PJMoore

My little brother, Mike Moore, raced in the preliminaries in the Garland Nationals against Sleepy Tripp in B Mod class. When the flagman signaled Mike to give the racing line to Sleepy, Mike immediately turned outward, directly into Sleepy's path. Sleepy flipped end for end and did a fair amount of damage to his car. My dad and Mike, knowing we had no chance at the finals, offered Mike's car to the Tripp's. They swaped their engine into Mike's car and went on to a win. It was a very fast car, and Sleepy was just a natural at driving. We later moved to Tulsa, and raced there before moving again to Memphis. Memphis had a dirt track and we had never driven on dirt. Mike took two laps around the track throwing a lot of rooster tails, but hardly going as fast as on asphalt. We sold the car that day. I had raced briefly in box stock rigid axle in a Racecraft, but I was already approaching 12, and the little kids were running all over me. I moved to pit crew and helped dad with Mike's car. We bought the first two cars, shown on the trailer in San Francisco in 1959 or 1960. They were both box stock rigid cars. We later bought the B Mod, but I cannot remember what make it was. If anyone can tell me the models of these cars that would be great. We towed them back to Richardson Texas behind a 36 hp Volkswagon Camper bus with 5 people in it. When we stopped at a motel to get showers, we took down the cars and gave an impromptu exhibition and free rides to the other kids in the parking lot. The next to the last picture is of myself, in 1955, sitting on the rear wheel of the winning Indy car - the John Zinc Special. Getting to sit in that car at 5 years old was quite a treat. I never thought at the time I would ever race a car myself. I have fond memories of Garland, and the races, and my first date with one of the race dad's daughters, Carolyn Hodges, at a De Molay dance. Thanks, Carolyn, for teaching me to dance, and for not making me feel foolish doing it. Note: Detail from above pic