checking in often. Seeing that pipe railing at Austin gives me the creeps. Thanks; Byron

I keep checking in to Lone Star Speed Zone looking for good news. I just found some. Thanks for your effort, I will wait patiently. Thanks, Byron.

Great series of pictures, thanks for posting. I remember several of these cars and drivers coming to Meyer speedway in Houston and also to Jackson International in Mississippi. Wolfman, Sweat, Zahn, Lovell, Bolton, Davidson and Nelson. Sleepy even won a feature at Meyer against some stiff competition, Hite cars, big blocks and big wings. By the way the photo of Wolfman's car being refueled is at Meyer Speedway in Houston. Thanks: Byron

It's about time I add to this topic, thanks for posting the photos txtom they are incredible. This is the first time I have ever seen pictures of the ARCA stockcars from their annual visits to Texas. From 1965 to 1968 we went to all of the ARCA races at Meyer Speedway. My favorite class has always been the super modifieds, I remember several of the cars pictured from the Liberty 300's and special super events at Meyer. The T bucket body cars where some of my favorites and the overall variety of builders/racers ideas made this class what it was to me, the ultimate in racing. I won't leave out the stockers, there are a couple of cars in there that also ran Meyer Speedway. I know this is a time consuming effort but it is much appreciated by those of us who lived this era. There was so much racing around Houston that we never ventured out to San Antonio or Austin. So whether you do this by years or classes I will look forward to more. Thanks; Byron

In todays Chronicle 11,19,11. The obituary for A.W. "Red " Upton father of Sonny. Sincerely, Byron

Tommy, thanks I did find the photos on the HAMB, I've been a lurker on the Hamb for a while and I don't know how I missed that page. The late model sportsman champion in 1969 was Tony Barcelona in Ol Red and Joe Holley in 1970 in the #82 Chevelle. Joe Plowman won the modified points in 1969. As for the super modified champions I'm not sure how it was done from 1970 on because not all races for them were run at Meyer, more of a series champion unless Meyer named a champion just for the races that were run at Meyer. Also the color photo of the #11 Chevelle, I posted that it was Jack Ingram, after seeing the Ingram photo that you posted the color photo is not the same car. Color photo has sponsors on the sides the b&w photo has no sponsors on the sides, it must be local racer Leroy Friend (I remember his car as being orange), unless it is someone else. The Harold Harris #4, I don't remember it with that body work. The car was supposed to be a former Can-Am car and Harold first ran it without any body on it at all and it was powered by a Chrysler Hemi engine. The #24 rear engine car of Von Carpenter was later raced by Butch Harris and Caroll (sic) Cheek, it did have a Volkswagen engine. Cheek and Harris turbocharged it but I remember being told that they had trouble with the heads melting. I think they streched the frame and also ran larger tires. I'm not totally sure but Roy Tuley may have run this car with his injected 289 Ford engine for a season. thanks: Byron

The Bill White/Jackie Woosley crash This was in 1969, I checked one of my old programs, White was driving the blue #2 (tall) car. Woosley never raced again after this accident, he was in the yellow #8 Edmonds car owned by Bill Breasher. Other notes, James Woosley was listed as the driver of the purple #4 that Jackie had previously driven. thanks, Byron

Hi all The blue #2 of Bill White and the red #52 of Cade are different cars but may have built by the same person. In about 1975/76 my brother bought a tire changer from some people in Alvin that were part of the team that John Rezek was driving for and the 52 car was sitting out in the gravel parking lot minus engine and trans and covered with dust. Also these two cars raced against each other many times, the #2 was last raced with a flat roof not attached to the body, a sort of mini wing. One more thing, on page 22 the program cover the #7 Blumrick coupe beside the Burton #5 you can really see the difference in height of the two cars. Check the relation of the grilles to the front tires and axles. thanks; Byron

Hi ya'll Man this is gettin interesting. In 1965 Charles Ritter was driving the long red # 51 with a 430 Lincoln engine and from what there was of the grill I would also say it's a 39 Chevy. I am sure this car became the white #15 still with Lincoln power but with what looks to be a 49-51 Ford body cut down to fit. In 65 there was a #15 that was driven by Charlie Kittel, the car was first painted a deep red lower portion and off white upper area. At some time during the latter part of the season it was painted solid red and lettered for AC Auto Salvage the same as Ritter's car. Earlier in the year there was a #52 AC Auto Salvage team car that was driven by Al Prible(sp) and Lee Cade, I don't remember it making very many shows. The cab on the #15 was longer than any of the other cars, someone posted a color picture on here somewhere of it running into the back of another car. This eventually became one of Roy Tuley's #88's, I don't remember it after that. The green 13 is difinitely John McLaren, note the two hood scoops for the cross ram 426 Dodge engine. The Halloween car was driven by Bill Mullins. thanks Byron

To add to the modified #55. I started attending Meyer in 1965 and I believe this was the car that was Walter Ballard's #5 that year. As I remember this car was taller than any other car out there and was powered by a 427 Ford and sponsered by Republic Ford. The car was painted red and from listening to other fans we were told that it was Burton's old car, we never got to see M.J. or Don Burton race at Meyer and I don't know if it was actually thier car or people thought that because it was number 5. After Ballard built his new car the 5 became the #55 driven by a driver announced as Freemon Neal. Thats the way I remember it, however theres no way to know what cars were sold off to build new cars and which cars were updated with new sheet metal and continued with the same owner or driver. With the exception of the #1 Schild coupe and the #7 Blumrick coupe it appears to me that a lot of the modifieds went through several drivers and different engines and paint jobs from 1965 to the end of the modifieds. One key to the identity of the #31 coupe are the small slots where the roof meets the quarter panel trunk area. Ya'll have solved one question for me, I remember the Paul Maire #2 and the #76 that Rushing drove, I did not know it was the same car. I do remember that it was destroyed when Rushing rolled several times out of the fourth turn and he spent some time in the hospital. I think Harry did not drive again until he drove a late model.

I talked to my brother today about who beat Freddy. The first he remembers is Larry Schild in the orange Chevelle #7. Larry took off and it appeared that Freddy was saving his car for a yellow flag to close the straight away gap that Larry opened up, but it didn't happen and Larry won by a big margin. This was when Meyer was running double features and on Sunday afternoons, starting the season earlier than usual. Freddy came back and won the second feature. He also remembers Jay Gonzales beating Freddy in a heat race and Tony Barcelona beating him in one of the two qualifying heats for one of the Permatex 200's, the crowd went crazy. It was always a big deal when someone beat Freddy. I hope this is all correct. thanks Byron