frank's old box van

[Nathan]

hi guys figured I had time and I know you guys like to see what has happened to pieces of texas racing history. This may only be history to me but it is one that I have of frank ferris'. If anyone has a picture of his boxvan from its hay day please post them. hope everyone likes them.

 

[txtom]

 

Nathan,

 

Don't know if you know this, but we borrowed the box truck from Frank to help get Mac's Chevelle to Texas World Speedway for the first Super Stock race that Neil Upchurch sanctioned for us as part of the Texas Race of Champions. This was the fall of 1984.

The first pic shows Frank's truck in front of Mac's Chevelle.The silver box truck is Mac's old box truck he bought from the postal service. Had a 292 in it, knocked the entire time it was used, but it made it to races all over Texas, and even hauled Steve Klestinec's late model to Baton Rouge in '79. It had all the parts and tires Mac sold up there. (Mac had sold his old white trailer by this time)

Frank's truck took the car and parts for it.

The second pic shows our pit area. Notice the hood up on the car, we pulled heads 4 times Saturday, and ran the race with a patched up oilpan. But we won this day, made all the work worth it.

See the manual tire changer. It is the same one at Mac's shop today. I wish I had a dollar for every tire I have changed with that tool.

 

I know I have a few more pics with Frank's truck in it; let me look around, and I will post them here.

[txtom]

Nathan,

 

Here is the car Brooks drove for Frank. It is an MRE Stinger chassis, maybe the only one that made it to this area. It was wicked fast, but short-lived, as Brooks flipped it at Longhorn after getting into some fluid, and the Frank never raced the car again. This was also Brooks' last ride.

MRE was kind of a forerunner to the AFCO company we know today. I think a couple of MRE partners parted ways, and one of them regrouped as AFCO.

 

You may notice that the late models did not have much in the way of body rules, and there are pics of some of the guys racing there with spoilers that approached 12-18 inched tall. Notice the one on this car, which was a Buick Regal body. This spoiler is a little more normal size, but I have another pic of this car with one on it that is closer to 14 to 16 inches tall. Also, check out the hood scoop.

We also mounted a ton of left rear tires on 11 inch wide left rear wheels, most of the guys ran spools, and it helped them to get stagger. (Would reduce the diameter of the left rear)

[Budman]

I couldn't help but notice on the first pic on the side of the van the "Mighty Mouse" Powerflex Racing Engines sign. That was Butch Lake's shop at the time I believe, out off N. Lamar in Austin. Butch was Augie Hartkopf's step brother, and a well known performance engine builder in his own right. I had them rebuild a ford 351W motor for me way back about then.

[txtom]

I couldn't help but notice on the first pic on the side of the van the "Mighty Mouse" Powerflex Racing Engines sign. That was Butch Lake's shop at the time I believe, out off N. Lamar in Austin. Butch was Augie Hartkopf's step brother, and a well known performance engine builder in his own right.

 

That was indeed Butch Lake's business. And he is half-brother to Augie.

 

Butch was building engines for several racers back then.

 

We had varying degrees of success with them.

 

We had varying degrees of reliability with them.

 

Buddy, See me at the track, and I'll have a few Powerflex and Lake stories for ya.

[Nathan]

thank you TXTOM. I remember that car I used to play in it as a kid when it was in his barn. I also have one of his chassis that he built himself. I got the chassis from my dad and when frank passed I was asked if I wanted anything and the only thing I wanted was the box van. If we can find the title for it I plan to restore it or at least rebuild it and use it to pull race cars (what it is at home doing). I still have two of the manual tire changers like that one and still use them today . They belonged to my grandpa woodall.