A sea of Red

[txtom]

Anyone that knows me knows my favorite color for a racecar is red, so here pics of some of my favorite red race cars.

 

Here is a good one to start with.

We all know the history of this Nova, and how fast it was.

And it still exists in Houston, with a different body on it.

[thrss1]

that pic is one that i use for a screen saver

[Rookie49]

When I saw the topic was sea of red I thought you either meant SAS or a local race team.

[txtom]

Since you mentioned local,

 

Here is a pic of Steve Klestinec in his Limited Sportsman.

This car won the Limited Championship in 1977 at SAS. He won most of the races that year.

He later sold that car to one of the Reiningers.

 

This shot is at Longhorn.

[Rookie49]

I meant red INK. LOL

[txtom]

I meant red INK. LOL

 

I gotcha ya now! Don't think I wanna tread there................!!

 

Here is my buddy Steve in his late model. He ran this car about three years.

This is a Lee Machen Chassis, Big springs with a truck arm rear suspension. The car was only 43 inches tall at the roof.

This car was later sold to Ed Kelley , the same guy who ran the Texas Blackbird jet cars. He ran it as a #66 for a short while, and then it ended up at Marv Fillips shop in San Angelo. Chet Fillip drove it at least once at the Copper Classic, and the trail runs cold after that.

[txtom]

Here is Slick Yoemans in the Cheathem #24 in 1979. He won the Hwy 16 Late Model Championship that year.

This is the same car Terry Labonte won the 1977 Championship with.

 

Slick later became the first driver to see the other side of the fence in this car, in turn 1.

It was repaired and sold to Jerry Edwards, and you can scroll back in this forum and see pics of it at TWS.

[txtom]

Here is another shot of Slick in 1982 at Longhorn. He won the track championships at Longhorn and Corpus Christi in 1981 and 1982.

[txtom]

Another shot of Freddy Fryar, this time in 1985. Headed down pit road at TWS.

[txtom]

This car is well documented on this forum. This is 1984, the first race for the Super Stock class at TWS.

I have several other pics of this car that better show how we shaped the body.

 

We won this weekend, although we had to work for it. Saturday alone, one or the other cylinder heads were off the car 4 times for valve guide problems, and the tunnel dips scraped open a seam in the oil pan. We sprayed it down, tapped closed the seam as much as possible, and coated it with JB weld. That was then covered with silicone, and we then duct taped shop rags in a sort of diaper under the pan. It worked enough to finish the race.

[txtom]

Here is the car on pit road with the new nose. We ran this nose the rest of the races up there. It is a Late Model Firebird nose.

[RockStan]

tom i have a hole bunch of pics of that car as well as others from that era i gave david some a few years back ask him for them to scan they are really good pics if i remember right

[ACE44]

Here are some of my favorite, for personal reasons.

[Rookie49]

i don't know much history on the 44's but those are sharp cars.

[FryarFan]

txtom

 

Thanks for brightening the day with some good pics of the great one.

 

Billy

[txtom]

Thanks for brightening the day with some good pics of the great one.

 

Billy

 

Hi Billy,

Thought you'd like those pics of Freddy. Give me a couple days to get over something else that is going on, and I will post a pic I have of one of his camaros, as well as the #46 car he won at TWS with in 1984. It was the car owned by Eddie Howard--Eddie's Auto Parts in Harahan, Louisiana.

Ya'll previously saw that car at San Antonio for one of the All Pro races with Rat Lane driving it.

[Josh42]

Here's a red car that was awesome

[ivicic]

AMEN Brother Josh! I remember watching that car alot!!!!

[txtom]

Old man Keith can still turn a good wheel, although ya gotta keep oxygen handy...........!

[RodneyRodriguez]

Tom do you have any pics of the car Slick raced in '81? It was a darker red, maybe marronish with yellow 24 and Allen's Fence Co. on it, I remember that car ran part of '81 in silver sheetmetal before the new paint job got tore up in the season ending race @ Speed O Rama?

[txtom]

Not sure if I have that one, Rodney, but I will look. A lot of my pics are stashed away until I get rid of a boomerang kid and get my hobby room back.

But I do have a pic of his all-black car at TWS, and my dad has a pic of the blue car from 84.

 

The black car is the one that Scotty Garrett raced for awhile. There was a guy in Austin whose name escapes me, but it was something like Zambese or close to that. I don't mean anything by this, but he was disfigured from burns in some kind of accident. Super nice guy, and I know you would have seen him in the Pits. Anyway, he bought the car and had Garrett drive it. May have been the last car Scotty drove before quitting.

 

You may remember the Blue car as the one Slick took to the front of the 84 All-Pro race at San Antonio, and was leading handily when the battery died. Alan Yates was some kind of pissed on that one.

[Crazyhorse]

i do somewhere.......it had wicked front fenders with tiny yellow flames

[RodneyRodriguez]

I remember tthat car, I think that dude was Mike Krizan or something like that. I have some pics of Slick in that black car and even one from SA with Yoemans in that car, it was red.

[302cominthru]

This car is well documented on this forum. This is 1984, the first race for the Super Stock class at TWS.

I have several other pics of this car that better show how we shaped the body.

 

We won this weekend, although we had to work for it. Saturday alone, one or the other cylinder heads were off the car 4 times for valve guide problems, and the tunnel dips scraped open a seam in the oil pan. We sprayed it down, tapped closed the seam as much as possible, and coated it with JB weld. That was then covered with silicone, and we then duct taped shop rags in a sort of diaper under the pan. It worked enough to finish the race.

 

TxTom - is this the car Leroy Brooks tuned and Jerry Grant drove? I know you had stated in another thread that Leroy worked with you and Jerry regarding the #81 at TWS. Pretty neat stuff.....

[txtom]

TxTom - is this the car Leroy Brooks tuned and Jerry Grant drove? I know you had stated in another thread that Leroy worked with you and Jerry regarding the #81 at TWS. Pretty neat stuff.....

 

Yessir, Leroy pretty much did all the tuning on that car from the time we started racing it in 1981.

He was a perfectionist on timing, valve clearance, etc.

Briefly, we got the chassis partially built from Harold Oatman. It was someone's deal he started and never finished after the customer ran out of money. All the basic chassis work was done, as well as some of the sheetmetal. We left all this alone, as Harold was a stand-out car builder; we knew it was done right.

This car went on to have a significant brain trust behind it. Owned by Lee Machen at Special Automotive, the chassis was finished by Mac with technical help from names such as Danny Stewart, Freddy Fryar, Jerry Grant, Leroy Brooks, Steve Klestinec. Engines were built at various times by Mac himself, Butch Lake, Joe White, and we even had input from, and bought parts from, Ron Neal at Prototype Engines out of Illinois.

 

The first year the car ran, David Machen drove it as a street stock about 3 times at Longhorn, and three times at Killeen. He later joined the Navy, and the car sat until the middle of 1982, when Mac and Jerry joined forces. We won 5 of the last 8 races at Longhorn in 1982 with a brake related DNF, a 2nd place, and a badly scattered Lake engine.

In the years to come, the car raced at, and won at, Longhorn, San Antonio, Odessa, Altus, I-70 in Missouri, and several Super Stock races at the TROC races at TWS. Brooks even drove it at Longhorn, with the late models. After Grant ran it as a hobby stock, they brought it in, changed tires, put gas and Leroy in it, and he went out and ran second in the late model feature after starting scratch. You cannot believe the howling about that one.

The car still sits in a truck box behind Mac's shop in Austin, with different sheetmetal on it, as well as a few other changes. Last attempt at a race was in 1993. (Drove to Odessa to have valves hit pistons in 2 laps of practice. I will be nice to Lake about this one).

 

One of my favorite pieces of memoribilia is the original hood off the chevelle, the only original body work left off it. Mac gave it to me several years ago, I will not part with it.

And it says "Tuned by Leroy Brooks" on it!