PAS 1972

[97car]

Tom is that the Bill Ramey out of the Dallas area who has a son named Kevin Ramey?

[txtom]

Tom is that the Bill Ramey out of the Dallas area who has a son named Kevin Ramey?

 

Yessir, Kevin is racing ASCS Sprint cars in the #7M out of Fort Worth..

 

Bill had an auto repair shop in Duncanville, and I haven't heard anything about him in awhile.

 

We say Leroy in a car with "MEE2" on the side a couple times, this was Bill's car.

[302cominthru]

I just remember how much different HUMMMMMDINGER sounded.

 

Gary had the exhaust running into what was basically a 30 gallon drum, like you get fluids in.

That was a big part of the sound, not to mention the way the rotary engines sounded when they ran anyway. Banks was a mechanic at an Austin Mazda dealer at that time.

When Pan Am closed, and he had no class to run the car in, he went against the bigger hobby class cars at Longhorn, and gave them a wall-eyed fit. He was giving up a lot of weight, but that engine would fly.

 

Those old rotary engines would flat run, but not from a standing start. You had to let them wind. I had one when I lived in Japan in the early 80's, and it would run all day above 7,000 rpm.

 

Take a look at this link, you will see a couple pics of Banks in a very scary situation. Fortunately, he was not hurt.

Banks Flip

 

 

Leroy Brooks in the 02 car was referred to as "The long, tall, skinny drink of water."

 

Your screen name is interesting, as 302 was Brook's number when he raced in West Texas. He shortened it to 02 due to the central Texas tracks not letting 3 digit numbers run.

How many on here know that, before Brooks started racing oval cars, he was a drag racer? One of his drag cars was an old Studebaker sedan.

 

302, Do you know what "Circleburner" was in relation to Leroy?

 

 

I knew Leroy at one time drove a 57 chevy without the front fenders (sort of like the modifieds do today). It was painted ruby red; embossed on the sides of it in sparkling white paint were the numbers "302." On the rear deck lid, for all of the slower drivers to see as he flew past, was the infamous slogan "302 comin' thru." I knew his wife Betty (Betty Joe to Leroy), his son Terry and his daughter Robbie. I imagine "Circle Burner must be Terry. He was a couple years older than myself and my twin brother, so we didn't hang out much. However, he got along well with my older brother Preston, and let me tell you, those two were never far from trouble when they were together. We spent the better part of 8 years getting to know Leroy, Betty, Terry and Robbie. I know Leroy passed away, ironically in '02 and haven't heard much from Terry or Betty. Time has a funny way of eroding friendships. To this day, I regard the Brooks' Family as one the most caring families I've ever known.