12/08/2024
Sunday Story Time. 2024 Edition. Part 20.
As promised, here are a couple milestone time slips. Holly had her "First Time Down The Track" timeslip in a folder she had made and Jon saved hundreds of timeslips including his PRO GTO time slip with a 12.97 @ 102.27. What a fun, affordable and quick car!
We had such a great time with all five of them racing Juniors at the same time. I included some other pics of the Fam piled into our van with their trophies. The pic of the car show with just one of the Juniors in it gives you an idea how many trophies they gathered. We eventually donated all the trophies back to the track so they could award them to other Kids. There was no way to display and dust them all. We kept all the Wallys of course!
The pic of me putting on Holly's National Dragster Challenge Winners Hat was the stuff that sticks with you. To say I was, and am proud of my Kids accomplishments is a huge understatement!
Next up is a picture of Jon, David and me next to Jon's finally tall enough for him custom built Harden's car. The red Grand Am along side us is Holly's car that she raced along with us.
I remember one night, one of the other Dads at the track challenged me to race him with one of our Juniors -vs- theirs. At the time the original green car was the only possible one I could stuff myself into. I did, or I guess I should I say, we did manage to stuff me in it.
We lined them up and I did what I always told the Kids to do. I spanked him!
After making a trip down the 1/8 mile in a Junior I thought, "It's about time to finish what I started in High School". I never finished my Pontiac Powered front engine dragster and I often wondered what it would have ran.
I found a beautiful rear engine dragster chassis that was set up for of all things, a Pontiac! It had a paint job that was just amazing and he was willing to take a few payments so we made a deal.
The pictures are a little premature for this weeks story because it's all together here but they are the pics I could find. We brought the dragster home and I bought a Weekend Warrior trailer that we were going to haul it around with. Never did use that trailer and can't remember selling it but I did.
We bought some additional land next to our house and contracted with a local builder to build our "Garagemahal". I remember they had laid it all out and I think they started on the foundation walls.
One evening, I was visiting with Holly where our shop was to be built and asked her if she would be interested in racing or at least trying the "Big" dragster once I got it together. To my delight she said she definitely would!
Holly, like her younger Brothers and Sisters, was Home Schooled. That worked great for us all because I would take Tuesday and Wednesday off work and they wouldn't have to miss any school days. I would often get off work on Monday and Siskiyou RV would let me take a motorhome for my days off. We would all jump in the motorhome Monday evening and wake up at Crater Lake Tuesday morning. We'd take a mini-vacation Tuesday and Wednesday and be back at work on Thursday. I'm grateful for those mini-vacations all over Oregon and Siskiyou RV and NuWa even gave us a 40' 5th wheel trailer and King Ranch Crew Cab Dually to haul the Juniors around. Looking back I really owe them a huge Thank You for all that. I wish I had been more grateful now.
We started a 4-H Club for Junior Dragsters. I approached 4-H and said, "These kids could join a 4-H small engine club to learn about lawn mowers and farm equipment, or they could learn about small engines using this different kind of riding mower". They agreed and allowed me and Shannon to start the "Students of Speed" 4-H Small Engines Club. When we see those Kids (all grown now) they will often say, "Intake, Compression, Power, Exhaust"! Rewarding!
Holly got a job at Fire Mountain Gems and decided she wanted to take night classes at Rogue Community College. At first they said she couldn't because she didn't have a High School Diploma. She said, "Test me". They did and she passed with flying colors.
She would work at her job then go to school and was doing great.
One evening, Holly left for school and me and Shannon were at the dining room table just putting the finishing touches on the By Laws for the newly formed Southern Oregon Drag Racing Club when there was a knock on the door.
We answered the door and a pair of Oregon State Troopers asked if we were Holly's parents. Then they said the words we'll never forget.
Holly was in a car crash... and she didn't survive.
That was almost 21 years ago and we’ll never get over it. You just search for ways to get through it.
Hug ‘em if you got ‘em.
