|
The pic of Tommy Thompson winning over what must have been a super field of drivers in the day was way ahead of my times, but I can remember him as a top dog at the Sportsdrome in Jeffersonville In around 1956 or 57 in a white 55 chevy. he was racing guys like Bill Kimmel Sr., Bobby Watson, Hugh Randall, Jessy Baird, Andy Hampton, Bud Russell, Shorty Thompson, and Charlie Glotzback.
Wasn't much on TV back then and they payed a precentage of the front gate to the racers. I can still remember when I was about 7 or 8 years old and "Ma" Kimmel (that was Bill's Mother) daring the promoter, Bob Hall to come down out of his office with the rest of the purse she said he had shorted the racers because she had counted the fans going in. I thought that was pretty neat. Can you think what kind of purse we would have now if they payed a percentage of the front gate? Could that be part of our problem now?
|