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?

Earlier in this thread I mentioned I followed the Texas Fab 5 (Foyt, Larson, Rutherford, McElreath and Ruby) through their racing careers when I was much younger. Then, this evening, I happened to come across the little gem of a race. Turns out all five of them were in it. Take a look.

Is the CATCH FENCING high enough and strong enough? Sure hope so.

Is THAT a sport ?!?!

WHAT !?! ……… and miss Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan as co-commentators for the figure skating ?????

I just took a look at the TV schedule for the weekend. There is also some excellent figure skating on Sunday afternoon. Wouldn't want to miss THAT !

NO PROB, NICK ………….. The check is in the mail !!! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ You might look for it, Oh say about Thursday's mail.

Same thing happens in Ft. Worth on race weekend all the hotels and motels double their pricing on race weekend. When I go, I stay in Burleson, south of Ft. Worth, then commute back and forth to the track all weekend.

Hey, I may be old, but I ain't dead quite yet. I still got money to spend if someone will put on a good enough show for me somewhere around here. But don't go blowing sunshine up my *** , telling me what a great show I'm witnessing. I KNOW what a good show looks like and what doesn't.

I absolutely agree arob. I've been to TMS for both. I think Indy Car puts on a far better show. Much of it has to do with access. We would go up there on Friday mornings and stay through Sunday. Then drive back home Monday morning. We'd be at the track all three days. For the price of a pit pass (about 60 bucks or so), you can walk right into the indy car garages and talk to the crews right there with their cars and they are very friendly and cordial. It makes it all so much more incredibly interesting to the fan. It's just a much more fan friendly atmosphere. Try doing that in N-CAR.

FOR WHAT IT MAY BE WORTH, HERE IS ANOTHER GUY'S OPINION ………….

Hey, maybe I'm a good example, maybe not. I followed Foyt and all his other Texas co-hearts (Larson, Ruby, McElreath, Rutherford throughout their careers. As they began to retire from racing, along came a kid named Earnhardt. I thought heck, that's a pretty interesting character, so I followed him for years throughout his career, until he died in 2001. After that I stopped watching all together. Fortunately, I found a local series run by a guy named MullIns. That guy was putting on incredible shows. I followed that series wherever they raced I went. Then that series shut down, but it got me back to attending local racing nearly every week during the season. Then, I heard about this little American girl who had led the Indy 500 in 2005. I thought HEY, that's pretty cool. I started researching her and her racing background. It was pretty impressive. I started watching her and became quite a fan of hers. Hell, she inspired me like no other driver ever had. I actually started going to Indy Car races. They were great. Then I followed her to NASCAR and started attending NASCAR races. I figured I spent $700 to $800 to attend each race for gas, food, drink, lodging and tickets for the whole weekend, Friday through Monday. AND, believe me I caught a hell of a lot flak on here for doing so. But I didn't care I just kept right on going to see her and those she raced with. So its now last Sunday afternoon. How much did I spend to see the race? Not one single dime. I didn't even bother to turn the damn thing on !!!

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.