Mopar Blasts From The Past

[Bill Rolik]

Here is the deal on that track, with a bit of history first:

In late 1976, I was sent, along with local welding guru extraordinaire Bill Hayes, to Don Carlton's shop in Lenoir, NC. Prior arrangements had been made with Mike Koran and Ted Spehar at SVI in Michigan to procure a body-in-white Dodge Aspen for local SS/AA racer Ed Lukas, who wanted to go Pro Stock racing with Tim Richards power, and since Richards was the go-to guy for SS Hemi's at the time, it was a natural progression. Carlton, who did not normally do customer work, was fascinated by the project, and agreed to build the car!

We brought the body-in-white to Carlton's shop in the fall of 76, and were told to expect a rolling car for Ed by years end. Work commenced, but then, Carlton called to say that he and Clyde Hodges needed to completely modify their B/A Colt (including a wheelbase stretch) for the upcoming 77 Winternationals, and would not be able to deliver the rolling Aspen by the original deadline. So Lukas, who wanted to get moving on the Aspen on HIS end, said to Carlton "How about we send Hayes and Rolik to work on the Aspen, while you guys continue with the Colt?" Carlton said "Great, let's do it!"

Hayes and I flew down and spent almost two weeks on welding and fabrication. During our stay there, Carlton said "I am going to show you something that will scare the hell out of you". So we jump in his big-*** 73 Fury, with his 3-legged dog in tow, and drive over to Hudson Dragway in Hudson, NC, not too far from Lenoir.

The photo you show from my website (I have many photos from this trip) shows yours truly sitting on a cinder block on the starting line. Notice the "tree" swinging from a horizontal cable across the track!

The track (1.00 admission) was an outlaw facility that saw countless match races with all of the familiar names, and obviously, if you get out of shape here, you have a real problem.

Now here is the "fun" part per Carlton: Notice that the shutdown area basically goes straight up. If that did not stop you, you would hit the trees at the top. If you somehow made it through the trees, you went over the cliff.

The "long and winding return road" was through the trees to the left. How about that at night?

You can't make this up.

Pictured are the Aspen under construction after the body was mounted, and the bare body-in-white sitting in front of the shop and Carlton's "wire" car. At the top of the driveway to the right was a building where Don, Clyde and Don's father did their own fiberglass moulding!

They even took us to a "fish camp", which two knuckleheads from Jersey had never heard of before (fuhgeddaboudit). Now whenever I go south, I make a point to eat "hush puppies".

Bill Rolik