Photo by numbers....

[Jim Fenton]

More #24 Tornado stuff:

1973. Bob Phillips, mwaa, my lovely bride Linda, Guy Blazer & nephew Harlan Faircloth.


June, 1973. Butch Blazer, Bob Phillips, mwaa, pop Fenton & Ward Sr.


April, 1974. Bob Phillips, mwaa, Ward Sr. & Butch Blazer.


November 30, 1973. Sunshine Speedway’s First Annual Awards Banquet.
Treasue Island Auditorium. Tornado High-point award.
On left: Al Lamphier (SS General Manager). On right: Benny Moore (Race Director).
Last but not least, standing behind Benny looking very dapper in his yellow suit and
white bucks is a very young Larry MacMillan.


Same Awards Banquet. I elected to present an award of my own to our engine builder,
Ward Blazer, Sr., for my appreciation of his efforts with the #24 car for 2-yrs running.

[ModelCarMan]

Hey Jim, I know what you mean about the racing family. I was in a garage fire when I was 16 while working on my dad's race car in 1978. The garage belonged to our racing partner Tommy Evonosky. We were working on the race cars when the fire started. My dad's race car, Tommy's race car and his shop all burnt to the ground. 30% of my body was burned, arms, back and stomach. I was in Tampa General for about a month. While in the hospital I received over 50 cards from fans and teams, even from teams we didn't get along with at the track. People came over and helped clean up what was left of the shop; then drivers at East Bay went into the grandstands with their helmets to collected money for Tommy's shop and my medical bills. It was so cool to see the racing family all come together. Here two pictures of the shop with my dad and Tommy's race cars.

[Jim Fenton]

Hey Ricky,
WOW I never knew about that. Looks like you were lucky to get out of that one as well as you did. It's obvious that you guys took a big hit equipment & structure-wise also but all those things can be replaced.

Burns are very serious business and just like anything else, when you look around there's always someone who took a worse hit. As I'm sure my friend Leroy Porter can testify to.

I have two stories pertaining to that subject while I was in the burn unit for 75 days at University Community Hospital. One is funny (sort of), but the other one is very sad. However, out of respect for the theme of this thread, I'll continue it, for lack of a better place here, down in the "Where Are They Now"? forum at the bottom of the main page. That forum hasn't had a post since the beginning of the year so I'll go down and get the rust off of it.

Glad to see you came out alright on this one man!

[Jim Fenton]

Seeing Charlie Mincy's #116 (his regular number was actually #16) in this shot brings back fond memories of him. I first met him at St Pete (SS Speedway) than actually became friends with him later with my first trip to his home track, Dixie Speedway in GA. He was helpful to me up there with some good tips to get around the place and I always appreciated that.

I believe I heard quite awhile later that Charlie was badly injured at Dixie with a hard 90-degree impact at full speed into the front straightaway wall (also heard that it sepatated his rib cage) which pretty much ended his career.

I think ModelcarMan is much more familiar with Charlie's history as well as Dixie Speedway so I'm sure he can straighten me out on these details.

JF

Your right Jim, Charlie Mincy number was #16. Here's a picture of his car at Dixie on pit row before the race. Looks like the same car from the Gate to me.

Hey, what-a-ya know.

While scrounging around in my stuff looking for something else I found this shot of Charlie when I first met him!

Sunshine Speedway pits, 1974. Me, Charley and Kenny Faircloth.

[ModelCarMan]

Yeah you're right Jim. When I was in the hospital I lady didn't make it from a fire.
I do remember when I was in the hospital they would take us one at a time and put us in a tub of water and washed our burns every morning...man that hurt like HELL!!!

That picture of you, Charley and Faircloth looks like a motley crew bunch Just kidding

Do you know if anyone does a racer reunion thing of the good ol' days around here? That would be so cool to see my hero’s when I was a kid.

[Frasson118]

Not a great picture here, but this is Earl Brooks, who ran both the Grand Nationals, and also the old Grand National East series.

Wendell Scott has said that Earl was one of the guys who had his back during the overly racist days that Wendell faced.

[Frasson118]

Jan Leaty from Williamson NY, hometown of Spencer Speedway (the track that infected me at a young age).

Jan has always had beautiful racecars, although I don't consider this one of the nicer ones. This must have been a 'hired' ride, as his own number has traditionally been #25.

[Frasson118]

As a tribute to his sponsor, which is a salad company, Brian Paulus did his best to make his Sprint car look like a salad. It's a stretch, but the effort alone is worth a few points. If I were the sponsor, I'd be impressed with the exposure Brian got for doing this!

[Frasson118]

Tripper & Haudfan might appreciate this one...

Kenny Weld, in the Bob Weikert owned Sprint car. Bob was one of the all-time great car owners, who got out only a few short years ago. And then passed away shortly after his retirement from racing.

Weld was a Hall of Famer, who won damn near everything there was to be won, back around the time a kid named Steve Kinser started doing his share of the winning.

Weld also went down the drug-smuggling path along with Balough, Grant King, Billie Harvey and about a dozen others. He spent some hard time in the pokey, but vowed to get back into racing as quickly as possible after his release.

His biggest rival in racing was Jan Opperman, who also had his share of lifes tragedies which almost took his life, and forever ended his driving career. In a strange twist, they died within a few months of each other. Weld, the clean-cut redneck from Kansas couldn't stand Opperman because of his long-haired, pot smoking ways... and wound up a convicted drug smuggler himself.

As for this picture, when have you ever seen a Weikerts Livestock car that wasn't predominantly blue.... I don't see much blue in this shot!

[Frasson118]

Forgot the picture... !

[Frasson118]

Marvin Bradford from Herington, Kansas.

Check out the fancy high rise manifold and dual carbs.

[ModelCarMan]

Look how far back he's sitting in that Chevelle also. That will put some weight on that left rear tire.

[Frasson118]

Gary Balough in the Billie Harvey owned, Grant King built Modified, raced under the team name of Fast Lane Ltd.

I love the body english Gary is putting in behind the wheel.

[Frasson118]

A beautiful Supermodified driven by Nokie Fornoro, whose father Nick was the flagman for many years in the CART days. He also has a brother Drew, who was a great Midget racer a while back. Haven't heard much about Drew over the years, he may have retired.

The car is owned by Dan Soule, who has campaigned Supers at Oswego for as long as I can recall.

[Frasson118]

The Supers have come a loooooonnnnnngggg way from Dick Batchelders ride in 1973. Photo credits say this is Thompson Speedway in CT.