By now if you have been reading BangShift for any length of time you know that I am a certified history nerd. I revel in learning about cool races, upsets, maverick innovators, crazed racers, single minded leaders, and all of the other zillions of things that come along with those elements. The high performance and racing industries were and (kind of) still are stocked with an amazing array of personalities. Some of those guys and girls have stories or resumes that stand tall among the rest and may serve as inspiration to us lowly dudes and dudettes wrenching in our own driveways on stuff that we can afford to beat on.
For me, I look at guys like Don Garlits, Art Arfons, and EJ Potter (among a host of others) to draw some inspiration from. All three guys pushed into arenas of performance that no one had even considered possible before. Also, all three guys did stuff their own way and suffered both the positive and negative effects of that. All three of them were bruised, burned, and broken, and one point in their careers, yet all three soldiered on and ended up legends by the time they stepped away from their vocation and (for two of the three anyway) stepped off this mortal coil of Earth. Those are the guys I like to think about when making decisions, wrenching, or learning about new stuff. When things get frustrating or seem to be getting out of hand, thinking about how one of those dudes would have dealt with the same situation is a good way for me to calm down. Art Arfons doesn’t strike me as a guy who chucked a lot of wrenches across the shop.
So that’s me. I want to know who inspires you. It doesn’t have to be a historical figure, just someone from the realm of cars!
BangShift Question Of The Day: What Person In The Gearhead Realm Inspires You?
Barney Navarro, Harry Miller, and Tom Beatty.
For the USA there can be only one – the great Don Garlits, and for the UK Sidney Allard – the father of British hot rodding.
For me it’s kind of like the ripples when you throw a rock in the water. Near the center is my father, the first gear head I knew. Always learning, willing to try new things, not always following the beaten path and doing damn near everything himself from fixing the toaster to building a house.
As the ripples go out they’re filled with all the people I’ve met, heard about, done work for or even just seen in action doing what they do well and not giving a damn what anybody else thinks. Most of these people have done or will do something damned impressive but are still pretty humble. I couldn’t list off who they are or where they are in the ripples in this space.
Don Garlits, Richard Petty.
Smokey Yunick and Bill Jenkins
Four way tie: Don Garlits, Alan Johnson (AJPE), Austin Coil, Dale Armstrong.
The Burklands, the Surfers, and A.J. Foyt…
There was no person per se that peaked my interest growing up. I liked stock car racing and also pro stock back in the 70’s. Guys like Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Dale Earnhart, Bill Jenkins, Pat Musi, Bob Glidden, and Frank Iaconio were some of the people that inspired me.
Vic Edelbrock Jr.
Richard Petty, Ben Jones (really nice man), Mr. Norm Krauss (met him a few times), Earnhardt Jr., Roadkill guys, Graveyard Carz guys, you name it.
Richard Teague, Craig Breedlove, and Mark Donohue.
There’s a lot of them but I’ll go with Harry Miller, Leo Goosen, and my buddy Larry’s Dad, Marshall Sanders, the first guy I met who actually BUILT (not bought) cars in pretty much any configuration you can mention – I’ve posted some pics of their stuff on here in the past.
Roger Lindamood (Color Me Gone Dodge) and the Ramcharger’s Team also come to mind along with our hometown (Milford, MI) Pontiac racer Duane Muelling.
Dan
The other guy in the pic with Big Daddy…TC Lemmons.
with out a doubt Pete Aardema . . .
Larry Larson , followed by every Drag Week racer for comradery and brothers attitude toward racing. It’s not the big names for me, in fact I couldn’t name the driver of the Fairmont Futura “Bankshot” who ran at Tulsa International – that hooked me harder than my mother giving in and taking me to NHRA Nationals in Tulsa for my 12 th birthday back when you parked on the shoulder of the highway and walked in. It’s the little guy wrenching and racing it’s why I do it and it’s the people that are around you that make it worth it !
Mickey Thompson! Read the book, he did it all.
Dan Gurney
Don Garlits. Richard Petty Ronnie Sox and Dale Earnhardt senior Tommy Ivo Shirley Muldowney
Maynard Yingst, EJ Potter, Ken Venney,Tim Engler…
Burt Munro
X2.
Gotta love Burt!
Don Gartlis & John Force kept going when most would have quit
when asked what racer he most respected, Don Garlits said” now if you ask who do i have the most respect for, i’d say Shirley Muldowney. she went against all the odds. they didn’t want her to race Top Fuel, the association, the racers, nobody…Just Shirley.”
The great Australian drag racer and engine builder Mickey Atholwood. A great man. Second to no one.
Gene Mooneyham / Al Sharp (Las Angeles area) in 554 Coupe.
Don Wilbur / Vern Massie (Spokane,Wa.) Model A Victoria sedan.
The preamble to FUNNY CARS…. in 1962-63
For myself, Ronnie Sox, Herb McCandless, Four Speed Guys To The Front!
For me, Ronnie Sox was my hero – Pure skills and a good guy.
I loved the early days of Pro Stock, when they were based on REAL cars (ones that you could actually go to a dealership and buy, yes granted, much modified, but they were available) Super Stockers, Stockers and Modified Production are where it’s at for me (particularly the stick cars)
Bob Glidden (when he drove the Arrow), but regardless, he and Etta Glidden are terrific people.
My .02
Dick Doyle owner of “The Blown Hearse”
There are Don,Shirley and Bob but for me and the every day car owner and wrencher I would say the guys from Drag Week are the best of the best Larson,Lutz,Bailey they build them,repair them on the side of the road and run them super fast for 1200 miles the Macgyver in them and the will not to quit puts them in a league of there own looking foward to running with them this year.
These are all interesting and valid answers, as they should be given that the question was, “who inspires YOU’. I love Richard Petty, and Ronnie Sox, being a Mopar guy. They were successful, professional, and I was a great fan and admirer of both of them during and after their careers. But I think the most “inspiring” to me has to be Big Daddy. M/T would probably be second, and AJ would have to be very close behind. There are so many great ones; it is a difficult question to answer and feel comfortable making a choice, at least for everyone that’s in second place. Dan Gurney, Danny Ongias, John Mulligan, Walker Evans,John Surtees, Jimmy Clark; man, there’s just so many! What a great sport the entire spectrum of motorsports is!
Some of the earliest inspirations for me would have been:
Richard Ehrenburg, for demonstrating what you can do with an older chassis, junkyard parts diving, and some creativity.
Bruce Bowling and Al Grippo, for putting automotive electronics in the realm of something you can build on your kitchen table.
“Gentleman” Hank Johnson!
Richard Petty, Curtis Turner, Dan Gurney, John Fitch, Tommy Ivo and James Garner
1. my dad, Ran SS/A 1969-1974 privateer.
2 my cousin Herk Built a few stock cars, raced on TV once.
3. Bill ‘Grumpy’ Jenkins.
4. ‘Ohio George’ aka George Montgomery (local legend)
5. Charles Kettering (local legend).