CLASS RACER FORUM - Drag Racing has lost another legend

A very dear friend and fellow drag racer, Mr. Billy "West" passed away last evening. Billy West was a legend in drag racing particularly in North Carolina. Billy West was an East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame Inductee and a racer well known in the MOPAR world.

There are so many memories of Billy racing in the Carolinas over the early years. For folks who don't know I was one of those drag racer who thought you could out run a mopar with a chevy, back in the 60's and 70's. I had been away from drag racing for over 30 years until last year my son, at Mopar Speed Shop, got us back in to racing with a Plymouth Duster. We were at the Rockingham Mopar Show and I was doing a little tune-up. Several people were standing around and I heard this voice say "Look under that Mopar hat, It took you 40 years to learn" and I looked up over the hood to see Billy West with his usual smile on his face. And yes he was pullin a little red wagon with a Chrysler 4 speed in it.

When Larry Davis published his book Super Stock Racing the Family Sedan, there is a small black and white photo in the very first pages of the book. I asked Billy one time, at the Reunion in Henderson, to sign a picture in my copy of the book. He turned back the pages to that little photo of Billy West and Melvin Yow at Easy Street Drag Strip. Billy says "can I sign this one." Those early days of racing and friendships meant the world to him.

God Bless You Billy West