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Sept. issue of HotRod
Hey tedly, you asked a few pages back about the reference in the HotRod article about me having been in a wheelchair and you wanted more info. Sorry I am late I have been a little under the weather.
Three years ago I had a severe heart attack followed within a month by three strokes, I could not walk, sit up, feed or care for myself in anyway. I was rolled to a building behind my home and inside was what I would learn later was a black C5 Corvete, a black SS Silverado truck, a 1969 Indy Pacecar SS Camaro convertible and a 1937 Chevy hotrod pickup and after showing no interest I was a gearhead again. I was taking therapy daily and I had quadrupled the different movements and invented some of my own to loosen frozen joints and stretch tight muscles. I had also talked my family to take me to the local highschool in the afternoons and weekends and I learned to drive again.
I had not shown any interest in cars or hotrods but I subscribed to over a dozen car magazines and one day I picked a copy of HotRod (honest to God, I had been reading HotRod since around ten years of age) up and read it cover to cover including the ads and an article about landspeed racing on the Maxton Mile and I promised myself that I was going to make one pass down the track the next Sept. ( Sept. of last year ), I got out of the wheelchair the week before last Christmas. Ihad a few modifications done to my SS truck, a cold air induction and Flowmaster exhaust system. My driving had graduated to the highways and I continued to work out hard for two hours every morning as I still do. In July of last year I parked the walker and started using my custom walking stick which I always will due to strokes and my Parkinson's desease and Rheumatoid Arthritis.
I had goten aquanted with Lee Timms who ran the family dragstrip which celebrated their fiftieth anniversary last year and Lee let me come up on a Sat. when they were closed and he let me make 8 to 10 passes down the trap and wrote a letter stating I had good coordination and vehicle control. My Doctor also wrote a letter giving approval to race.
Iran last Sept. but one pass wasn't enough, I wound up making three and the first was around 123.5 and the last at 125.67 or so mph. Iwas told that I was only about 1 1/2 mph from seting a new track record but the one trip was all I intended to make. In about a month my 15 yr. old Grandson said one Sunday "why don't you go back and break that Maxton Mile record" and my Wife asked if I didn't know of something I could do to run 2 mph faster and all night I started making list. The next day I had to fax my entry to Tonya Turk, spent a couple of hours finding a hotel room and see if my Brother in Law could take off from work a couple of days. I also had a Hypertech Maxenergy programmer overnighted. The next evening I raised the rev limiter, speed limiterand raised and firmed up the shift points and except for packing we were ready to give it a try.
Before we got to the track on Sun am (therewas a 15+mph headwind all day Sat. cutting speeds by several mph ) I stopped at a convienients store and put 48 lb. of air in each tire. Imade one run early on Sun. at 127 mph and set a landspeed record which would stand forever because that was the last Maxton event.
I decided to run the first evr Ohio Mile and got more serious about modifications to my truck ie. 1.8 to 1 ratio full rollertip rockers with behive valve springs, 3/8" heavy wall pushrods for reliability, ported throttle body, remote controll electric cutouts, a tonno cover and a custom HPtuneup worth about 62 hp on the dyno.
My being the first down the inaugural Ohio Mile had nothing to do with being in recovery from serious illness or because I read about the ECTA in HotROD magazine, it was because I am a chronic insomniac and we were sitting in fron of the gate at 4:45 am to get in the track at 6:00 am. The starting line crew did not know who was in the truck when the first dozen cars were pulled from prestage to the staging lanes and when we pulled into the prestage lanes in the dark and they told me we were first in line but it was an honor to make the first pass and claim the first record. Later that day I ran 134mph in a 5600 lb. truck with a little slowing wind and claimed another record. My health has not been so good in this extreme heat and bad air quality which doesn't agree with my congestive heart desease but I will be back in Ohio to see al my friends either this Sept. or next April and I am already making plans for more modifications to my truck
Iappologize for going so long but it is a story that I am proud of and my Wife sure proved the Doctors wrong when thay said she should out me in a nursing home because I woul never be any better.
Garrell Patterson
Hey tedly, you asked a few pages back about the reference in the HotRod article about me having been in a wheelchair and you wanted more info. Sorry I am late I have been a little under the weather.
Three years ago I had a severe heart attack followed within a month by three strokes, I could not walk, sit up, feed or care for myself in anyway. I was rolled to a building behind my home and inside was what I would learn later was a black C5 Corvete, a black SS Silverado truck, a 1969 Indy Pacecar SS Camaro convertible and a 1937 Chevy hotrod pickup and after showing no interest I was a gearhead again. I was taking therapy daily and I had quadrupled the different movements and invented some of my own to loosen frozen joints and stretch tight muscles. I had also talked my family to take me to the local highschool in the afternoons and weekends and I learned to drive again.
I had not shown any interest in cars or hotrods but I subscribed to over a dozen car magazines and one day I picked a copy of HotRod (honest to God, I had been reading HotRod since around ten years of age) up and read it cover to cover including the ads and an article about landspeed racing on the Maxton Mile and I promised myself that I was going to make one pass down the track the next Sept. ( Sept. of last year ), I got out of the wheelchair the week before last Christmas. Ihad a few modifications done to my SS truck, a cold air induction and Flowmaster exhaust system. My driving had graduated to the highways and I continued to work out hard for two hours every morning as I still do. In July of last year I parked the walker and started using my custom walking stick which I always will due to strokes and my Parkinson's desease and Rheumatoid Arthritis.
I had goten aquanted with Lee Timms who ran the family dragstrip which celebrated their fiftieth anniversary last year and Lee let me come up on a Sat. when they were closed and he let me make 8 to 10 passes down the trap and wrote a letter stating I had good coordination and vehicle control. My Doctor also wrote a letter giving approval to race.
Iran last Sept. but one pass wasn't enough, I wound up making three and the first was around 123.5 and the last at 125.67 or so mph. Iwas told that I was only about 1 1/2 mph from seting a new track record but the one trip was all I intended to make. In about a month my 15 yr. old Grandson said one Sunday "why don't you go back and break that Maxton Mile record" and my Wife asked if I didn't know of something I could do to run 2 mph faster and all night I started making list. The next day I had to fax my entry to Tonya Turk, spent a couple of hours finding a hotel room and see if my Brother in Law could take off from work a couple of days. I also had a Hypertech Maxenergy programmer overnighted. The next evening I raised the rev limiter, speed limiterand raised and firmed up the shift points and except for packing we were ready to give it a try.
Before we got to the track on Sun am (therewas a 15+mph headwind all day Sat. cutting speeds by several mph ) I stopped at a convienients store and put 48 lb. of air in each tire. Imade one run early on Sun. at 127 mph and set a landspeed record which would stand forever because that was the last Maxton event.
I decided to run the first evr Ohio Mile and got more serious about modifications to my truck ie. 1.8 to 1 ratio full rollertip rockers with behive valve springs, 3/8" heavy wall pushrods for reliability, ported throttle body, remote controll electric cutouts, a tonno cover and a custom HPtuneup worth about 62 hp on the dyno.
My being the first down the inaugural Ohio Mile had nothing to do with being in recovery from serious illness or because I read about the ECTA in HotROD magazine, it was because I am a chronic insomniac and we were sitting in fron of the gate at 4:45 am to get in the track at 6:00 am. The starting line crew did not know who was in the truck when the first dozen cars were pulled from prestage to the staging lanes and when we pulled into the prestage lanes in the dark and they told me we were first in line but it was an honor to make the first pass and claim the first record. Later that day I ran 134mph in a 5600 lb. truck with a little slowing wind and claimed another record. My health has not been so good in this extreme heat and bad air quality which doesn't agree with my congestive heart desease but I will be back in Ohio to see al my friends either this Sept. or next April and I am already making plans for more modifications to my truck
Iappologize for going so long but it is a story that I am proud of and my Wife sure proved the Doctors wrong when thay said she should out me in a nursing home because I woul never be any better.
Garrell Patterson
and 180 pages!!!!!!!!, that is like a book........
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