(Words and photos by Doug Gregory) – Stillwater, if you didn’t know, is the home of the OSU Cowboys, Mercury Marine, Tumbleweeds, and many other things both famous and infamous. I have a bunch of pictures from this event – some where. These pictures are all I have found from it thus far. I remember cars came in from Tulsa, Wichita, OKC, Arkansas City, and further. This is where I saw one of my first ‘magazine cars’, the burgundy 1969 GTO belonging the Larry Grider that was in the Hot Rod Show World magazine (25th Aniv issue, pg 43) I’d get at the Darryl Starbird shows held in the Myriad Gardens or the Kansas Coliseum. This car was also in the Oct ’83 issue of HRM and was runner up for street machine of the year at the Car Craft Nats. I’d never seen a car with so much notoriety before so it made an immediate impression. I can’t find an outside shot, but I did find one of the engine compartment.
Featured here is Dean McBride’s ’61 Corvette he did a frame-off on after purchasing from friend Bill Thiele in Ponca City. The Thiele brothers, Raymond – Bill – Leroy, have always been into cars and racing. Leroy even had a 61 Corvette of his own that held a stock eliminator record. This one is a 283-4 backed by a M22. Word is Bill has another b-body big-block he’s building. Also shown is Bobby Jordan’s maroon ’34 Ford five-window coupe. The Jordan family was a solid Ford group and all of their stuff was nice and well-built coming out of their shop. Gary Mitchell’s ’39 Olds makes an appearance as does Rex (‘sexy Rexy’) Smith’s beautiful, orange Dodge 5-window. Pin-stripper and custom painter, ‘Moe’, from Western Oklahoma attended with his Coors Express sedan delivery and was plying his trade among the gathered hot rods.
One of the most-memorable things about this event is when some of the guys from the club started talking to this young man sitting next to his father’s car. They asked him if he helped build it, polish it, etc to which he answered affirmatively. Then they asked him if he helped change the air in the tires and not-so-surprisingly he hadn’t. Seems some time later there was some yelling going on as the father returned to the car only to find some tires near flat and his son diligently letting air out of another. At least that’s how I remember it. It’s not unlike sending a newbie in the Air Force over to supply to pickup 50ft of ‘flight line’. Some of those never seem to get old. Who remembers ‘blinker fluid’..? Enjoy.
SCROLL DOWN TO TAKE A 1980S LOOK AT THIS STILLWATER OKLAHOMA ROD RUN
