Like many of you, I am a second generation racer. My dad started in 1956 at the age of 14, and raced for 45 years til he was too sick to do it. My first memories of racing were at Dragway 42 with my dad racing a VW Beetle in some oddball class...held a record with it, or so I was told.
We never had much money, so when bracket racing came my dad found his niche. He had a slant six powered 65 Dart running high 15s, a 318 powered Duster running 14s, and then whatever was the daily driver. One of the more memorable beaters we had was a '73 Pinto Wagon he paid $50 for. 4 cyl, 4 speed, 18.80s all day long. He won 3 races in a row one summer with that, and had a 21 round win streak. I think he made all of $200 for those races.
I made a few passes before legal driving age in 1982 in another beater. First raced regularly in a 70 Fury III with a 318, semi finals my third race ever. Got my first Trophy win in a borrowed 5.0 auto 86 Mustang, first money win in a '72 Dart slant six.
Following in my dad's footsteps, I never seem to have enough money to race much in the last 15 years, though I still go out a few times a season.
I'vr taken over 50 different cars down the track, none of them faster than 14.63. I still manage to get a win here and there in my slow street junk. Now I get as much satisfaction announcing as I do racing, and I am guaranteed to leave the track with more money than I came with!
