THE ABOVE PHOTO IS OVEREXPOSED AND STARTING TO FADE AND IT DEPICTS A TIME IN<\/p>\n
MY LIFE THAT IS EQUALLY FADED. I blame it on too many years of football and undiagnosed concussions, but it could just be that\u2019s what happens as time goes by.<\/p>\n
Regular readers will recognize my dad\u2019s \u201957 Ford Courier Delivery, Ford Country, sitting on a one ton flatdeck truck dad purchased to haul it back and forth to the track. I\u2019m second from the left and I think that\u2019s my neighbour Kenny Nedwidz (I\u2019m spelling that phonetically because I have no clue had to spell it correctly) on my right. I would have been about seven years old in the photo, which means the little dude to my left is probably my brother, Jason, then older sister Connie and, sorry, don\u2019t know the other girl. Every time I go home for car shows I try to spend some time at my dad\u2019s house and always I come home with pictures like this.<\/p>\n
This August, I happened to have a few open days between shows so I headed out to dad\u2019s place along Hwy 21 on Lake Huron, just outside Grand Bend, ON. My dad grew up on the shores of Lake Huron and it\u2019s one of my favourites spots to visit. I have many memories of hanging out on the beach in Grand Bend, hitting on American girls, playing beach football and cruising my \u201972 Cutlass S up and down the streets.<\/p>\n
Of course, when I was younger \u2014 as I was in the photo \u2014 I used to visit Grand Bend all the time. Grand Bend Dragway (now it\u2019s Grand Bend Motorplex) was dad\u2019s home track and there is no doubt the kids accompanied<\/p>\n
dad and mom to the races.<\/p>\n
Problem is, I can\u2019t remember those visits. Not even the harrowed tale I\u2019ve been told more than once about almost being killed while driving to the track. Dad was towing his \u201956 Ford stocker with his \u201961 Ford Starliner when some drunk goofball forced us off the road and into a ditch. Seems it was a very close call.<\/p>\n
That would have been about 1966-67. The track closed sometime in the 1970s, but was reopened sometime after I moved away from home in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
During my visit to dad\u2019s, I decided to take a trip to nearby Komoko, ON to visit the boys at NOS Reproductions.<\/p>\n
My route took me right past Grand Bend Motorplex. I made a point to stop by on the way back and hung<\/p>\n
around Friday night during test and tune. Saturday I set up a booth (then I could say I was working) to spend the<\/p>\n
day watching a little 1\/4 mile action. Grand Bend Motorplex is now a first class IHRA racing facility and though I<\/p>\n
have no memories of being there in the early days, it felt like home as I sat and watched the action. In fact, as<\/p>\n
you\u2019ll see from our Thunder in the Alberni Valley coverage (pg 65) I\u2019m starting to fall in love with drag racing again. And an \u201982 Suburban just ain\u2019t cutting it. I\u2019m starting to get the itch to put something out there and once we get further into the Rambler project, we might start a 1\/4 mile project.What do you think?<\/p>\n
Let me know and if you have any ideas on how to approach it, send them in. I know I have a \u201957 Ford wagon\u2014
\na parts car for my \u201957 Courier Delivery \u2014sitting in the backyard that will never be put back on the road. Maybe it could be an ode to dad\u2019s long gone Ford Country Courier Delivery.<\/p>\n
Due to a crazy summer travel schedule, I never got a chance to work on Project Rambler in time for this issue.<\/p>\n
Now the summer show season is over and it\u2019ll be my primary focus. Look for the installation of the 4-link in the<\/p>\n
next issue. The same goes for Hitman Hotrods Tall T project.
\nWe thrashed the Thursday night before Autofest to make it a rolling shell \u2014 it was a hit with the kids and the ladies, as you can see \u2014 but never had time to get the story ready for this issue. See you next issue.<\/p>\n
<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE ABOVE PHOTO IS OVEREXPOSED AND STARTING TO FADE AND IT DEPICTS A TIME IN MY LIFE THAT IS EQUALLY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n