DEFINITION OF A RACING FRIEND,off and on the track

Have you ever thought what racing would be like without friends? Really now think about it,on the track you really dont have to much time to voice opinions back and forth to each other. But afterwards in the pits or even at the local Dunkin Doughnuts shop over coffee a friend can make the worst cup of coffee just seem to taste better.

I guess I have had a couple of those friends in my lifetime of racing, and you know true friends will seem to reappear out of nowhere. Let me tell you a little story of one such person.

I heard in the middle 60s from the guys in Savannah that Columbia was really picking up in excitement and we should go up and see how we like it,so I did. Loaded up and headed out one thursday morning and got to the track early so we could digest how the track surface wasprepared. We parked down on the fist turn and unloaded. I met a couple from Sav area and everyone else was kinda standoffish, at least thats how it looked.

Anyway we eased out on the track and ran a few warmup laps and kinda cleaned the cobwebs out of the exhaust pipes.

They cleared the track of traffic and here came a flood of cars into the infield on trailers and on trucks,cant remember but I think one was drove in. At least it seemed that way.

Over to my left towards turn two a tall lanky guy (listen to me call another guy lanky - I think we all were ) guy was messing with a plymouth getting it ready. I walked over and said hi and got a nod as to an acceptance of sorts. On the track I now know why he had a Plymouth with wings because it was kinda squirrly in the rear. Well make this story short we beat and banged for over three years on the local dirt tracks and he turned out to be a great driver. I lost contact with him over the years,racing has a way of doing that, and he was forgotten.

Fast forward to the 21st century and I kinda semi retired and racing bit me again. Off I went looking for relief and stumbled onto Jeff Gilder and his cronies at Racers Reunion. Now this bunch is still learning to fly but they off and flying

I joined up and man did we take a ride.Then talk is of a reunion in Augusta and I said why not. About this time a guy from Columbia area started posting of things bsack in the 60s and 70s and we got to talking. Come to find out that we raced together and a new spirit of sorts arose in the air.

Competitors we were back then and competitors we still are today. Only difference is I met the other side of this driver,the side that has compassion and you know what? He is a heck of a nice fellow. WE argue today like there is no tomorrow but deep down we are both buddies.

I wouldnt want anybody to to talk down on him because he is golden in my book. He has theprivilege of knowing I do have his back if and when its needed.

I guess I took a win away from him in the 60s that he deserved and sometimes wish I could go back and replay that day in Savannah.

AS Patty Kay says; gentle readers the guy im talking about is my dear and wonderful friend " Tim Leeming"

So if you got a friend like him please Do acknowledge the fact to them and do not letnegativewords and thoughts harm your true frienship---So if you mess with Tim you mess with me.

updated by @johnny-mallonee: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

In the early 60s, it was my best friend, Frank (we started school together in kindergarten), who accompanied me to the Richmond GN races and really explained many things I didn't understand. We started going to Southside Speedway together in spring of 1965 and joined NASCAR together to build our "Hobby" car that never raced.

We pulled for J.T. Putney, Ray Hendrick and Al Grinnan together.

Frank rode the Greyhound Bus with me to Darlington in 1966 and the Rockingham race trains in '66 and '67. Frank was carrying the other side of the styrofoam cooler of beer in 1967 whose bottom bottom fell out walking up the old inclined asphalt ramp to Bristol's front stretch grandstands.

My first trips to Darlington, Rockingham, Bristol, Beltsville, South Boston, Old Dominion and Langley were made with Frank. After leaving the service, Frank began to teach Journalism in the early 70s at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, while at the same time working as the sports guy on the Siler City, NC newspaper.

As the sports guy, Frank got me pit road race credentials to Rockingham and Charlotte. He came to Wilson and Chantilly to see our Limited Sportsman car race. He was in my wedding in 1973.

When I began managing the Dale Earnhardt/Wrangler Jeans program in 1980 I was able to return the favors to Frank by getting him really good credentials.

Frank moved to Pennsylvania in the 1980s to become Director of Public Relations at Mount St. Marys College in Maryland. When I moved back to Richmond to become Media Relations Director at the Richmond track in 1990, I'd go up to Pennsylvania to visit Frank and go with him to tracks around the Mechanicsburg area like Williams Grove and Silver Spring to see sprint cars for the first time.

Also, in 1990, Frank started coming down to Richmond to help me out on race weekends in the infield media center. I left Richmond after the 1999 season, but Frank still comes down twice a year to help the track. This will be his 24th year running the infield media center there.

I haven't seen Frank in a number of years, but few weeks go by that we are not iin touch.

Since we started attending school together in 1954, we have had only one major disagreement. I thought John Juachiak was the best first baseman for the Richmond Virginians AAA baseball team in the early 60s and he thought Frank Leja was. He also pulled for the New York Yankees and I pulled for the Chicago White Sox.

We've both made many other friends through the years. We both have grandchildren. But, when he or I see news about one of our short track weekly heroes passing, we can be certain the other will get an immediate e-mail. That's what friends do, regardless the distance or the years.

We've never once been nasty with each other, regardless of how strongly we disagree. That's a lesson that could be learned here on our RacersReunion site.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Dave, you aredefiantlyon the right track there. I guess what some of us really have there are a few that only wish they knew how to have ............. memories

Thanks, Johnny, not only for being a friend but also for the very nice things you said in your post. Remember when we started talking up the meeting in Augusta and had the entire site believing you and I were mortal enemies and would settlle our dispute in Augusta? When I walked into that auditorium, you could have heard a pin drop. lol. All in good fun.

As for the "almost win" in Savannah, that was long ago and just think. If you had let me win that race then my claim to fame as the driver who never won but had the most second places finishes ever would be ruined. I'm happy I lost to you! I would like to have won a race, for sure, but winning a race doesn't guarantee what you and I have in a friendship. I am so pleased we reconnected.

Dave, what you say is true. Some of my best friends and I have taken different sides in many discussions but remain friends. I even have friends with different political views and these days, that's not easy! lol

When I come across as negative or argumentative, it is, most times, 99% an attempt to have someone express another view both to help me understand some things and to keep the line of conversation going. If we all said "yes, that's right" to everything brought up, how boring that would be. I think the secret, or at least I thought once I knew the secret, is to state your position with respect to the other person no matter how contrary your opinions. I have now realized that some of my posts and responses to posts can be seen as negative to the extreme. I don't like that because I don't like to think of myself as a negative person. I'm really not as bad as some of my posts make me out to be.

I'm not ready to dump any friends. I do believe we all need all the friends we can have. I do believe in the positive.

Again, Johnny, thank you for putting it in words.

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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.