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My old man gave me the “speed” gene as well.
He raced dirt ovals in methanol powered Briggs karts in the early 80’s. This was in Wichita Kansas both at smaller venues and every once in a while at the bigger tracks. A succesion of accidents left him unable to continue racing so he moved his hobby dollars and time to building hotrods. This was about the time that I was beginning to get more interested in things of that nature so I was able to help out as much as I could building his hotrods. Including a ’56 Chevy, a ’55 Ford pickup with a mouse in it, a restored ’49 1/2 Flathead Ford pickup, a beetle or two, and my ’79 Camaro that got destroyed in a hail storm before I got the chance to drive it even once. :bang
I started out with SCCA solo events and after a while decided I was spending way too much on way too little seat time. I figured karting was the best bang for the buck in wheel to wheel racing and now here I am.
I’ve been meaning to get a hold of my step mother to track down some karting pics of the old man, this thread serves as a reminder to do so.
I blame my dad, too. He raced and built karts back in the day. His father had a lawnmower repair shop which led to his interest in small engine repair. He tells me often of a kart he built which had a large chainsaw engine on it. He used it to dominate at his local dirt circle track and to get in lots of trouble with the cops. When I was growing up I found an old box of his karting magazines. I read them ALL cover to cover sitting in the attic of the garage., thats when I got the bug. He’s a machinist and still more than handy with a wrench. We could never afford a kart when I was a kid and I never lost the bug.
The most fun race I had was the Greeley GP with my dad in the pits. I hope I can race again and have him with me. He gets a real kick out of the ‘new’ karts.
Kirk Deason wrote:I read them ALL cover to cover sitting in the attic of the garage., thats when I got the bug.Quote:Sorry Kirk, I thought I would jump in the open door before Jansen or Booby. I too got the bug reading, err, looking at the pictures in my fathers mags in the attic. 😳Back to the original thread….
Growing up 2 blocks off Van Nuys Blvd. as a kid got me going. My brother and I would walk down there every Wednesday night for club night and look at all the street rods, hot rods, low riders, bikes, and other exotic rides people were working on.
Dad grew up being best friends with Jonny Parsons Sr., winner of the Indy 500, and he would take us to the local dirt ovals to watch Johnny dominate in his upright sprinter in SO Cal back in the day.When I was really young, my dad always dragged me out of bed to watch the F1 and CART races. I think that is where it all started for me. Before starting a family, he was a damn good sailboat racer. We couldn’t afford to go karting or get into motorsport at all, so as soon as I was a teenager I started racing mountain bikes. That’s how I got my fix until a buddy and I bought a 10 year old shifter kart at the end of 07. Here we are.
My dad happened to be visiting last year when I won that spec moto race at the IMI CSC on Sunday (from the back). He was REALLY stoked. Thanks, dad.
Mine was through my Dad also. He went to Indy from 1949-1961 and then started back in 1988 to present. Many of you were put to bed with stories of Mickey Mantle or Joe Dimaggio, etc. My stories were of Duke Nalon in the Novi, Bill Vukovich making a right turn, and of course, AJ Foyt.
The one time we rented a station wagon and drove back from seeing the grandparents in Illinios was tops. We hit every greasy go kart rental track on the way back to Vegas. My Dad allowed us to do these things but if we wanted to further it, that meant getting a paper route, etc, for money. I raced bicycles but never karts, in Vegas they simply didn’t race em. We did have a speedway (Craig Ranch) but that was roundy roundy stock cars.
I got my start in karting by promising a friend we wouldn’t have a bachelor party with strippers (that’s another story all to itself!) and clients told me of a place called IMI not far from where i lived and worked. The rest is history….
I started going to SCCA races with my parents in California in the 50s. The first race I saw was at Paramount Ranch in 1957. My dad had an Austin Healey and we all piled in there (my brother and I were a lot smaller then!) and went to the races on the weekends. Eventually my dad got more involved with Cal Club (the S. Cal. SCCA region) and got a photographer’s pass for the races. I immediately loved racing and my early heroes included Ken Miles, Dave McDonald, Bill Krause, and Bob Drake. I still have a lot of my dad’s photos from various amateur and pro races from the early 1960s and am scanning them to preserve them. I never had a kart, but started running slaloms in 1971 with my Cortina, bought an old Formula Vee in 1973 when I was still in college and started racing in 1975 soon after graduating. My dad helped me out by being my pit crew on a couple of occasions, most notably when I went to the SCCA Runoffs at Road Atlanta in 1978. He was retired by then and had enough time to be able to travel to the race. He had done a lot of work on cars over the years and taught me some mechanical basics. I still have some of his tools, including a Model T water pump wrench!
Charles
It all started with my Grandpa Hal Robson. He was a multiple time west coast sprint car champion in the late ’30’s early ’40’s. He was also succesful in midgets. He went back east in 1946 and won many sprint car races, especailly on the 1/2 mile high banks. He also qualified for the Indy 500 3 times in 1946, 1947, and 1948. My grandfather was the first guy to bring a gentleman by the name of Howard Gilbert back to the 500 for his first time. Howard was known later in his career as AJ Foyt’s engine builder.
My grandpas brother, my great-uncle George, was also a succesful west coast racer. George raced Indy in 1941 and 1946. He won the 500 in 1946, as well as other 100 lap big car races towards the national championship. George was killed later that year in Georgia and wound up 2 nd in the national championship standings posthumously.
My dad raced hydroplanes in the ’60’s until My mom made him stop and raise a family. I grew up 15 minutes from Ascot Park and 1 hour from Riverside Raceway. My dad and I were always at a race. Years later my dad and I started karting. I ran around with Parnelli Jones’ kids PJ and Page, as well as the Pedregon Brothers. From these friendships I started at Simpson and was the director of Open Wheel Racing throughout the ’90’s
I am fortunate to be able to lived the life in racing that I have, and to be a part of true racing pedigree.
My intro to motorsport started with my dad, he was a NYPD Motorcycle Highway Patrolman. I grew up in the Bronx and there was an old amusement park that closed, Freedom Land. My dad and his buddies would build some crazy ass fast Harleys and race them around the parking lot, they would also come up with stuff for us to ride, the first motorized thing I drove was basically a bike frame with a 5hp Briggs bolted to it, it was a death trap but somehow it got me hooked.
Also we always vacationed up and down the east coast, six kids mom and dad, we hit every state fair from Maine to Florida and at these fairs there was usually a ¼ to 1 mile dirt oval. My dad was the cheapest guy on earth but when it came to these fair races he would find a way to make it work (badged us in). The best was if they had a drive-in section on a hill side, they were the most fun, hanging out on top of the staionwagon. We also go to see the Joey Chitwood Thrill Shows quite a lot. I liked the guys that would hang from a bumper of a car that would be speeding down the front straight of the speedway and drop on there butts and see who could slide the longest. When we went to the Poconos in PA we found this little dirt speedway called Moc-A-Tec, great racing always, but the best part was at the end of the night these crazy bastards would put us and many other kids in the Street Stocks and start hot lapping around, I don’t think you could get away with that stuff now a days.
Thanks for bringing this topic up, I am writing this with a tear in my eye and a smile on my face, I miss my dad. If you ever met him you would never forget him.Jay
@Jay Jacobellis wrote:
Thanks for bringing this topic up, I am writing this with a tear in my eye and a smile on my face, I miss my dad. If you ever met him you would never forget him.
Seconded. This thread rocks, it’s awesome hearing all the other people’s stories and how similar they are. I’m sure that for those of us who’s fathers have passed they are all up there racing for the win still.
I agree thsi does rock!
Best gift I ever got my Dad for Father’s day was a lithograph of the Speedway that now hangs in his Chambers. Of course he never told me that he loved it (a good friend relayed that info to me!) but that’s another story about some fathers…
Here is another picture taken before any of us was born. This is my Dad in the seat of his Kurtis Kraft Offy at Lakeside in 1947.
Not exactly what you would call a “Snell” approved helmet.One more note about my Dad. He was the only one who could build an “Offy” that coud compete with the Secos and VWs, in the 70’s. He was pretty proud of that. (Me too!). Not sure what he could have done with my PRD 🙂
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