tommyo

RETrott, IRT to post #14, it was Buddy Pacluda (SP) who owned the #23 - their previous modified has been the #57 in which Bill Ferris had died in turn one - I actually remember all this because I had dated Buddy's daughter Barbara during this time and had seen the #23 in the garage of the family home many times during the racing season....

OK, all this recently posted stuff musta happened at Meyer after I left there in '73 'cause I don't recognize any of these cars, although the names in the clippings are very familiar... Any idea when these pictures were taken?

If you noticed on the #91 Ford that the "mechanic" is listed as "Tommy" on the front fender... We actually towed this car to Sam Houston High School and rebuilt the engine in the Auto mechanics shop, making a few modifications to the factory stock motor, then towed it back home to the north side of Houston to finish the engine details....somehow I sincerely doubt that too many other Meyer Speedway cars, or portions of them at least, were built in HISD facilities!!!! That "Late Model" series didn't last long, however, and by the end of July I went off the join the Navy so I missed the remainder of the '65 season at Meyer....

Tried this earlier and it didn't "take" so here goes again - trying to get back into this because it's been awhile - top photo is me, my "uncle" and my dad, with the short-lived "late model" season of 1965... Me and Louis Spurgeon, I believe 1968 - I was home on leave and "pitting" for Louis - gave me entrance to the pits... Long ago I had posted several photos of Billy Perran from early 1963 and SOMEONE on here said they believed they had a photo of his tweety-bird '37 Ford from 1962 somewhere, and I am still waiting patiently for that SOMEONE to please post it for everyone to see!!!!!

Today is a Butch day...I earlier posted 2 pics of Butch Biggs in his #77 Limited Sportsman, and now, Butch Harris in his modified something-or other Butch Harris car only, from 1971 And all these of Butch Ontrack from 1972 - Please don't ask me 40 years later why I have so many ontrack photos and not a single photo of Butch with the car!!! But I hope these will help....

Look what I found!!! Butch Biggs with his car and crew and one of just the car, I knew the name was familiar so I looked again...Hope these are what you are looking for...

the name is vaguely familiar but I don't seem to have any photos of Butch - Sorry, I am not sure why I don't - was he a full-time driver?

Sorry to be so late in replying, but I don't get on this site that often - I actually have some photos of Butch ontract at Meyer - I will scan them and try to get them posted tomorrow sometime....

the name sounds familiar - what did he drive?

all these photos look familiar to me, I wonder why?

Regarding post #715, those large photos look like there were scanned directly off my original 8X10's, nice to know some of them actually survived this long - again, has it really been 40 years?

Well, if you're looking for "New" pics you're out of luck, mine are all 40+ years old...damn, has it really been THAT long??

OK guys, I spend most of the summer at the hospital with my wife - she's doing well and back to work now - so I'm still trying to catch up on EVERYTHING around here. Getting almost done and will definately get back to posting soon...please hang in there!! C U Soon...

Hey, all those photos look familiar!!

OK people, I only went to 1 race, I think in 1968 at Moody/Clary Speedway in Navasota, so I'm certainly no expert on ANYTHING that ever happened there...however... I took this picture off the open wheel section of this site...other than the enlarged rear window, doesn't this car look like... this car of Jackie Woosley from 1964...the hood/grill combination, fashioned by Billy Perran, is too similar NOT to be the same car!!

After revisiting this thread, I have concluded that this is indeed the 2 car. After further review, I believe that is Mr. White's trailer. The tire rack is gone but it looks to be Bill's trailer. Thought y'all should know this. Does anyone know who was driving that 16/2 car when this photo was taken, and perhaps, when was this taken? just curious!

Thanks Papa - I haven't forgotten your John Rezek pictures! I have to rescan them all in since I'd already re-sized the previous posted photos - to be honest I've been really lazy lately, at least as far as posting photos - you can probably tell: there hasn't been any in a while! I'm in the slow process of retiring at the moment, but in the meantime, work, yardwork and honey-do projects are keeping me pretty busy. It's not that posting the photos is hard work, but it is time-comsuming. I actually have a few of your photos rescanned already and hopefully, I will get the others done and sent to you e-mail address - please hang in there a bit longer!

OK, no pictures today, just a Meyer Speedway memory, sort of... In 1964, as with many teen-aged boys, I was into building models - ships, planes and particularly, cars. I built a model, pretty much from scratch, of M.J. Burton's big, beautiful #5 car. I took it, one Saturday evening early in May, to the announcers booth and asked Ed Hamblin if I could present my model to M.J. - being only 16, I obviously had no access to the pits - Ed said yes, and during an intermission right before the evenings Modified feature race, I gave my model to M.J. on the front-stretch in a short-informal ceremony. M.J. was really appreciatative and thanked me for the car, and I left thinking that was the end of the whole thing. About a week later I received a hand-written thank-you note from M.J. in the mail, and enclosed in the card was a single ticket to the up-coming Indianapolis 500, which was being shown via closed-circuit television at one of the downtown theaters - I don't remember if it was the Metropolitan or the Majestic - and this was obviously before ABC's flag-to-flag coverage of today. My dad dropped me off at the theater with popcorn and soda money in hand and I quickly found a seat - I don't remember if it was a reserved seat or not, but I had arrived early and set in the center, about half-way back - I guess it wasn't a reserved seat - anyway, I was excited about seeing the race which I obviously wouldn't have gotten to see on regular television. The pre-race ceremonies ended and the race began - we were all on our feet, I remember that for sure. Things went well until the 2nd lap, when Dave McDonald spun into the inside wall just off turn 4 on the main stretch and the rest is history. The race was halted and we waited, silently, for the track to be cleared and for the race to get underway again. I had gone to the pay-phone and called my dad, who knew about the accident because he was listening on the radio. It was nice, a couple of hours later, to see our own A.J. Foyt take his 2nd 500 Mile victory. I have to tell you though, that I couldn't get that big-screen image of the accident and fire out of my head for several days. Although I really enjoyed the race, it was pretty traumatic for me to actually see two drivers die right in front of me. It was probably the most traumatic thing I'd ever seen, right up to landing in Danang 3 years later. I guess I had forgotten the experience pretty much until I recently saw Randy's pictures of M.J. at the Birthday party earlier this year at the Carriage House. It was nice to see M.J. again and to know he's still with us and seemingly doing well. Thanks, Randy, for that little boost to trigger those old memories! And thanks to you too, M.J., if you're reading this - all these years later, pretty much only the good memories from that day remain, and I still appreciate the ticket!!

I believe this is the car you were refering to. This photo is undated, but from 1970. I have the owner as J. Watkins and the driver is W. Smith, so it must be William. Unfortunately this is the only photo I have of the incident - Just for the record, the car was numbered 22.

Right - when I tired of being the track photographer at Meyer (EVERY Friday & Saturday night, several nights in the darkroom, etc - what a difference digital photographer would be in that respect! Anyway, I considered "traveling" with the supers on their circuit and had even talked to several of the owners and drivers about catching a ride with them to and from the other tracks - Mobile, Jackson and Pensacola - I almost did it, but the fact that I would still be tied up every weekend and several nights each week convinced me NOT to do that after all! I simply "walked away" from it all in mid 1973 (I WAS NOT the track photorgapher at the time) and never really looked back until a couple of years ago when I came across all my photo albums from back then - funny how time does that to you! I had been a NASCAR Winston Cup fan for my racing "fix," but after Dale died I quickly lost interest in that too - it was never the same without him and I just didn't (and still don't) like the way NASCAR took WC and turned it into the Sprint-Nextel-Whatever Cup with all the new rules, almost identical cars - especially all those STOCK cars that don't really exist in the real world - you know what I mean!

Right RETrott, when I went back looking for that photo (post #36) of the #11 car, I'd mixed up the owners- I don't remember the name Leroy Friend or whether Vaughn Brune drove that car just that one time or more than that - as the other track info, I appreciate that update - Most of that transpired after I left Meyer, and as I'd said, I'm just trying to fill in those missing years - again, thanks much.. Still trying to figure out whether the supers ran after 1973 at Meyer - no-one seems to mention them on this site after that!!

OK Byron, appreciate the input, as always - I just wish there were more of us responding to questions and topics on this site!! This may sound strange, but I don't recall any color photo of the #11 car - I did post another #11 car from 1970 in post #36, but that was Vaughn Brune, car owned by John Lewis - that photo has sponsor names posted on the side. But I went thru all my photos and I cannot find any color photo of that #11 car! I know my memory ain't what it used to be, but... please refresh my memory about my own photos (!!!) if you can give me a post #!!!

OK guys, a couple more questions for you all - All I see on this site is talk about the Late Models (Broncos???) from the late 70's, but nothing about the NASCAR LMS cars, or for that matter, the super modifieds - what was the last year the supers and the LMS cars ran at Meyer? What happened to them and where did they go?? Also, Hugh Richards won 8 features in 1971 and yet he did not win the title - Munson Stodder took it - Did Hugh ever get a super title at Meyer??

OK guys, I'm still hoping someone can fill in those missing years for me - I still need to know who won the 1970 Super-Modified Championship, along with the 1972 and everything after. Also, still looking for the 1974 LMS champion and certainty that Joe Holly won the 1969 LMS title, along with the 1970. And any more titles from Playland too, if anyone remembers that far back! We need to get Charlie, MJ, George and Ronnie (to name a few) involved with this site!! OH yeah, and any additional LMS titles (or whatever maybe have replaced them) after 1974!

While you're at it, please let me know when this was taken - was Rush the owner or the sponsor here??