Budman Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 IF there was a website, be it this one or some other, honoring those great drivers of the past from this region who are no longer with us, which of them would you nominate to be included? I have a few that come to mind, but I'd like to hear from the rest of you also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiTech Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 LARRY KRAUS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest THRRD Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 The great Waldo Harper!!!!! Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyRodriguez Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 Jake Wallace Sr.!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 Kevin Stuberg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAPA Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 BUDDY YANTIS JOHNNY DOYLE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oatey220 Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 Buddy Honoring the racers that are no longer with us is great idea and quite a few come to mind like Fred Elbel, Buddy Yantis and Waldo. I would like to see a "where are they now" section, so one could ask about folks that raced a long time ago and not so long ago, like Todd Ford, Glen Schwabe and so many more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazyhorse Posted February 22, 2007 Report Share Posted February 22, 2007 my bad.........just sped through it and did'nt see the no longer with us part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted February 23, 2007 Report Share Posted February 23, 2007 Leroy Brooks comes to mind.....as well as John Foster from Odessa. Two legendary West Texas racers and great guys to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted February 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2007 Here's a few I have in mind. They were all local short-track veterans of this region. Wayne Niedecken went on to a very successful career and became quite famous in the southeast in the late model ranks. Billy Wade went on to a successful, but all too short career in Nascar. Jud Larson and Cecil Green both raced the local short tracks around here and went on to compete in the Indianapolis 500. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STREET02 Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 My vote would be Leroy Brooks !!! One of the Drivers I couldnt wait to see run when I was a kid. when I finally started racing ....and had to choose a number ...#02 was choice one. Just wish I was quarter the talent !! You know !! He was one hell of a driver !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyT66 Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 gotta agree on the 02 car of LEROY BROOKS.in austin and pas he was awesome to watch.and always gave advise to anyone that asked for help.raced at a time when car counts were high and comp really tough.....frank t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer Duck Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 I gotta mention my brother, Clarence (Slim) Lovell. He raced both Pan American Speedway (on Topperwien Rd) and Austin Speedorama from 1966 to 1972. He built the first truck arm short track car in Texas for the 1971 season, a 1969 Camero. That year he took the Camaro to Monterey, Mexico, for his first road course race and finished with a Top 10. He won the Firecracker 250 at Pan American Speedway on July 3 and set the Super Stock track record at Austin Speedorama with a sizzling 15.95 seconds on Aug 27; all with that red and gold #7 Camaro. (That record stood for a decade or more.) He won many races and many fans, but never a championship. In 1972 he replaced Jimmy Finger in Don Bierschwale's #61 NASCAR Winston Cup '71 Ford. With 12 starts, he racked up a 12th at Texas World Speedway, a 13th at Michigan, a 15th at Dover, an 18th at both Charlotte and Daytona and a pair of 20ths at Dover and Darlington earning him 32nd place in the Winston Cup Points Championship for 1971. Not bad for a rookie who'd never raced on much else than 1/4 mile ovals, except for the road course at Monterey. Oh, yeah, he did his own wrenching too! In 1973 he participated in 4 Winston Cup events before his untimely death in May of that year. In those 4 races he racked up a 9th at Atlanta and a 4th at Talladega driving their new 1973 Hutcherson/Pagan Chevy Laguna. His first race in Winston Cup was at Talledega on May 7, 1972 (what a place to break in!!!) - he qualified 21st and finished 32nd, 67 laps down. His last race was at Talladega on May 6, 1973 - he qualified 12th and finished 4th, 3 laps down. He died 4 days later in a car accident in San Antonio. Along the way he won the respect of such racing notables as Richard Petty, Leonard Wood and Benny Parsons. He disliked "dirty drivers" and always raced clean. He refused to use the "bump and go" .. he'd always try to pass on the outside and was usually successful.. Most drivers knew when he got behind them it was only a matter of time before he passed them - cleanly. He loved racing. Racers and fans loved him. As Neil Upchurch wrote in his eulogy: "He raced the good race." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted March 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 Thanks Duck, That's precisely the type of post I was hoping for when I started this thread ............ a great memorial testiment to one of the greats of our region. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer Duck Posted March 7, 2007 Report Share Posted March 7, 2007 Just ran across some more results on Clarence: October, 1972: ARCA Royal Triton 300, Texas World Speedway, finished 6th. (Does anybody know where to find ARCA results from the '70s? - I haven't been able to find anything - this came from an article in the June '73 issue of Motorsport but I haven't been able to verify it.) Apr 7. 1973: USAC TExas Twin 200s, USAC Stock Cars 200, Texas World Speedway, Started 30th, finished 5th behind Gordon Johncock, Roger McCluskey, Ramo Stott and Johnny Rutherford. Clarence was runing 2nd on lap 44 behind Rutherford after Stott pitted .. then AJ Foyt took back the lead and held it for another 22 laps. AJ's motor later grenaded on lap 82. After that, these 5 were the class of the field, though Clarence dropped a lap down on lap 91 after running as high as 3rd on lap 87. The only dark cloud on the day came on lap 67: Clarence followed AJ into the pits for a pit stop when one of McCluskey's pit crew "ran in front of the #61 Chevy, and though Clarence took evasive action, Johnny Galt was clipped by the front fender .. resulting in a 5 lap caution." Galt suffered a ruptured spleen, a broken arm and head and chest injuries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CC_RIDER Posted March 7, 2007 Report Share Posted March 7, 2007 how bout Dub Rollins James Mikulencak Slick Yeomans Rick Rapp for the hall of fame, was pretty hard to beat those guys in their prime.....on asphalt or dirt for that matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastoval Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 If you are talking corpus drivers you cannot leave out: Freddie Barnac Bruce Shoulders Bill Garnnet Nook Salgie Mike Flannagan Wiley Sanders Jarret Rollins Shorty Rollins Johnny Rollins Billy Hardcastle Gary Wells Sonny Hieneman Steve Copeland Joe Jones these are just a few that I can remember off the top of my head at 2 in the morning from work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 There are a lot of great drivers named here, but we need to keep in mind the original intent of this thread was to honor those drivers who are no longer with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fullview Posted March 15, 2007 Report Share Posted March 15, 2007 The Late Ronnie Miller, #96 Dodge Charger.He drove it at Cuddihy(Dirt) and at CC Speedway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyRodriguez Posted March 15, 2007 Report Share Posted March 15, 2007 Did he pass away from an accident @ TWS or am I thinking of someone else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiTech Posted March 15, 2007 Report Share Posted March 15, 2007 FRANK HOCH .HE RACED ALL OVER ..AND MANAGE CC FOR MANY YEARS ..HE WAS SOMETHING .HAD TO STAND BACK WHEN HE TALKED .ARE YOU GOT HIT .AND ALWAYS MOVED HIS HEAD BOTH WAYS WHILE HE TALKED AND ALWAYS HAD AN UNLIT CiGAR .YOU COULD ALWAYS ARGUE WITH HIM ON SATERDAY AND HE WOULD CALL YOU DUREING THE WEEK TO FIX THE PROBLEM ....ALWAYS KNEW HOW TO KEEP HIS DRIVERS COMEING BACK ..AND CANT FORGET THE TEN GALLON HAT .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted March 15, 2007 Report Share Posted March 15, 2007 Did he pass away from an accident @ TWS or am I thinking of someone else? Outlaw, It was a different Ronnie Miller that died at TWS; he was from Arnett, Oklahoma. There is a thread with a discussion of the accident on here a few threads back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 FRANK HOCH .HE RACED ALL OVER ..AND MANAGE CC FOR MANY YEARS ..HE WAS SOMETHING .HAD TO STAND BACK WHEN HE TALKED .ARE YOU GOT HIT .AND ALWAYS MOVED HIS HEAD BOTH WAYS WHILE HE TALKED AND ALWAYS HAD AN UNLIT CiGAR .YOU COULD ALWAYS ARGUE WITH HIM ON SATERDAY AND HE WOULD CALL YOU DUREING THE WEEK TO FIX THE PROBLEM ....ALWAYS KNEW HOW TO KEEP HIS DRIVERS COMEING BACK ..AND CANT FORGET THE TEN GALLON HAT .... I recall some stories about Frank being the only guy that you could be following behind and he could still look you in the eyes! LOL! Dad told me the drivers used to call him "swivel neck". He sure was a good guy. And those were sure some good times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilTPS Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 Mel: The following tribute to Frank was the first installment in the www.TexasProSedans.com Memoriam Section: Frank Hoch, Corpus Christi, TX - February 14, 1991 ,(Manager, CC Speedway, a TPS host track) Neil Upchurch - TPS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiTech Posted March 25, 2007 Report Share Posted March 25, 2007 frank was a funny person ... we were at the speedway one year and he was all worried he would not get the track open in time .he was told that the fence had to be razed up to 12 feet in front of the stands ..all he could say was got to take it all down to rebuild it ..and how much it was going to cost ..i said dont take it down .with all the pipe laying out back just add to it ..take maybe two or three days ..well he said that wont work ..... later that day at tipp.s he sat down with a few of us eating lunch .and told us he had a great ideal .. he wasnt going to take the wall down .he was just going to add to it .......i had just told the other men what i sugested ... ......................... i laughed at frank and told him ... thats a great ideal .how did you come up with that one .....lol .that was frank ...... i did alot of work at the speedway with him ..he would probably be alive today .had he not been so hard headed and listen to his wife and doctor .......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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