PAPA Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 And who is this? The car is orange I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilTPS Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 Would #50 be driven by the late Harold Oatman at Pan American Speedway (Topperwein) ? Neil Upchurch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAPA Posted May 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 Neil Your right!!! That was to easy. Do anyone have any stories about the Oatman Bros? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RandyBorlace Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 All i ever heard about them was one time, when my uncle pat chandler and my grandpa were heavy drinkers, they got beat up pretty bad by the oatmans at pan american.... don't even know what it was over, but it's the only oatman story i know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rocketdog15 Posted May 12, 2005 Report Share Posted May 12, 2005 I was waiting for the pictures of the Oatman Brothers Race cars. My family grew up with the Oatmans, and my Uncle Lou Rothe, was on Donald Oatman's crew. The last time I saw Donald Oatman run the old 57 Chevy was in the early 70s, then he quit driving to become the tech inspector at Pan American Speedway. But, in 1988, I was at Ashley Salvage, to sell some scrap metal for my boss, but we had showed up to sell the metal at lunchtime. They told us that we would have to wait for an hour and a half til the workers would be back from lunch. Being the junkyard hounds that we are, we roamed the junkyard for parts, on the bosses time. Low and behold Donald Oatmans 57 Chevy #54 was sitting in the back corner of the junkyard covered in dust. Probably shredded by now, but if you are ever at Ashley salvage, with time, look around, It might still be there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted May 12, 2005 Report Share Posted May 12, 2005 An Oatman memory I have involves Donald Oatman when he was tech man at San Antonio around the early 80's. Charlie Koen won a feature, and Donald told him to get ready for p&g. This was the days of 9 pounds of car weight per cubic inch, and most were running those high-winding 302-311 inch motors. Charlie came over to the Special Automotive trailer, where Mac and I were standing, with a panicked look on his face. He said he needed help, he was light on weight. We asked "how much?"; to which he replied "a lot." He was claiming 307, and had a few pounds to spare, said he borrowed a friends 410. We're thinking, how the hell do you beat a p&g for 103 inches.....We knew how to get 30 or 40 inches with a pack of cigarette filters in the cylinder, but 103??? So what we did was, while pulling the rockers off, was to pull the exhaust header on the same bank loose, we cut a piece of ground wire off one of the track light poles, and placed it under the exhaust valve, then put the header back. Oatman came by with the meter, and after we screwed the adapter in the cylinder, he put his hose on it. Usually, one blows or sucks on the tube to check for restriction ; lack of restriction will result in a bad reading. When it looked like Oatman was going to check the tube, Mac would offer him a beer. Oatman was one to oblige a free beer, and directly, he would hook the meter to the tube without checking it. We spun the motor over, danged if it didn't read 309. Oatman pulled the meter off, and started to check the tube again, when Mac offered him another beer. Same scenario, Don obliged the beer, and checked the engine without checking the tube. 309, again. 3rd time, same deal, and after it showed 309 again, Don declared the car legal. Koen promised us $100 for our trouble. Now some 22 or so years later , if any of ya'll happen to run into Charlie Koen, who lived near Lake Whitney, please remind him he still owes Mac and I the $100 and 3 beers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProTree Posted May 13, 2005 Report Share Posted May 13, 2005 txtom-great story-reminded me of the times we raced at the old alamo dragway on sat nites in the mid 70's and claimed we had a 272 ci engine sometimes when it was really a 372 ci engine-we knew they pumped up the winner after the races-terrell goodspeed was super fast back then and we would run him in a final and he would have to spot us a few lites on the start and i would have him covered(cause we where in a class we really shouldnt of been in,and run below the national record) but would back out of the throttle around 1000 ft to make it close at the finish line and let him have the win,drive to the hauler and load up,go get 2nd place $$$ and head home-get up sunday morning,change the valve covers,dist cap(different color)put on different colored plug wires and head to temple to run little river and claimed a 372 ci engine(owner of track knew us to well to lie to him and he always treated us fair) - alot of the same cars were there we raced against on sat nite in sa and we had em convinced we hurt the motor in sa and changed it before we got to temple-we were just some broke butt racers trying to make another race-whatever it took to make a few $$$-like smokey yunick said"didnt cheat to win-just cheated to be competitive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAPA Posted May 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2005 Tom...Tommy You SLY DEVILS !!! Please fill us in on some more of your unique tactics. You both have let the cat out of the bag. There has to be more. So please tell us more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProTree Posted May 13, 2005 Report Share Posted May 13, 2005 another good trick papa-when bracket racing started becoming popular-i wired a toggle switch to the brake lites and when i was ahead of a car near the finsh line i would start flippin the toggle switch on and off to make the other driver think i was hitting the brakes(sandbagging) to keep from running quicker than my dail-in and instead it would make them run theirs out the back door and run under their dail-in----the whole time i was still in the gas-hehehehe-i got another one Papa about a drop down sheild we put on a dragster between the frt wheels inside the frame rails to hold the staging beams at nite i'll tell you about later-talk about getting a holeshot and not redlighting-it was a "dog eat dog" world back then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted May 14, 2005 Report Share Posted May 14, 2005 I'm not sure how much we want to reveal, but maybe something here or there will come out. But along the lines of what Tommy33 did, a long time ago, Austin Speedorama had a protest rule. Put up $100 dollars, and tell then what you are protesting. One of the cars I was crew for was winning a lot of races, and we were being constantly be scrutinized by the competition. Well, that week in the shop, I replaced all the braided brake lines on the car, and I got an idea for something I could do to the car to mess with everyone else. I cut a small hole in the firewall. put a bulkhead fitting on the end of one of the old lines, and screwed it into the firewall hole. I put a cap on the other end, and epoxied it to the backside of the intake. I also painted the whole thing black. This because the engine and the firewall were black, and I wanted to make it look like we were trying a little to disguise it. Then I placed a button on the steering wheel, and ran a couple wires under the dash. NONE of this was hooked to or did anything. Well, we win the next Friday night, and we got protested for having Nitrous Oxide on the car. The $100 gets put up, they look at the car, figure out it is all a ruse, but we still got the money. The guy who protested called us the most chicken-s##t people he ever saw, and got madder still when we told him we'd treat him to dinner that night. Bud, I saw something about that Davis Ford; Sometimes you wonder what is laying around like that in other old buildings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProTree Posted May 14, 2005 Report Share Posted May 14, 2005 we ought to start a section called "Ways Racers Have Cheated''-seems alot of people have had some pretty neat ideas and ways in the past -since this history thing got started it sure has made me think of just how much dirty stuff we actually did back in the old days-anybody ever take a aluminum flywheel and mount the clutch and pressure plate on it-set it on a workbench -spray paint it and while it was still wet sprinkle shavings from a brake lathe on it and let it dry-then repeat the operation a couple a more times-install it in a circle track car that runs mid pack-all of a sudden it starts running up front and wins-we did it for a buddy(wont name to protect) in the mid 70's at old speed-o-rama- in austin-cause we went and watched him race and seen the tech guy use a extendable magnet to reach under a car to check the flywheel and if the magnet stuck he considered it steel and legal-since we drag raced and used lightweight stuff-bingo-we told our buddy he would put pull eveybody out of a corner and decelerate quicker going in a corner also so he could take it in deeper-it worked-for a few weeks-won a feature race-with a bunch of drag racing guys crewing-we were checked 2 weeks in a row with the magnet and passed the test-the man who caught on to what we were doing was the 2004 romco champions grandfather howard reithmeyer-he knew me from drag racing and i was a customer of his and he said i know what ya'll are doing and your going to get caught-so we put the steel back in and our buddy went back to mid pack-we disappeared for a long time-damn this is fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supertx Posted May 14, 2005 Report Share Posted May 14, 2005 I would never bend the rules but I remenber one time at Greenville -Pickens speedway that when the car would come in after the race they would put a sock filled with buck shot in the headers would add 30 lbs to make weight besides that I NO NOTHING Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted May 14, 2005 Report Share Posted May 14, 2005 I would never bend the rules besides that I NO NOTHING Tex, I think you better get one of those air fresheners from the other thread and put it on the statements you made above! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerjim2 Posted July 11, 2005 Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 You guys look realclose at the driver in the pictureit not Harold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Posted July 12, 2005 Report Share Posted July 12, 2005 The car is Harold's Camaro, which he built for the '71 season. It was orignally white, and later orange, and orange and white. I believe orange was for the 72 season, and if this is true, the driver is Harold. However, I may be wrong about the year. In '73 Harold built a white and organge Chevelle, and the Camaro was then raced a few times by Harold's relative Robert Beardsly. At one time the Camaro was painted orange and white, which I believe was in '73, as a reverse image of the Chevelle. If the car was pictured in that paint scheme I would believe that Beardsley was driving, but since it is orange I believe that Harold is the driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerjim2 Posted July 24, 2005 Report Share Posted July 24, 2005 the drver in the above picture is Harold's brother Don it was taken after a heat race win just a bit of trivia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted May 6, 2011 Report Share Posted May 6, 2011 I know this is super old but I can't believe I found this but of info. Harold was my grandpa. I've got a TON of old photos from himself and probably some of y'all racing. I'll throw some up here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Posted May 8, 2011 Report Share Posted May 8, 2011 Welcome to the forum, Ryan. I can't wait to see the pics. I crewed for Harold for many years and know he had an extensive picture book. Are you related through your Father or Mother? If it is your Dad, he will know me by my forum name. If your Mom, probably not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted May 10, 2011 Report Share Posted May 10, 2011 My mom, she might. Bobby who? I'm the only one of the grandkids interested in motorsports. I've been building and running drift cars and now I'm looking to try my hand at racing. Still in the same garage my grandpa built his cars in, still says fast Inc on the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Posted May 10, 2011 Report Share Posted May 10, 2011 Ryan Check your Private Messages... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oatey220 Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 believe me Ryan your grandmother knows who Bobby is!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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