>> forgot to put gas in the car.
That's funny... the first round I ever won with the Dust Devil, when it was still in primer, I ran out of gas right on the starting line when the top bulb came on. As they pushed me back off the line, they told me I won... my opponent broke out!
When we went to re-paint the Duster years later, dad had the whole car pretty well sanded down. Still took it to the track for the season opener. I wanted to win just to make Todd (the track photographer) take a picture of the thing!
...and then I met BILLY NEES.
Dad and I had gotten interested in learning more about Stock. I'd heard some stories about the reclusive genius(?), but one day, he happened to show up at a race at Beaver Springs. I saw him in the staging lanes.
Hi, Mr. Nees, how's the Stock circuit going?
"Mr. Nees is my FATHER. I haven't earned that respect yet. It's Billy. And it's not going too good."
Um... oh.
"You know, you'd be a killer in a slow car."
Well, I uh...
"YOU'RE ARROGANT."
er...
"You're REALLY arrogant!"
ack...
And so he proceeded to show me the (insert angels singing) CLASSIFICATION GUIDE.
"How much money do you have?"
I don't have any.
"So you're going to run a front wheel drive car. What kind of cars do you like?"
I've always run Mopars.
HUFF. "Well, if you HAVE to run a Mopar..."
and the Turismo was begun... as did several years of death threats from Billy.
I actually found an '85 Turismo Duster, which Jim's Used Cars gave to me as sponsorship. We got the car home on a Wednesday, hacked the exhaust and power steering belt off of it, changed the oil and spark plugs, and took it to the track that Friday. It ran a 20.45. I won that night. I got a trophy. The starter got $10 because he bet somebody that I'd win.
"Michael, get that car to the track. If I don't take a SECOND off of this thing, I'll quit racing."
Ok, it's your career.
That Sunday, with a little tinkering, Billy ran an 18.79 on the first pass. I'm in the back of the lanes jumping up and down, with a bunch of guys looking at me like I'm a loon. Billy returned to the lanes, "I don't think I'll be quitting anytime soon, pup." Some fine tuning later, he ran an 18.45... picking the car up 2 seconds and 7 mph.
The entire buildup story is still available here:
http://www.staginglight.com/stocker/intro.html
Although my favorite memory of racing with Billy may still be riding down to VMP together, singing the SPAM song. If you don't understand, don't ask.
