Im going to paint a picture here for you, lets say Tim Leeming (The Legend ) has signed all the correct papers this year at Daytona and is gearing up for a run at the Daytona 500 and the points Championship. He has A few others thats chomping at his heels again this year,mainly that young whippersnapper from up North Ga. way called Cody Densmore(the hustler) who ran more races last year than anyone else and is kinda winded because this year he cant run for all three championships.
There is a reporter who is keeping the lines hot lately posting all the juicy gossip filtering up out of Daytona so no fear if you miss some broadcast that Digger feeds you. She has a bunch of drivers already calling her mom,if you can believe that.
That new mouthpiece setting on the docks in Moorsville will be documenting all the prerace shows nitely but be careful of what you hear, ole Jaws may be out trying to broadcast over that new radio station called Zeus.
That beach guy who started it used to wheel a pretty bright yellow car around the Tn. tracks pretty good but now he has a new organization thats going to probably give those guys a run for their money shortly. But thats getting ahead of this year.
Seems there are a few old drivers going to the doctors for checkups so as they can give this new season one more try.
First off there is that hot shoe up around Columbia SC. thats a fast guy on a kart honing his skills for the coming season. Then the guy on the Shallow end of the creek Fast Track Bobby has a new ride he stumbled on recently and has a good sponsor too. He has a neighbor six pack Bill ive heard him called, from his love of 6 cylinder Jimmys, heading up a sleek looking ride too.
Then up the road a ways there is another guy who is claiming to taking a car hauler load of cars down for qualifying, I think his name Billy Bob but dont quote me on it.
Way up in the cold country there is rumors of a guy digging around the closed up car plants in Michigan scraping up parts to campaign a Ford this year, it might be yellow too im told.
Oh yeah some announcer in Canada is throwing his name in the pot too,claims to have done a bunch of ice racing in the past.
Out west there is a guy thats got some connection to the railroad claiming to be putting a fleet of cars to run the western division and one to campaign for the championship,his names sounds like a banker too , JP or something like that. I heard that from a pretty good source, lets just say the Kats got my silence on that one.
There are couple of Snow Birds thats moved south gearing up too. Never heard of a car running out of Aiken before,but now you have. Some say he has a quick little ride waiting too. The other is still keeping his secret hidden but he will probably come out running like a race horse.
Middle Ga has a group called the Ga gang gearing up for a fleet also. A cop is tooling one of them,guess he got a lot of practice on i/75. The other one is a roads racer with a partner thats an insurance salesman, those two could create a scene on pit road.
Another good runner is up in northern SC and used to win every race he entered, if he can leave that turkey alone long enough he will be there in living color(I will have to admit his wife can cook a great turkey in the pits at a moments notice).
Another great driver Sam will do his best to get his 00 ready too, he has the help of a great Doctor to assist him, Come on Sam one more year for the gold.
Now old big guy in NC has a to of photos and if he will put the copier down for a little bit Donnie and the boys will assist him in making the lineup too.
Over in Ft Bragg area there is one laying low building something thats not been talked about but you see Jimmy lives to close to where the creek runs fast so word is slow,but his cars arent.
There are 43 slots availabe for the 500 and I think there could be about 30 plus cars come out of retirement just to go show those new whiz kids how it used to be done. You see most of them werent even a dream in their daddys mind when we were running,with the exception of the Rollerskate flyer Morgan, he is in his second childhood and loving it too.
There are a couple of three straightlines tuning up their cars and putting the wedge in them to get around the track a little easier. Bet thats going to be a sight to see. They got talk shows now and big trophys too at home(not their wives either).
Ok Ive touched on the high points of what could become the new movement in racing. So much one of the latest drivers to win at Daytona has his name in line to replace that guy Regence the talk show on TV thats quitting this year(being over 80 had nothing to do with it). So Kelly and Jeff does have ring to it but lets see how he fairs this year first. O yeah we missed one dude thats bouncing around trying to make up for what he did wrong, But I think he has found a spot on the beach patrol that starts every morning making sure the beaches are clear of litter if the current position fails.
So everyone tune in each week and listen(you dont even have to read it) to that Zues Radio network or that might be Zeus Radio Network. I better check on that with Ms Columbia Speedway (Devin) to clarify it.
If there is anyone I missed never fear just qualify and line up and we Will name you as who you were and now who you are. Race clean fast high and hard but above all else-------Remember your Roots.
GOOD ON MASTER I KNOW WHEN YOU PUT JP I KNOW YOU WHERE TALKING ABOUT ME THIS A REALLY COOL STORY
Johnny, as usual, your imaginative, creative writing is most enjoyable to read. Even more enjoyable is sitting back and envisioning such things actually happening. When my uncle Bobby took me to that first race just before I turned 6 it started a love affair with the sport that nothing has been able to kill, even with the best efforts of BZF. I knew, even at age 6, that I wanted to be a race driver. I knew the quarter mile and half mile dirt tracks and that was as good as I ever thought it could be. Spring of 1957 Bobby took me to Darlington for the first spring race there. I was convinced when I left that day that there would never be anything better than Darlington. I still love that track and would love to drive it. Guess I'll have to settle for the iSim ride when I can hook up with Nicholas Giles. February, 1962, was my first trip to Daytona. That was after being at Charlotte when it opened in June, 1960, and Atlanta where I went the first time in 1961. I daydreamed my life away winning races on those tracks. At night that is all I would dream about and my Mama used to tell me that she would hear me yelling out in the middle of the night, sound asleep, that I had won such and such a race at whatever track was the venue for that night. I wrote all my term papers on stock car racing and my high school had the ONLY school newspaper in the state with a stock car racing column every month. A teacher told me that I was an "expert" on stock car racing because a student had written a term paper and quoted several of my articles and footnoted them, thus the "expert" designation. I got a thrill out of that. Everything I thought about 24/7/365 was driving a race car. Fortunately I got to do that for a few years, and, although never to the glory I experienced in my dreams, still a wonderful experience which introduced me to wonderful people I can still call friends. I still enjoy sitting in the race cars and Mike Skyes has been the most excellent guy for allowing me to experience driving the number 43 on a few occassions, something I will treasure all my life. But, my dear friend, I am retired from driving. As themost Honorable Mayor Partin of Cayce worries about having to get the jaws of life to get me out of a race car, and the Honorable Sir Gilderwins always points out my prohibitive size for driving a race car. So, my dear Georgia friend, I'll read and re-read your story and envision that number 83 of mine leading a draft of 32 cars through the tri-oval on the last lap. I never won in real life, but I won a bunch in my dreams. Maybe I'll win there again.Thanks Johnny.Tim