What everr happened to the good ol' days

[Isaac Zane]

Nice story Randell!!! I always wondered about having to push instead of pull!

Those tow hubs came in handy in 1979 when I raced my street car (70 1/2 RS/SS) right after I put in 5:13 gears and slicks. Well the stock axles didn't like it. I was flat towing at the time without the driveshaft. Went to a freind of Jim's and got the hubs, installed the axle and hubs, jammed on the emergency brake and towed home 2 hours from E-town, keeping an eye on that rear tire making sure it was staying under the car.
Towed that car with a 1967 Firebird for a short time! Not quite the difference between a Chevy II and an Impala, but still questionable!

[bill dedman]

I once overheard Bob Creitz tell a story about a couple of guys there in Tulsa who went out a short distance from town on a windy night with a couple of bottles of compressed gas (I think it was acetylene and maybe helium)... They had procured some weather balloons from the local airport, or Air Force armory...

They filled these balloons with the lighter-than-air gasses (highly flammable) and attached a slow-butning homemade fuse to each of them, and set them loose in the pitch-dark, early morning (2:00 a.m.) sky...

The wind carried them over Tulsa's downtown area before the fuses lit them off...

BIG excitement from the local mounties... LOL!

The perps somehow got caught and were properly chastised for their inventive fireworks...

I just thought it was a neat story... Drag racers with nothing to do... LOL! What is it they say about an idle mind???

[Robert Swartz]

Originally Posted by Dave Goob Cook

You haven't truly lived until you have flat towed a '67 Impala Big-Block with a '66 Deuce, 4-speed.
It gives you an appreciation of life in a hurry, after a hard stop.

In a similar vein. I used to flat tow one of my 67 Mustangs with a 74 Pinto. Another old schoolmate of both mine and my partner, flat towed an old Q/SA wagon with a beautiful 70 or 71 (don't remember which) BB Chevelle. My partner used to give both of us a rash of S-^$ about that, said we had this towing thing backwards. He still drove his 67 Camaro everywhere.

On my part, the stopping thing was sometimes interesting. On the other hand, you ever flat towed the back way to Brown County drag strip? I scared the begeezus(sic) out of bunch of picnicers going around one of those sharp corners one Sunday evening coming home!

I guess being young and broke then is no different than being old and broke now, LOL! Like a few others have lamented, it sure was alot of fun back then. And that 74 Pinto, won one of the last few trophies they gave out for weekend stock class wins at IRP before they switched to their bracket only format in 77, I believe. Like many have also said, usually you had run at least two races, sometimes more, just to get a trophy.

[Dave Goob Cook]

Ahhh, Brown County Motorplex......every trip there is memorable in some fashion.

I think I am the only racer ever tossed from there for a "tech violation".

[Bud Lefevre]

The hazards of flat towing

[Dave Goob Cook]

I'll bet that rig got up-righted and went on......

[Robert Swartz]

Trailers can have bad things happen as well. I remember Don Wilson showing me pictures of an old SS/I Chevy II he had a hand in. The car jumped the trailer and passed them going down Mt Eagle in Tenn. Said that's an eery site, watching your race car pass you going down the road!

[bill dedman]

I don't know about it going on THAT DAY, but that's George Cureton's "Tokyo Rose" '56 Chevy sedan delivery, and I think, the one he FL;AT TOWED from Wllmington, Delaware to the NHRA World Finals at Tulsa, Oklahoma and WON Stock Eliminator there, in 1967.

Sometime around 1963 or '64, Jack ("6 = 8") Clifford flat towed his Hudson Hornet Stocker to the Nationals at Indy from California with another Hudson Hornet, and won Class with BOTH CARS!!!

[Bob Rice]

That accident had nothing to do with flat towing. George said that someone ran him off of the road causing the wagon to turn over. Would have probably done the same thing if the car had been on a trailer or a ramp truck.
Bob Rice

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by bill dedman

I once overheard Bob Creitz tell a story about a couple of guys there in Tulsa who went out a short distance from town on a windy night with a couple of bottles of compressed gas (I think it was acetylene and maybe helium)... They had procured some weather balloons from the local airport, or Air Force armory...

They filled these balloons with the lighter-than-air gasses (highly flammable) and attached a slow-butning homemade fuse to each of them, and set them loose in the pitch-dark, early morning (2:00 a.m.) sky...

The wind carried them over Tulsa's downtown area before the fuses lit them off...

BIG excitement from the local mounties... LOL!

The perps somehow got caught and were properly chastised for their inventive fireworks...

I just thought it was a neat story... Drag racers with nothing to do... LOL! What is it they say about an idle mind???

Sounds like Bob. Not a lone incedent. Between he and Bennie, they seem to know about everybody. Interesting and talented men. They can both do about anything. Sheet metal work, fabrication, build engines, etc. Don't see many like that anymore.

Guess you knew about Bennie towing to CA to match race Tom McKewen for a bath tub full of silver dollars? I think he might have used Bob's car for that one? I'll have to ask. He drove Bob's car at least once. I seem to remember it was that race. Maybe another. Last time Bob was in here we talked about the movie "World's Fastest Indian". Cool movie about the salt flats. He really likes that kind of racing now. He and Bennie are two interesting, cool guys to talk to. I had stockers when they had fuelers, but they never talked down to me. Just nice guys.