TOM BLAKE finds us from NHRA article

[dinoKeymaster]

Tom was searching Historical Photos and in ..’ More from Charles Irving ‘posted this:

“Just found this site after reading the NHRA story on Dover. Looking through the pictures and found a picture of my ’55 Chevy “Odd Job”. Couldn’t believe it, all my pictures except one are gone. Spent hours looking around the site. Sure brings back memories. Thanks.”

Hey Tom ,More in ODF Gallerys too ! …Fill us in on Your Dover Days 😎

[tomblakeParticipant]

The site sure brings back a lot of good memories.
I was there on opening day with a Ford in the stock class and it was bone stock and not a competitive car.
Didn’t take long, I was back with a 55 Chevy running E/G “Odd Job”. Ran that car for years. Still have a bunch of Dover trophy’s. We even won a divisional race, won a jacket and a NHRA get in to race free card. Dover wasn’t NHRA that year so it never got used.
We tried B/A for a short time. Bill McWilliams had a 39 Ford and I had a 409, a four speed and the slicks. We talked about putting that together on a Tuesday. Wednesday we started and that same week on Sunday we raced the ’39 for the first time. One Sunday we raced the B/A record holder for that time. We thought we were hot stuff, beating him all the way to third gear. Shifted into fourth and I could feel the car rock as he passed by so fast.
The last race car I had at Dover was a A/MSP fiberglass body “Odd Job II” with the 409 four speed. That was the fastest car I had at Dover, running in the 10’s for me was fantastic. Moved to South Carolina in the 1965 so that was almost the end of Dover for me.
I did come back one time and raced. That time I came back to visit with Don Scinto, he did all the machine work on the engines I had raced in the past. The car I raced that day was a daily driver ’67 Mustang that I had just drove up from South Carolina. Ran down the track several times with the air conditioner on just for old time sake.
We did have fun and because of this site I can remember where I was for so many Sundays when I was younger. Thanks

[charlie-irving]

Tom – If you contact me at my e-mail address – Charlie.Irving@flaghouse.com, send me your mailing address and I will have a copy of “Odd Job” made at the photo shop and mail it to you at no charge. Glad to bring back some old Dover memories.

Charlie Irving

[THERE ! Dover Guy Helps Dover Guy …way to Go! edit-dino ]

[dinoKeymaster]

Just love the Dover web site, what bunch of good memories.
Attaced is the last car I raced at Dover in 1965.

Tom Blake

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[tomblakeParticipant]

A not so fun story about this picture. The picture was taken 10 minutes before the top eliminator run at Orangeburg South Carolina in 1966 or 1967. The other car was a Ford powered Henry J from Charleston SC. It is a good thing he was a little faster than the A/MSP because the car changed lanes, change direction several times and went through the fence. This all happened right behind the Henry J. It was good that it happened after where the specters lined up to watch. Took down 50 feet of wire fence and three railroad ties. it ended up in the parking lot. When the car stopped the body was gone and the dust was so thick I couldn’t see anything for what seemed like a very long few minutes. The best part of this story is no one was hurt except for my feelings.

[tomblakeParticipant]

I can put a beginning and an end to this car.
Picture in the previous post above was taken at Orangeburg SC 10 minutes before the crash. That was not the end because it ran on the track several more times. Than we ran it into a deep ditch in the woods and bent the chassis. Still had some life left. We put 4 slicks on what was left and took it to the beach and ran it till the cops said no more. Than it was disassembled and the body put out in the back yard.
The next two pictures show:
1 Rolling out of the shop where it was built and ready to go to the dragstrip for the first time.
2 Only the body left in the back yard at home in SC. A couple of days later the kids burned the woods and the body.

THE END

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