[ponyakr]

some consistent et's & some decent rt's. no rt's recorded where we raced til '86. also had 1 time slip with a .505 rt but the scorer had scratched out the 1st # written & wrote the correct # above it. so i figured some would think i doctered it. & there was also a .500 rt but it went red so i didn't include it.

[ponyakr]

'74 at ammorilla(don't know how to spell it), texas. it was awesome, notice big is gettin down & dirty under his swamp rat digger.

[ponyakr]

it took a couple of weeks to get used to the routine. after that we figured we might survive if we could just hold out long enuff. i lost 20lbs that first 2 weeks even tho i was eating all i could get my hands on. we had a sorry cook. most of the guys wouldn't eat any more than they had to. so i'd watch, & when i'd see somebody get up from the table, i'd say " hey, if you ain't gonna eat that, give it here. i'll eat it". we were burnin some serious calories. 1 guy had enuff & decided he was gonna leave. he waited til late at nite when he figured no body was lookin, thru his duffle bag over his shoulder & struck out walkin. but a drill sargent spotted him. & this guy was a bad dude. he was black, about 6' 6" tall & he taught all our classes on hand to hand combat, including bayonet training. so in a few minutes this guy came back in with a black eye, draggin his duffle bag behind him. he never tried to leave again. i met 1 nice kid from houston. he was a tall lanky white haired kid, 1 of those i mentioned who came there with shoulder length hair. he had a '57 chevy street ride, & after he found out my name was hurst, from then on he called me 4-speed. now i want to tell you about the young man who inspired me to name my goat " gung ho ". there was this tall country boy who was always serious. took all the training as very serious business & tried to be the best at everything he did. i can still remember in our long runs you could always see him far ahead pumping his arms wildly,trying to run even faster. i remember us saying, " boy he's really gung ho " we later found out that he didn't even have to be there. his brother had been killed in viet nam, so he joined up to go get some revenge on those who had don it. now we understood why he was so " gung ho " --he was on a mission. i don't know if he survied it or not-- i sure hope so. thats what inspired me to put "gung ho " on my goat--i was on a mission. T.J. even rigged up an american flag with our co name on it, for the trunk lid. i'll post some pics. T.J. just came thru & reminded me to tell ya'll this. on thanksgiving day 1970 we got up at 3am, packed up our tents & other gear & marched about 3 miles thru the woods to attack a mock viet nam village at dawn. it was complete with a full system of underground tunnels. & i remember it was cold that morning(about 22 degrees). after we got back from training, about noon, they gave us the rest of the day off. they had told us in advance & said we could invite friends or relatives to visit as long as we didn't leave the post. so i told T.J. & she got in the ole goat & her & the girfriend of a fellow trainee from our home town drove on down to see us. i don't know which i was happier to see T.J. or my ole goat--"cause i loved them both dearly. anyway we drove out in the woods & had us a picnic. it was like a cool drink of water to a man who had been out in the desert for days. a man in my co lived in a nearby town, & he let any body that wanted to bring their car down that last week so they'd have a ride home. his yard was full of cars. i had the goat brought down & when we were released, i jumped in & headed for home. the best way i know how to describe to you my feelings on that goat ride home are captured in the words of martin luther king, " free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, i'm free at last".

[ponyakr]

flag & gung ho

[ponyakr]

i came up with another name for my car, but we never got around to puttin it on. i guess we were always either to busy racin or gettin ready to race, it just never happened. but T.J. had it all planned out & even drew a hand painted picture of it, which still hangs in my moms house today. i'll send a pic. when you look, check out the fine detail. she hand painted each & every decal. the name i chose was D-Con. we lived in a trailer house which from time to time was home to mice. we put out traps & even tried d-con once. it worked, but the dead mouse would eventally cause a "stank ", & would have to be dealt with. i noticed on the d-con box it said someting like, kills rats & mice. i imediately related rats to bbc motors & mice to sbc motors. & since chevys were our main competition, the name just seemed to fit perfectly. i'd planned to put, in smaller letters below the name some where, the words, " rat & mouse killer ". who knows, maybe some day i'll still get a chance to use the name. stranger things have happened.

[muscle_collector]

so what are you and tj doing now days? thanks for the stories and pictures. sadly i sit and wander what kind of stories will our kids be telling one day.

[ponyakr]

while lookin thu our scapbook i saw something that sparked the idea for this post. now this is a pontiac street racin story. i'll send a pic that will show the funny car that sparked this story. the name on the car is "wild wilford". now this guy was wild. he'd do a tremendous smoky burnout all the way across the line & continue to about 1/2 track. but the show wasn't over yet. he'd put 'er in reverse & back up almost as fast as he'd gone forward & there was nobody there to direct him back like most cars. i guess every body was too scared of getting run over to get anywhere close. every body just got out of the way. i've often wondered how nhra & ihra let him get away with it. it looked really dangerous. but the crowd loved it & i reckon they figured it mite bring in a few extra fans. now fast forward a couple of years. there's this guy in town (whom i'll refer to again as joe) who drove a '69 or '70 gp, 400, th400. by the way, my dad called evrybody joe. i think he picked it up in service during ww2. he called me joe too. he'd say, "hey joe, hand me that crescent wrench". well joe would come by the shop occasionally, set around sippin on a tasty beverage, which he always seemed to have, & soak up the pontiac racing atmospher. so i guess he finally took all he could stand & bought a '68 bird from a local junk yard. he planned to pull the motor & trans from the gp & put 'em in the bird, to make him a street racer. he told me his plan & said he wanted to shut down some of those tounge waggin bbc guys in town. well by now, you know me, i was all for it. i told him to bring the cars over to the shop. he could use my tools & i'd even be glad to help if he needed it. well he did, & i did, & the bird was soon on the street. but a few days later he came back & said he thought he needed a little more cam before he challenged the bbc guys. so i ordered him a ra4 duplicate & he soon had it fired up & thumpin. i'll never forget this scene. he leaned over the fender to listen, sorta cocked his head to 1 side, & said (in a very countryfied voice) "you know i like that, its sorta got a rang to it". then he asked if i had any slicks for sale. well, by now i had everything, so i fixed him up with a decent set of 9" slicks, & he was off to conquer the world. he only got to race a couple of times. he beat the bbc boys so bad, when the word got around nobody else would run him. now remember, this is a small town & there aren't any 8sec nitrous cars runin the streets like today. his hi 12's were more than enuff to take care of the local big mouths. so just out of boredom i suppose, or maybe he just enjoyed it, he would strap on his slicks, stop at the 1st redlite on main street, do a smoky burnout, then blast off when the lite turned green. then he'd proceed to the next lite & repeat the procedure. the police all knew him so they'd just tell him to cool it, & go on home. when i heard these tales, i imediatly linked him to wild wilford. so from that day til this, i call him " wild willy ". he still answers & knows just what i mean by it. he later got tanked up & went to see his girlfriend. they had an argument & he got mad & tore out up the road, then told me later, " big d, i was so messed up, i forgot to shift & it went off like a hand grenade". but it died as the badest ride in town! the end.

[ponyakr]

wild wilford at amorilla, tx '74