Well one night...

Well one night I'm over at Bridgeport running my Mustang in the 4 cyl. stock class. It was one of those nights... everything was dragging, the micros could barely get the first lap in before somebody was rolling on their roof in one of the turns. It must've been 5 or six starts/re-starts at the beginning of their feature. Well FINALLY, our feature was coming up and as we're going out on the track from the staging lane, the race director comes over the radio and tells us WE have to hurry up as the racing curfew (11 p.m. I think) was just about upon us (I said it was one of those nights!). Anyway, as luck would have it, I was starting on the outside of the first row. The guy to the inside of me was always fast, but a pain in the butt who was often invovled in rough driving. He also had a habit, when starting a race, of brake checking. He always did it, and the officials always let it go. So as we're taking the couple of warm-up laps behind the pace car, I kind of give a hand signal to Ian Wray (my unoffical road course partner) that I was gonna go. About two thirds of the way down the back stretch, I just sense that he's going to brake check, He does and I'm flooring it figuring theirs NO WAY, the they are going to make us re-start being so close to the curfew. I'm flying around turn four, laughing my @$$ off with Ian right behind figuring I was in the clear. Then, all of the sudden they throw the yellow:*-(:*-( The race director was screaming at me over the radio about jumping the start. I knew I had one shot and it didn't work. Probably nobody but Ian and I got the humor in it, but we thought it was a riot.

OK... I'm sure there are a thousand stories funnier than that. Let'em fly.

You mentioned Ian Wray, and it brought me back to a race at Linda's Speedway several years ago. It was a Tommy Garland Memorial race. The cars were stopped on the track for a red flag. Suddenly Ian got out of his car and ran to the woods! Making the ultimate pitstop I do believe lol.

Not a funny story but. When we used to run enduros at Lincoln Speedway We had to wait till after ALL the other classes raced. Then we could pull our trucks into the infield pits ,UNLOAD all your tires tools and such, take the truck back out. Get ready line up and race. Race the 100 or 150 lap race and remember you had to stay till the end and all the trucks and trailers would come in( 100 or so ) load everything back up and drive the 2 hrs home. Well on LATE night I think we started around 1 AM. We pulled in the driveway with the sun peeping up over the horizon. phil

Holy cow Phil!! That's real dedication to racing. I would have had to make a couple pit stops for coffee.

BTW - I can't believe Gary remembered Ian jumping out of the car to take a leak. I missed the feature, so I took off early, but I got the scoop the next day and we still laugh about it. Too bad Ian has is priorities all wrong and is taking time off to raise two boys. He's a heck of a good racer. I'll have to tell him about this post when he get's back from England. Also, the peeing under red story was going to be one of my next mini-stories if no one chimed in with anything. I might have to go with the story about me shooting a mouse in the head with a bb gun. Yes, the story does include beer.

i have one....it was years away from racing after my head injury at linda's i went to watch my friend chuck dietzel race an enduro at big diamond. i watch a driver lead the whole race with about 5 to go smoke started to flow out from engine area. with one to go he takes white flag and then pulls of the track with half lap to go. he finished in the money but was dq because he could not start the car for vacuum test. guess who that was... still running today. answer to follow

Phil 39, told us that story before last race

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Originally Posted by tbirdracer

i have one....it was years away from racing after my head injury at linda's i went to watch my friend chuck dietzel race an enduro at big diamond. i watch a driver lead the whole race with about 5 to go smoke started to flow out from engine area. with one to go he takes white flag and then pulls of the track with half lap to go. he finished in the money but was dq because he could not start the car for vacuum test. guess who that was... still running today. answer to follow

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you are correct!!!!!! felt bad for him but what a race.

I remember announcing that race.

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Originally Posted by tbirdracer

i have one....it was years away from racing after my head injury at linda's i went to watch my friend chuck dietzel race an enduro at big diamond. i watch a driver lead the whole race with about 5 to go smoke started to flow out from engine area. with one to go he takes white flag and then pulls of the track with half lap to go. he finished in the money but was dq because he could not start the car for vacuum test. guess who that was... still running today. answer to follow

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Ray, when you mentioned Chuck D. and Big diamond enduro, reminded me of a wild race a few years back. Remember when he wrecked in turn four on the final lap? Got out of his car and ran on foot across the finish line technically finished the race.

The hardest part of that race ending was not being able to breath. And I still have that engine sitting in the garage it melted 3 pistons. I was thinking after that race that I could go with out racing. Well after missing the August 2007 races at Big DIamond. I knew I could not. So I built the Mazda on a shoe string budget of $53 and ran my 1st 4 cylinder race late in 2007. And won the points the following year in a down to the last lap point battle with Kevan Shaeffer with that car. I think that car will be the one I take to Kutztown. phil

yes we still laugh about that. we also laugh when he flipped coming out of two and i watched it but did not see everyone stop in front of me. totaled my car. he watched me flip driving his car at linda's. but he didnt wreck his. all ways one up on me.

I was reminded of an event in the pits that happened at Williams Grove during a 200 lap endure many years ago. I was out on the track speeding down the back straight.( I just love that bridge) When out of the corner of my eye I see I big ball of flames shooting up from within the front straight pits. As I come out of turn 4 I see Andy Haine's Ford Torino with a Huge ball of flames coming out of the engine bay. I don't remember if we had a red or not but I had to wonder what the heck went on there till the race was over as I usually finished . Now Andy pitted a few spots up from us . So After the race I inquired what had happened to the people in my pits. What had happened is Andy came in the pits overheating. They opened the hood and a driver out of the race ran over to help dump water on the radiator. Well little did this still current Grandview racer (not me) know . That in that clear 5 gallon container was not water but Gasoline. After dumping unknown quantity of gas on engine kaboom. I do remember hearing that some one slammed the hood down and some minor burns were involved. The moral of this story is ALWAYS PUT GASOLINE IN A RED CONTAINER. Any guesses on our mystery gas dumper ? phil

That's a scary story Phil. Probably could have been much worse of a situation. When you mentioned Andy Haines it brought me back to Penn National and some of those 100 plus car enduros. I remember him driving a bright yellow or neon green car at one time.

Yep bright neon green # 22 So a hint of the gas dumper. big cars and Jeeps.

Have another good fire story for later. phil

I wanted to give you another Enduro story from 1987.. I as well Tim Pauch and a few other still racing endures raced at the now gone JFK stadium in Philly. They started 125 cars maximum . When more cars showed up they had the top 100 in points were in the rest were split into 2 heats top 12 or 13 made the Constitutional 200 race. 125 cars around a football field. Well one race in particular I was racing my 1975 Buick Lesabre. There was a pile of about 5 cars sitting on the inside of the front straight going into turn 1. I was running a real low line which took me right by the disabled cars. I need to add that there was a huge puddle of liquid under these cars. Well this 1970 Old Cutlass car # 000. was attempting to pass me on the inside coming out of turn 4 . What made it more interesting is his hood was all the way up. Well as we went up the front straight I was wondering when he would lift off the throttle and drop in behind me. Well he did not. He slammed into the pile of cars full throttle. Me wondering what the carnage looked like looked over my shoulder as I exited turn 2 and I see a HUGE fire enveloping all the cars in the pile. I also saw the driver of car # 000 fleeing like a deer. Fortunately Phillys finest Firemen were there and put the fire out. Moral of this story . Put a hole in your hood so you can see thru it if your hood comes up.

phil

I knew there were good enduro stories out there. Thanks for sharing Phil. I was half thinking of getting a bunch of enduro short stories, and putting them together with a history of enduro racing (That's what the NASCAR races on the beach were). I'd love to hear peoples stories of there first race, their first win, funny things that happened, colorful personalities, the charity endeavors, recollections from announcers, etc.

Well one night (tonight), I went to a Bridgeport Enduro and an Outlaw Series race broke out (sort of). Todd Francis won for the second night in a row over all time Bridgeport 4 cyl. feature winner Warren Stradley, followed by former NEETS winner and tied for second in Bridgeport feature wins, Dave Bentley. Todd and Warren put on a show battling it out.

one day my dad and i were racing at flemington when i blew the motor in my car. dad was still racing. he had a flat and pulled into the pits. he got out to see the damage when a friend was swinging the hammer and he hit my dad in the nose. i was checking on him when he told me to get in the car and race it. as i ran to get my stuff. i asked him " you sure your ok" as i got in the car and raced out of the pits and finished the race for him. we told no one back then but we still talk about it today. what a bratty son my dad has.

Here is a story from a man at work John. This man started racing Hobby Stocks at Silver Springs back in the mid to late 60s. He raced a 56 Ford Crown Victoria. Well he was not 18 at the time and also there was another teenager like himself racing the sprint cars at the time. They both had to have a Parent in the pits with them to be able to race. John and this other youngster traded stories with each other since they were so close in age. The other mans name. Kramer Williamson.

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Originally Posted by Philter39

Yep bright neon green # 22 So a hint of the gas dumper. big cars and Jeeps.

Have another good fire story for later. phil

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Oh boy that will be a day i'll never forget.

Please put gas in red cans or mark them saying gas.

It was me.


Bmo

I know Phil has a better story to tell or i must tell it.

Do tell.... do tell.

Brian you must tell the story. phil