Last Year of Modified? Question

[BlueOval Ralph]

The guys running at the top of the category like Arlen Fadley were a long way from many of the weekend racers

This couldn't be futher from the truth, I worked at Ford the same time Fadely raced the Maverick and would go with him some of the time, He worked at Fords during the day and on the car in his spare time which was day and night.He built his own engines, trans & rearends at home in Flat Rock, The Ramcharges did all the engine machine work, Batten did the heads and airflow, LocMachine in Taylor did major maching. He (we took vaction on Fridays and Mondays so we could go the Points Meets and National Events. The last yeaar he ran the car 1978 before it was sold to Mike Edwards he alot of help from John Bujenski (from the old Seibert & Bujenski fame) and in fact was parnters with hime when they ran the Mopar Dragster in 79 & 80. If you go back in time most if not all the Modified Racers were Weekend Racers.
Ralph






V

Originally Posted by Rich Biebel

FJ...I guess it is mostly how commited you are to the sport. Your abilities are much higher than the average guy I would have to say. From the cars that you build/built and for your on track performance as well. Everyone knew you and your cars.....I know we did....We were a small engine shop and tried to promote the business and field a couple of cars in various classes. We did not have the budget for it I can tell you that and we did work hard. My friend and co-workers C/SM car (Dennis Siderko), qualified #3 at E-Town behind Billy Mansell and Garley Daniels one year and we were subsequently tossed in teardown for some marks further than 1/2" into the intake port. It was a real arbitrary call and we agrued it for a longtime but got nowhere. That single event was very devastating to our efforts. We continued but it was never the same after that. Many of the guys I recall were garage owners or other various automotive business owners. The guys running at the top of the category like Arlen Fadley were a long way from many of the weekend racers. We did pretty well here and there but it was tough to keep up and the amount of time and work needed was real tough to sustain.........nice talking to you.....Rich