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I had that very copy of Texas Speed for years along with several other prints of Texas Speed and programs from Cowtown, Sportstrome and Buffalo Park. I remember that copy of Texas Speed because of the #1 Limited Mod on the front. And, Limited Mods were very different looking. I held on to those copies for about 18 years and then fooled around and lost them in a move a few years ago. Sick about that.

 

I really enjoyed those Sunday evening NTRA events. It was awesome because we could see Ingalls, Ron Golden, Dotson, Rawdon, Farris and others all running together. What a great time and Doug was very impressive. As a teenager in the early 80's it was great to see those guys all running.

 

Thanks for posting the material. Brought back great memories.

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Texana55,

The NTRA was the best of the best. Bo Rowden, Keith Green, Ron Golden,Gary Bell, Eldon Dotson, Russell Shoulders, Doug Ingalls, Mike Knowles, Max Thomas, Joey Sontag, Robert & James Burrows, Joe Studivant, Shela Tidwell, Cecil Farris, James Pack, Tom Ridenhour, Billy Suggs, Jimmy Allard, Ed Chapple. That was just 1982, Later Gary Wright joins in. I count 11 former champions in the 82 group, There may be more?

I am going to try to do a profile ever month or so. I am no writer, but I was 10 when I saw my first race and started collecting everthing by age 13. Although I didn't know how to store them properly, I have always keep them. The last few years I been in the process of orgaizing them and storing them the best I could. The materal and Photo's I have collected is the most valuable possion I have. It may not mean squat to others but I would fight you over this stuff!

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On the write up, it brought back to mind so many memories, of which a couple stood out that I think were both around 81 or 82.

 

I may have this one backwards on which track was first for the night. So, it was either Sportsdrome or Cowtown first... Anyway, I was at Sportsdrome one night in the stands. Much along the lines of the Doug Ingalls scenario, Eldon Dotson had gone to Cowtown. He won the feature there, packed up and pulled into Sportsdrome, went straight into the feature and won there also. I did witness the win at Sportsdrome and assume it was true he had won at Cowtown.

 

On another night at the Sportsdrome, Cecil Farris blew up his motor in the heat race. This was about the time they had just move to the wide body mods as best as I can remember. We looked from the top of the grandstands and could see the rig leaving. (his salvage yard was less than 1/4 mile away on Jefferson). A while later we see the car being driven back to the track. They had changed the motor. He came back and won the feature that night and the car was screaming. As intrigued teenagers, we went into the pits after the races and listened to him telling that he placed his sportsman motor in the car. We were amazed.....On one other night his power steering went out and he won the feature. When he got out of the car, he said he could barely lift his arms.

 

By the way, was one of the pics you had on the post from Texas Speed a picture of Billy Carroll's #4 car? I couldn't quite for the picture, but it did look like it to me.

 

Looking forward to your next write up...

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He would have ran Sportsdrome first the Cowtown back then,it could be done because at Cowtown they were towing street stocks back and forth most of the night and the final race sometimes did not get over until 2am. Those were the days,did you go to the 10K to win at Buffalo Park back then? Don't forget James Pack, Harvey Armour, Rick McComas,Curtis Pierce and too many others to mention.

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Texana55, you are correct, that was Billy Carroll on the cover the "King of Limited Modified". It sounds like you need to put together a profile on Cecil? I didn't know him personally and if i ever saw he race I don't remember it.

Thanks, for expessing enjoyment from the profile, It took a lot of time and i had hoped someone would enjoy it!

Blessings, Kenny Kemp

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Cecil ran the#9 modified was kind of a baby blueis color,he really did better in his home built cars the the fancier cars and engines.

 

First time I watched Cecil Farris race was about 77 or 78. I remember the Figure 8 races at Sportsdrome, but not certain if he ran those or not. There are pictures scattered about of his cars on various sites I've stumbled across. He did always have the baby blue color scheme. Before they moved to the aluminum bodied mods and several guys were running the reshaped 30's coupes, I remember a mod that Cecil had which appeared as about a 57 chevy that looked as if had been squeezed to make it more narrow on the body. When Cecil started running the wide bodied mod in the 80's we all thought that was the coolest thing ever. When Eldon Dotson pulled that big rig into the pits at the Sportsdrome one night, we thought Hollywood had come to town. As we got our drivers license and could go to other tracks we started running to Cowtown and on Friday nights, there was nothing quite as good as Buffalo Park because all of the Saturday night drivers could be seen in one spot. One more thing that blew me away was to see my 9th grade Algebra teacher (Phil Harris) driving a late model bodied car at Buffalo Park. Suddenly Mr. Harris became a celebrity to me.

 

At the Sportsdrome, Cecil was king in mods to us and Carey Felkins became the king in stock cars (called Economy Stock at that time). I think what made Cecil so unique to us as teenagers, was that we could see him on the track and then see him in town during the week. He was pretty much a celebrity to us but probably never realized the impact he had on us as teenage fans. I went to the same high school as Cecil's son, Mike who was a year ahead of me. A little over two years ago as I was starting to get into racing after dreaming about it for so many years, I started doing some web searches to see if Cecil's name appeared. Low and behold, I found out that he was still racing up at Paris Motor Speedway. I learned that last year that the Farris' purchased the track and Mike is the operator. I emailed Mike and received a reply. I hope to get up there some day soon.

 

Watching Cecil race had a life long impact on me personally. Of course he never knew this and never knew me personally, but I really believe he was the inspiration for me all the years keeping the dream alive to someday race, and I made that dream come true starting in 2005. I had an incredible dream season last year (2006) with 9 feature wins and a Track Championship. I have a couple of buddies that help me tremendously at the shop, but my (currently 12 year old) daughter who will start in minis soon and my 12 year old nephew make up my crew at the track. We have not had time to update it in a good while but if you wanna check out my website, it is www.ykc.com/mcchamber. I did write up some memories and you if you click on the letters link and "Monty's Story" you can see Cecil mentioned there. If you read that item, it gives a description of what dirt track racing means to me. I did that to save the thoughts in case I ever get too old to remember all this stuff. I've adopted the theme "Dirt Running Through my Veins" because I did feel like it was injected in me and never left.

 

By the way, I know there is a user on these forums by the name "Tonguetied Cowboy". He apparently was around way back then and has lots of pictures. He has some great memories and I've enjoyed reading his information. I could go on and on and on, which I tend to do, but will come back to this thread and post more later and I will try to stay on the topic of the legendary drivers (lol)....

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Texana55, I knew about Cecil and have downloaded some pic's from DFW racers web site. But I have never been to sportsdome and don't recall ever seeing him race. Thanks for the write up, and you aren't just rambing, I too have dirt in my veins and I cling to every word.

 

Also Phil Harris is currently running the 305 sprint series of Texas, if you didn't know. He has been racing a long time! I saw him take a bad roll @ the bowl once driving a full sprinter. I think that was about 1980.

 

Tonguetied Cowboy, I not sure who he is but I have read many of his post on WHOWON.COM. It is obvious he has been around just a little while. LOL

Kenny

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