Best Pontiac Powered Stockers

[oldskool]

OK, continuing now with '68 Bird Stockers. There have been far too many to name. But I'll name a few. The first one I remember was Truman Fields Hard Times Bird, with which he won the '73 US Nats.

That same car also won the '77 US Nats, with Mike McKinney driving. I suppose that by now most Pontiac guys know about the sale/trade deal Truman made with Roy & Mike McKinney. They wanted to buy the car, but didn't have the money. But they did have another '68 Bird, which they'd been racing. So, they traded their car, plus some cash, and maybe even a motorcycle, for Truman's car.

Truman took their car & made it just a little quicker than his old car. He won his class at the '77 Indy race, which Mike won. Truman raced that Bird for a long time. Then a few years back, Todd Hoven got the car & raced it as a Truman Fields Hard Times tribute car. It now no longer has the tribute lettering.

The original Hard Times is now either being restored or has already been restored. So, the original will be a restored piece of Pontiac history, and the 2nd Hard Times is still an active Stocker.

The McKinney's built another '68 Bird for Super Stock, which Mike's son Marty is now bracket racing. I've posted pics of it on the SS thread.

If any of this is wrong, Todd will have to correct it. He seems to be the only one who knows all the details.

As I looked over the pics to post, I realize I may still be confused. The 1st pic is at the '72 Spring Nats. The 2nd pic is of Truman with a D/S class win @ Indy. But the decals are different than in the '72 pic. And he ran C/S @ Indy in '73. So, from what year is that class win ?

As far as I know, all these pics are of the original Hard Times Bird. The last 2 are of the resto. Obviously, I have no way to know what car was used in the resto. The last 2 pics could be of 2 different cars, as far as I know. I'll leave it there.

[oldskool]

So, the 2nd pic below shows an E/S '68. So, is this still the original Hard Times, with different paint ? Or is this the car they made into a Super Stocker. Or is this car, & the original Hard Times, and their SS/IA car three completely different cars ?

If I understand correctly, Truman raced this car in several different parts of the country, with several different paint jobs, over the years. The last race I know of that Truman raced a '68 Bird in, was the Gator Nats, which I've already posted about. Don't know how much more racing he did with it, before he passed it on to Todd Hoven. And I don't remember what kind of paint it had when Todd got it. Maybe Todd will post a pic of it right after he got it, before it was painted up to look like the original Hard Times. Or, maybe it was already painted when Todd got it ? Don't know.

Anyhow, I'll post pics I have showing different paint jobs. I ASSUME that all these pics are of the same car. The last pic is dated 2005.