Found a few more old pictures. The one with the car on the trailer is kind of special, it was taken on a Sunday morning before I went to a local 1/8 mile track, called Sunset, which was located just to the east of Sharon, Pa. You can see my Mother at the back of the trailer, kicking the tire and saying to me that it look like it needed air. LOL My Mother hated that car whenever I started it at home with the open headers, the noise really bothered her, God Bless her.

Great pics!

Love the pics, Gary!

Was the Duster the tow vehicle?

Ryan W31

Hi Ryan,

Yup, the Duster was my first tow car. Another deal that my Dad was at the front of since the 60 Chevy with a straight six and a powerglide did not have the ability to tow anything, it barely had enough power to move itself. If you recall, I mentioned the 60 Chevy in one of the earlier stories when the Yenko was turned into a full time race car. Funny story about the 60 Chevy, I always knew when it needed oil, the valve train would start squeaking, so I always carried a big screw driver and I would pull the valve cover off, dump the full quart of oil all over the rocker arms, push rods and springs, put the valve cover back on and be on my way, although, sometimes it needed two quarts. That car had a lot of problems, but it was always dependable and pretty much indestructable. Back to the Duster, Dad thought it would be a good idea to get the Duster since it was a little over $2000.00 out the door brand new. I worked every available minute of overtime I was offered to pay for all this stuff. The Duster had a 318 with a 3 speed manual with bucket seats and was a nice little car till it got rear ended one night on my way home from college. I got hit so hard, it pushed me into the car in front of me and the MOPAR folded up like an accordian, (but no polka playing that night), did I mention my parents loved polkas? Oh well, a different story for a different time. Shortly after I got the Duster back (didn't "TOTAL" too many cars back in those days), I decided to move on to the 72 Monte Carlo for a tow vehicle since it had a real frame under it. And then as I mentioned before, Dad worked a deal for the 64 Chevy Suburban to replace the Monte as the tow vehicle, but the Monte would continue to be my daily driver until 1973. Good Times for sure....

GM

GM thank you for all the stories. Can’t really add much except I love the Marty B references. In 1981 I had my run in with him at Indianapolis Raceway Park. The day I hit the N2O button on my 67 Camaro for the first time and my 10.90 car went 9.85/138 and I had no competition license. He was waiting for me in the staging lanes and just about ran me off, but I guess in a weak moment and me feigning total surprise and being youthfully ignorant, he let me stay, provided I spent the rest of the day under supervised license runs. :)

Now that's funny!! I am surprised he allowed you to stay. I never saw him cut anyone any slack.

I will give you a "Marty" story. For those of you that didn't know Marty, he was a rather "rotund and not too tall gentleman". When I took my new "Super Stock" car to Indy, I think it was 1977, (not the Yenko), I had borrowed a friend of mine's Dodge D5500 car hauler with an Olenyik enclosed body on the truck to make the trip. The floor of truck where the car was located was probably close to four feet off the ground and when you opened the side door, you had to climb up a couple steps on the side of the body to get in. These really weren't steps, just cut outs in the side of body where your feet went and it wasn't all that easy to make it in. For technical inspection, I should also mention that they had us parked on the circle track and the truck was parked on an angle pointing downward, which made it even harder to get in the truck box. Anyway, I was standing there with my tech card in hand with the side door open when Marty walked up and I got this sick feeling in my stomach. I was thinking, "Oh crap, he's going to throw me out again before I get to even unload the car." Marty took the card out of my hand, looked at me, looked at the car from the ground, looked back at me and without even attempting to get in the truck, stamped the card that I passed tech and told me to have a "Nice Day and Good Luck". I was stunned, I thanked him and got the hell out of there before he changed his mind. Good Times for sure!!!

GM

Wow, what a great thread! Just read through it all. Being just west of Cleveland, alittle partial to these Ohio stories. Your first pass down the strip, yup.

Mine was at a Super Chevy meet at Norwalk. Bleachers packed. I had lots of "street time", but none on a prepped track with slicks...plus the 302 was safetly out of the Z, and in it's place a pretty healthy 400. Nervous as hell, burnout, staged, stoked, revving to about 6 grand. Was gonna put this guy to my left in the weeds. Pop! Clunk!!! Maybe made it just past the tree. Wiped out half a ring gear. You have a couple of birthdays on me, mine was 30 years ago,,,22, just out of the Air Force. Like it was last summer lol. Oh, and the kid's tuition, whew. He's a young welding engineer at Lincoln. Loves his job, met a great girl there, engineer, getting married. Money well spent.

Walked over this enough. Anybody find his Yenko yet??

I really hope it's some 7 second,tube chassis monster,past maybe forgot. Versus dying in some eccentric's field.

'

Awesome updates Gary and please keep 'em coming!
The Duster story w/ your folks and polka dancing reminded me of this Nester Shydlowsky Album as pic below, note the modified Beep-A-Beep sign also cool shoes!:headbang:
:beers:
~ Pete

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Gary, thanks for all of the old stories. This is probably my favorite thread on the internet. Hope you share more if you can, thanks again.