Printable View
Ronnie Sox passed away April 22nd. For those younger rodders among us, he was part of the famed Sox and Martin drag team, one of the winningest teams ever.
Never got to meet the man, but from all accounts he was a true gentleman. RIP Ronnie.:( :( :( :( :( :(
Don
See my 3rd post below, I finally got the darned website to post.
See my third post below. Finally got the website to post.
Man, lots of good memories of the Sox and Martin team..... the world of drag racing is going to miss him.....
http://www.nhra.com/
Amen to that. I quit NHRA super comp racing because all of the electronics took most of the driver out of the game. In super comp, all you had to do was put in too much horsepower, set up the box to launch easy so the tires didn't spin, then apply the horspower to hit the lights at 8.901. The talent was in the tuner. All that was left for the driver to do was to cut a good tree.Quote:
In a 2001 interview, Sox said, "I'm certainly glad that I was able to race at the time that I did. Today's racing technology has diminished the role of the driver way too much. Back in the days of the four-speeds, the driver had a lot more to do with the outcome of the race, and I couldn't imagine anything being more fun than that."
I met him at the Hot Rod Reunion Cacklefest last year at Beech Bend. Well, I wouldn't say "met him", I had him sign my shirt. The man was all smiles and seemed to be really enjoying the event and the hot rod atmosphere.
RIP- Mr. Four Speed
At last month's Mopars At the Strip Buddy Martin was there without Ronnie. While he tried to keep a good public face about it, you could tell he was sure this outcome was near. The saddness of the immediate moment should be outweighed by the joy of having watched these guys do what they did at the top of their game.
I too raced at the time Sox and Martin were racing SS/D. After the lenco trans came out that pretty much took Ronnie out of the picture. If any of you guys ever heard him shift a 4 gear you would swear it was a lenco. I re-met him about 7yrs ago when he and Arnie Beswick were touring. I went up and started talking to him and it was 1969 allover again RIP.
farewell to Mr. 4-Speed. An inspiration to more than you will ever imagine.
:CRY: godspeed Mr. Four Speed......
As I recall, they ran crash boxes. I used to see them at Indy every year, and in '66 or '67 I remember standing at the fence watching one of their GTX's shift second, and you could see dirt fall out from under the car. I'm sure it would have registered on the Richter Scale!!! Great memories.
Amen to that gassersrule_196. He will be missed.