Rufus Boyd aka Brooklyn Heavy passes.

[art leong]

Originally Posted by cammer427

Art, it sure is an honor to be on the same board with you. I have a million questions to ask I'm running out the door so I'll just ask one at the moment: Did Ray Cook own a gas station in Bayonne? Were you involved in it?

Thats was Bernie that had the gas station right next to the Bayonne bridge. We used to buy aviation fuel from him.
The only partnership Ray and I had was Leong and Cook Racing Engines and the race cars.
Ray owned a Fork Lift repair shop in Elizabeth for a while.
Before we became partners. He was partners with George Elliot in a gas station on Hylan Blvd, then a junkyard (chop shop) in Staten Island. That got them a little vacation time.

[Superfan1]

Originally Posted by thomas sheehan

"fast earl" Mitchell is still around. I ran into him at etown last year...

I ran into him at Z-max last Sept. on Sunday of the National event just before the 4 lane TF and FC exhibition runs. I go to E-town every year, for all 4 days, but I never run into him there.
Bill Seabrooks - superfan1
Bridgeport, CT

[cammer427]

Ah, ok. I thought it was Ray that had the gas station right at the Bayonne Bridge after I read the caption for this photo (I think Norman Blake wrote the captions - do you and Ray know Norman well?):



What year was this photo taken, Art? Also, can you tell me some specs on it? Whatever happened to it? It looks like it definitely was a street king!

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by cammer427

Ah, ok. I thought it was Ray that had the gas station right at the Bayonne Bridge after I read the caption for this photo (I think Norman Blake wrote the captions - do you and Ray know Norman well?):



What year was this photo taken, Art? Also, can you tell me some specs on it? Whatever happened to it? It looks like it definitely was a street king!

Hay Artie do ya still have the bellbottoms from the picture?

[Joe Abbazia]

Ed were you at this race?or were you driving around the village in your 57 chevy.

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by Joe Abbazia

Ed were you at this race?or were you driving around the village in your 57 chevy.

Joe,I never went up to the Bronx.All my trips were to Connecting Hwy,Laurel Hill Blvd, Review Ave and the Condiut and Crossbay Blvd in Queens.Very rarely we went to Maurice Ave and Francis Lewis Blvd.In Brooklyn we went to Columbia St,3rd Ave and very rarely Fountain Ave.
The Village was never a car area.I hung out in Rockaway Beach with all my Irish alcy friends.

Joe,did you have bells like Arties?

[art leong]

Originally Posted by cammer427

Ah, ok. I thought it was Ray that had the gas station right at the Bayonne Bridge after I read the caption for this photo (I think Norman Blake wrote the captions - do you and Ray know Norman well?):



What year was this photo taken, Art? Also, can you tell me some specs on it? Whatever happened to it? It looks like it definitely was a street king!

Those pics have been in about 10 different articles. The captions are not right. Bernie didn't street race then. That was the Willowbrook Expressway not the West Shore. That was probably 1974. Tex (Ray) was behind the wheel , Thats me holding the passenger side of the car. It was a 68 roadrunner with my 440 wedge with STR Intake manifold and 2 holleys. It had a Prestolite transistorized ignition so the plugs stayed clean. We drove it from Wetsons (Mitchells) to the Willowbrook. Car ran a best of 11.0's I think we gave that big block Nova the break of the tires. I know we won.
In the second picture you can see Al Masota (Al Cap) watching. I don't know what happened to the car. But the motor is still alive and well last I heard.
Yeah I think we know Norman LOL We left him in Bowling Green Kentucky One year Forgot about him till we were about 200 miles up the road. But thats another story

[cammer427]

Wow, I never expected them to mess up those captions so badly. So that's not Bernie Agaman in the Nova and the Road Runner didn't do high-nines? It's still a startlingly wicked automobile.

[art leong]

Originally Posted by cammer427

Wow, I never expected them to mess up those captions so badly. So that's now Bernie Agaman in the Nova and the Road Runner didn't do high-nines? It's still a startlingly wicked automobile.

I doubt Ralph Truppi would have appreciated Bernie street racing. I do have a real neat Bernie story but I won't put it in writing. Those same pictures and a few others were used in a bunch of articles. Norman is a great photograher. One of the articles came out the year after we won the world championship. And Wally Parks brought a copy to us and wanted to know more. I explained that that was from about 6 years ago. Told him I could show him the same pics in 5 year old magazines. And nothing more was said.
But the one thing we got over on was that neither Tex or I had a drivers license when we were racing in B/SA. Luckily nobody asked to see one.

[Joe Abbazia]

Ed I was never a bell bottom guy,do you think art is telling the truth about beating that nova?a 375 chevy could never get out run by a 440 boat anchor.HAHA