Vern,

They had it displayed at Toledo, a year ago. I bought my ticket, headed for my turn one grandstand seat and there it was. It really stopped me in my tracks. It looked shiny and brand new. Just like it did when I was a kid and it would slowly roll by our spot along the backstretch fence, at the Action Track, prior to hot laps.

Jerry

ok I have to ask, was the racing in this era better than racing today on mile tracks. I have been to 4 hulman hundres and seen about every usac show televised, and i'm not that impressed. The speeds are awsome, but very little racing. Looking at the qualifing times, pretty spread out compared to how field qualify now. This is not ment to bash anyone, just curiouse. I guess the real question is, are sprints better on the mile than crown cars?

One of the cars that Rollie drove (and won with at Eldora in '66) was as ugly as a sprint car gets. It had kind of a square'ish hood and nose and, an equally square (or rectagular) and very tall rollbar on it. Anyone remember any of the details of that car?

Were there any USAC sprint races on mile dirt tracks after the Jeff Thickstun tragedy? I thought it was in '85, but I'm not sure. I was at that race at the fairgrounds and it was an horrific accident.:crying:And if I remember correctly, Leon was back in a sprint car a week later. Wow.

Another great one Marv! Please keep them coming!

To my knowledge, that was the last one. I assume that crash was the reason for it being the last one. Just checked the back of my Jeff Thickstun Memorial T-shirt and the first race of that kind was in 1984 -- won by Leon. I was thinking that crash was in 1984 but I guess it could have been '83. Eckert could confirm.

That sounds right to me. Thanks for the clarification. My memory gets worse every minute.:kookoo

I can say that there was a 100 lapper at Paragon on the same night Jeff was killed. Leon and my Pop have been friends since high school and we were torn on where to go that night. We went to Paragon I think if we would have gone to the mile my sister and mom would have quit going racing due to Jeffs crash.

That was as violent of a crash as I had ever seen.

Racing on the miles are not typically slam, bang neck and neck racing(sometimes), but the nuance is what I love about it. It's the speed and the fact the cars have to be expertly prepared.

I hope it's been long enough ago, and it is not in poor taste to ask the question: What happened in that crash? Did he run over a wheel or what?

I guess I was about two or three at the time and I don't think my dad was racing at the mile that night -- if I had to guess, we were at Paragon, Putnamville or Warsaw. Either way, I wouldn't have remembered it.

Only thing I ever heard about it was that Leon was right behind him, and that it happened on the frontstretch.