roddingandracing
I've always liked automotive caricatures ("CARtoons") and a few years ago, I purchased a couple of designs (right) from Wayne Sadler (CARTOONS 'R' WAYNE) and I used them on a couple of previous pages ("RODDING", "RACING"). I recently ran across them and decided to "revamp" my website a little and repost them.
roddingandracing
.PHOTOS
CAR SHOW COVERAGE
After covering a car show in Friendswood, we were on our way to cover another show in Lake Jackson and decided to swing by Pearland High School. I had read in Facebook that a T-Bucket (1923) was going to show up at a car show there and I wanted to get a few images. As it turned out, two were there!
BAYOU CITY CUP SERIES X / Pearland, Texas
RUNWAY CAFE LBX FLY-IN
Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport / Angleton, Texas
Here's a "Sneak Peek" from two shows that we covered this past weekend, both just north of Houston. In Spring, we covered the latest event from the Houston based Bayou City Cup Series and a little further north up in the Woodlands we covered the "Cars and Cocktails" at the Sawyer Park Icehouse.
Recently a fellow member of the Private Facebook Group "'Big Daddy' Don Garlits Official Fan Page" posted the image on the left that he took of the Don Garlits dragster in the pits in Porter, Texas
in the mid-70s. Porter is just north of Houston and was the home of Eastex Dragway which I used to frequent. The two posted Garlits "action" images above were taken by me at Eastex Dragway. The reason I responded to the posted image was the fact that that's me with the beard leaning on the trailer! Also further below, you'll see the same images above that I had autographed by Don Garlits back in 2018 at a nostalgic drag race in Kentucky.
One of my Facebook posts (left) to the "Mopar Drag Cars and Pro Street Only" Facebook Group was used recently as their Group Photo. Image was taken in Ocean City, Maryland in 2019.
Doing much needed spring cleaning and came across this Terry Labonte 1/18 scale diecast that I had autographed years ago at the Houston Autorama.
If you follow NASCAR like I do, you probably saw the GOODYEAR 400 this past weekend and you probably noticed the throwback paint scheme of Kyle Larson's #5 car that usually carries the HENDRICK CARS.COM paint scheme (left). If
you've followed it as long as I have, you probably recognized the paint scheme as a close replica of the Terry Labonte's KELLOGGS car (above, right) that was used to celebrate Hendrick's forty years in the sport. I've mentioned before that I was a big time Labonte fan so it was nice to see the tribute.
Since I didn't cover any car shows in 2020 and very few in 2021, I decided to join several private and public Facebook Groups to share my old pictures, some going back 50 years! Below are the latest images I shared.
Before heading to cover the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green (KY) back in 2018, I made some prints of a handful of pictures that I had taken of "Big Daddy" Don Garlits. He had made surprise appearances in the past so I was hoping that he would show and I could get the pictures
autographed. As you can see above and right, he did and so did I. My old images, now autographed, were taken years ago at Alamo Dragway in San Antonio and Green Valley Race City in Fort Worth (top row). Both bottom images were taken at Eastex Dragway in Porter just north of Houston. Now as far as the political bumper sticker above, Garlits ran for Congress in Florida back in 1994.
After a couple of years with a two-door 1962 Chevy Bel Air which I wish I still had, I bought my first brand new vehicle; a 1972 Datsun pickup (left). Once I got used to working the manual shift, I slapped on some big-meat Goodyears on Ansen wheels. It got plenty of attention
whenever I picked up my younger siblings at Junior High and High School.
Check out my admission ticket from Houston International Speedway (above). Not sure of the year but only $3.00, it had to be from quite a while back.
Posted a couple more images of my son (right) enjoying (?) himself. The photo with the late George Barris standing in front of the Munster Koach I've posted before. Took this at the Houston Autorama. Ran across the Indy Car image recently that was taken at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum while we were following the Hot Rod Power Tour.
Right after the Pandemic shut everything down, I joined several Private Facebook Groups to share my old images. As I share, usually 8-12 per week, I also post them further above. Before the Pandemic, I
also had a "RACING" page where I posted my old racing images. I've decided to post a condensed version of that page below. What I'm trying to show is the variety of motorsports that I frequented back then and as you can see, it was quite a few!
Although I never use my camera's motor-drive feature, I do get lucky enough sometimes to get an action sequence.
Time is precious,
Don't waste it.
2018 NHRA
HOT ROD REUNION
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Before heading to the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion in 2018 (Bowling Green, Ky), I decided to make some enlargements of images I had taken over the years including some of "Big Daddy" Don Garlits and Tom "the Mongoose" McEwen in hopes of getting them autographed. They had both showed up in previous years so I decided to give it a shot. As you can see above (left) and below, Garlits did show up and I was able to get some of my personal images signed. Not sure if he had planned on showing up or not but sadly, McEwen passed away three days prior at the age of 81.
All the images above were taken at Texas tracks that I frequented when I was a lot younger. Left to right...Alamo Dragway in San Antonio, Green Valley Race City in Fort Worth and the final two were taken here (Houston) at Eastex Dragway in Porter. The tracks have been closed for years.