Prayers for Vic Hobbs....

[RON NICKELS]

I met Vic in the 1970,s,i had a 50 Olds ,he had a 69 Camaro at the time,he, and Ted Seiples were the best racers back then,i learned by watching them ,i always wondered why they knocked the pre stage lite out on a .400 pro tree.I lost a lot back then,talked to Vic and he explained about deep staging ,and i started to win a few races.Yrs. later in 1979 we had the bracket finals in Bakersfield Ca.,we ran a full tree,i notice that Vic had tape on his window,and he said he blinded all ambers but the bottom bulb ,and went deep just like the .400 pro lite ,and so i tried it and won the bracket finals in 1982, and 1983,He also won the bracket finals many times.To this day i still run a blinder on the full tree,but with a trans brake,i owe a lot of my racing success to Vic Hobbs ,my MENTOR,he helped me many times when i had problems,like changing rear end gears ,head gaskets,converters at the track ,he always was a great friend and no one loved drag racing more than him,he won more races than anybody i know with cars that were a challenge to drive ,i mean slow cars,and he also had some success in stock class.I will really miss him ,im so sorry he is leaving us,Rest In Peace my friend ,i will always remember the good times we had , LOVE,THE HAMMER ,7316.