True Class War: Pros, Cons, and Why

[FED 387]

On a side not whatever happened to Scott ? I know the Federal Govt. took him to court for fraud and got a huge judgement against him. Don't know if he ever did any jail time tho---FED 387

[Mike Schwartz]

I don't know if they could qualify unless it is a short field, but why not open the Hemi Challenge to any Hemi powered car?

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by FED 387

On a side not whatever happened to Scott ? I know the Federal Govt. took him to court for fraud and got a huge judgement against him. Don't know if he ever did any jail time tho---FED 387

He gets on this site once in a while so I know he is still around. I saw a segment on the 60 Minutes TV show many years back about Scotts business and legal issues. That was a bad *** ride when he was running SS/A with that car

[Ed Wright]

Seems like a nice guy to me.

[Alan Roehrich]

So, we sat down with Jimmy Bridges himself, and we discussed the Corvette he currently races, the story of that car is well documented, and we will tell it now.

Lonnie Garner from here in Nashville bought that car, a truck, and a Chapparal trailer in Texas. The car first came to Nashville in 74. He ran it from 74 to sometime in 77 in F gas where he won a lot of races at Union Hill and Bowling Green. He sold it to Mike Robinson in Nashville, who soon sold it to Ronnie Traffansted. Ronnie ran it in Modified, and did quite well with it, won a few division 2 races with it. Ronnie sold it to Dallas Pennley in Morgantown KY. Dallas made it into a 64 and ran it in Super Stock K. Dallas didn't run it a lot because he became a Western Car and Truck Dealer. December of 87, we bought the car for Scott Wilcox and rurned it back into a 67 and built the L88 motor to run Super A. Scott showed up in Atlanta in 88 with it for its first race as a 67. Larry was driving his Chevy II that weekend. Summer of 89 Mike Keown went to redo the motor. After that he set the A and B records. In 90 he won in the Southern Nationals. Whenever he showed up in Houston to run Super Stock A mod with an Oldsmobile, and did not have the Corvette, they cut the 67 L88 from the classification guide. Reason was that it had aluminum heads for road racing applications. There were only 22 sold to general public. 59 to road racers. After the L88 was made obsolete, the 427 was made into a 425HP, and the car changed it to a 66. Ran it a couple times as a 66 while Scott owned it. Scott sold to Glenn Young from Murfreesboro TN. Mike Lynch started working and driving for Young. They won class several times with it. Glenn swapped the car off to Noel Davis. Davis raced the car the most successfully, he won 1995 IHRA World National Championship. Won a Muscle Car championship in 96, and another Muscle Car Championship in 97. Then the car sat, and at the 99 Sports Nationals in Bowling Green, Noel still had it, and the rolling chassis was purchased by Jimmy Bridges who put 396 in it and ran Super Stock C. Jimmy first raced it at Indy in 99. Lost to Adkins that weekend. Next race was in Memphis, which we relighted against Dwight Southerland. Next race was in Dallas, we beat Roger Brogdon in class. Since then, we've won Indy class 9 straight years and beat ourselves in 10. Thats the history of the Vette.

On a side note, I spoke with Tony Rhodes, who owned the black Corvette, late last Fall. Tony still owns that car, it has not been raced since the 427 L-88 was removed from the guide.

[mike koester 66 nova]

Alan
Great history lesson on Jimmy Bridges Corvette. Seen that car race many
times by different owners. A very strong stock / super stock community from
Indy south to Alabama along I -65. I do not want to hi- jack this site but you
might know. What ever happened to the Ronnie T. / Larry Seay / Don Wolfe
66 Nova. Another great looking and running car that had the same circle of friends and owners.Got any idea where it is resting at today. Thanks

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by mike koester 66 nova

Alan
Great history lesson on Jimmy Bridges Corvette. Seen that car race many
times by different owners. A very strong stock / super stock community from
Indy south to Alabama along I -65. I do not want to hi- jack this site but you
might know. What ever happened to the Ronnie T. / Larry Seay / Don Wolfe
66 Nova. Another great looking and running car that had the same circle of friends and owners.Got any idea where it is resting at today. Thanks

Jimmy often looks in on the site, and will tell me what he knows about things, we talk often. He looks at this thread, I'm sure he'll check this thread to read what I posted about his Corvette.

[Dwight Southerland]

Alan -
A couple of bits to add to the story:
The height of the Hemi contingency's campaign against the '67 L88 Corvette was at the Memphis national race in 1989. Several Chrysler racers and the factory race director who flew in specifically for the meeting, met with NHRA officials in the tower before eliminations began on Sunday morning. Several Chevrolet racers, including me, knew what was going on and wrote many letters and made many phone calls during the remainder of the year to pose our objections. I believe that the following year was when the combination was removed from the Class Guide. It's hard to beat cubic money and GOB relationships. I still argue that it is purely partisanship, even based on NHRA's "50 units" rule.

Does anyone know who in Texas originally built and raced the car? I was pretty familiar with most of the MP crowd out of TX during that time but I have not made the connection.

Seems that I concluded that the car was originally a 1965 car based on the VIN. The car I raced in SS/C that belongs to Leonard Lamia was also a '65 car that we raced as a '66 so we could run the 427-425 combination.