teardown photos from BG in the 70's

[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