[ponyakr]

yep, we made it to green valley with out a scratch. here's the proof.

[dirtbird5x]

MB here Just wanted to thank you for all you posts they are great.
MB.
Ps. I hope to make it for that interveiw soon.

[ponyakr]

i read thru my "how to win more races series" this morning. there i said that wasn't nearly everything i knew about it. as i thought on this, i thought of something to add that mite be of help to some who may be just getting into bracket racing. it concerns dial-ins. tracks use different staging procedures. we've run across several. some just use 2 lanes & you run the car beside you. & each lane is given a certain lane for the race. but some draw or dial to see who gets which lane. some draw or dial to see who runs who. in this case you may run the car behind or ahead of you instead of the car beside you. sometimes the 1st car pulled gets lane choice, or they may have to run a specified lane. some tracks pull from 4 staging lanes, with varying methods of lane choice. some pull the 1st car aside to get the bye if there's an odd # of cars. some give the bye to the quickest car, or the best rt. all these things can be confusing to a beginner racer. there are enuff things to think about & concentrate on without getting distracted by staging lane drama. so, this may help. try to find a good pit crew member or friend to help you in the staging lanes. you need to know the dial-in of your oponent! you may not find out who your running til the last second. if using 4 lanes & your in the front row, you know you'll run another car in the front row or the car behind you. your helper can write down the dial-ins of your 4 possible opponents clearly on a piece of paper or chalk board big enuff for you to read when he holds it up to your ds window. if another car is pulled 1st, your helper can circle his dial-in & hold it back up to your window. but if you're pulled out 1st, you'll have to look for the dial-in after you get to the burnout area. sometimes this is e-z, sometimes you just can't do it. all may not be lost tho. some tracks may allow a pit crew member in the burnout area. if so, he can write it down in big numbers & show it to you. if not, you may still have 1 more chance. some modern timing systems display the dial-in for each lane on the finish line scoreboards. if this is the best you can do, so be it. but this gives you another distraction you don't need. try to get your opponents dial-in as soon as possible, so you'll know who's lites will come down 1st! if your the slowest car in the bracket, this info don't matter much. but if your like the vast majority, you'll fall somewhere in the middle. this info is even more important if your opponent is only very slightly slower than you. that means their lites will start down just before yours, which can be very distracting. you need to know in advance, so you'll know what to expect. if you run a track you're not familiar with, ask around & find out their staging lane procedures. this is just 1 of those seemingly minor things that can sometimes seperate winners from losers. 1 more thing--don't forget to use every red lite run as a time trial. if your opponent red lites, use it for a tt to help dial-in for next round. if you red lite, still use it for a tt. if its a buyback round, it'll help you dial in for next round. if it puts you out for the nite, still use it for a tt. if you run the same track every week, record all the info & it mite help you dial in next week. don't waste a pass by just letting off & puttering on thru. make every pass count. good luck!

[ponyakr]

10-4 there good buddy. see ya soon for some of those good " i wore 'em out " stories!

[ponyakr]

you can't eat a trophy or use it for fuel. they're just to look at & remind you of some acomplishment or an honor you received in life. i got 1 for riding a horse & several playing b-ball. but most of ours were won racing pontiacs. i've already mentioned that we talked the track owners into giving us $5 instead of a throphy. hey, at 60 cents a gal, thats 8+ gals of gas. & T.J. sold several to a single neighbor dude. i remember keeping a large cardboard box full in the corner of the shop for years. we finally went thru them & took all the small ones to the trash dumpster. we kept a few of the larger ones. here are 4 of the keepers. the 1st 1 is from 1 of the biggest races i won in either '73 or '74. the 2nd is from the La state championship race T.J. won in '75. the 3rd she won at the big end of the year race at prescott, ark in '77. they called it the southwest ark championship race. the 4th is from the only trophy dash i won in dirt racing in '84. the 5th, of course is a group shot. "know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? so run that ye may obtain." 1 cor 9:24. " i press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." phil 3:14. winning races & throphies is fun, but don't stop there. keep trying to achieve more, like helping someone who really needs help or giving hope to someone who has lost their hope. there are huge throphies waiting for those who dare to help others.

[ponyakr]

got 1 & 4 reversed-- sorry about that ya'll!

[ponyakr]

i forgot to mention 1 of the best road trips i took in my ole goat. it was in the summer of 1970, just before i went to army basic training at fort polk, La. my ironworker apprentice (punkin) buddy had already had his basic training there, so he knew what awaited me there. i'll refer to him as rp. he suggested that we go on a nice weekend trip of some sort before i left for basic. i'd never set foot in the gulf of mexico, so i decided thats what i wanted to do. we thought about florida, but that would eat up too much time just driving there & back. so we decided on galveston, texas. it was only about a 6 hour drive. it was a real nice ride down thru a sparsely populated area of tx. there were no interstates or freeways til we got to houston. it was just a nice, wide, smooth 2-lane most of the way, with very little traffic. you know immediatly when you cross the state line, without seeing a sign, just by the vastly improved roads. i guess tx had a lot of oil money to build roads with. i remember 1 incident from the trip down. this was back in the days of the 8-track tapes. cassetts weren't available yet, & cd's hadn't even been dreamed of. quite often for any 1 of several reasons the tape would get wound around the rollers & the only way to get it out was to cut it & dig it out. this happened to us, so when rp got it loose from the player, he began to pull the tape out & let it stream out the window & behind us, back down the road. i don't know how many feet of tape was in an 8-track, but it seemed like it was flappin in the breeze for nearly 100 yards behind us. there was no traffic, so who cared? well, we finaly made it to galveston & it was like musclecar heaven. you could drive rite down the beach. cars were lined up, parked on both sides of a 2-lane "main drag" they left open for the "parade", which went on non-stop, starting just before noon til far into the nite. & there were bikini clad beach bunnies everywhere. the ole goat seemed to fit rite in, idling down the parade route, with a slite lope from the ra3 cam, & with silver paint sparkling in the 100 degree tx sun.

[ponyakr]

we finaly decided we ought to find a place to stay. so we went across the street to the biggest hotel we saw & asked for a room. but they were booked up. then the guy said they had 1 room they hadn't rented out yet, & since it was so late, we could have it for the same price as a regular room. it was a top floor 2-bedroom apartment, with a view of the beach, which they called the presidential suite. it hadn't been rented because it was too hi. i did'nt even ask how much. i just said, we'll take it. it was awesome. 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a full kitchen & living room. so we put some of the boones farm & brewsky we'd brought along in the frig to chill out. then we hit the streets again & brought back all sorts of sandwich makins & snack food so we could eat in & save $. when i got up & looked out, nothin was happening on the beach yet, so i decided to have some breakfast. i looked in the frig & chose apples, in wine form (this was still b.c.). after having apples for breakfast, brunch & lunch, a small nap was required. then, after a cold shower, it was time to have a cool 1 & hit the beach. we both waded out into the gulf, just to say we'd done it. i was real disappointed at the coler of the water. i was expecting beautiful blue-green water like in the pictures i'd seen from florida. but this stuff looked more like the muddy water from the creeks & bayous of La. anyway, it was an enjoyable trip & my only experience in the waters of the gulf. we were just 2 redneck country bumpkins, living in a dream world for a couple of days. it sorta reminds me of the hillbillies living in a big mansion in beverly hills. but the dream was soon over & when i got to fort polk, reality returned!

[ponyakr]

after the super bowl, they started talking about the mvp. who's your mvp? who do you look up to? who do you wanna be like? is it some sports hero? remember the phrase "wanna be like mike"? or maybe its some vulgar, drughead rock musician, or an actor, or just somebody whose super-rich & treats everybody like dirt. well, if its any of these, maybe you need to lift your sights a little. & if you've still got kids you have influence with, maybe you can help lift their goals a little. i submit to you some possibilities as candidates for mvp. my 1st nominee killed a bear & a lion with his bare hands, then downed a giant warrior with a small slingshot & cut off the mans head with his own sword & took it back to show the army dudes, who had been too scared to face the giant. this young shepard boy became mvp to most of his nation. even God, himself was impressed with david & made him king of israel. i could mention many other candidates, but let me give you the credentials of my #1 pick. this man turned water into wine, calmed angry seas with just his words, healed sick people, walked on water & even raised the dead back to life! then he willingly laid down his life so that folks like me & you could have life everlasting, if we so choose. but he did'nt stop there. after going to hell to pay the price for us, he defeated satan & all the demons of hell, then came roarin out of that place & said " I have the keys of death & hell". acts 2:31, rev 1:18. now folks, there's my MVP! nobody has ever lived in more absolute victory than Jesus Christ himself. so why set your goals any lower? the apostle peter said " He is our example that we should follow him ". 1 peter 2:21. the choice is yours! who's it gonna be?

[ponyakr]

in the south, there's a "bubba" on every street & road & in every community & school. everybody knows several people named bubba. i did too. i never even knew the real name of most of the bubbas i knew. there was only 1 bubba in my circle of friends. don't remember how we met. but from the 1st, i always thought he looked a lot like elvis. when you were with bubba, it was almost like having a bodyguard with you. he had done some serious boxing in his younger days & had honed his skills in many of the area bars & honky tonks. everybody knew ya didn't give no lip to bubba. but, unless provoked, he was a real nice, friendly guy. he was not a gearhead at all. he drove a big white 2-door buick, which i think was called a personal luxury car. 1 week his buick was in the shop for repairs, so they had given him a loaner to use. it was a huge 4-door dodge family car. i imediately saw its potential as a coors smuggler. bubba said i was welcome to make a run in it, as long as i'd give him a couple of cases when i got back. so, the gig was on. thats when i 1st discovered that a big 4-door would haul 35 cases with ease. just to give you younger guys an idea of how inflation has changed things, the popular brands of brewsky were $5 a case for 24-12oz cans. the worst brand was jax, brewed in N.O. with fonky city tap water. it was 99 cents a 6-pack in brown bottles. i downed many of these in college, when money was scarce. by the way, my fifth grade teacher was a very attractive young lady, by far the best lookin teacher i ever had. i later found out that she was bubba's big sister. i planned to start racin my goat in '73, so i needed a tow vehicle. lots of folks back then were using tow bars to pull their cars to our local track. most of them were using pick-ups. but i needed a dual purpose rig. with my recent haul from texas in the big 4-door dodge still in mind, i decided i needed the biggest, heaviest car i could find, which at the time was a 4-door cadillac. so, i looked around, but didn't find anything. i mentioned it to bubba & he had the perfect solution. tbc.

[ponyakr]

bubba had kinfolks in houston & was familiar with the area. he said there were a lot of rich folks, like doctors & lawyers in the houston area who drove cadillacs & traded clean, low milage cars in on new ones every couple of years. he offered to take me down there. he could visit his relatives, & i could pick out my cadillac & drive it home. well, that sounded like a plan to me, so off we went. the trip down was not as much fun as the goat trip of 1970, but we rode in smooth, air conditioned comfort. & it was just like bubba had said. there were cadillacs of every description on almost every lot. i narrowed it down to 2 choices. the best lookin was a silver eldorado. it would have looked good pullin my silver goat. but i was a little skepticle of the front wheel drive & it was a 2-door with not nearly as much room inside as a 4-door. so i took a test drive in the 4-door & a mash on the gas pedal produced plenty of power from the 472 motor, more than enuff for towing & bootleggin duties. i'm sure the fuel milage was terrible, but this was before the arab oil embargo of '73, so gas was still below 50 cents a gal. well, i made the deal, but we had 1 more thing to do before we left the houston area. i just could'nt leave without makin 1 pass down the "parade route" on galveston beach. bubba left his car in houston & rode along as i drove the caddy down the same beach i'd driven the goat a couple of years earlier. this time there was no musclecar lope, just smooth, quiet, air-conditioned comfort. it turned out to be a great multi-purpose machine, including taking me to the world final drags in amarillo in late '73. me & bubba made 1 more trip together later on. 1 friday nite we were sippin a cool 1 & decided we didn't want to hang around town all weekend. but, where to go? i told him i'd never been to florida & would like to go. he said "lets do it"! so, we drove down to panama city sat. but it just didn't have the "cool factor" of driving down galveston beach. the kids were all just teeny-boppers. we didn't fit in at all. but i can say i've been to florida. to this very day, 1 of my favorite sayings is "precious memories, bubba"

[ponyakr]

couldn't find any complete pics of the caddy. here it is ready to back up to the goat & hook on to the tow bar, to pull it to our local track in monroe. notice the words in-tow on the back windshield of the goat.

[ponyakr]

sorry about that. hit the wrong thing. here's the in-tow shot

[ponyakr]

while looking over our racing records, i noticed that the $ we raced for seemed really small when compared to the purses of today. some of the bigger tracks run for $1000 to win, every week. some smaller tracks pay less, but most tracks have 1 or more big races a year that pay anywhere from 2-$10,000. but when you actually crunch the numbers from '79 & now, some of the seemingly large weekly payouts are less impressive. lets take a look. in '79 we won $2,920. now, that doesn't seem like much. but in todays dollars it would be several times that amount. you older guys realize how much inflation has affected to value of a dollar. back then 10-$15,000 was considered a decent income. today, a family of 4 earning less than $50,000 is considered lower middle income, & just above the poverty line. how about race entry fees? we paid 7-$8 for a regular race, & maybe $15 for a big race. it had to be a really big race to cost $20. today the fast bracket is prabably $50 for a regular race & $100 or more for a bigger 1. how about gas prices? in '79 they were about 60 cents per gal. now, its about $3.50. thats 6 times more. what about the tow truck? i bought several new 1 ton trucks. the prices ranged from 4-$6,000. have you priced 1 lately? we're talkin $40,000 for a stripped down work truck. & if you really want the top of the line, with a cummins diesel, i'm talkin $60,000+. & don't forget, with this price comes thousands more in taxes, finance charges & ins. so, that = about 10 times more just for the truck for a 2-car rig. even for a 1/2 ton or a 3/4 ton to pull 1 car, its at least $25,000+. how about motel rooms & eats for a weekend, out of town race? or you can be like the big boys & tow with a fancy motor home. i don't even want to think about the price of 1 of those. & you know you want a 4-wheeler or a golf cart to travel the pits with. & i haven't even mentioned the cost of the car & parts. the same headers i used to sell for $69.95 & make a little profit, now cost nearly $300 from summit. with all these figures in mind, i can see that it costs somewhere between 6 & 10 times more to race now than it did in '79. that makes our seemingly meager winnings of $2,920 = to somewhere between 15 & $30,000 in todays racing dollars. of course, if you live close to a track, you can get by with an old, cheap, clunker pick-up & a converted utility trailer. & you can buy a race ready car off racingjunk.com for $8,000 or less depending on how fast you want to go. but if your track is 3 hours drive away, like ours was, you'll want a decent rig to travel in. in '79 most of our regular races paid 2-$300 to win. 1 race a month paid $400 to win & $200 r.u. maybe 2 races a year paid $500 w & $300 ru. the biggest pot i ever ran for was $750, which i won. don't remember ever running for $1,000. so using the 6-10 times more numbers, we'd have to run for somewhere between $1,200 & $3,000 for a small race now to + '79. the $750 pot i won would = somewhere between $4,500 & $7,500 in todays racing dollars. so looking back, i guess we did better than i thought. the reality of inflation can be very sobering.

[bonneville Joe]

Any idea what happened to that 2nd gen firebird? I oddly have one exactly like that. It was raced for years here in SC. Turning it into a pro touring car now.

[ponyakr]

after we quite racing in '87 i sold my last '68 racer to a friend & gave him my entire pontiac junkyard including the 2nd gen T.J. raced, & all the parts i had left in the shop. the last time i saw the 2nd gen it was just about rusted down, except for the glass hood of course. there's a lot of humidity here & old cars don't last to long out in the weather.

[6x400gmc]

Originally Posted by ponyakr

we won some races that year, including another winner, runner-up finish & in july i won the biggest race of the year at tyler. & on the way beat 1 of the best racers there, who at the time was just a teenager. his name was edmund richardson, we called him "little eddie" he & his dad, who was known as "fast eddie" raced together & they were good. i've recently heard of a business called " the edmund richardson school of drag racing" i assume it's the same folks, probably is, they were some good dedicated racers. well after that there was just nothing left to prove. so we decided to just stay at home for a while by the "speed barn", chill out, & take a well deserved & long overdue break. T.J. could still drive her street bird to work & reflect on the great times we'd had in those old pontiacs. her street rides included her first '68 bird racer turned streeter, a brewster green '73 455 ta, a black 76 455 ta, and a smokey & the bandit style '77 or '78 t-top ta , all 4-speeds. yah, we were pontiac freaks. then the strangest thing happened. i warn you what i'm about tell you may be offensive to some, so you may want to turn me off here. as far as i know i have never hear the audible voice of God. but in 1979, on the inside of me i heard these words: take your ole goat & your bible, load'em up & take 'em to "wild bill"(a pontiac racer friend), and when you get there, tell him "God told me to give you my goat & my bible & that this is just a token of how much he loves you". so we did. we unloaded the goat, handed the bible to a speechless bill & then drove off leaving him standing in the driveway. in a few days he came over to find out why i would give away my prized posession like that. so i told him the whole story about it, & then shared the bibles plan of salvation with him. we had the honor of leading him to receive Jesus as his savior. 30+ years later we now call him "mild bill" instead of "wild bill" & he recently preached his 1st sermon! PTL! to me there is absolutely no greater feeling in this life than knowing you have helped someone shape their eternal destiny in a positive way.

That's my dad!

Britt

[ponyakr]

i found 2 more pics of my ventura 2, including the original ad i saw before buying it. also found the time slips for the last 3 rounds of competition i ran with it. i ran the dreaded maverick in round 3. i had him covered with the rt's from rounds 1 & 2, but i didn't know that, so i guess i tried to squeez the lite a little too much. or it might have been the long wait for my lites to come down. or maybe i was just too out of practice. i guess everybody has an excuse. whatever the cause, i got a red lite & he got the win. but i learned from this. tho he had won more races than all others in his class combined, for about 3 seasons, he was beatable. footbrakin hasn't really changed that much. if you cut a teen lite or better & run consistant et's, you can still win some races, at least at small local tracks like ours. & i learned 1 more thing. bracket racing is still lots of fun when doin it in a Pontiac!

[ponyakr]

here are the pics & time slips for the 74 ventura 2.

[Stuckinda60s]

Look's like you made a real good score on the Ventura!

I've enjoyed your whole thread and wonder what makes someone attack the messenger's credentials when they can't find fault with the message? I would say, with your history and accomplishments, that some people might well have egg on their faces.

PTL!