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clarence lovell


oldsoldier

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your dad keeps good company cory................bobby allison and david pearson.

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Clarence Lovell was one of my heros when I was growing up. He worked as a mechanic at my dads shop and I would go watch him at PAS every Sat. nite. When he went Grand National, my dad bought him a couple of sets of tires. I would look for his name in the results page of the paper on Mondays. Have lots of good memories of him.

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I'd like to see a color copy of this pic;

As ya'll may know, the #61 was Don Bierschwale's car, and it had gold numbers on a basic white car with either orange or red trim.

 

This pic is from 1972; Clarence competed in 12 races for Bierschwale, all were in Fords.

Clarence did run a Ford in one race in 1973, at Darlington, but that is not Darlington's wall in the background; that is why I think the pic is from 1972.

 

While Lovell competed in 16 events for Don, other drivers who raced for Bierschwale were Jimmy Finger, Johnny Rutherford, Iggy Katona, Ed Sczech, Dick Brooks, A.J. Foyt, and Eddie Bierschwale, for a total of 81 races from 1971 to 1992.

 

And if the pic happens to be from the 1972 Texas 500 at TWS, A.J.Foyt was piloting the Wood Bros 21 that day.

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It was my honor to be asked by the Lovell family to write and present the eulogy at Clarence's funeral. His family had his headstone engraved with some of my words.

 

The ceremony was attended by so many people that they not only over-filled the chapel and the foyer but about 100 were outside in the funeral home's front yard including the then mayor of San Antonio, Charles Becker.

 

Clarence had survived a 25 car wreck at Talladega and placed 4th just three days before he died in a traffic accident on Loop 410 in San Antonio.

 

 

Neil Upchurch

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It was my honor to be asked by the Lovell family to write and present the eulogy at Clarence's funeral. His family had his headstone engraved with some of my words.

 

The ceremony was attended by so many people that they not only over-filled the chapel and the foyer but about 100 were outside in the funeral home's front yard including the then mayor of San Antonio, Charles Becker.

 

Clarence had survived a 25 car wreck at Talladega and placed 4th just three days before he died in a traffic accident on Loop 410 in San Antonio.

 

 

Neil Upchurch

"he raced the good race"

see it all the time. thanks Neil

Cory Lovell

 

your dad keeps good company cory................bobby allison and david pearson.

hey SP, thanks but he is actually my uncle. But im still damn proud. Ive never heard anyone say anything cross about him. Wish I could of followed in his footsteps.

 

Thanks all you guys for remembering.

 

Ive actually got some more old pics but I dont have a scanner. Maybe I can get them to one of ya'll to post for me. I really like reliving the history of the sport.

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Cory doesn't have a scanner, but his dad the Duck does! Give me a couple days to get them together and I'll post what we have.

 

And, Neil, I thanked you at the time, but it just seems never enough to thank the people who helped the family get thru that particular loss. Thanks Again.

 

FYI: Clarence did finish 4th at Talladega the Sunday before he died .. he was teamed with Benny Parsons who finished 3rd....

Benny invited the family to be his guest at the Winston Cup Race at Texas World Speedway a couple weeks later.

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Well, I've found the album .. and scanned a bunch of pics - too many to post at one time, so I'll spread them out over several days. Also have some newspaper clippings and a few photocopies of clippings (which are suffering from age.) Where possible, I'll scan the clipping and post it; those that won't scan, I'll retype.

 

Don't know any good way to cover it all, so will just start at the beginning and go from there.

 

The first year I have anything for is 1967 - the year I got out of the Navy. Clarence had already raced a year or so before that with his partner, Ronnie Groff. Seems Clarence and Ronnie had been drag racing for a while when they dicided to go to a race at Pan American Speedway. Clarence told me later that when they found out they could win $$$ in addition to trophies, they decided to switch! So Ronnie and Clarence built a car and took turns driving. I guess neither was happy with the arrangement 'cause they both wanted to drive!

 

Next year they split the sheet, so to speak, and Clarence built this car: a 1955 Chevrolet, powered by a 283 cu.in. bored .060 over with hi compression pistons and a 750 cfm 4bbl. You might note the tow bar .. no trailer that year (also used a "car hauler" which was basically a winch on a "T" frame with wheels that you towed behind another vehicle.) It was a real bear to tow because the spider gears were welded in the rear end and the rear tires had lots of stagger not to mention the total amount of traction it had versus a regular car or pickup!

 

post-3-1173211763_thumb.jpg

Picture was taken in the driveway of our house in Leon Valley.

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...Clarence built this car...

 

That would have been a year or two before I, as a 6-year old, dragged Dad out to the races. Brings back fond memories of watching the races as a wide-eyed kid, and loving every minute of it. That's still the style of car many of the guys were running when I made my first trip to the track (in '69, I think).

 

Heck, I may have even seen that car race at PAS!

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Sometimes there was extreme body work needed .. so you cut off the bad.......

post-2606-1173291667_thumb.jpg

 

then you gathered up replacements....

post-2606-1173291774_thumb.jpg

 

Yeah, the "shop" was the paved parking area next to the service station's bays... Did you notice the addition of the hood scoop?

 

Here's Clarence and Norwin Schimcek putting some finishing touches on the car...

post-2606-1173291928_thumb.jpg

 

And Clarence built a new trailer .. out of service station hydraulic lift ramps and some "C" channel. Here's a shot of the car on the new trailer .. working out the correct placement for proper weight distribution.

post-2606-1173292102_thumb.jpg

 

And, finally, off to the races!

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More later......

 

aint nutin like the old days of 55 56 chevy.s and fords going at it...good old thick finders and body.s not like todays sardine cans .you could hit something and keep on going ...

 

but sometimes they didn't "keep on going..."

 

This wreck happened in 1968 at Pan American Speedway? Anybody remember who drove the #31?

post-2606-1173292492_thumb.jpg

 

 

Seems like it took an hour to get them apart...the 31's right front is inside and in front of the 7's left rear!!!

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Was the #31 Clifton Bowren?

You're absolutely correct! Clifton was also the center of some controversy .. actually a disagreement between the racers and Ricci Ware over the purse. Back then the purse was a percentage of the gate. The racers claimed Ricci was short changing them. That disagreement led to the creation of the "South Texas Racing Association." Clarence served a term as Vice President .. I believe Clifton was the first President...

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Some time after the PAS great boycott, Don gathered some "shareholders" and built what was known at that time as Highway 16 Raceway. Slogan: "The bullshit stops when the green flag drops."

 

The two tracks competed for only one season with Ware throwing in the towel at the end of that year.

 

Interestingly, several years later, Frank Howell, who now owned the lease at the half-mile track, hired Ricci Ware, Sr. to be the his promoter. Ricci did a bang-up job of it, but lost some of is enthusiasm when he and Mimi witnessed their son Ricci, Jr. hit the outside wall almost head on coming off turn 4 in his open-wheeled modified. Ricci was airlifted out of the facility with a broken neck and was in terrible shape for quite a few weeks.

 

To the best of my knowledge, Ricci, Jr. has not been in a race car since, and took a job with USAA as a trainer.

 

Ricci, Sr. still works in radio in the San Antonio area. He and his son, Trey, can be heard on KTSA-AM550 mornings.

 

Nick Holt

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Here's Clarence and Norwin Schimcek putting some finishing touches on the car...

post-2606-1173291928_thumb.jpg

 

Note the Buick finned aluminum brake drum visible in this picture.

 

And.... (not racing related) but from a nostalgia viewpoint I noticed the "Toms" vending machine in the service bay picture. I paid a lot of attention to service station candy and "soda" machines when I was growing up. :P

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Ricci, Sr. still works in radio in the San Antonio area. He and his son, Trey, can be heard on KTSA-AM550 mornings.

 

not to hijack the thread, but speaking of ricci sr. i saw in the paper yesterday that he is going to have or just had hearing correction surgery to restore his hearing after years of radio station headphones and race cars as the artical put it. hope he has a speedy recovery.

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And.... (not racing related) but from a nostalgia viewpoint I noticed the "Toms" vending machine in the service bay picture. I paid a lot of attention to service station candy and "soda" machines when I was growing up.

 

You musta visited that one with some friends, it looks empty.....................

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