We have termites around our brick garage foundation, forcing me to empty that structure of its contents.
In one box I hadn't opened in over 30 years I found a very large framed photo of the first dirt car I ever "messed with" - a 1955 Chevy #11 Limited Sportsman (limited to 302 cubic inches) that raced primarily at Wilson County Speedway in Wilson, NC on Saturday nights in the early to mid-70s and on Friday nights at Wake County Speedway in Raleigh. It even raced once in a Late Model race at the 1/2-mile asphalt Cumberland International facility at Fayetteville in 1973.
The car was driven, owned and built by Danny Lee of Mt. Pleasant, NC, just outside of Bailey, NC between Wilson and Zebulon and housed in a shop on NC Highway #581. Although the 301 cubic inch power plant was the preferred engine in our Limited class, Danny always was competitive with the underpowered 302 .
Danny's cousin, Bill Lee of Wilson and A.C. Hendrick of Stantonsburg, NC worked on the car and the 302 engines were built by a gentleman known only as "Two Pop" who was employed at a Wilson auto parts dealership. It usually took him a minimum of two popped Budweiser tops to begin an engine assembly.
Danny Lee was a whale of a nice fellow.
For some reason the car always performed better on the 1/4-mile dirt Wake County Speedway track at Raleigh and the 1/4-mile dirt Chantilly Speedway in Weldon, just outside of Roanoke Rapids, NC than it did at our home track, the 1/2-mile dirt Wilson County Speedway. That 302 engine and the extremely low gear we ran in our Frankland Quick Change rear end was particularly well suited to those quarter-mile tracks.
The photo below was taken 39 years ago at the 1973 Labor Day night 200 lapper held at Chantilly Speedway. We had to run with the Late Models, but Danny qualified on the second row. We broke an axle in practice and Joe Huss loaned us one.
We didn't finish, but I don't remember why. What I do remember is that I took my future wife to her first dirt track race that night and we became engaged sometime in the wee hours Tuesday following the Labor Day race at Chantilly Speedway.
Wish I could scan the entire photo. The car just ahead of us in my photo is Elliott Sadler's late uncle, Bud Elliott in his 1964 Chevelle.
I should have cleaned the garage out a long time ago.
Hope you enjoy this photo of the old car I am always talking about, slightly banged up, sometime during the 1973 200-lap Labor Day race at Chantilly Speedway. It is going up on the den wall and will be the only racing photo displayed on the wall. I have one photo of my late father with a #15 Dale Earnhardt/Bud Moore T-bird at Richmond in 1982 displayed on a bookcase.
One other thought... all the lettering on our car was by "hand" - courtesy of the sign painter for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Wilson who spent most of his time painting Coke signs on tobacco barns.
--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
