A big checkoff on my bucket list

[Dignlif]

Congrats on the record run and thanks for sharing your inspiring story!

Rich

[KeithTurk]

Your the reason we all do this Garrell.... Thanks for coming ...

K

[Bob Holmes]

Fantastic, you're an inspiration.

[garrell.770]

thanks dan, i talked in length today to mike meierles and he was nice and friendly on the phone as he was at the track. he seemed genualy glad that i was fortunate enough to set my class record. i am still looking for a lead to contact the gentleman from conneticut, i am going to look at pics from loring to see if i can spot his truck. hope eveyone has a happy holiday season, garrell patterson

[DanStokes]

The guy with the red Silverado is Mike Mierle (sp?) and his race truck is a Mitsubishi. They are a GREAT family and the whole bunch are just, as you found out, kind and welcoming. It was fun running into him at Bonneville this year, too.

Not sure who the other truck belongs to.

I hope you can make it to Ohio. As a retiree, I intend to take two days (well, a day and a half) to go from Wilmington to Wilmington (NC to OH) so remember you can take your time, too. Some of the youngsters have to rush back and forth but us old-times can relax and enjoy the trip.

You've had quite a set of experiences! Glad you're hanging in there.

Dan

[garrell.770]

All of you that have offered congrats. Are what made the experience so unforgetable. If the new facility was 5 to 6 hours away from home for me i would start building something to run that would be driveable to the track, but faster than my ss truck, and i would have it ready by the spring meet. I could not believe i finished 54 in points after running only on saturday in sept. And saturday and one run on sunday in oct. I would study the class records and speeds and would run all of the meets with the exception of the hottest meets. I need some help getting in touch with a couple of people by cell phone or email. They offered advice and were vert supportive and i was to wound up to properly thank them. One was a gentleman from connecticut that ran a medium green midsize pickup, do not remember the number or class and i can not find him in the pictures. The other man towed with a red ss silverado like mine and he came to me in line on saturday at the september meet and we talked about the merits of our trucks. He had on a ss silverado cap and when i asked where he found it he informed that his wife found it on line for him. He looked me up on saturday in the oct. Meet and asked why i did not have on a cap like his and he also told me his truck turned over 160,000 miles on the way to maxton. When i was in line to make a run late on saturday he walked up and tapped on my window and then gave me his cap! His truck is a small toyoto or possibly a nissan with the number 847, it is light grey and he holds a track record in both f/bmmp and e/bmmp. I would really like to contact him and tell him of my record and send him one of my corvette caps. A couple of other things before i close or get cut off by the moderator. I not only had a severe heart attack followed by three strokes within two weeks in early 2009, but by mid year i still had to be strapped in a wheelchair because i could not sit up. I was partially blind and worse than anything i did not know my wife of 42 years, my two grown daughters, my five grandchildren or any of my family or friends. I even had to learn what thanksgiving, christmus, new years and all of the holidays were about. When i got better i started reading volumes, 6 to 8 books per month, watching fox news and business news, the history channel, cnn and educational tv. I asked my wife hundreds of questions about life in general and after having therapy at home i developed my own form of therapy and worked out 1 to 2 hrs. Per day and still do each morning around two a.m. There is lots more to tell but i do not want to bore you, i do not know if i will try to make it to ohio or not, as long travel is very painful to me , but if i do please look me up and tell who you are. I have seriously thought about writing a short storey and sending it to hotrod magazine or someone, not to sell it but maybe be and inspiration to someone with a handicap. I hope all of you and others read this before and can help me contact the two gentlemen i described. Many thanks to all, garrell patterson

[JRoberts]

I enjoyed talking with you at Maxton and want to be sure to congratulate you on your record. And by-the-way that's NOT small potatoes. It is a very cool thing.

[DanStokes]

Seems like Steve ought to get about 100 of 'em. I think he started me on my record-holding E/CPRO run as well.

Anyhow, glad you came back, Garrell. As a fellow old fart and heart attack recoverer (is that a word? You get what I mean) we can all attempt to emulate Itzak Perlman, the great violinist who contracted polio as a kid. "Sometimes we do the best we can with what we have left." I can't do everything I used to do but I can do quite a bit, more slowly. So I chug along.

BTW - my brother and I were running the bright red Chevy Celebrity which had been my Mom's car. Just for fun.

Dan

[Monster]

Great story Garrell, thanks for sharing it with us.
Since I started you on your epic record-setting journey, does that mean I get a Record Holder Crew t-shirt ?

[geezer1]

Good Morning Garrell,
Reading your post reminds me of a statement made by my fellow Geezer Express team member John Mclellan:
Never underestimate the power of a Geezer! Thanks for your efforts on following through and setting a "forever" record at Maxton.

Our Best Wishes To You,

Geo Turner
Geezer Racing
200mphfirebird.com

[rightpedal]

I remember you and your truck. We were chatting about a record and I didn't pay it much attention. (pretty much every one I strap into a car on the line is going for one) I get wrapped up in my job at staging and it becomes a blur. I look up and it is 6:00 and other than a couple of disappointed drivers/riders every one is gone. It is good to hear your story but unfortunate not to hear it from your mouth. I am going to start asking every one I can the question.

Whats your story?

Steve

[garrell.770]

During my ever going recovery from a heart attack, followed by three strokes in 2009 and suffering severe memory loss, i was looking through an old brief case i carried for years before i retired to try and fill in some memory gaps. I found an old business card from forrest shropshire , a long time drag racer and landspeed racer. On the back of the card was east coast timing association and a phone number and i had just read an article in hot rod magazine about ecta and the mazton mile. That set the recovering brain cells to turning. I thought about the four hot rods i owned and which one would be the most logical, economical, and safest to run, and which one would i be able to convince my wife would be like a drive in the park. I called an talked to keith turk sometime last winter and i decided to run my 45,00 mile, 2003 ss silverado pickup. I, with the help of a couple of friends installed a cold air box and retuned the truck with a hypertech max energy programmer and also installed a tonno cover. I ran in the sept. Meet in c/pp with a first speed of 123.4 mph and with a little experimenting i ran a best of 126.5. I found out from tonya turk that i was 1.7 mph from my class record. Tonya was a great help to a rookie that di not no where to go and what to do and i appreciate it. I went home very satisfied with what i had accomplished and had no intentions of going back in oct. For what was a long hard trip with someone with parkinson' desease and r.a., and yes i had the approval from my doctor as well as making ten runs down a dragstrip with a friend of mine that owns the track riding along to observe my vehicle controll, reflexes etc. Back to the storey, on the sunday before the last ever maxton meet my 14 year old grandson said "pawpaw, why don't you go back to the maxton mile and break that track record and carry me with you since i do not have a football game next weekend. My wife then said, do you not know of anything you can do to increase your speed, and carry luke back with you. After a sleepless night i decided to go for it, my first call was to my brother in law to see if he could go back with me , then four calls before i found lodging, then i called keith turk to see what i might do to my truck that would be legal and he informed me to look at moving up a class or two and see if the record might be lower, he was right on, then a call to tonya turk to preregister in a/pp. To shorten the storey a little, everyone knows about the rain and wind, but on my third attempt with the spare tire off and the mirrors folded back and break holding on the line to 2500 rpm's i ran 126.999 and broke the track record to hold it forever. I know this is small potatoes to most but very large to me and my family. I made lot's of friends that would come to me several times in line to see what i ran. Thanks to everyone, volunteers, office workers, participants, my family for an unforgetable experience. Garrell.770