Revved Up Dave Moody

[RodneyRodriguez]

Great thoughts on NASCAR and short track racing from one of the best. Give a listen and take notes. 
 

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/SeBY3wLjHj7WL2r46

Edited November 17, 2021 by RodneyRodriguez

[Nathan]

It was fun to hear him on yall's show.  I listen to his show everyday

[ron.brown11]

Enjoyed the show! Dave Moody is a pretty smart guy when it comes to racing. Man, I'd love to see the Texas asphalt racing make a comeback. I started out attending races at a great 1/2 mile high banked dirt track, that had the pits in the infield. I loved it. Then they paved it. Fifty years later, I still remember that first race after it was paved. As I started to cross the track through the crossover gate, I was nearly rear ended by the ramp truck that was hauling the late model that I helped on. As I crested the road, and started to cross the track, I just stopped. I had an epiphany, this was where I was supposed to be. It took 20 years before I saw the next dirt race in person. I still love a good dirt race, but it has never held the same feeling as a good asphalt race. I'm certain that there are just as many race fans that feel the opposite, and that great. There's no such thing as too much good racing!! 

[HiTech]

ron  my first was cc speedway way back in the early 60s .. my first dirt track was river side not to watch to but drive my first race with a car built for cc speedway .cc was closed already ..man did i have fun not knowing what the heck i was doing . but my first race i finished 3rd out of ten cars .. i was in heaven .. after that was hell .. but worth it .i learned a few things on dirt that helped me 5 years later at cc .how to handle a loose car and few other issues.. dirt will make you a better driver in many ways alot of fun  .. but black top will always be number one with me ..  ...

[ron.brown11]

Hey, I'm not knocking dirt racing, or dirt racers but asphalt was my favorite. I really wish that I could have run a season or 2 on dirt, as I feel it would made me a better driver on asphalt. I know that I hated a loose car especially upon turn entry. I didn't mind a push on entry, because as my modified had more that enough engine to drive over the push. But that's not the fastest way around. It seems that I never had a neutral car very often.

I still love racing, and I still miss racing, However, I'm pretty certain my body will ever allow me to compete again. Couple that with the fact that I am now retired and living on a fixed income, I can't afford to anymore. I ran some laps at Thunderhill and at San Antonio in 2 of the cars that Greg Baber had. I really liked his orange and white car that he raced at Thunderhill the best. That car really liked being driven off the right rear, and was fun to drive it that way. I wasn't really wilde about Thunderhill or San Antonio's track layout. I would loved to have had a chance to run some laps at HMP. It was pretty similar to the track that I raced most often, Tucson Raceway Park. So, barring at least 2 major miracles, bench racing & spectating is about all I have left.

Nick, I really hope that somebody (person or company) will step up with whatever you need to keep it going.

[HiTech]

USED TO  knock dirt racing growing up all through  those early years at cc .. i never went to our local dirt track just about a mile or so past south texas speedway  where even terry labonte and many others would run on friday night  i still never went ..  i thought it was for farmers the old riverside advertisment always had WHERE THE BIG BOYS PLAY ... I SAID BUT THE MEN PLAY ON BLACK TOP AT CC SPEEDWAY .. then i got humbled in 84 having to race  at riverside  the only track open at the end of seaon when i finaly got my first car i could call  junk now ..i got my hundred dallors back when i scrapped it .. ....i am like you ron now retired and  been out of the car to long  . i look at alot of drivers today and realize i would be in the way  i would be  one of those  i use to hate on the track old man ..    i would now carry  the get the hell off the track old man  title .. ..

Edited November 22, 2021 by HiTech

[ron.brown11]

I consider myself very lucky to have grown up where I did in Cincinnati in the 60s & 70s. The Reds were perennial champs, and Tri-County (later to be called Queen City) Speedway was located in Sharonville, just outside of Cincy. It was a bad fast 1/2 mile in dirt or asphalt configuration. Forty miles up the road was Shady Bowl, and 65 miles was Columbus Speedway, both asphalt. A 100 miles away was Indianapolis Raceway Park. When Bill Redwine owned and operated Tri-County, they had what was called the Spring Series. It was 4 shows in March, it lasted for 4 years, until Bill decided he didn't want to be a promoter anymore, and leased out the track. If you have ever spent a spring in the midwest, it's not that warm in March usually. I had a little secret that I kept quit from Bill. I dated his daughter Dawn, to get free pit passes. Hey, I worked hard for that $1.85 I got paid, and pit passes were pricey back then too. One Sunday I was sitting in the control tower with Bill talking. It was snowing so hard you couldn't see the back stretch. He was certain they would have to call the show. Me being ever the optimist, no really just 17 and hopeful, said "no, we're going to race". And no kidding, we raced!! Good thing too, it was the largest car count we ever had for a Spring Series race, with 98 cars.

 It was for late models only, and it was normal to have 80-90 show up, for a 24 car main, with 2 promoter optional cars, usually reserved for a local hot shoe that had an issue in their heat race. The heat races were wild, but amazingly/thankfully not that many cars destroyed. Also, these were usually the teams' brand new cars for the season, because Bill always paid a good purse. In those days, short of being in the Carolinas, the midwest probably had the largest supply of great racers. Names like Trickle, Mike Eddy, Bob Sennaker, Mark Martin, Rodney Combs, Larry Moore, Jim Sauter, etc. I'm not kidding, nearly every race was like watching an All Star race!

My last year in Cincinnati, I was lucky enough to work on Gary Bowsher's late model. He was one of the last to win at Texas World Speedway in a NASCAR/USAC/ARCA stock car, on the full oval. His dad Jack, was wild to be around, as he could be very hot headed and moody at times. And I've also seen him be the exact opposite, you just never knew. One thing was certain, he was incredibly competitive. I found out a couple of years ago that Jack never worked for anybody from the time he was discharged from the Navy after WW2, in 1948. He always earned his living racing. He also funded Jim, Gary, Bobby & Todd Bowsher's racing careers from racing. His race team operated from 1949 until his death in 2006. He raced ARCA, when it only had 1 series, unlike now with the NASCAR ownership. If you ran ARCA it was against the best ARCA drivers at every race. No East, West or main series. No kidding, pretty much everyone not named Bowsher was glad when he moved on to USAC stocks. Jack won over 50 races in 3 years, and held the title of the most series wins for a long time. It took Frank Kimmel 2 decades decades of driving to surpass Jack. In USAC, Jack ran fairly regularly, but his main focus was providing USAC stock cars to many of drivers for the annual Indy 500 field. They were usually given by Foyt, the Unser brothers, Parnell Jones etc. Jack hadn't been behind the wheel in USAC stock car for over 10 years, and at the dirt Springfield Mile, if I remember the track correctly (if not Springfield it was DuQoin), Jack's driver didn't show. Jack qualified on the pole, and finished 3rd. He was a wheelman. Gary had some wins in late models (none while I is was with them unfortunately, but he was just starting out), and some in ARCA & USAC. His little brother Bobby won the ARCA championship a couple of times. Bobby actually made the cover of Stock Car Racing magazine. At Daytona for the season opener one season, he and another car got together off 4, and the other car got upside down, ON TOP OF BOBBY'S CAR! It looked the the scene from Top Gun, where Maverick is canopy to canopy with the MIG, only he was literally resting on Bobby's roof. The photographer snapped it perfectly. Some how that car stayed up there for a couple of seconds. Still don't know how at those speeds.

When I lived in Cincy, Tri-County Speedway was 4 miles from the house. That was great for me because I was there almost every Sat night. When they went to racing on Wed nights too, I was there. When I joined the Air Force out of high school, I truly went through withdraws. When I worked on Greg Baber's team, I lived in Del Rio, and Greg lived in Uvalde. I'd drive to Uvalde and off we'd go to either San Antonio or Thunderhill. I worked nights, and usually got off work a little after midnight. I'd get up at 4:30 to get to Greg's, and I'd usually get to bed about 24 hours later. That's a really long day on 3 hours of sleep. So when I bought our house in Buda, Thunderhill was just 8 miles away. I went as often as I could, and loved to stop in and say hello to Nick in the booth. Once I retired I had plans to try and find a team to help a little with. Of course they closed the track then. 

As I said back when the NASCAR weekend races were happening, I'm tired of seeing race tracks close. So Yeah, I'd love to see another asphalt track open for a change, instead of closing.

[ron.brown11]

Sounds like you had a pretty early start in racing.I got to hot lap a late model at Tri-County at age 17. I ran about 1.5 seconds off the team driver qualified. That's a big difference, but I had never been in any race car, so I also hadn't been on any race track either. I started racing straight out of the gate in an asphalt modified, at the ripe old age of 42.  Mine made about 620 hp on 8" wide Goodyear racing slicks. I have never raced anything else, always a mod.I'm pretty sure that's not the smartest way to do it, but it's what I did. I was whining to a very good race car driver, car builder, and friend one night. Pissed off that I should be getting better results more often. Keep in mind that the first couple of seasons I was usually running 12th to about 20th. Then I started consistently running the top 5-10, and I still was whining. So he asked what I thought was the problem. I said it was my old, (used when I bought it) Harris "Combo" car. Harris used to sell the same chassis that could run both dirt & asphalt by shifting the fuel cell and a couple other things, and wa-la a dirt car. They just weren't good cars because they were a compromise(not great on dirt or asphalt). I raced that chassis for a decade. He said "Well, how many of the guys that you are racing & running with every week are driving the same car as last year"? I said that over the last 3 seasons there were only 4 teams, including myself, that were still driving the same chassis, and three were 3 were mid pack or worse consistently. That's when my light finally clicked on. I was still running top 5-10 consistently in a car that was 15 years old, and I'm running in the top 5 now consistently. I never had to replace a clip on either end. He then told me that I was doing really well, with that chassis, and impressed with the results while still using it. That really cheered me up, for a while anyway. Then my next frustration well how much better could I be if I could have bought a good newer chassis. That was short lived though, because I knew I'd never have to money to buy it. So running top 5 consistently wasn't so bad when I looked at what I saved. Plus, I already knew I was moving back to TX, and I know that I couldn't afford to race then. I couldn't earn enough in that small town.