Need Your Fix of Hearing a Throbbing Motor? How About a 60s NASCAR "Eastern Bandit" Fuel Injected Modified?

Ed Flemke, Sr. was the original NASCAR " Eastern Bandit " - coming south from Connecticut with his modified in the early 60s and beating the pants off the southern boys. Flemke beagan his career at West Springfield, Massachusetts on a 1/5-mile layout that had originally been a dog racing track.

Rene Charland, Denny Zimmerman and Red Foote, who passed in Richmond this past week, joined Flemke - known by the nickname "Steady Eddie" - as the other Eastern Bandits to come south, sometimes racing 5 times a week and making our local hometown drivers wonder what had hit them.

In 1961 and 1962, Flemke won consecutive New Year's weekend Tobacco Bowl 150s at Winston-Salem, North Carolina's Bowman-Gray Stadium , a bastion of NASCAR southern modified racing.

Before he joined the Pettys, a very young Pete Hamilton traveled with Ed Flemke, learning the racing trade.

Ed Flemke died in 1984, but his restored #2X modified can still be seen at various shows.

If you need a fix and and are desperate to hear the throb of a racing engine, try out "Steady Eddie" Flemke's famed Hillborne Fuel Injected 1960s NASCAR 2X Modified, as seen at the 17th Annual Long Island Antique Power Association Summer Show in 2009. Can you smell the alcohol fumes and feel the ground shake? The way NASCAR mods looked in the fuel injected "golden" days when I started going to the races!

Turn your volume up all the way. Make the room shake. Let it all hang out!

1971 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year and member of the New England Auto Racer's Hall of Fame, Denny Zimmerman was the first of "Eddie's Boys" followed by Pete Hamilton.

In this 2003 interview, Denny Zimmerman tells of coming south in the 60s with the "Eastern Bandits" Eddie Flemke, Rene Charland and Red Foote and racing at Moyock, Langley Field, Old Dominion, Marlboro, Southside and South Boston. He moved to Richmond for a year and ran Southside on Friday nights and South Boston on Saturday nights, winning the Virginia NASCAR Modified Championship. A good interview and very enlightening.

A little trivia....

Who drove the only Soap Box Derby car on display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum?

If you said Denny Zimmerman, you'd be correct.

Published: October 12, 2007
Indy Hall adds novel car
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS Indy cars, stock cars, sports cars, passenger cars ... and now, a Soap Box racer.

Denny Zimmerman, the 1971 Indianapolis 500 rookie of the year, will donate the car he drove in the finals of the 1954 All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio, to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum today.

There are quite a number of 500 drivers who drove in the Soap Box Derby as kids, Speedway historian Donald Davidson said. Apparently, Denny Zimmerman is the only one who made it to the nationals in Akron.

Zimmerman, 66, of Glastonbury, Conn., won the local Derby in Hartford as a 13-year-old in 1954.

He lost in an early round of the finals at Akron to Larry Chastain of Indianapolis, who also is expected to attend todays ceremony at the museum.

Zimmermans car will be the only Soap Box car enshrined among the more than 85 vehicles some more than 100 years old on display at the museum in the infield of the Speedway.

Zimmerman finished eighth in his rookie race and 19th in the next year in his only other start at Indianapolis.

Other Indy drivers who competed in the Soap Box Derby as youngsters included Cale Yarborough, Tom Sneva, George Snider and Eldon Rasmussen, Davidson said.

How about a little noise for the sole Southern Style

Or a little bit of southern Mopar to go along with the Smokey Special. Both these cars are long winded for the big track--listen

One more just to get you up to speed with a 6 or 8 --your choice

I needed..that...worse than I imagined...LOL Thank you, Dave.....

Goodness gracious, Woody! Like me, some folks have too much time on their hands, eh?