Things I miss about racing

[doyle hargraves]

Was just thinking about stuff that nobody does in late model racing anymore.
I’ll start and you guys feel free to chip in and keep this thread going.

#1. Pit crews lettered on cars. When I was a kid I helped a guy on a sprint car and when he got it lettered in the spring he included me on the pit crew list. Man had I arrived!

[1forthe$]

Late Model guys packing the track, usually going opposite direction. As a kid, being able to see them with no helmet on as they were driver door toward the stands was pretty neat.

[doyle hargraves]

I remember the first time I went to a big late model race was the world 100 in the early 80s. A bunch of those guys had their home track on the back spoiler. I thought that was really cool. Remember a bunch of them had brownstown speedway on there

[Mopar DLM]

Hand lettered race cars. I spent a many of hours as a kid sitting on a milk crate watching a man free hand the letters and numbers on dads cars over the years. Sure seemed to be a lot more pride in peoples work back then. The car shows before the first test and tune of the year seemed to be more fun back then too. I miss the late model guys packing also. Spoiled racers of today go to a dirt track but don't want their car to get dirty.That is how i got to drive my first late model as a young kid was packing the track. I can remember when it was still ok for kids to be hanging out of every window of a bomber car when they packed.

[cjsracing]

Hand lettered race cars. I spent a many of hours as a kid sitting on a milk crate watching a man free hand the letters and numbers on dads cars over the years. Sure seemed to be a lot more pride in peoples work back then. The car shows before the first test and tune of the year seemed to be more fun back then too. I miss the late model guys packing also. Spoiled racers of today go to a dirt track but don't want their car to get dirty.That is how i got to drive my first late model as a young kid was packing the track. I can remember when it was still ok for kids to be hanging out of every window of a bomber car when they packed.

I used to sit there and watch my dad hand paint my uncles cars, not even with an airbrush, just straight up hand brushing.

[Thedoctor]

Not finding out who would be at the race until you were in the stands and saw them roll out onto the track. The days before the internet.

[riddle28]

the smell of methanol

[3 wide]

I miss going to atomic in tn for 100 lap races and the drivers standing beside there cars for introduction and climbing in after introduction for a 100 laps.

[Pennsboro32]

the smell of methanol

amen...................

[SLIDING SIDEWAYS]

Back in the 70s I liked kids night where you could slow ride w a driver.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

1) open trailers
2) short and sweet rule books
3) building your own stuff
4) hand-lettered cars
5) The Mid-American newspaper
6) Knowing who won the race after the checker fell

[Pennsboro32]

Trophy girls.

[One Man Gang]

The days when there was no traction control and droop rules

[dirty-white-boy]

1. Mall Car Shows and the smell of paint
2. Smell of methanol
3. Winners coming from deep the pack
4. Bret Emrick working the crowd from 615 until the drop of green flag at World 100
5. Passing in heat races
6. Ford Probe noses
7. Smash The Loud Pedal
8. Atomic Speedway in Tenn.
9. 100 plus entries with a cinderella story
10. Pennsboro (the original, not Barry Braun's vision)

[FastEd95]

This is an enjoyable thread - I didn't realize how many things I missed. I miss Hawkeye Racing News, hand-lettered cars, driver's name on the car above the window, out of car intros at various events and most of all I miss driver's packing the track in the opposite direction. If I could see Ed Sanger packing the track at Independence, Iowa one more time I'd be a happy guy.

[TerryM]

All of the above,, and so many more.

As a kid around age 11 or 12-ish, I loved to pencil draw pics of our local dirt guys. Our local guys were legends — Floyd Gilbert, Pat Patrick, Butterball Woolridge, Billy Teegarden, Fats Coffey … I could go on and on. But the funny thing was, my drawings were always from the front. The nose, the grill screen, the tires, the windshield screen. Screen meaning “rabbit guard” in today’s world lol. But my drawings were always front view. Couldn’t even see a number or sponsor. Not sure why I chose that angle, but I loved it and my drawings were awesome, IMO lol.

[Raceready]

Hand lettered race cars. I spent a many of hours as a kid sitting on a milk crate watching a man free hand the letters and numbers on dads cars over the years. Sure seemed to be a lot more pride in peoples work back then. The car shows before the first test and tune of the year seemed to be more fun back then too. I miss the late model guys packing also. Spoiled racers of today go to a dirt track but don't want their car to get dirty.That is how i got to drive my first late model as a young kid was packing the track. I can remember when it was still ok for kids to be hanging out of every window of a bomber car when they packed.

I recall at a big race circa 1989 , that they was a making sport of Chub Franks Charley Swartz car because it was the only one there that still had the numbers and sponsors that were still hand brushed on along with the fact that he still ran an open trailer .

[Finnfan25]

The old flatbed car haulers, flatbed trailers with the tire rack or the cadillac of them all back in the day.....the converted school bus. Before all the toter homes and RV's, the drivers were much more accessible and could usually be found having a beer around the car. Many times BEFORE a race.

[Raceready]

The old flatbed car haulers, flatbed trailers with the tire rack or the cadillac of them all back in the day.....the converted school bus. Before all the toter homes and RV's, the drivers were much more accessible and could usually be found having a beer around the car. Many times BEFORE a race.

Hows about them old 2 1/2 ton farm trucks with the stake body side Some tracks had a big old dirt pile that they could back up to unload the car . 1 old boy used a log truck and used the grabble to unload it.

[84wedge]

The Victory Lap