As I remember Van ran mainly non wing cars but was fast in either. I believe the original 36D that Dave Darland started in was a car they bought from Van. Was as nice a guy as you would ever want to meet.

They ran non wing at LPS. This was early 80's when you got to see Godsey, Petro, Sentmann run latemodels on Friday then sprints on Saturday. I remember Steve Butler pulling his racecar trailer with a big orange 4 door Buick lol

I met Van on autograph night. He was super nice and I remember thinking how tall he was. I finally drove by Gurley Leep Honda about 10 years ago when I delivered fertilizer to Notre Dame. Brought back memories of going racing every week with Grandma and Grandpa😁

MDC Daron Clayton.

I can"t remember either guy running a wing, as I always saw them at USAC shows Still get chills up and down my spine as I think about Trays crash at LPS, NASTY

Jarrett Andretti almost duplicated it a few weeks ago. Tray's is still probably the worst flip I've seen.

I'm more in awe of Opperman the more I knew about him. I seen him almost beat up at Flemington because some rednecks didn't like his cross and they wanted him to remove his hat for the evening. I didn't understand why a guy might get buried in a corn field over a goofy hat, take it off man. He refused and was escorted away from the situation. I was like ten years old. It wasn't till decades later that I learned it was his late brothers hat and he wore it in memoriam.
Sammy Beavers, well he was just Sammy Beavers.

Kenny was a good guy...

Bryan Clauson. Darland and OG Kevin Thomas are right there.