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Anyone like racing?

Brians356 said:
Interesting history there. Were you there during Operation Skycatch?

In the '70s-'80s I worked in casino orchestras with a violinist who grew up in the Bayview area. He told of hunting out in the natural area as a kid where Candlestick Park was later built, and where police would often find deceased missing persons dumped.
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Not surprised Brian, it was a rough area and my parents didn't move from the projects until I was in the 7th grade. Years later I had some short stints at private yards while trying to get into the machinist union. (That is a long B.S. story I won't go into here ) but I found out the Navy would on occasion except applications. I applied and a short time later I was in.
Don't know about Skycatch. Was there from 1965-1970.
 
durand mortenson said:
Not surprised Brian, it was a rough area and my parents didn't move from the projects until I was in the 7th grade. Years later I had some short stints at private yards while trying to get into the machinist union. (That is a long B.S. story I won't go into here ) but I found out the Navy would on occasion except applications. I applied and a short time later I was in.
Don't know about Skycatch. Was there from 1965-1970.
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From Wikipedia:

In 1947 the Hunter's Point crane completed construction at the site by the American Bridge Company. It was the largest crane in the world, and was intended to be used to remove the turrets of battleships so the guns could be quickly replaced while the old set was being refurbished on land. ...

In 1959 the gantry crane was the site of Operation Skycatch, where dummy Polaris missiles were fired and caught via a string of arresting cables, before being lowered to the ground for testing. Previous versions of the test had the missiles flung out into the bay and retrieved from the ocean floor.

A large trapezoidal frame was erected atop the gantry crane for the UGM-73 Poseidon missile test facility; the structural members were lifted by Marine Boss [floating barge crane] in 1967. The addition of the frame brought the total height of the crane to nearly 500 feet.

When it says "fired" I believe it means ejected by high-pressure steam from a Polaris launch tube, not that the rocket motor was ignited! Try catching that with cables. The later Poseidon testing overlapped your tenure there, but I'm guessing they weren't still running Skycatch type launch testing by then.
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AlNyhus said:
I'm a huge Warren Johnson fan...they don't call him 'The Professor Of Pro Stock' for nothing. This race between he and Scott Geffrion is a classic!

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Al, I remember that well.

I guess you also remember when “The Dodge Boys” finally got caught cheating with that ingenious nitros oxide system they rigged up in the block.It din’t give them much, but just enough.

The rumor was that Warren Johnson actually tipped off the NHRA that something was not right. He was watching an in car camera shot of a Dodge Tachometer on a television re-run where he noticed that the Dodges did not drop as much RPM between shifts as other cars. How was this possible?

Then came that infamous “inspection“ of the Dodge Boys facility, only to find all of their blocks and othe equipment destroyed with sledge hammers. They said the shop had been broken in to and vandals did the deed.

I doubt anybody bought in to that, but that was the end of “The Dodge Boys”.
 
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I used to go to dirt track racing. It was loud and absolutely not interesting after I learned that the people who usually win are the people who spend the most money on it. I had the pleasure of meeting Dale Earnhardt and Neil Bonnet in a hunting atmosphere one time. They came up to Kenny Jarrett's to pick rifles up and hunted there a couple of times. Kenny was in to dirt track racing and I remember Earnhardt sent him some used heads for his car.

Had another friend that ran a retro dragster on straight nitro methane. He told me about a drag racing team of youngsters who called themselves the "Surfers". Google them, it's a very interesting story - they turned drag racing on it's head.

Surfers Part 1

Surfers Part 2
 
jackieschmidt said:
Al, I remember that well.

I guess you also remember when “The Dodge Boys” finally got caught cheating with that ingenious nitros oxide system they rigged up in the block.It din’t give them much, but just enough.

The rumor was that Warren Johnson actually tipped off the NHRA that something was not right. He was watching an in car camera shot of a Dodge Tachometer on a television re-run where he noticed that the Dodges did not drop as much RPM between shifts as other cars. How was this possible.

Then came that infamous “inspection“ of the Dodge Boys facility, only to find all of their blocks and othe equipment destroyed with sledge hammers. They said the shop had been broken in to and vandals did the deed.

I doubt anybody bought in to that, but that was the end of “The Dodge Boys”
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After the Eckman/Orndorf car had the dry sump tank explode in the pits (where they hid the bottle) and Darrel Alderman's night time starting line 'backfire' incident.....NHRA got pretty serious about finding it. Bob Glidden was very prominent in working with NHRA to show them how it was done. Not to catch anyone but to keep things from getting too far out of hand.

Chrysler Corp. had a stipulation in the Alderman/Geffrion/Wayne County Speed Shop contract that forbid any bad press as a result of rules infractions and personal behavior that could reflect badly on the Mopar name. When it was clear they were going to be outed, the infamous 'break in' and 'vandalism' occured. It was their way out of what was coming next from both NHRA and Chrysler Corp. Not long after, Darrel Alderman was arrested and convicted on cocaine trafficking charges.

Scott Geffrion was a really a good person and a hard racer. He wanted to race really badly and just got scooped up in all of that mess. Sadly, he died way too young from a sudden heart attack.
 
jackieschmidt said:
Then came that infamous “inspection“ of the Dodge Boys facility, only to find all of their blocks and othe equipment destroyed with sledge hammers. They said the shop had been broken in to and vandals did the deed.

I doubt anybody bought in to that, but that was the end of “The Dodge Boys”.
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I'll bet any trophies they'd won were "missing", not smashed. Huh.
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Funny W.J. story: For a couple seasons, I worked for NHRA's Division Technical Services team. At Brainerd, after Pro Stock qualifying was over, I was given threee names to go and pump their engines for cubic inch....just a random check. One was Warren. This was before the locked down work areas. I came around the back of his hauler and was met by two snarling Dobermans. Arlene Johnson came and brought the dogs to heel and went into the hauler to get Warren. We P&G'd the engine and I went on to the next name.

After 1st round the next day, I was weighing the Pro Stocks. When Warren came across the scale, He smiled and said: "My dogs usually bite. They must like you." :D
 
These were a couple of my rides back a million years ago. Used to race super late models at East Carolina Speedway and all over NC and VA.
The yellow car was my last one, we blew the engine that day and we quit. 50 grand for a new engine and getting old put an end to our family racing, we started in 1952 with my uncle racing sportsman modifieds.
I got to drive for the family from 2000 to 2007.
 

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durand mortenson said:
Dave. first a song and now a calendar? How do some people rate ( :
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My Daughter was a photographer and took pics of my wife and had a calendar made for me for Christmas. Many different shots. Some with the car and some on her Harley....neat stuff. This was the first time she had short hair. When we met she had big tall black hair....oh ya....
 
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A good friend is a financial backer and crew member for an NHRA Fuel Funny Car team....so I get some 'back stage' Crew passes into that world when we're at the same event. At Brainerd, the car was behind Force for a qualifying pass. I walked by him and he turned and said "I hope I don't f&@k this one up." A couple minutes later I walked past and said "Hey John....don't f&@k this up!" He laughed like a hyenna. Now...he doesn't know me from a load of beans. Later on that night, we were having some adult beverages and he stopped by and told my friend: "Hey Charlie...this guy told me not to f&@k it up and I didn't!"
WOOnKxGh.jpg
 
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