The official "Distant Thunder" card set begins.

M

mitchum

Guest
Thank you so much, my old friends, for a new audience to play to. I think that the cards should be posted about ten to the thread. Think that will work better than one for each card or posting them all together? TRL, just let me know how you want it or if you don't want them and I'll abide by whatever you say. In the meantime here's Number One to get things started.

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41 kilo's and theres 10 posts per thread page- we can sticky the thread and post 1 pic per reply and that should about match a dial-up'ers tolerance per page.
 
I think I understood that. LOL I'm a much better modeler than computor wizard. So, does that mean I should post 1-10 in a thread and 11-20 in another and so on?
 
just keep replying to this thread with one picture per post and I'll pin it.
 
TexasRaceLady said:
Those guys were nuts. :)
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At least one of them would have agreed with you at the first Daytona 500. With only a few convertibles showing up for the race France offered a bonus to anyone who would remove the top on their racer. After cutting off the roof of a highway wreck he used to build his hardtop Daytona entry (a roof that he spent much time repairing) so he could receive the starting bonus, he watched in horror as the hardtops started lapping him about every twenty laps or so. Since the convertibles ran in one qualifyer and the hardtops in another it would be raceday before the bad news really arrived.

There was that much difference in the speeds because of aerodynamics between the hardtops and the convertibles. Just another nail in the coffin of the convertible division that folded at the end of the '59 season. Only Darlington's Bob Colvin promoted an event, the Rebel 300, for them but he had to drop them after the '62 event due to pressure from Nascar and the aggravation to the teams to have to cut off the roofs for only one event.
 
One of my favorite people in the whole world's ride for '63

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I was working in the model industry when I found out the Talladeg was being re-released with the racing parts in it but no decals fo a specific car. When I asked about it they told that after the molds were refurbished that there was no extra money for royalties.

I got up with Junior at Darlington and told him about the problem and asked him if he would let us do his LeeRoy Yarbough car decals without any royalties. We pretty much "did the deal" right there with a handshake but I told him I would have to have something in writing to send to the "suits" to make it legal. He said he'd take care of it.

A week or so later I got a simple plain small envelope in the mail at home. I opened it to find a single, handwritten note, the gist of it being, "LeeRoy was a fine driver and should be remembered. Go ahead and do the kit. You've got my permission." Brief, to the point and simple, just what you would expedt from an old fashion, solid, whiskey runnin' mountain man.
 
One of my son's favorite people in world's ride for '59

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My son met Cotton when he was helping his grandsons that were running at a dirt track where my son was track pnotographer. Dwayne's jaw dropped when he saw who it was and Cotton couldn't get over the fact that a guy who was born half a decade after he stopped driving knew so much about him.

I still recall the awed look on my son's face as he told me about Cotton calling him over to his pit sometime after they'd talked and he thought that Cotton may have wanted him to take some photos. The expression on his face was priceless as he said, "Pop, I went over to see what he wanted and he pulled out a bucket of chicken and invited me to have supper with him. A man that won the Daytona Beach and Road Course race! He wanted me to have supper with him!"
 
Mitchum, I sure do remember Junior Johnson's car!

I LOVE this series and THANK YOU!
 
Jeez, I don't know which I enjoy the most......the photos or the stories. Please keep um' both coming.
 
CARD#7

One of my first and best friends from the old drivers was Roy Tyner. I first met him at the 1st Competition Car Show at the Merchandise Mart at Charlotte NC in the mid-eighties. He couldn't get over my old cars and the committment I had made to making sure the pioneers weren't swept under the rug by all the big money sponsors and new fans.

I got to build him a car or two and visit with him at a few shows before we lost him and I'll always cherish the time we spent together. Here's my brother's build of the Chevy he ran in the mid-sixties as part of the fleet that was built to run with the Fords in an effort to make fans forget that people like Petty and Goldsmith weren't showing up at the races because their engine wasn't welcome, even if they were.


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CARD #8

This is the car that signaled my switch from the local dirt track cars to the vintage Grand National cars as the subject of my model building. It also was the first step from me being known only to the local racing fraternity to becoming involved in magazine, diecast and television projects and friends with the likes of Ralph Moody, Tim Flock, Fred Lorenzen and others.

This is still one of my very favorites and was built and hand lettered way before the decal companies discovered the early racers and their rides. As best I can remember, this cars was built in the late seventies and spawned the collection that is so special to me today. It survived two moves and two divorces and around thirty years of being hauled around the country to model shows and races and is still going strong. Bud Moore's son Greg liked it but I just wish that Little Joe could have seen it.

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No, mitch, I haven't. I send a card every now and then, but haven't heard anything. I sure hope he's doing OK. I miss him.

I'll let you know if I get a reply to my Christmas card.
 
This is really neat. I really enjoy seeing this.

I wish I was around to see racing at it's best.
 
Glad you're enjoying them, there's a BUNCH more of'em to come.
 
Race Card #9-This Bud's on Junior.

Sorry for the long time between cards but I had some stuff going on and I got a little lazy too.

First met Neil at Charlotte just after he had taken over the Wood Brother's car. Being a long time David Pearson fan I was solidly prepared to dislike the guy who "took" my driver's ride. Yeah right! It would be easier to hate Santa Claus on December 24th than to dislike Neil.

It was the first time I had credentials and I had passes for everything but victory lane and the ladies rest rooms and me and Neil hung out a lot that week. I shot pictures of him and his sportsman car and he waved from victory lane as he took the pole. By the time Sunday rolled around I had a new friend and Neil had a new fan.

I lost touch and it had been several years since I had seen Neil when I lettered Elmo Langley's T-bird that Clark Dwyer was slated to drive at Charlotte. Elmo got me a pit pass but I didn't have a garage pass this time so I sent a friend that was working on Harry Gant's crew to tell Neil I'd like to see him. I saw Neil headed my way with a big grin only to get headed off at the gate by a TV crew that wanted an interview.

Neil never broke stide as he waved them off and came over to where my and my stepdaughter were waiting. We had a leisurely visit, got caught up on old times and then he walked back to the crew to give them their interview. Neil was as real as it gets and never let the fame go to his head.

Fast forward to a cold day in February when the phone rang at the hobby distributor I was working at. It was a call from an old friend who was at the speedway. He said the news wouldn't break for a while yet but that he didn't want me to hear from a stranger on the radio that my friend was gone. It took every good memory I had to get past that phone call that day but get past it I did.

I knew that as much as Neil loved racing he would want me to remember our times of hanging out together and forget what a harsh mistress that racing can be. This Monte Carlo is a tribute to a fallen friend and better times.

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I've got to comment on the Cotton Owens story........ That day is one I will not forget...... I went over to speak and slip a picture of Cotten.... We spent the next thirty minutes or so talkin..... He was tellin me about my "home track" Lancaster, racing against legends, buildin cars, the whole gammit. The really neat thing was after the race, his grandson Kyle was racing 4 cylinders then and Cotton was buildin for him ( a MOPAR of course..lol) Anyways, I was in the pit next to his talkin to a friend of mine and Cotton walked up to me, put his arm around me and struck up another conversation. He was tellin me things that he had done to that lil car..... mods that made the car handle better.... he said somethin like , them old boys think the motor is what its all about, but look here ( pointing to some very hard to notice welds) this is what gets ya thru the corners. I was getting a set up lesson for a legend.... It was easy to dream back thirty years to any lil mudhole they raced back then and imagine hime talkin bout what he was doin to Pearsons or Bakers, or whoevers car........
A couple of weeks later he came back...... I was walkin past the pits and he called me over, by name! What a thrill...... one of NASCAR's top 50 all time drivers knew me..... AND invited me to dinner with hima nd his family...... Never will forget that.....
 
Way cool! I was an avid stock car modeler until the diecast boom pretty much killed the hobby. I used to get my stuff from BSR Replicas.. is anyone still producing decals or resin bodies for scale model stock cars?
 
PettyBlue said:
Way cool! I was an avid stock car modeler until the diecast boom pretty much killed the hobby. I used to get my stuff from BSR Replicas.. is anyone still producing decals or resin bodies for scale model stock cars?
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Hope this helps...decal-man.com/index.htm
 
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