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Extremely sorry to hear about Friday's passing; my sympathies go out to his family.
I was fortunate to purchase Friday's classic Valvoline-schemed #41 UMRA TQ midget when he retired in the late '80's. Being my first race car, I will always be especially fond of it. One thing that a basic glance of the car would not expose to the naked eye was that Friday was the consummate engineer: he would literally spend hours and hours and hours creating his own custom pieces for the car, as opposed to buying 'off the shelf' parts. As an example, the fiberglass tail tank shell that displayed the unique '41' was in fact simply a cover for an intricately designed fuel cell, constructed of plywood, lots of fiberglass, and a steel propane tank. He surely had spent a week on this project alone, but it was really pretty ingenious. I also clearly remember the travel trailer he & Betty travelled from California to spend the summers in Indiana in, hopping from race to race, driving the TQ up the drop ramp tailgate he had also constructed by cutting out the rear door of the trailer.
I am very thankful and feel blessed for the friendships I have made and continue to make in the racing world, and Friday was one of the first ones I made in the open wheel world.
Rest in peace, Friday.
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