teardown photos from BG in the 70's

[Bob Rice]

Here's a Bill Tuby picture of the white car.

[Robert Swartz]

Originally Posted by Lyn Smith

Great pictures of my GS.Started racing it in76.Still racing it in F,G today 33 years later. Those pics are from 2 different years.Probably around 78,79.One of the Meeks used to work for Rayburn the circle track chassis guy,who back then had a machine shop next to Bob Gliddens house in Ind..Rayburn also raced a hemi pro stock back in the 70's.Back then the pros raced at Div. races.He would take the hemi out of the car on sat night, and have one of his machinist work on it all night back at the shop,pick it up sunday morning and have it back in the car and racing sunday afternoon.

Lyn,

That was Kenny, Toby's little brother, he was the driver. I haven't talked with him in at least 15 years, he took a job up in Chicago. After they quit racing, he lost the drive to keep working on race stuff.

Yeah, Rayburn's was a neat shop to hang out at until he finally hit it big in the roundy roundy cars. The whole atmosphere changed. I spent a few late nites at that old shop. I recall one nite helping to adapt a set of Hemi heads to a wedge block.

Rayburn eventually got to the point he wanted little to do with drag racers. He commented that circle track racers "payed" but drag racers wanted everything given to them and then wanted it fixed for free when it broke! The man was trying to make a living so can't blame him for wanting those with the serious dollars. I haven't been to his shop in over 20 years, he has a complex of about 3-4 buildings now.

Robert Swartz

[MEMORIES]

The blue SS/O Chevy II on the other side of the Buick in the staging lane shot is "Cheetin" Charlie Lee from Sparta, Tennessee. He raced at my home track, Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip, in the seventies. Here's a pic I took of his car in 1974. This car was sold to H/MP racer, Cotton Perry, who won his first national event with the car.

Wayne.

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Robert Swartz

Lyn,

That was Kenny, Toby's little brother, he was the driver. I haven't talked with him in at least 15 years, he took a job up in Chicago. After they quit racing, he lost the drive to keep working on race stuff.

Yeah, Rayburn's was a neat shop to hang out at until he finally hit it big in the roundy roundy cars. The whole atmosphere changed. I spent a few late nites at that old shop. I recall one nite helping to adapt a set of Hemi heads to a wedge block.

Rayburn eventually got to the point he wanted little to do with drag racers. He commented that circle track racers "payed" but drag racers wanted everything given to them and then wanted it fixed for free when it broke! The man was trying to make a living so can't blame him for wanting those with the serious dollars. I haven't been to his shop in over 20 years, he has a complex of about 3-4 buildings now.

Robert Swartz

I was last at CJ's place about 4 years ago. When the PRI Show was at Indy, CJ had an open house the weekend of the show, on Friday night. It was always a lot of fun. CJ is the only guy I know who can throw a party and have two or three of his ex wives show up, and everyone still have a great time. One of my customers is real tight with CJ, in fact CJ keeps a picture of my customer's car on his desk a lot. I can remember being at CJ's party and seeing Tony Stewart, Kenny Schrader, and a 1/2 dozen other big time circle track guys, and they were all a lot of fun.

[Robert Swartz]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

I was last at CJ's place about 4 years ago. When the PRI Show was at Indy, CJ had an open house the weekend of the show, on Friday night. It was always a lot of fun. CJ is the only guy I know who can throw a party and have two or three of his ex wives show up, and everyone still have a great time. One of my customers is real tight with CJ, in fact CJ keeps a picture of my customer's car on his desk a lot. I can remember being at CJ's party and seeing Tony Stewart, Kenny Schrader, and a 1/2 dozen other big time circle track guys, and they were all a lot of fun.

Alan,

You are spot on with this. Especially about the part with ex-wives and family. Rayburn is an interesting charactor. After re-readiing my post, it may have sounded more mean spirited than I intended. My point, back in my day, he started out as a little shop.I was around when that first little brick building {and a few old pieces of equipment} that I believe is essentially his office now were the business. He made it, took alot of effort and time. As his customer base grew, so did he.

Robert Swartz

[Dave Turner]

Originally Posted by Bob Rice

Here's a Bill Tuby picture of the white car.

Thanks very much Bob!!

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Robert Swartz

Alan,

You are spot on with this. Especially about the part with ex-wives and family. Rayburn is an interesting charactor. After re-readiing my post, it may have sounded more mean spirited than I intended. My point, back in my day, he started out as a little shop.I was around when that first little brick building {and a few old pieces of equipment} that I believe is essentially his office now were the business. He made it, took alot of effort and time. As his customer base grew, so did he.

Robert Swartz

Robert,
I never took your post as mean spirited at all. Yes, I think his office is sort of "absorbed" into one of the buildings. CJ has one big building that he allows customers to use to take their car apart so that his crew can repair it, and allows them to use that building to put their car back together again. That big building is where the open house party starts. CJ is pretty big on value, support, and service. He's one of those in the racing business who really did it right. I'm a dyed in the wool drag racer, it just happens I have a close friend who is also a customer, and he is very close to CJ. I find CJ to be very interesting, both as a person and as a business man.

[Eddie Rezac]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Eddie, that was when we could afford it. How ya been?

Ed,
I been doing fine, after being away from the drags for 25+ years its like they say about the old drunk, you will be OK , if you walk past the bar everyday, just don't step inside. Well I helped a friend with his stocker, for a couple of years, so here we are, We built a new Super Stocker, and are getting ready to do some testing in the spring.
Eddie

[thomas sheehan]

Here's another shot from behind the teardown barn in Bowling Green.

[Jim Kaekel]

Cool photo of Bob Nelson's Olds.