1974

[Rookie49]

Hope this works

 

Nope lets try again

 

One more time

 

Deleted this picture so I could free up global space.

 

Deleting more.

[Rookie49]

Another one

 

 

 

 

Did you notice Freddy's Hometown?

[txtom]

#75 looks like Larry Phillips of Springfield, Missouri to me.

 

And yes, Chattanooga is where Freddy is originally from. His brother Bobby, who raced some years ago, has a trucking company there, and the family used to have a garage there.

Freddy is remarried, and lives about 30 miles from Branson, Missouri.

 

One of the pictures has a #71 with guy named Fritz Wilson. He was a Colorado hot shoe. You old San Antonio and Speedorama veterans from the 80's may remember a black # 1 camaro with sponsorship from Jolly Rancher candies that came down a few times from Colorado.

That was Fritz's brother Don Wilson. (Not to be confused with Donnie Wilson of OK City)

 

The #36 Joe Shear shown is the father of Joe Shear JR, who has been a crew chief for several racers, including Casey Smith of Austin.

 

#52 is the same Miller that attempted to qualify for the Snowball this year.

 

#14, the name that is illegible is Marv Roberts, a shoe out of Colorado. This particular car raced a lot at the old Englewood track in Denver, but raced the most at I-70 in Odessa, Missouri.

 

The black #75 Torino is Fred Whisler from Missouri. He ran Fords most of his career. Once sold an ex-Holman-Moody chassied Torino he owned to the Marv Roberts listed above, who raced it on dirt.

[Rookie49]

Now Tom,

I knew you would know that. But I was wondering if the rest of the class might.

If you look very carefully at the Larry Phillips picture you can barely see his autograph bleeding through from the other side of the page.

 

Another one for you Tom. This one is easy

 

[txtom]

No one else but Dick Trickle.

This car is purple and white.

Sponsored by A&W Root Beer, and the Tee Pee Supper club in Tomah, Wisconsin.

 

And all the Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer Trickle could get his hands on.

[Rookie49]

One more

 

And all the Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer Trickle could get his hands on.

 

Yeah I remember going by his pits and I had never seen that kind of beer before.

[txtom]

Harlan Beene in the 55 was one of the more successful Shreveport racers. His grandson Trey was recently racing dirt late models.

 

Terry Bivins in the 53 made a total of 28 Winston Cup starts from 1975 to 1977 in cars owned by various folks, notably Walter Ballard of Houston, and Billy Moyer of Arkansas, father of Moyer JR who runs dirt late models.

Bivins, the last I heard anything of him, raced NHRA for a little while. I actually watched him race at Ennis late 80's/early 90's.

[Rookie49]

Harlan Beene in the 55 was one of the more successful Shreveport racers. His grandson Trey was recently racing dirt late models.

 

Terry Bivins in the 53 made a total of 28 Winston Cup starts from 1975 to 1977 in cars owned by various folks, notably Walter Ballard of Houston, and Billy Moyer of Arkansas, father of Moyer JR who runs dirt late models.

Bivins, the last I heard anything of him, raced NHRA for a little while. I actually watched him race at Ennis late 80's/early 90's.

 

Billy grew up down the street from me. He and my father knew each other pretty good.

 

Did you get my email

[Rookie49]

 

couple of more

 

Harlan Beene in the 55 was one of the more successful Shreveport racers. His grandson Trey was recently racing dirt late models.

 

Terry Bivins in the 53 made a total of 28 Winston Cup starts from 1975 to 1977 in cars owned by various folks, notably Walter Ballard of Houston, and Billy Moyer of Arkansas, father of Moyer JR who runs dirt late models.

Bivins, the last I heard anything of him, raced NHRA for a little while. I actually watched him race at Ennis late 80's/early 90's.

 

 

Don't you know that Allison guy?

[txtom]

I got your email, thanks.

 

As for your latest pic. Tom Reffner was part of a trio sponsored by the Superamerica chain of stores in the 70's/80's.

The trio was Reffner, who was known as the "Blue Knight", Dick Trickle was the "White Knight", and Tom Bogeman was the "Black Knight". For a few years, Trickle was known as the "Purple Knight" in reference to his car color, before switching to white cars.

 

 

And Bobby Allison does not need any explanation!

[Rookie49]

 

couple of more

 

Harlan Beene in the 55 was one of the more successful Shreveport racers. His grandson Trey was recently racing dirt late models.

 

Terry Bivins in the 53 made a total of 28 Winston Cup starts from 1975 to 1977 in cars owned by various folks, notably Walter Ballard of Houston, and Billy Moyer of Arkansas, father of Moyer JR who runs dirt late models.

Bivins, the last I heard anything of him, raced NHRA for a little while. I actually watched him race at Ennis late 80's/early 90's.

 

 

Don't you know that Allison guy?

 

Know this one

[txtom]

#25 looks like Pete Hamilton, who raced about anything.

He was also a superb car builder in the 70's/80's, and a noted Texas racer who ran his stuff was J.D. Hughes, who called his purple # 41 Cars "The Sundown Sizzler", in reference to his hometown of Sundown, which is west of lubbock. Hughes owned a oil tool supply company. Got his engines for a long time from Carroll's Machine Shop in Amarillo.

[Rookie49]

This circuit previously known as the MASCAR circuit was kind of the predeccessor of the ASA of the 80's and 90's, But reminded me more of the Romco series in the hometown aspect of it.

Larry Phillips was a big dirt racer until all the tracks around North Arkansas and South Mo. went asphalt. He then switched to asphalt in 73-4 and returned to dirt in the late 70's early eighties. Probably one of the greatest dirt racers of all time.

[txtom]

Larry Phillips also won 5 Winston Racing Series National Championships. One of his crewmembers was James Ince, who went on to Cup cars.

 

Phillips died in 2004 of lung cancer.

[Rookie49]

I was wondering how many guys from around here remember seeing any of these racers at the Austin/ San Antonio tracks back then. Besides Fryar that is. Did this circuit make it to San Antonio as a group.

[txtom]

I believe it was MASCAR as late as 1973, before the name change as on your program.

 

The closest it ever made it to this area was probably Shreveport, Louisiana, or maybe Fort Smith, Arkansas. (The track that is actually located in Pocola, Oklahoma)

 

MASCAR opened it's 1973 season in Jackson, Mississippi, Mobile, and Pensacola. The 4th race was in that area, although I don't remember where, and legendary Baton Rouge racer Warren Hughes died in a plane crash on his way to it.

 

Larry Phillips made it to SAS a couple times, but as a crew chief, not a racer.

The only other one close is Fritz Wilson's Brother Don. I have a pic of Don's car here somewhere, but. I seem to have "0" global space bytes left, and can't post it.

[NickHolt]

The only other one close is Fritz Wilson's Brother Don. I have a pic of Don's car here somewhere, but. I seem to have "0" global space bytes left, and can't post it.

 

I don't know what's up with the global space thing. I have a call in but no response so far. I guess the new software has a bug or two that need fixing...

 

In the meantime, send me whatever you need posted. I still have 30 MB left in my global space.

 

Nick

[Rookie49]

The Fort Smith track was Called Tri-State speedway and was located just across the border. My dad took me there opening night of the track and almost every saturday for the next 5 yreas. It is still running regularly but has been a 3/8 mile dirt track for about 20 years. Boywer Got his start there too in the late 80's early 90's.

[texasprd]

The trio was Reffner, who was known as the "Blue Knight", Dick Trickle was the "White Knight", and Tom Bogeman was the "Black Knight".

 

I'm curious about the equipment Reffner and Bogeman were running at that time. Trickle was running a Mustang (at least the body) - what were the other two running?

[Rookie49]

Refner ran fords also, this particular car was a mustang Mach 1. He also ran some galaxies and torinos if I remember correcctly. Bogeman I don't remember what he ran.

[txtom]

When Trickle was known as the purple knight, he was in fords. He became the white knight with his last ford before going to gm products, mostly firebirds.

Reffner ran some fords, but he also has a long history with the old AMC cars; I have seen pics of a Javelin and a Hornet which had, as he called it, a "highly modified AMC 360". he would not elaborate further. His car number was 88.

I don't know much about Bogeman, but I will look around in some reference stuff and see what I can find.

[txtom]

I had Boegeman's name wrong, it is Johnny Boegeman. he ran GM stuff, mainly a Nova, number 61.

[texasprd]

Thanks, TxTom.

 

It's neat to see that they were running different equipment under the same sponsorship, but then racing (and especially short track, I guess) certainly wasn't as "corporate" back then!

[txtom]

Here are pics of the Knight cars, from the Minnesota State Fair race in 1980.

 

Boegeman

Your best guess on the body style. Black Knight is in front of the number

 

Reffner

Reffner is in his AMC Hornet here, and running # 68, as his usual #88 was taken by Mike Eddy.

You can see Blue Knight on the pillar post

 

Trickle

You can see White Knight on the rear quarter.

 

Purple Knight

This is not a real pic, but a computer drawing of one of Trickle's Mustangs when he was known as the Purple Knight.

[jracer98]

that 61 might be a Citation or varient (new in 9/80).

Jay