lets hear from some of the old racers.like the older haydens,and some other older racers..i like to hear the old raceing stories..and im sure alot of others would like to hear them also..stories of howes,meirs.fedewa,weiss,reinbold,traft abott,pat bourdow,i know hes left us.any story from any of the older drivers

i was the ring bearer in kevin grizzles wedding,, he was my favorite over my dad. still chaps my dads' a$$. haha. Al Boitel Jr. used to come over and arm wrestle my bro and me at the time.. we called him "big strong Al". not racing stories but things that involved racers

You probably won't get any stories from the older Hayden's....they don't use the internet much. My dad doesn't even know how to turn a computer on, and doesn't care to know, lol.

Tony Brabbs was, as usual, killing everyone in the LLM class. Well, my mom had been growing tomatoes in our garden. She had some that were bad and she piled them all in a big bucket. One night she decided to bring the bucket to Dixie with us. I knew that this meant trouble. Well, when Tony won the feature she got up and started firing these tomatoes at Tony from the stands. She got off 4 shots and I think she hit his roof once or twice. I am still shocked that she got through the gate with those tomatoes and that she never got kicked out. We still laugh about that to this day, and my mom is a huge Tony Brabbs fan now, she tapes him every night that he races at the same track that I do.

I'll think of some others I am sure.

I can remember being the starter at Michigan Ideal Speedway and having a prominent member of this club (not to mention any names but he is a mod champ at Dixie and Auto City) disagree with a call so much that he gave me the finger for the longest period of time that day. I'm not so sure that his finger isn't still stuck in the upright position.

Bill Lackey

well i remember being at tricity,,sittin with the bourdow family,,pat came out to do the 4 car dash,and blew his engine..they loaded the car up and exited the track..drove all the way to kochville put a new engine in it came back to the track..just in time for the feature...started in the back and in a 50 lap feature..spanked everyone..i lost my voice that night...he beat alot of good drivers that night,brabbs,abott,grizzel,woolworth,harder..alot of really good drivers


then there was the one night out at tricity,,i think it was 1985 the bush 100...when ed howe and pete weiss got into it going into 4 off the back stretch they did this for several laps finally with 10 to go ed let off going into 4 weiss on his ass threw the car sideways,and the car hit the grass and hit the telephone pole at around 120 on the passenger side..caved the hole side of the car to the driver compartment..i beleave that was petes last year of racing..maybe he did one more year

She got off 4 shots and I think she hit his roof once or twice


i remember that

Back in the early 80's I was racing Street Stocks at Mt. Clemens. It was Saturday afternoon and I was headed up the road to the race track. I looked in my mirror and saw that Artie Sommers was pulling his rig down the road headed over to Checkered Flag in Windsor. (Artie's shop is at the end of my street). As we travel the 3 miles to the expresseway I keep noticing that my trailer seemed to be acting a bit funny until I realized that there behind me is Artie and his rig nudging the back of my race car on the trailer. All I could see in the mirror was him laughing like hell.

Another time, I am driving down the same road towards home and who pops up behind me in his truck but Artie and he is tapping my rear bumper. Next thing you know, him and I are running down North River Road at about 70-75 through some tight curves with a river on one side of us and he is drafting and bumping me all the way down the road. We got down to our street and he pulls up along side of me with a thumbs up and a big old grin.

Last Artie story. It was Mt. Clemens about 1984 or 1985. Jay Sommers is running the Super that night and Artie is a spectator. Him and I are standing on the berm in turn 4 watching the race when there is a wreck in between 3 and 4. Jay is parked up against the fence and the late Don Biederman is behind him in the fence also. Bieder gets out of his car and walks up to Jay's car and reaches into the window. I look next to me to say something to Art and he is gone. I look up and there he is running across the track to defend his son. Artie gets about 6 feet or so from Biederman, jumps up and does a flying karate kick and knocks him down. I don't think too many punches got thrown before it got broke up, but it sure was funny to see how fast Art could move back in those days. You see, Art lost a bunch of wieght and has kept it off since then as he used to be a pretty big guy. Now he is "normal" size and never stops moving.

Just a couple of old stories that I could remember from the old days.

I also remember sneaking into Mt. Clemens after the season was done and walking the track. Dave Dobner and I took a leak off of the flagstand and all the while laughing and saying "I'll bet Vince never did this". I think we were under the influence of some amber colored soda. Scott Fow was underneath the flagstand and thought it was raining. (no, we didn't get him wet) I was a lot younger then, about half my age now.

I have a Don Biederman /Artie Sommers story..... Summer of 1985, Artie and Don were swapin paint in the feature on a Thusday night, After the race Don was getting ready to pull the motor out of his car ( I do believe he borrowed Mark Johnsons motor that night) when Artie came over to Don's pit and started getting in his face about swapin paint, Don kept telling Artie to get out of the way he was getting ready to pop the radiator cap, well Artie did not listen... you know what happens nexted!!!!! Artie still would leave Don alone AFTER he poped the radiator cap and sprayed Artie

I could tell stories till the cows came home and my racing buddies know I will always refuse to reveal their names when it comes to what I have been a witness to, caused to happen or was a part of. I will take those secrets to my grave with me.

Without naming the location or person, I can remember losing a bet to a well known Michigan driver. I cannot remember what the bet ( it was more like a dare ) was even about now but I clearly remember it ended up costing me a hooker. I made the bet and as a prize jokingly said " you win I will buy you a hooker ". Damned if he didn't win. I actually took this guy to the red light district and paid my debt in full. ( She wasn't bad looking either.

A national driver who is very well known went out on the town the night before the PRI show one year. When the morning came around he was trying to find me at the convention center and caught up with me at my booth. He came over to me acting kinda strange and quietly asked out of ear shot of others " Can you help me out ? I lost my damn car and need a ride. I am too sick to walk all the parking lots looking for it. After I quit laughing, I had my son Lindy take him around the parking lot in my car and search for his car. Turns out he didn't lose the car himself, a well known media personality who he was partying with did. The driver was just so drunk he didn't remember he wasn't driving the night before. The other problem was that this media personality didn't remember where he parked it either.

At another PRI show I was attending I walked by a booth when someone yelled at me to come over and share in a toast. I walked over and there sat Trickle ( who was well on his way to feeling very good ) and Bloomquist and a few other drivers I knew well. I asked " what the hell are we toasting anyways ? " and my buddy says Scott's last night of freedom. Turns out it was Scott Bloomquist's last night before turning himself in for his jail sentence in the morning. I can honestly say they did that night up in good fashion.

I can remember one night when several well known Michigan drivers ( all big names from the old MSPA Series days ) were out of town racing in a traveling series. These guys all got together that evening and went out drinking. Along for the night out was a very well known announcer who was part of the " gang ". While partying at one redneck bar, crap hit the fan over something that was said to a local. More words were exchanged between the drivers and locals and a fight was just about to break out when the announcer says " go get the car and bring it to the front door ". The guys all filed out of the bar and into the car while the announcer stayed inside. When he checked to be sure the car was out front running, the insults started flying big time ( and I also heard coins were being thrown at these rednecks as well ). The locals took off running out the door after him as he jumped into the car and they sped away. As one of the drivers later told me " I think we were saved from a healthy ass kicking that night ".

Another time I was at a hotel staying for the weekend for an ASA race. I took my daughter with me that weekend along with one of her girlfriends. Whenever we traveled with the old ASA series the drivers and teams always stayed in a group at the same hotels. A lot of times we had the same floor and just opened the doors and partied up and down the hall. My daughter and girlfriend wanted to go down swimming at the pool so I allowed them to, knowing they had a few responsible adults down there to watch after them ( Mike Eddy's crew to be exact ). After an hour or so the girls come running back into the room and said " we can't swim anymore ". I asked why and they said " we got kicked out of the pool and was asked not to return. They even locked the doors to the pool area ". I asked " what the hell did you do ? " Nothing they said......really we didn't do anything. It turns out the guys were having pool diving contests in the hot tub. The manager was finally summoned by the security guy and the entire team ( and my daughter & her friend ) were kicked out. I later confronted Mike about it and he claimed, ahhhh no biggie. We got kicked out of another pool last year. The guys were having a diving contest off the 1st story roof of the hotel and into the pool. I never let Mike forget that and we had some great laughs over it.

And one of my favorite ( innocent ) stories is of Tony Raines. Tony and the ASA series were at Jennerstown for a weekend race. After the race I headed back to the hotel, loaded up my car and was walking out the front door when I seen Tony sitting on the curb. I asked him " what the hell are you doing " and his response was " my guys left me ". After I quit laughing I told him I would give him a ride back home and he says " no, I think I better wait. The dummies will realize they forgot me and come back ". They got all the way to Pittsburgh when they realized they didn't have Tony with them and they did turn back and go get him. My daughter just caught up with Tony this year at Richmond and asked him " you been left at the curb lately ". He started laughing and said " OMG, I still cannot believe those guys did that to me ".

I could write a book on all I have seen, some of the incidents I witnessed and of course the practical jokes I pulled with others. We had a ball back then. Racing was so damn much fun, it was constant laughs, practical jokes and parties. We had some real characters and personalities in the sport back then.

Chris

i love this stuff