Big Rig bobtail racing in 1985

One of the more helpful sponsors that I was privileged to have during my racing career was the Douglas and Sons Trucking Company in Statesville, N.C. who provided me with the truck to pull my race trailer to the races with. A company that was doing research on this style of racing contacted me to get permission to use some of my pictures, drawings, etc. of this truck that I built the front suspension for.

The Douglas and Sons folks asked me to come to their shop and help them with the handling on their Big Rig, and we settled on one of my layouts that made the first independent front suspension that was put under one of these trucks. That company sent me back a link to show the truck in one of its early races after putting the independent front suspension underneath it. This truck went on to win a number of races with this design front suspension.

Not exactly relative to this site, but I wanted to share it with some of you that know me.

updated by @will-cronkrite: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

Ha ha. That's fantastic. I remember going to one of those bobtail races in the early 90s or so at Nashville's fairgrounds track. Idea was novel - I hadn't been to the track in a while - so a friend headed out there. But when they dropped the green flag, the black diesel smoke was so thick you couldn't cut it with a knife. It wafted over the grandstands and got kind of trapped under the awning that hangs over part of the seating. We coughed and laughed through it, but I have no idea how the race actually ended.

But these rigs on dirt? Fantastic.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

Fantastic post Will. Thanks for bringing back the memory of attending one of those races myself. Seems to me like it was in Atlanta but I can't be sure of that. As Chase stated, I do recall the very thick and black smoke from those rigs when the flag dropped. Great post!

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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.

These truckers were tough! Very cool series for what it was. Here's part 1 of 4 from 1980 in Atlanta. I believe this race was in the opening sequence of Smokey and the Bandit II.