Racer Duck Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 Clarence went to Daytona Speed Weeks in 1971. He spent most of his time at New Symerna studying all the suspension designs on the racecars. When he got home he told me "We're gonna build a truck arm car!" I said, "What's a truck arm?" He found a 69 Firebird that had been burned and we build a truck arm car out of it. We missed the start of the season, but finally got to the track on April 24th. Had a few problems, but nothing major. A week later collected the first win of the year. Then won the 250 lap race on July 3rd Can anybody identify all the folks in this picture? I've forgotten the one on the far left, but have all the rest. Clarence set the track record (beat the old 16.25 with a 15.85) at Austin Speedorama on Aug 27th. He finished 2nd in points at Austin and in the top 10 at Pan American in San Antonio. After the year was over he sold the car to Ed Siegmund and we began building a chevelle to run NASCAR Sportsman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 Duck-- How many cars over the years can you think of that had David Kehl (Kehl Balancing) do work on them? And to think he is still at it some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oatey220 Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 Left to right dont know, ??Ralph Amen(flagman), ??looks neil upchurch, Clarence, Ricci Ware, Bob York, dont know the fellow in the glasses thats my guesses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
see86go Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 Thank you for posting these photos. The bring back many memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bullcat Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 If my eyes and mind are right, leaning on the fender, his first name is Rene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiTech Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 my mom used to cut my hair like neils .when all i wanted was long hair .. the good old days ......i wonder what the pay was for that win .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilTPS Posted March 10, 2007 Report Share Posted March 10, 2007 From left to right: Bullcat > not Rene (who was later on Ed Sczech's #67 Chevelle crew) Ralph Amen - Flagman Neil Upchurch - Pace Car Driver Clarence "Slim" Lovell - Driver Car #7 and Winner 1971 Firecracker 250 at Pan American Speedway Ricci Ware Sr - Promoter & co-owner Pan American Speedway Bob York - Chief Technical Inspector - PAS Oldtimer - I recall that the 1st place check was $1,000 to win Neil Upchurch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiTech Posted March 11, 2007 Report Share Posted March 11, 2007 Thanks neil i figured you may remember .lot of money back then ..the same $1000 dallors wont help as much today ....... i sort of figured it would be half of that ..heck the gate charge was probably $3.00 to $5.00 then ...eeven at that gate charge it was alot of money for some .heck i used to work the pit gate at cc to get in free .and frank would pay me $5 dallors on top ..shoot i was rich ...lol ..............that paid better than the $1 an hour i made working at the aster ....and tipps as a bus boy .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazyhorse Posted March 11, 2007 Report Share Posted March 11, 2007 ..........and you gotta love the fire proof blue jeans. this is very cool , keep em comin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 ................ and Tony Lama Driving Boots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer Duck Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Left to right dont know, ??Ralph Amen(flagman), ??looks neil upchurch, Clarence, Ricci Ware, Bob York, dont know the fellow in the glasses thats my guesses Good job Oatey!!! The guy with the glasses was pretty familiar to the folks in Austin since he was from Austin. He even ran for Constable or something like that at one time. I've got a little trivia on him that I can post in another thread if anyone wants. Any guesses who he is? If my eyes and mind are right, leaning on the fender, his first name is Rene When I read your post I thought, RIGHT! There was a kid named Rene that went with us to Monterey for the road race. I've got a few stories about that trip I'll post later. This guy looks like I remember Rene looking .. but I'm still not positive it's him - especially after Neil's post (I don't remember Neil ever being wrong!!! ) From left to right: Bullcat > not Rene (who was later on Ed Sczech's #67 Chevelle crew) Ralph Amen - Flagman Neil Upchurch - Pace Car Driver Clarence "Slim" Lovell - Driver Car #7 and Winner 1971 Firecracker 250 at Pan American Speedway Ricci Ware Sr - Promoter & co-owner Pan American Speedway Bob York - Chief Technical Inspector - PAS Oldtimer - I recall that the 1st place check was $1,000 to win Neil Upchurch Neil, if not Rene, who? Also, I guess you skipped the guy in glasses at the far right, right? re: the $1k prize - I don't know how much the check was, but I know we sure put a dent in it with our celebration afterward!!! Here's a quick anecdote about that race: The rules stated every car had to make a pit stop during the race for gas. If they failed to make it, they would be scored down 1 lap. The race was winding down, only had about 4 or 5 laps to go and in those days we didn't have radios, so I was frantically motioning to Clarence to pit .. finally he came in .. on the last lap! We were pitting on the back straight - on the infield grass/dirt. He slid to a stop, my other brother reached into the car and took off the gas cap and one of the racers (don't remember who) had a 55 gal drum on a stand with a gas hose on it and agreed to let us use his gas and hose handled the "refueling". There was also some body work hanging off the front of the car. I rushed around the car to check the dangling body work, and no sooner had Clarence stopped than he dropped the clutch and took off. I rolled off the hood onto the ground as he sped away. He finished the race about half a straight ahead of 2nd place (Don Fowler). During the celebration at the finish line, while the pictures were being taken my brother came up to me and pulled the gas cap out of his pocked and asked what he should do with it. I told him to keep it in his pocket until things calmed down and he then could sneak it back on (we were actually concerned about being DQ'd 'cause the car didn't finish with the gas cap!!!) When I told Clarence later, he said "that's alright, I don't think we got any gas in the tank either..." Checking ya'lls power of observation: did anybody notice any difference in the Camero between the 1st and 2nd picture (besides the checkered flag)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAPA Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Driver? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer Duck Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Duck-- How many cars over the years can you think of that had David Kehl (Kehl Balancing) do work on them? And to think he is still at it some. WOW!!! Must have been a bunch. That was 35+ years ago!!! And he's still at it? It always blew me away how much he put into balancing our engines. I remember he always took our new rods over to the place where they checked airplane propellers and magnafluxed them! He even glass beaded them to eliminate any hairline surface cracks. Driver? Help me. You mean the guy in the glasses? Yes, he was a driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Checking ya'lls power of observation: did anybody notice any difference in the Camero between the 1st and 2nd picture (besides the checkered flag)? Goodyears verses Firestones... Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer Duck Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Checking ya'lls power of observation: did anybody notice any difference in the Camero between the 1st and 2nd picture (besides the checkered flag)? Goodyears verses Firestones... Nick nope! there's a goodyear on the LF and all the rest are firestones .. exact same tires in both pics. keep looking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAPA Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Front grill bar is bent and larger spoiler? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bullcat Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Goggles and faceshield Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer Duck Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Goggles and faceshield Good eye, bullcat. I hadn't noticed that. Clarence tried the goggles and didn't like them .. said they were too hot. But that wasn't the answer I was looking for. Front grill bar is bent and larger spoiler? Sorry PAPA, there wasn't a spoiler on that car .. what you see in the 2nd pic is the light reflecting off the trunk lid. BUT Congrats on seeing the bent grill bar. There's a story that goes with it Seems Clarence was following Don Fowler that night when something happened in front of them that caused Don to slow down rapidly .. Clarence was a little slow reacting and "bumped" Don. He didn't think anything about it since it didn't seem to affect his car and he didn't see anything to be concerned about on Don's car. Later that night, E.J. Weeks, Don's car owner, came to our pits and asked what we'd made our car out of. When asked why he said Clarence had hit Don so hard it had bent their bumper and twisted their frame. We couldn't believe that such a little bump had caused so much damage to their car. Clarence jokingly said to E.J. "Guess you'd better build a stronger car 'cause all it did to my car was bend that little bitty bar!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maz1438 Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 Cant see any noticeable differences besides the goggles/faceshield, but in the 2nd pic he isnt wearing his seatbelt, but i assume he already took it off due to the race being over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REBELRACER Posted March 12, 2007 Report Share Posted March 12, 2007 front end grill section. first pic shows the bar normal, second one shows it was bent from contact described earlier.......cool pics........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racer61 Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 not bad for a brand new burned to the ground street car Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer Duck Posted March 16, 2007 Report Share Posted March 16, 2007 Going back to 1970, here's what we did to the old '55. First we called it a '56 so it'd be legal ('69 was the last year we could run a '55) and we put bigger tires on it - 16" all the way around except for that big ole 17" on the left rear (these were commonly called "Indy" tires.) We also painted the top silver metalflake, put a silver stripe along the bottom and, yep, that's Snoopy gracing the front fender. And Clarence decided he wanted a "different" ride. He bought the Super Sprint in Waco from Dave Hart. Supposedly it was the 1967 Kansas City Dirt Track Champion Car. He raced it only once, at Pan American and hit the wall in turn 4. Said it was the hardest hit he ever took - was sore for a week - but BOY WAS IT FAST!!! That's Jerry, one of our crew taking time off from the USAF to get his picture taken with Clarence. These pictures were taken in front of the garage Clarence was running at the time - at a place called "Lloyd's Corner" - next to the old Stuckey's on IH10 East and FM2538. By special request, here's the Austin Speedorama 1971 Season Points final standings for the Super Stocks and the Hobby Stocks. See how many names you recognize. And, here's a picture of Clarence and Don Bierschwale (thanks Tommy Grothues) I believe it was taken at Texas World Speedway. And one last picture (for now), courtesy of PAPA: Clarence's headstone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oatey220 Posted March 17, 2007 Report Share Posted March 17, 2007 hey Duck is that 56 chevy the same one Todd Ford drove in 1972? I think he won the track championship that year in #77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiTech Posted March 17, 2007 Report Share Posted March 17, 2007 GONE TO SOON . DIDNT KNOW HIM OR OF HIM .MAKES YOU WONDER HOW FAR HE COULD HAVE GONE .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAPA Posted March 17, 2007 Report Share Posted March 17, 2007 oldtimer I like to believe he would be racing at Atlanta tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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