[ponyakr]

i just thought of something interesting. back when i first started racin my goat ('73-'74) we didn't use nhra index times. we used track records for our dial-in times. at any time during the time trials, you could notify the tower that you wanted to make an attempt to lower the track record for your class. from that time on, all the cars in that class had to use the new track record as their dial-in. my goat was much quicker than the track record, so i lowered it a lot. if you ran quicker than your track record, you broke out. so it was basically a bracket race. that even makes all my wins a little more special. there's not many folks sucessfully bracket racing a 4-speed. i certainly would not attempt it today. now this incident i'm about to tell of happened towards the end of the '74 season. they came out with a soft tread tire with just a few shallow grooves that was legal for nhra stockers. this imediately dropped my et by 1/2 sec. so i set my record lower to compensate. by then nobody else runnin my class could come close. then at 1 race i ran a c/s stage 1 buick. they said he won, but didn't give out any time slips. so i went to the tower to find out the details. but i got a hostile reception. the buick guy was a local & good buddies with the chevy boys. when i politely asked about the details of the race, all the fangs came out. they told me in no uncertain terms that i had lost & the thing for me to do was load up & go home. & they were very rude in doing so. so i concockted me a plan. the next week when i teched in i lied & told them i had a ra4 370hp motor, which put me in c/s instead of d/s. i knew the tech guys were chevy dudes & would'nt no the difference. i knew i was much quicker than the buick, so i ran for the c/s class record & bombed it as low as i could. then i loaded'r up & came home. the season was almost over so i don't know if the buick ran any more that year or not. he probably talked his buddies in the tower into doing away with the record i'd set. they ran off nhra index numbers in '75 so we never saw the buick run again. now, i wouldn't do something like that today. but that was a different time, & i thought it was just the action called for in repayment for their bad attitudes & the harsh treatment i'd received. just part of history. precious memories.

[muscle_collector]

Originally Posted by ponyakr

2nd gen, 455, th400, 4.88 gears, best e.t. 9.85 in 1000', best rt's .505, .506, .508 & yes, she won with this car too. the only car she raced without a win was the rag top. she never got a chance. it blew up on the 3rd time trial, due to incompetent machine work. we quickly retired it & built her another '68 hardtop. 2 interesting things about this 2nd gen. i bought it from a u-pull-it junkyard because it had a dual pattern pg trans. they were rare. when i pulled the motor & trans out together, the trans fell on the floor, leaving the front half of the bell housing bolted to the motor. i was really disapointed. after removing the dirt & grime, i could see that it had been cracked almost all the way around for a long time. it was hangin by a thread. its a wonder why it didn't fall out on the road. also this is the same car that "cotton" won the La state championship race with in 1983.

i wish you had some meats on that bird. that is great it looks like a hot wheels or johnny lightning car.

[ponyakr]

here's 5 funny cars we've seen race.

[ponyakr]

here's "Big" himself, shirley "cha cha", & the crosswalk

[ponyakr]

there were both race & street pontiacs at amarillo '74

[ponyakr]

pontiacs at the Cajun Nationals, near New Orleans. don't no if the H-O car was a house car or they just sponsered it.

[ponyakr]

T.J.'s street cars & "Wild(now mild) Bill's" dirt late model

[ponyakr]

super long lines in the staging lanes made just getting 1 TT a real hassle. we got enuff & went back to tyler to race. we're laid back country folks. the big city trafic jam was more than we could take.

[ponyakr]

some assorted pics of our racers from the grocery bag.

[ponyakr]

some assorted pics of our racers from the grocery bag.

[ponyakr]

more of the same

[ponyakr]

more

[ponyakr]

& then some

[ponyakr]

i've already said i love the buyback rule in bracket racing. but i've thought of a situation in which a buyback rule can't help you. if you die without Jesus, you can't use a buyback to get into heaven. you only get 1 pass thru this life. you must get your ticket to heaven while your alive on planet earth. & the great thing about it is, the tickets are free. Jesus already bought your ticket for you with his own blood. thats how much He loved you. all you have to do is receive this free gift. now you may not be religious at all. you may even be an atheist & don't believe what i'm saying at all. but here's a sobering thought. what if i'm right & your wrong? please, i beg you, don't get caught dead without Jesus! John 3:16 , Romans 10:9,10

[ponyakr]

i've mentioned my 1st ride in a gto. it was a 65 4sp. our pilot that day was a boy we called Howard. i recently talked to him on the phone. i know his real name was not howard, so i asked him how he got the nickname howard. he said that me & some of the other guys had given him that name back in hi school, because of the goofy kid on the show " bachelor father " who dated the daughter on the show. i can't recall that character & T.J. says she barely can. howard said, "i guess ya'll called me that because he talked sort of countryfied like i do". folks, i ain't kiddin, we live in the sticks. howard & his family brought about some of my earliest & fondest memories of pontiacs. he grew up in a family of gearheads & continued after hi school. he started his own mechanic shop & worked on all the area vehicles. even got his own log truck & worked on other peoples 18 wheelers. he's now worked for many years at our parish(county) school bus barn, keepin the fleet of buses rollin. now, fast forward to '08. there havin a car show down at our local ford dealer. i had to go there to pick up someone. so while in town i decided to look around a bit. now for nearly 20 years i had, on purpose, stayed away from all races & car shows. i simply could'nt bare to be close to these old musclecars i loved so much & not be part of the action. i'd stopped racing & spending all our money on hot rods. i was trying to hold on to our family business(which was doomed to failure by wal-mart). & T.J. was saving & secretly planning for the house & horse barn of her dreams. & Lord knows she deserved it after living in cheap trailers for 25 years because i spent all our money racing. now back to the car show. i imediately spotted a '68 bird sitting next to a shiney black '68 gto. of course i had to get a closer look. they were both real nice & reminded me of our racing days when i ran a goat & she ran a bird. well, all those old familiar feelings came rushing back in. it was a very emotional moment for me. i soon spotted a familiar face. it was howard, sitting in a lawn chair under a shade tree. we began to talk & i soon found out that the '68 bird was his. so i got the low down on it. he has consented to a photo shoot. so on the 1st sunny day T.J. & i can make it we'll go over & get the details & pics & share 'em with ya'll. i also asked howard about another old car we used to ride around town in that had a 389 in it. he said he probably had a few old pics of it stashed in the attic somewhere. he had'nt seen 'em in years. i can't wait to see those old pics. he told me something i did'nt remember. he said he painted the letters "the blob" on the side of it, from the movie of the same name. i vaguely remember the movie. it was some life form that resembled a huge hunk of liver that went around terrorizing & eating people. oh it was a real "thriller". lol. we'll share all the pics when we can. thanks howard for all the pontiac memories.

[ponyakr]

well, after that car show in '08 i got the old urge to do it again. but after all the water that had gone under the bridge i just could'nt tell T.J. face to face. i wrote down my fellings & handed it to her to read. i didn't know what reaction i'd get from her. but, once again, God bless T.J. she had been with me & had shared all my pontiac years & knew how much they ment to me. here's what she said, "i understand perfectly, i think thats great, go for it!" but then she added these words "but i can't finance it. you'll have to get a job to pay for it." so i went out & got me a min wage job & started savin & planin. of course, at 1st i looked for cars i was familiar with, old goats & birds. i quickly found that they were history around here. so i went to our local dragstrip to see what cars were runnin now. there were a few old camaros, novas & chevelles, but just as it had been 20 years before, no pontiac powered cars at all. but i did see some very nice lookin 3rd gen birds(chevy powered of course). well, it looked like there was enuff room to fit a pontiac motor, so i started lookin around for some old 3rd gen bodies. it was just like it had been with the '68's years before. they were plentiful & cheap. so just like before, i bought all i could find. they were still only about $300 or less, so i soon had 8 or 10 & was ready to put something together. i looked in car mags to get info on speed parts co, so i get some catalogs. i soon found out that some co no longer even printed cats. but, they said i could go to their web site & get all the info i needed. now folks, i was such a computer dummy, i didn't even know what a web site was. the only thing i knew about computers was that the little controller gizmo was called a mouse. so i went to the library, took a computer dummy course & learned just enuff too use 1 of their computers to find the sites i needed. then somebody told me about racingjunk.com. now in the old days, i could put a 12 sec bracket car together from scratch for $3000 with some left over. but this ain't the old days. i soon found out that inflation had struck. the hedman hedders i used to sell for $69.95 now cost over $250. when i added up my list of parts needed, it was shocking. as i looked for race cars on racingjunk.com, i saw that ready to race cars were for sale cheaper than i could build 1 from scratch. so i sold all the 3rd gens i'd bought & got an 11 sec '74 ventura 2, 455, th400, race ready. i've already told ya'll that story. so that catches you up to speed on the years between our last race in the late '80's thru '08. there have been some ups & downs, but overall i've really enjoyed my trip out of retirement, back into the pontiac world. T.J. added this ps "by the way, i did get the new house & horsebarn of my dreams & love them almost as much as i love my old PONYAKR!"

[ponyakr]

here in the south, back before "pore folks" had air conditioning, all the houses had back porches, so that we could sit out of the sun but still have a little air circulating. now there were all sorts of activities that took place on these porches. there were things like quilting, churning buttermilk, shelling peas & processing all sorts of produce, eatin watermelon & on real hot days even eating full meals out there & watching the young'uns play. they'd sip ice tea & catch up on the latest gossip. there was no t.v. to entertain folks back then. now i want to focus in on 1 particular activity carried on by many grandmas(both black & white) on the back porch. it was snuff dippin. now i don't know any ladies who still practice this vise in public today, but it was quite common in the south even on up into the '60's. the favorite brand was garrett. they'd load up & as they began to talk, the brown liquid would begin to ooze down the corners of their mouth. in my mind i seem to picture most of these ladies without a tooth in their head. then they'd stop talkin, pick up their spitoon, which was always close by, make a deposit, then wipe their mouth with their apron & go rite on talkin. fast forward now to the 21st century. we don't carry on all these same activities on our back porch as in the days of old. we still talk, but everything else has changed. !st, we're all screened in to protect us from the giant blood suckin skeeters. a family of these La monsters could carry away a young child. when we look out, we see T.J.'s barn & horse(which i call spot for obvious reasons). as we look further south we see our huge yard which, during my hi school days was a cornfield. hey, if we still had corn, we'd be just like cornfield county on "hee haw" & i'd be junior samples. "SA-LUTE!" the yard is completely surrounded by woods & our driveway reminds me of the yellow brick road in the "wizard of oz", where it went thru the deep dark woods. i didn't know this, but T.J. had picked this spot for her dream house long before we got married or even started racing. sometimes we can sit & watch deer grazing just out from the edge of the woods. 1 day we counted 7 yearlings jumpin & frolickin & havin a big time. & at times, just like at our old trailer, we had several goats in the yard. they were a little different tho. these were a neighbors goats that got out & came over to visit spot.(see pics) at nite we can just sit & watch as the stars & planets pass slowly by. i know now why the old folks use to set on the porch & rock & enjoy life.

[ponyakr]

scenes from the back porch

[ponyakr]

i,ve already mentioned how i think driving an 18-wheeler shares some similarities with racing. i remember how much fun i had driving a truck & sorta pretending i was racing. i' d get a load, then take off as soon as i got in & sat down. i'd even buckle my seat belt between shifts. sometimes i'd pass 1 of the other guys while he was makin a pit stop for coffee or a snack. i had plenty of fat stored up for energy, so i figured i could eat after work. then i'd go as fast as i dared, using the cb to track the smokies. then as soon as i dumped the load it was the same procedure again. it was sorta like a pit stop in nascar. do what's absolutely necessary, then tare out of the pits, being careful not to get a speeding penalty, then rush back out onto the track. not only was this a lot of fun for me, it also paid $ dividends. on the shorter hauls i almost always hauled at least 1 more load than the other guys. it was sorta like winning the race instead of comin in 2nd or 3rd. now some of the other guys seemed to resent this sort of competition i made out of it. i remember hearin these guys bellyache, & complain about the most trivial junk. it made me wonder why they were driving a truck for a living. i just kept my mouth shut & kept on racing(er driving) & havin a blast. & they were paying me to do it, more than i ever made haulin milk. talk about havin your cake & eatin it 2. it must be similar to gettin paid millions to drive a race car (with less pay of course). i remember 1 particular day, i was doin my thang. i had got to the sand pit early so i'd be 1st in line when the loader operator got there. we were haulin sand to a concrete plant about 40 miles away. we could haul all the loads we were able to before they quit takin'em at about 3:30. so i "raced" back & forth & was haulin my 4th load & it wasn't even noon yet. i remember thinkin "i can take 5 loads to ruston, then take another load home to our local concrete plant so i want have to deadhead back home from ruston". & i knew that would be 1 more load than any of the other guys. so i'm headed south on the 4-lane & i come up behind a truck that had loaded just ahead of me. he must have been workin by the hour instead of the load, 'cause he was only doin 55 & the speed limit was 65. my truck was a freightliner with a cummins motor & a 9speed trans. it did not have a governor on it. it would do 85+ downhill & 70+ uphill loaded. so i remember thinkin "i'll just pull in front of him, then set the cruise on 65 to avoid a ticket. so i pulled out to pass. little did i know that my life would soon be changed forever. see part 90.

[ponyakr]

i started around the truck in front of me & thats the last thing i remember til about 30 min later when i woke up in the er of a nearby hospital. they began asking me what had happened. but i didn't know any more about it than they did. i told them what i just told you. at 1st they thought i was drunk or on drugs & had just lost control of the truck. so they wrapped the rubber strap around my arm & drew some blood to check for that. i finally convinced them that i hadn't had any brew or drugs since 1976. so they started testing everything they could test. now folks, this is the 1st time i've been in a hospital for anything more than a few stitches, or to remove a metal splinter i got in my eye from grinding on pontiac heads without eye protection. they did every kind of x-ray, mri, brain scan & other stuff i can't remember. well, they finally found the problem on the brain scan. a brain surgeon came in to explain it to me. i had a very small brain hemorage about 1/2 inch in dia. or smaller. it had caused what he called an electrical short, that caused me to black out. he called it a seizure. he said it was to deep to operate on, but said he'd seen lots of these & they usually dry up after awhile & you generally have no more problems with them. so, here's what had happened. when i blacked out the truck had gradually left the road, crossed the ditch, climbed up onto a railroad track & continued down the track for over 200 yards, if i remember correctly. they had to stop train traffic for a day or 2 while they repaired the track. i even made the monroe newspaper & the evening news on a local t.v. station. i was a little bruised & banged up so i had to stay in area hospitals for about 2 weeks.( $50,000+ worth) during this period of time, i had lots of free time with nothing to do but think.