Budman

I remember Allan Dillard well. He was a regular on Friday nights at Austin Speed-o-rama in the early '60's, in the Hobby Stock class. Later, he moved up to the super-modified class, driving the car #41. The most unusual thing about that car was it was a direct drive setup. It had no transmission and no fly-wheel. He had little use for brakes. When he'd lift off the gas, the car would practically stop on its on. It was great fun to watch him out there! if I'm not mistaken, I seem to remember the car having an Edsel engine in it.

Thanks JH. Good to hear from you. 'priciate it.

Any updated info on what's happening in Marion? Any progress? or lack thereof?

Yep H/T. You know me …….. There is always more to the story. My sister got the autograph back in the mid 50's when she was a teenager. I was just a little kid back then.. You see, Jud's older brother and family were our next door neighbors. Jud would frequently stop by there to visit. He liked to laugh, kid and tease us kids. We thought he was really funny. I remember him pretty much as he was described in the Robin Miller piece above as having one of those larger than life, John Wayne type personalities.

I know, I know some of you that get on here are not familiar with Jud Larson or maybe you've never even heard of him. Here's a little background on him. Take a look. Click -------> HERE AND Click -------> HERE

A couple of years ago I was visiting at my sister's home. We were sitting around talking in her den. Somehow the subject of my interest in auto racing came up. Suddenly he stood up and said "OH, I've got something I've been meaning to give you for years. She left the room, then came back in and handed me a little slip of paper. Imagine my surprise when I took it and looked down at it. She had had this autograph for over 55 years.

lol ….. I'm doing OK H/T. Just wish there was a track somewhere around here. How about yourself? Those pics are from 2009. They were shot by Dan - - - rest his soul - - - . He was directing the shots that day. That was about the time he got that fancy new NIKON digital camera. No tellin' how many pics he took that day. He later e-mailed me a few, as shown above. You need to be nice to me on here H/T. Remember who yanked you out of the path of that kid in that dwarf car that came screaming through the pits at THR, then crashed through his pit after he passed us? Must'a had a stuck throttle, I guess. Never seen that in the pits before. You take care now and remember to look both ways before you go crossin' any streets, ya hear?

WHAT ???? ME H/T ??? Now why in the world would I want to crop a purdy girl out of one of my pics ???

Gunnar and Ed. Those two outlaws had a HEATER going up in that trailer!

Here's Brooke, Tavo and that same old man.

Yes indeed it WAS a March race and yeah, it was C O L D that day and night. In the first part of the interview you will see midgets in the background. That was one of those races Tavo was putting on at the time, with the USAC National Midget Series and the NASCAR West Series along with TSRS. I've even got a couple of pics from that race. Here's Kendall and some old man.

H/T, Take a look at this. This dog could be her twin sister. She reminds me a great deal of Sailor. Click -----> HERE

Hey H-T, how goes it? Thanks for the story about Babba. Now I have another story for you. Back about 16 years ago or so, it was a Sunday and it was my birthday. I was sitting with my wife, having my morning coffee, and of course the subject of it being my birthday came up. By that time both our kids had grown up and were gone. I said to her, I think I'll get myself a dog for my birthday. I had had dogs around my whole life and after we got married we always had a dog around. I said to her …….. "Maybe I'll get me a border collie." I had always heard how smart border collies are. But, always being somewhat of a skeptic, I always thought, "Yeah sure, but just how smart can a dog be. Right?" Well, I picked up the Sunday paper from the front yard, took it inside, opened up the classified section and low and behold there was a little add ……… " Border Collie 1 year old female, 512-XXX-XXXX, $100" I called the number, talked to the guy and we went out to his place. I met the dog, decided I liked her, so I paid him and we took her home. Her name was Sailor. The guy I bought her from was a doctor who had no time to spend with her, she was a free roaming dog in a rural neighborhood and kept getting herself and him in lots of trouble with her neighborhood schenanigans. That's why he was getting rid of her. I now know he must have paid a thousand or more for her as a pup, because she turned out to be a pure bred, not some mix. For the first couple of months we didn't know if we were going to keep her. Turns out B/C's are very high energy, curious about and into everything the can get into. They certainly are not good dogs for everybody. But, in the long run, we prevailed, taught her the rules and she calmed down. To make a long story shorter, she became by far and away the most incredible dog I could ever have imagined. She became my sidekick for the next 13 1/2 years. Her incredible level of intelligence still astounds me to this very day. I'll give you one little example. I took her to the vet one day for a regular check-up and annual shots. I walked in with her on a leash because you never know what you are going to encounter when you walk into a vet's lobby. I looked around. There we a few other people seated around the lobby. it looked safe, so I took her off the leash. I wasn't trying to impress anyone. I really didn't even think about it. It was just normal communication between us. I just told her to "Go tell 'um you're here." Well, at that she turned around and trotted over to the front desk, hopped up on her back legs, put her front legs up on the counter with her white tipped tail all awag and announced she was here for her appointment. The girls at the front desk just cracked up that she did that. I gave my left thigh a pat, she looked at me, I gave a nod of my head to my left. She jumped down, trotted over to me, turned around and sat down, I spoke her name to the girls so they would know us. There was a lady sitting next to me. She turned her head and spoke quietly to me, "How in the world did you ever train her to do that." I simply looked at her and replied, "I didn't train her to do that. How could I ? I just told her what I wanted her to do and that's what she did. That's what border collies do." Her reply was simply "Wow". Anyway, as I said, she was my sidekick for years. We lost her a couple of years ago. We woke up one morning. During the night at 14 1/2 years old, she had had a stroke. We rushed her to the vet, but I knew going there what the end result was going to be. So very, very sad. I do miss her so.

Thanks Nick. That Marion location is where I thought this is, but in the news piece they mention "the south side" a couple of times. That kind of had me confused.

Hi James. Thanks for the update on this. I genuinely appreciate it. With regard to Tavo, perhaps you misunderstood my mention of him. What you say about him above is absolutely correct. If you needed someone to get a big project like this up and running he'd be the first I'd think of to call on. That's why I mentioned him. Actually, I consider him a good friend of mine. Heck, I think I got his number here somewhere. Haven't talked with him lately.

I think at this point all of us probably look at this with a certain amount of skepticism, but we can all hope can't we?

Call Tavo Seriously, I just googled the story on Fox 29. Very interesting indeed ! Nick, where exactly in the SA area is this located?

Haven't seen any update info on this thread in more than a month. Anybody on here have any info on what may or may not be happening with this? Perhaps a progress or non-progress report for those of us interested in this?

! ! ! ! Been hopin' & waitin' for a thread like this to show up ! ! ! ! Been so long since I've been to a race anywhere shoot I can't even remember how long. Hope this all works out. Oh, and by the way, the best racing I ever watched was at Speed-o-rama and Pan Am.

OH WOW, Reb. Thanks for posting. Back then, we mostly went out to Oak Hill Downs, s/w of Austin. But once or twice a season Dad would take us down to PanAm in SA. That was always a really big deal for a little kid like me back then. I can still come up with a few names that raced our there then, like Don Fowler, Dick Caufield, Buddy Yantis and Buddy Jerkins to name a few. Of course, back then, there was no I-35. Somewhere out on the south end of Austin, South Congress Avenue simply transitioned into the "San Antone Highway."

Bump for Rocketracer

That's really cool Mark. The Lincoln was often over-looked by the hot-rod crowd, but there is really nothing better than a '39 Linc. coupe. Maybe you need to get with Hrodder on here. The last time I was at his shop, he had an unrestored '39 sitting outside his shop. I'm reminded of when I was a kid. Dad brought home a '58 Linc. Continental that became the family car. While everyone was messing around with trying to hot-rod the 292 and 312 Y-blocks, out Linc. came with a 430 cu in Y-block, heavy duty truck motor. They'd increased the compression ratio to make the car more responsive. Had to run it on ethyl. I don't know the hp rating, but that thing, as big and long and heavy as it was, would get up and GO!

Cool!

Lincoln motor?

Randy, and others on here ................. there is scheduled to be a show including many of these same vintage cars along with some others, including ON-TRACK demo runs (not at race speed) of some vintage indy cars at TWS in November. Keep an eye on this forum for later announcements as the date draws closer.